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LG OLEDC9PUA series review: Reigning picture quality champ notches another victory

LG added improved processing to the awesomeness of last year's OLED TVs. But is the new version worth the steeper price?

David Katzmaier Editorial Director -- Personal Tech
David reviews TVs and leads the Personal Tech team at CNET, covering mobile, software, computing, streaming and home entertainment. We provide helpful, expert reviews, advice and videos on what gadget or service to buy and how to get the most out of it.
Expertise A 20-year CNET veteran, David has been reviewing TVs since the days of CRT, rear-projection and plasma. Prior to CNET he worked at Sound & Vision magazine and eTown.com. He is known to two people on Twitter as the Cormac McCarthy of consumer electronics. Credentials
  • Although still awaiting his Oscar for Best Picture Reviewer, David does hold certifications from the Imaging Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology on display calibration and evaluation.
David Katzmaier
14 min read

It's tough to improve the picture quality of OLED TVs, but LG did it again. Just barely.

8.5

LG OLEDC9PUA series

The Good

The LG C9 OLED TV has better image quality than any television we've ever tested. It delivers perfect black levels, wide viewing angles, superb uniformity, accurate color and a great bright-room picture. Video processing is slightly better than last year. It adds HDMI 2.1 features and support for Amazon Alexa and Apple AirPlay 2 are coming soon. Its striking design features a super slim panel.

The Bad

The C9 is expensive, and 2018 OLED TVs perform almost as well for much less money. It can't get as bright as competing LCD TVs.

The Bottom Line

If you want the best TV picture quality and are willing to pay for it, the LG C9 should be the first 2019 TV on your list.

LG's 2019 C9 OLED TV is the best-performing TV I've ever tested at CNET. In 2018 I said the same thing about the C8 and in 2017 I said the same thing about the C7. Year after year, TVs based on organic light-emitting diode tech deliver the best picture quality you can buy, and the C series showcases LG's best efforts to perfect it.

Granted, the differences in image quality between the new C9 and last year's sets are tiny -- arguably better HDR, a hair more effective processing and milliseconds-quicker gaming lag -- but still enough to propel it to technical superiority. For most buyers, however, those differences won't be worth the steeper price of the C9 compared to the 2018 models, including my current Editors' Choice B8.

LG's 2019 OLED TV is a looker... in more ways than one

See all photos

In my side-by-side comparison tests, the C9, C8 and B8 all outperformed the best LCD TVs I had on-hand, but the 2019 TV season is just getting warmed up. I have yet to test any 2019 Samsung, Sony or Vizio TVs, including Sony's own OLED models. Any of their flagship sets could conceivably upset the C9 and take the crown, and the LG B9, which lacks the video processing chops of the C9, could once again deliver the best OLED TV value when it debuts later this summer. And as usual, expect big price cuts on all TVs starting this fall.

In the meantime, the OLED C9 sets another staggeringly high bar for image quality. Once again, it's up to the rest of the TV market to try to reach it.

Quick LG C9 OLED TV takeaways

  • It's available in 55-, 65- and 77-inch sizes, but the 77-incher is a lot more expensive than the others. At that size, most buyers should look at 75-inch LCD TVs first.
  • Currently the 65-inch C9 costs $1,000 more than the B8 and $700 more than the C8. The 55-inch C9 costs $900 more than the B8 and $600 more than the C8. Those prices may shift around, but until the C9 gets a drastic price cut, the B8 from 2018 is still the best value.
  • Image quality was very slightly better than the C8 and B8 from 2018, but they were so close that all three scored a "10" picture quality rating.
  • Compared to the C8, the C9 will get Alexa built-in, Apple AirPlay 2 and offer more HDMI 2.1 extras, including eARC and Auto Game mode and Variable Refresh rate. Otherwise they're basically the same.
  • OLED display technology is fundamentally different from the LED LCD technology used in the vast majority of today's TVs, including Samsung's QLED models.
  • The best LCD TVs I've reviewed so far, the Samsung Q9 QLED and the Vizio PQ-65F1, scored a "9" in image quality. At times they were brighter in HDR than the OLEDs, but otherwise the OLEDs' images were superior in almost every way.
  • All OLED TVs are more subject to both temporary and permanent image retention, aka burn-in, than LCD TVs. We at CNET don't consider burn-in a reason for most people to avoid buying an OLED TV, however. Check out our guide to OLED burn-in for more.
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At its thinnest, the C9's panel is less than a quarter-inch thick.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Thinning, winning design

Not much has changed with LG's design, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The panel itself is still vanishingly thin when seen from the side, about a quarter-inch deep, with the typical bulge at the bottom that juts out another 1.75 inches. That bulge houses the inputs, power supply, speakers and other depth-eating TV components.

From the front there's less than a half-inch of black frame around the picture itself to the top and sides. Then there's a bit more below, but no trace of silver, no "LG" or any other logo at all. This is TV at its most minimalist.

The stand is nicer than last year to my eye, with its angled edges and medium width across the bottom of the screen. New this year it's more heavily weighted on the rear to (I presume) better resist tipping forward.

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The "foot" of the stand doesn't extend very far forward.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Familiar smart TV, voice and remote

LGs webOS menu system feels nice and snappy, but it's basically unchanged from last year. It still lacks the innovative extras and app-based setup of Samsung's Tizen system, and falls well short of the app coverage of Roku TV or Sony's Android TV. If you want more apps, your best bet is to get an external streamer, although only two, the Apple TV 4K and Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K, can support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Meanwhile LG's apps for Netflix, Amazon and Vudu all support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, so using the TV's built-in apps gets you the highest-quality video and audio from those services, no external streamer required.

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LG's Smart TV with webOS system pops up TV and movie thumbnails on select apps like Amazon.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The remote is the same as last year too. I like using its motion control to whip around the screen, something that's particularly helpful when signing into apps or searching using an on-screen keyboard. The scroll wheel is also great for moving through apps, like those seemingly infinite thumbnail rows on Netflix and Amazon.

Press the mic button and you can summon Google Assistant. It can do all the usual Assistant stuff, including control smart home devices, answer questions and respond via a voice coming out of the TV's speakers. It also integrates TV-specific commands, including a well-implemented voice search. I said "show me comedies" while watching Netflix and a list of TV shows and movies appeared along the bottom, including results from the current app (comedies on Netflix) as well as across different apps (including Prime Video, Fandango, Hulu, Vudu and Google Play) and YouTube videos.

LG C9 series OLED TV OLED65C9P

LG's remote lets you speak to, and hear from, two voice assistants. The main mic button invokes Google Assistant. Long-press the Amazon button and you get Alexa.

Sarah Tew/CNET

LG will soon become the first TV maker to build in a second major voice assistant, Amazon's Alexa, available by pressing and holding the Prime Video button. The feature will roll out in a software update due later this year, and won't be available on 2018 or earlier LG sets.

Also coming later this year is support for Apple's AirPlay 2 system, letting the TV function as a display for TV shows, movies, photos and web pages with an iPhone, iPad or Mac as the controller, and for HomeKit, which will let you control the TV using Apple's Home app or by talking to Apple's assistant Siri. The Apple features are similar to those coming to 2019 Vizio and Sony TVs, while the full Apple TV app will launch first on Samsung TVs.

Key TV features

Display technology OLED
LED backlight N/A
Resolution 4K
HDR compatible HDR10 and Dolby Vision
Smart TV: webOS
Remote: Motion

Features and connections

OLED is not your father's LCD TV. LCD relies on a backlight shining through a liquid crystal panel to create the picture. In an OLED display, each individual subpixel is responsible for creating illumination. That's why OLED is known as "emissive" and LED LCDs are called "transmissive" displays, and it's a big reason why OLED's picture quality is so good.

Once again the C9 panel has the same basic characteristics, including light output and color gamut, of previous years, so the main upgrade is in processing. There's a new A9 Gen 2 chip with a "deep learning algorithm" that, among other claims, better adjusts the picture for room lighting.

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Auto game mode is one of the new HDMI 2.1 features the C9 supports.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The 2019 OLED models also include the latest version of the HDMI standard: 2.1. That means their HDMI ports can handle 4K at 120 fps, support enhanced audio return channel (eARC) as well as two gamer-friendly extras: variable refresh rate (VRR) and automatic low latency mode (ALLM, or auto game mode). Check out HDMI 2.1: What you need to know for details. I didn't test any of these features yet for this review.

The selection of connections is top-notch. Unlike many of Samsung's sets, this one actually has an analog video input for legacy (non-HDMI) devices, although it no longer supports analog component video. New for 2019 there's a dedicated headphone/analog audio output and WISA wireless audio support.

  • Four HDMI inputs with HDMI 2.1, HDCP 2.2
  • Three USB ports
  • Composite video/audio input
  • Optical digital audio output
  • Analog audio 3.5mm headphone output
  • RF (antenna) input
  • RS-232 port (minijack, for service only)
  • Ethernet (LAN) port
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Three of the four HDMI inputs, and one of the three USBs point toward the side of the TV.

Sarah Tew/CNET
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Click the image above for picture settings, calibration and HDR notes.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Picture quality comparisons

With both HD SDR and 4K HDR sources, in bright rooms and dark, the LG C9 delivered the best picture I've ever tested. It evinced the perfect black levels and best-in-class contrast, uniformity and off-angle viewing I've come to expect from all OLED TVs, with slightly better video processing and HDR pop than the 2018 OLED sets.

As usual the brightest LCD sets delivered a bit more HDR punch with some HDR material, and the Samsung Q9 in particular is a superior bright-room performer thanks to its antireflective screen. But it and the Vizio PQ fell short in many other areas.

Click the image above right to see the picture settings used in the review and to read more about how this TV's picture controls worked during calibration.

Dim lighting: If you want a modern demonstration of the superiority of OLED, look no further than Game of Thrones' famously dark episode The Long Night, aka The Battle of Winterfell, aka Season 8, Episode 3. It looked hands-down better than any of the LCDs in my test, which include two of 2018's best TVs, and it wasn't really close.

The perfect black levels of OLED paid dividends everywhere, from the shadows among the army of Unsullied, Dothraki and catapults to the night sky above Brienne and Jaime to the dark furs and leathers of the Northmen. In comparison the LCDs, despite their cutting-edge full-array local dimming, looked grayish and washed-out in scene after scene, robbing the image of contrast. The C9, C8 and B8 were largely similar in these scenes.

The Q9 had the darkest black levels of the LCDs but it showed an issue that wasn't visible on any of the other sets. The sky behind Jorah (7:51) and during his stare into the blackness after it swallows the Dothraki (7:54) flashed slightly instead of maintaining a steady blackness. I saw similar subtle flashes in other scenes on the Q9, while the Vizio and TCL didn't have the same problem.

This episode also caused some viewers to complain about not being able to see into the shadows, but that was largely a creative decision. The C9 (and the other OLEDs) showed darker shadows compared to the LCDs, but still preserved all of the detail of the source. As a result those shadows looked much more realistic on the OLEDs and better preserved that creative intent. It's worth noting that in very dark images like this some viewers might prefer a brighter gamma, available in Cinema mode as opposed to the ISF Dark mode I used for testing.

Brighter content -- like pretty much any other TV show episode or movie, ever -- doesn't show as much of an advantage for OLED, but the impact of its deep blacks and superb contrast was still evident in plenty of other content I watched, in particular stuff with letterbox bars above and below the image.

Bright lighting: The 2019 C9 gained a few nits compared to the C8 I tested, but nothing major. And as usual it didn't measure as much raw light output as the LCD-based models in our lineup, including the TCL 6 series.

Light output in nits

TVBrightest (SDR)Accurate color (SDR)Brightest (HDR)Accurate color (HDR)
LG C9 451339851762
Samsung Q9 (2018) 2,3481,6002,3881,961
Vizio PQ65-F1 2,1841,5702,4412,441
Sony XBR-65Z9F 1,5504991,6971,697
TCL 65R617 653299824824
LG C8 393252792792

New for 2019, LG sets have a setting called Peak Brightness that boosts the light output for SDR sources in Cinema and Expert modes. The idea is to increase contrast for brighter viewing environments while maintaining the superior color accuracy of those modes. That setting accounts for the jump in the "Accurate color (SDR)" column between the C8 and C9. As with most TVs the brightest mode for HDR and SDR (Vivid on the C9) is horribly inaccurate. For the Accurate modes I used ISF Bright (Peak Brightness: High) and Cinema HDR for SDR and HDR, respectively.

There's also a new AI Brightness feature that senses ambient lighting and adjusts the image automatically, including tweaking HDR tone mapping to bring up dark areas in bright rooms. I didn't test it for this review.

Overall, the OLED sets are still plenty bright enough for just about any viewing environment. Yes, they do get quite a bit dimmer than the LCDs when showing full-screen white -- think a hockey game, for example -- but even in those situations they're hardly dim.

All of the OLED sets preserved black levels and reduced reflections very well -- better than the TCL and Vizio, albeit worse than the Samsung, whose handling of reflections is among the best I've ever seen.

See all the Game of Thrones season 8 photos

See all photos

Color accuracy: Before my standard calibration, the ISF Expert and Cinema modes modes were already super accurate, among the best I've seen. As usual, OLED's superior black levels also improved the perception of color saturation compared to the LCD other displays.

The Battle of Winterfell's darkness also exposed another slight advantage of OLED over LCD: color accuracy in darkness. All three of the LCDs appeared slightly bluish in many areas, for example the terrified face of Sam (7:12) and the shadows around him, while the OLEDs maintained truer color. The bluish cast was less evident on the darker Q9 than on the Vizio and TCL and wasn't evident in brighter scenes.

Brighter material, as usual, brought all of the TVs to a more level playing field. I checked out the superb-looking The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon and it looked excellent, with natural skin tones, vibrant greens and purples in her dresses and convincing yellowish lighting in the synagogue. That said, they didn't look significantly more accurate than any of the other displays.

Video processing: I saw some examples of the C9's superior processing compared to the B8, but differences between the C8 and C9 were tougher to spot. During the Battle of Winterfell for example (7:39), the sky above Jorah showed banding and blocks of discoloration on the B8 near black that weren't visible on the other OLEDs.

Speaking of banding, there was quite a bit of it in the source (streaming via HBO Now, and not caused by the TVs) and the C9 did the best job of weeding it out. During a pan over Winterfell (5:19) bands of color in the sky appeared. When I turned the Smooth gradation setting up to High they largely disappeared. The C8 was also effective at removing the bands (when I turned on its MPEG noise reduction setting) but not quite as effective as the C9.

LG also has a new AI Picture toggle that promises, "The optimal resolution for the content will be automatically set by an algorithm learned via a deep learning technique." Turning it off and on with a variety of content I didn't see any difference, so I left it off.

With the Real Cinema setting turned on, the C9 passed my go-to 1080p/24 film cadence test from I Am Legend in Off, Clear and User (zero for De-Judder and 10 for De-Blur) TruMotion position.All three also delivered the TV's maximum motion resolution (600 lines) and correct film cadence. The Smooth settings and User De-Judder settings above 0 introduced some form of smoothing, or soap opera effect (Clear used to as well, but in 2019 it also handles 1080p/24 correctly in the Cinema and Expert modes).

The Samsung Q9 and Vizio with their true 120Hz refresh rates hit 1,200 lines of motion resolution, which might make them more appealing for sticklers who can't stand blurring. To my eye, however, the LG remained perfectly sharp in motion with all the actual program material (as opposed to test patterns) I watched.

The mode that introduces black frame insertion, labeled OLED Motion, can be toggled on and off in the TruMotion User menu.Turning it on improved motion resolution somewhat, perhaps to 700 lines while also making those lines sharper, but also dims the image by about 40 percent and introduces visible flicker to bright areas. The extra motion resolution isn't worth those tradeoffs, in my book.

Gaminginput lag has also been improved this year. The C9 showed the lowest lag I've measured so far, at 13.3 and 13.7 milliseconds in game mode for 1080p and 4K HDR sources, respectively. That's better than the C8 by 8.3 and 14.3 ms, and tops the 2018 champs from Samsung by less than a millisecond. If you can tell the difference, hats off to you. I'm curious to see whether the 2019 sets from Samsung and other brands can beat the C9's new mark.

Off-angle viewing and uniformity: Like all recent OLED sets, the C9 was extremely uniform in brightness and color, with no visible variations across the screen. In comparison the LCDs all showed slightly brighter and darker areas with full-field test patterns, although none had major issues. And as usual the OLEDs were much better at maintaining fidelity from off-angle, when viewed from seats other than the sweet spot right in the middle of the screen. There were no differences in the uniformity of any of the LG OLEDs.

HDR and 4K video:As usual for OLED TVs, the C9 is a spectacular HDR performer. Despite significantly less light output than the Vizio PQ and Samsung Q9, it still looked incredibly punchy and dynamic, better than any of the LCDs overall. That said, it didn't significantly outperform the HDR image of either 2018 OLED.

Since Game of Thrones is only in 1080p SDR (for now) I started with Netflix's superb-looking The Haunting of Hill House for my comparison, watching via HDR10 across all six displays. During the dark introduction, OLED's deep black levels and excellent shadow detail again carried the day. The Samsung Q9 came closest but its brighter blacks, too-bright highlights and less even lighting, in particular the blooming around the words "Hill House Then," was an issue, while the Vizio and TCL looked too dim and lifeless.

Among the three OLEDs the C9 looked the best, particularly in terms of shadow detail. The dark hallway and the bedroom (1:40) looked more obscured on the C8 and especially the B8 in comparison, while the details in the C9 looked more right and natural without being too bright.

The difference might be attributable to improvements LG made to its dynamic tone-mapping feature for 2019. The system, enabled by default in Cinema and Expert modes, analyses HDR video frame by frame and generates a new tone map curve. The improvement, according to LG, is wider signal range detection. On all of the LG OLED sets it improved HDR image quality to my eye (while delivering an accurate EOTF), bringing up details and preventing the image from looking too dark.

I compared the C8 and C9 using the tone-mapping ramps from the new Spears and Munsil HDR benchmark and with DTM engaged there was little difference, but with the feature turned off the C9 showed an advantage, delivering detail up to 1,000 nits while the B8 and C8 clipped at around 875. Turning DTM on did lend some improvement to the C9 when I looked at S&M's 4,000-nit patterns, which clipped at around 3,200 nits on the C8/B8 but showed full detail on the C9. That advantage would only apply to HDR content mastered at 4,000 nits, however, which is less common than content mastered at 1,000.

For something brighter I checked out the Frozen Worlds episode from Netflix's Our Planet. As the camera flies over the ice floes and brilliant sunlight glints off the mountains and glaciers, the Q9 matched the brilliance and brightness of the OLEDs overall, while the Vizio and TCL again looked dimmer and less impactful than either. As usual, the LCDs' higher light output measured in test patterns (see the Bright Lighting table above) didn't translate to program material.

The Q9 did look brighter when the screen was mostly occupied by white. A bright patch from the glacier at 5:24, for example, measured about 100 nits brighter (279 vs. 189) on the Q9 than the C9, which was easy to see in a side-by-side comparison. In scenes with less white on the screen however, the Q9 and OLEDs had similarly bright highlights and in some cases the OLEDs measured slightly brighter. 

Geek Box

Test ResultScore
Black luminance (0%) 0.000Good
Peak white luminance (SDR) 451Average
Avg. gamma (10-100%) 2.38Good
Avg. grayscale error (10-100%) 0.37Good
Dark gray error (30%) 0.41Good
Bright gray error (80%) 0.32Good
Avg. color checker error 1.30Good
Avg. color error 1.56Good
Red error 2.44Good
Green error 0.76Good
Blue error 1.21Good
Cyan error 0.48Good
Magenta error 2.75Good
Yellow error 1.72Good
1080p/24 Cadence (IAL) PassGood
Motion resolution (max) 700Average
Motion resolution (dejudder off) 600Average
Input lag (Game mode) 13.30Good



HDR10

Black luminance (0%) 0.000Good
Peak white luminance (10% win) 851Average
Gamut % UHDA/P3 (CIE 1976) 98.85Good
Avg. color checker error 2.69Good
Input lag (Game mode, 4K HDR) 13.67Good
8.5

LG OLEDC9PUA series

Score Breakdown

Design 9Features 10Performance 10Value 5