Hello and welcome to the review of LG C9 OLED TV in 55-inch screen size.
C9 is a successor to highly popular C8 series from 2018 that you can get now for £1,199
on Amazon UK.
C9 brings further improvements to the picture processing, adds HDMI 2.1 interface and updated
webOS platform - is that enough to justify 1,999.00 price tag?
Let’s find out.
LG 2019 OLED TV lineup consists of 4 different series - B9, C9, E9 and W9.
Selected markets will also get exclusive 65” R9 model with a rollable panel, as well as
Z9 - the very first OLED TV in 88-inch screen size and with Ultra HD 8K panel.
This year it is easier than ever to remember key features of LG OLED TVs - they all feature
2nd generation Alpha9 picture processor, AI upscaler, 10-bit 120 Hz native Ultra HD 4K
panel and HDMI 2.1 ports.
So where does the price difference come from?
Apart from the small technical differences in terms of speaker power output and number
of built-in tuners, the price difference comes from the design and the form of the TV itself.
So while you will get more ordinary but still elegant stand design on B9 and C9 models,
E9 will appeal to those who want picture-on-glass design and W9 to those who want a true one-with-the-wall
TV.
C9 is the only series this year available in 55, 65 and 77 inches.
Apart from the updated stand, the design of the bezel and the layout of the backside is
the same as last year.
The front face of the stand is made of brushed aluminum, with LG OLED text placed on the
bottom right side.
The new stand looks simpler than the one on C8 last year, but on the other side, I like
it because it doesn’t reflect light coming from the screen on its surface.
C8’s stand had a curved surface on which you could see reflections and the only solution
was either to place soundbar in front of it or to mount the TV on the wall.
Build quality is excellent with the base of the stand being extended quite a lot behind
the screen for improved stability and better cable guiding.
2 covers are supplied - one to hide the fixation area for stand mounting and another one for
the cable management.
No cover is supplied for the connector area which is again this year split into two segments.
The first one with side facing connectors where 3 HDMIs, 1 USB and CI slot are and the
other with backward facing 1 HDMI, 2 USBs, antenna and satellite inputs, Toslink and
3.5 mm audio output.
The TV also has built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and supports WiSA compatible wireless speakers.
LG is keeping the winning combination when it comes to the remote control.
Magic remote is supplied and is by far the best remote control on the market for many years now.
It makes navigation truly effortless with a precise pointer, scroll wheel and numerical
keyboard with a quick access function.
There is also a built-in microphone for voice control.
The small update is in the bottom area where buttons for Movies, play and pause were added.
C9, just like other smart TVs from LG this year come with the latest version of the webOS platform.
LG is now calling it only webOS thinQ, as journalists were informed during the official
launch event in Zagreb.
I will call it webOS 4.5 to differentiate it more clearly from the previous generation.
Version 4.5 supports more features than ever before, including support for Apple’s ecosystem
and it has for the first time integrated both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
This allows interaction with more than 30 000 devices from 5 000 different brands.
Support is available in 140 countries worldwide through 7 main languages, which means that
if you want this extended functionality, you might need to change LG services country in the menu.
To find out how to do that, check out my separate video.
webOS 4.5 is designed in the same way as the previous version and it terms of speed and
stability is pretty much equal.
What is different is the layout of the main menu, which now has more features on the left-hand
side - including Home dashboard that will display a separate window with all the inputs
and connected devices.
The cards on the home menu are smaller as there is now a second row that appears in
the same fashion as on Tizen OS TVs from Samsung.
Finally, I like to highlight the resolution of the interface - it is still in Full HD
that is upscaled to the Ultra HD, so the edges and text are not as sharp as they could be.
Next, let’s talk about picture quality.
The picture on this TV is excellent and leaves little to be desired.
As soon as you switch to one of the more color accurate picture presets, you will be greeted
with amazing contrast, lush colors and sharp imagery, wide viewing angles and very dynamic
HDR picture whether you are watching HDR10, HLG or Dolby Vision content.
Most aspects of picture quality are actually on the same level as last year, but it is
nice that LG managed to make some improvements.
The one I was the most impressed with is the near-black uniformity, where my unit exhibited
less visible vertical lines than models before.
Another one is noise reduction which is the best I’ve seen on any TV until now.
Though this is not like the most important feature to be improved since previous generations
already had quite effective noise reduction, still it is nice to know that if needed, this
option is here to deliver an excellent result.
Motion resolution is the same as last year.
Black frame insertion doesn’t really improve sharpness in motion as my tests have shown.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that motion resolution is not good - it is excellent for
sports and other dynamic content and blur doesn’t increase as much in dark scenes
as on LCD TVs, especially those based on VA panels.
If I could point out one item which I would like to see improved in the future, it is
the amount of judder during 24p playback without the soap opera effect.
Though movies are displayed with stable cadence, I would like to see LG further reducing judder
which is visible especially when bright objects move across the screen.
Dirty screen effect was not visible, so there was nothing distracting during panning shots.
Even though screen brightness does vary depending on how bright overall screen is, in reality,
there were no fluctuations of brightness during the actual content watching.
This is definitely a big plus compared to LCD TVs in HDR mode, where the whole screen
would increase brightness from scene to scene or when subtitles appear.
On C9 HDR was excellent and with a peak luminance of around 800 nits in Cinema mode and effective
anti-reflective screen coating, I was able to enjoy movies and TV shows even in a bright
environment without any distractions.
If you want to learn more about picture settings on LG 2019 OLED TVs, check out my separate video.
Sound quality is good for built-in speakers, with support for Dolby Atmos and AI sound
which does improve soundstage which is otherwise quite narrow.
As always, I recommend to hook up the TV with an external audio system - ideally an A/V
receiver with at least stereo or 2.1 speaker configuration.
Coming to gaming, LG this year managed to reduce input lag all the way to 13 milliseconds,
which is comparable to gaming monitors out there.
This means that even competitive gamers can use this screen without affecting their performance.
LG has also expanded game mode picture adjustment controls to the same level as in other modes
which is great if you want absolutely the best color accuracy for your games.
Auto Low Latency mode is also available and can be select separately for each HDMI input.
A chance for burn-in still exists and my tests have shown that temporal image retention does
appear but quickly disappears once dynamic content is displayed.
With all the tools implemented such as pixel shifting, screen savers and compensation cycles
in standby, it is very difficult to develop a permanent burn-in, especially if you will
use this TV for mixed content, movies, games, YouTube and so on.
To conclude, C9 is another excellent OLED TV from LG which gets my full recommendation.
It is like a swiss-army knife - well built, packed with features and does the job correctly.
I haven’t encountered any stability issue during the test and was very impressed that
LG managed to further improve picture quality.
Still, it does not deliver day and night difference compared to 2018 models, so if you don’t
need HDMI 2.1 features and expanded smart TV functionality, you can save a lot by getting
last year’s OLED TVs which now offer truly amazing value for the price.
I’m looking forward to testing OLED TVs from the competitors to see which improvements
they’ve managed to implement.
Stay tuned for that.
I would like to thank LG office in Croatia for sending me this TV for testing.
I was using Club 3D Ultra High-Speed HDMI cable during this test, as well as 5 and 10-meter
long Feizlink ultra-slim and flexible active optical HDMI cables.
Finally, thank you all for watching this video and have a great day.