For several years now, LG OLED TVs have been in first place in the ranking of the best gaming TVs for Xbox Series X and PS5.Thanks to their compatibility with most gaming standards, they are ideal playmates, but the competition in the sector is increasingly tough.We will therefore see today if the LG OLED C3 still holds its place as leader.
Unboxing the LG C3
The LG OLED C3 is the latest model in the C range. Successor to the very popular CX, C1 and C2, it is, again this year, promised great success on the market of high-end televisions intended for the general public.Equipped with the latest 120Hz 4K OLED Evo panel, this is the middle model in LG’s 2023 OLED lineup.It is accompanied by the A3, B3, and especially the G3, spearhead of the brand this year with the new MLA panel.
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Unsurprisingly, the first contact with the LG C3 is good.The television still benefits from a sober and efficient look, with a neat finish.The foot is massive, but small in scope, and the TV is slightly raised allowing the placement of a small sound bar on the front.
The mounting of the foot is however not the most practical.We are indeed not a fan of this assembly which requires laying the television flat to be able to screw its foot on it.If the operation with our 55” model was nevertheless easy, things must be much more complicated with diagonals of 65 and 77”.Given the thinness of OLED panels, we much prefer assemblies that simply require placing the television on its base in a secure manner and screwing it in without having to manipulate the panel too much.
On the design side, we find generally the same proposal as on the C2 of 2022, but this time with an entirely black television for a sober and elegant rendering that we greatly prefer to the white of last year.
Note also that several plastic covers as well as cable passes are available to enjoy a “clean” assembly, which is always pleasant.
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A trouble-free first power-up
Once the TV is on and the first settings made, the TV instantly recognizes our equipment.Whether it’s the Xbox Series X, the PS5, an amplifier or the Nvidia Shield, everything is correctly synchronized with the greatest of ease.During our tests, it was not necessary to manually activate the HDMI inputs or to pay attention to our connections.
Indeed, the television offers 4 HDMI 2.1 ports of 48 Gbps, which is very practical when you need to connect two new generation consoles, as well as an audio amplifier or an eARC compatible sound bar for the return of sound in Dolby Atmos in particular .
Connected to the television, the Xbox Series X is directly recognized, and the options dedicated to gaming such as VRR, ALLM or Dolby Vision at 120 Hz are automatically activated.If this is not the case, it will be necessary to do it manually in the display settings of the console.
The television runs under WebOS 23 and is equipped with the new A9 Gen 6 processor, and it is still the Magic Remote pointer remote control which allows it to be controlled.If the OS is relatively responsive and has even undergone a slight facelift this year, it is starting to suffer a bit and the general presentation can sometimes seem a little austere.We are obviously far from the coldness of the menus of Panasonic televisions for example, but other OS are today more shimmering.
Fortunately, LG offers a quick menu this year through which several settings can be changed on the fly.The latter is also fully customizable and will certainly allow neophytes to find simple settings, otherwise hidden behind several sub-menus.
Note also that the TV regains DTS compatibility, lost since the LG CX, and even benefits from DTS:X support.This is very good news for those who watch their video content directly from the TV’s internal player and don’t want to bother with an additional multimedia box.Note, however, that DTS:X is not available via the TV’s built-in speakers, but the signal can be sent to a dedicated system.
The sound part of the TV is moreover suitable, and seemed to us to be of better quality than on the models of previous years, in particular on the clarity of the voices.Although this will obviously not replace a dedicated installation, a small subwoofer connected directly to the television could for example offer you a satisfactory experience at a lower cost.
If you use the TV as your main media hub, the LG C3 has all the most popular streaming apps like Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video to name a few, and decodes most audio and video formats from the market.
Good image quality, but few changes
Of course, what interests us most when buying a new TV is its picture quality.In this area, the LG OLED C3 is obviously doing very well.If you’ve never had an OLED TV before, you’ll even be amazed by its contrast, the quality of blacks offered by the technology, the viewing angles and the colorimetry out of the box.
Although perfectible, most neophytes will indeed benefit from an image that is pleasant to look at and many calibrated modes that will improve your settings according to the content watched.
For the more knowledgeable, things are a little different.Despite the presence of the OLED Evo panel introduced in 2022 on the C range, the light peak has hardly changed this year and is still around 800 nits.The impact of certain content, in particular HDR, can therefore sometimes be less, especially during the day.
The problem with OLED panels always remains the same, namely that they cannot maintain high brightness for too long or risk damaging the small self-emitting diodes specific to the technology.To circumvent this problem, manufacturers can in particular opt for a heat sink, but LG reserves the latter for its G range.
The image of the LG C3 is therefore very good, the upscaling of full-HD content satisfactory and overall, we can’t blame it for much.But this observation is already the one we had made of the LG C1 in 2021, and which emerged from the LG C2 in 2022;we therefore regret that the range seems a little stagnant this year and lacks panache, especially with its rising price.Indeed, the LG C3 55” is sold at a price of 2099 €, while the LG C2 was released at 1999 € last year.
An ideal TV for gaming!
If we have some reservations about the evolution of the C range in LG’s portfolio, it is however undeniable that the manufacturer’s OLED TVs, and in particular the LG C3, are still the best televisions for gaming today.
With its VRR, HGIG, ALLM, FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility, the LG C3 is the most complete TV that gamers can find on the market today.It also comes in six different sizes, with 42” and 48” which should once again appeal to PC gamers, especially in comparison to the prices of dedicated monitors.
As has been the case for two years now, the Game Optimizer menu allows you to see at a glance the gaming options activated as well as the real-time framerate of the game. It also offers different modes supposed to favor certain types of games like FPS or RPG, and you can also easily adjust settings related to brightness, contrast and colorimetry directly from the Game Optimizer.
In 4K at 60 Hz, the input lag is measured at a little less than 10 ms when the “reinforcer” function is activated in the tab dedicated to input lag, and drops to 5 ms at 120 Hz, i.e. values among the lowest on the market.Coupled with the near-zero response time of OLED panels, the LG C3 offers an incredibly responsive gaming experience and continues to be one of the few products to support Dolby Vision in 4K at 120Hz. Xbox Series X is currently only usable on LG OLED TVs, but should also be on the Sony A95L and Panasonic MZ2000, due later this year.
Note also that the brightness in HDR is slightly lower in game mode compared to other image modes.It is also still not possible to activate the “smoothed gradients” option to correct the effects of posterization in game mode, as offered for example by Sony.You might therefore occasionally see “bands” of color on the gradients, such as the sky and the solid backgrounds.
The upscale in game mode also shows its limits.On Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom in particular, the LG C3 cannot do miracles to compensate for the low resolution displayed by the Nintendo Switch.
A real gaming hub
As well as being one of the best possible companions for new consoles, the LG C3 is also a true standalone gaming hub.
It is indeed possible to take advantage of most of the cloud gaming services on the market such as GeForceNoW and Utomik, and therefore to play directly from the television by connecting a controller via Bluetooth or a keyboard/mouse combo.
The notable absence from this selection is unfortunately the Xbox Cloud Gaming which was not available during our test and seems to be reserved for Samsung televisions for the moment.It is also possible to take advantage of the service via the television’s integrated browser by entering the address xbox.com/play in the URL bar, but a dedicated application would be much more suitable.
Obviously, we advise you in any case to connect the TV via an Ethernet cable if you want to enjoy the best possible cloud gaming experience.
Should we fall for the LG C3?
Finally, do you have to fall for an LG C3?On the one hand, this is one of the best TVs on the market today.Someone who has never had an OLED TV will above all be absolutely won over by the advantages of the technology and will not have the same expectations as an informed user.
If you already have an LG C1 or C2, the purchase of a C3 is on the other hand much less justified as the differences are minimal, the C series tending to stagnate.Since the television is also sold at a higher price than the LG C2 when it was released, it may be wise to look at the price difference that there is today with the LG G2 of 2022, which notably displayed a bright peak well higher than C3.
To find new features in the Korean 2023 catalog, you should rather turn to the G3, which promises a significant gap this year with the introduction of new MLA panels.This “answer” from LG to the QD-OLED models introduced by Sony and Samsung in 2022 offers on paper much higher light peaks, an overall brighter image and potentially extended coverage of different color spaces such as the REC2020, used during the distribution of content in HDR, and which are not to be neglected.
As for the question of marking which usually worries gamers, you should not have to worry about it since LG always offers many measures to minimize the risks.Several options such as light reduction on fixed logos, continuous pixel shifting and panel maintenance are still available, so you shouldn’t be bothered with your TV during your gaming sessions. PC gamers to take some action against taskbars, browsers, and other Windows interfaces if they’re using an OLED TV as their monitor, whether it’s the C3 or not.