LG G5 OLED (OLED55G5) 4K TV Review: Back on Form

Price

Just like it was with the G4 OLED, customers will get the option of purchasing one of two versions: the wall-mount version (OLEDxxG54LW) or the model that comes with a stand (OLEDxxG56LS). In the US, the model without the stand is the OLEDxxG5WUA.

Prices are the same whichever one you go for, which for the 55-inch model tested here is £2399 / $2499. The difference is that the stand is only available on the 48-, 55-, and 65-inch models. 77-inch and larger only support wall mounting.

Design

• Choice of a stand or no stand
• Slim, minimalist screen
• Adjustable stand

Another year passes and the G-series OLED arrives looking the same as before. The one I have for review comes with the stand, which takes a while to assemble – seven minutes, I timed it at.

So the stand isn’t the quickest to put together but if you’ve decided to wall-mount, the uniformly flat surface ensures it sits flush to the wall. It’s the same depth as the G4 OLED at 27.2mm, though not as slim as the Samsung S95F’s 11mm.

The stand is adjustable, allowing the TV to hang low to the surface or higher up if you want a to place a soundbar in below. The G5 models also sport LG’s Vanta Black Anti-Reflective coating to reduce reflections and maintain black levels in a bright room.

There isn’t much more to say. The G5 OLED has a simple but premium appearance; a minimalist look that doesn’t draw attention. LG hasn’t chosen to meddle with things that work.

User Experience

• Five-year software updates
• LG Channels
• Same remote

Power up the TV for the first time and you’re given the option of setting up with the remote or LG’s ThinQ app. I’d suggest the latter – it’s a quicker and smoother process, though eventually the remote comes back into play. Another thing is the sound the TV makes when powering on – if the volume is high, it genuinely startles.

Once that’s out the way there’s a brief overview, and you can choose to make an account. I find that if you’re an LG lifer, or have more than one LG smart product in the home, it’s worth creating an account to keep things in sync.

There are rows dedicated to streaming apps and live TV channels, all of which open without complaint. There’s no lag and the amount of content available doesn’t overwhelm like Amazon’s Fire TV.

There are ads, but I barely notice them. At most you might see some in the TV’s screensaver mode, but those ads are essentially for LG’s own products and services.

The Quick Card row offers customisable, real-time info about Games, Music, Sports and other features. This area offers some form of personalisation in that you can edit it, but as a whole, there’s no impression webOS understands your habits and tailors what you see in response. If it does, I haven’t noticed it.

There’s no Freeview Play support as LG has opted to give Freely the swerve and push its free LG Channels service, and that comes with movies, sports, TV series and access to on-demand films.

The remote is the same, which is disappointing, as while I like the ergonomic shape of the wand there is a new, USB-C powered remote that’s smaller and ditches the number pad that UK legislation requires – but it’s not available in the UK.

Other brands have got around this by offering two remotes, and I don’t see why LG can’t do the same. LG has also tweaked the buttons by introducing an AI voice control button but honestly, I barely used it.

And as part of the LG webOS Re:New program, updates are guaranteed for five years.

Gaming

• New Xbox app
• 4K/165Hz for PCs
• Quick input lag

If you’re sensing a theme here, it’s that not much has changed and as far as gaming is concerned it’s familiar ground.

There’s ALLM for switching into the TV’s gaming mode, in which I tested input lag at 13ms in the Standard mode, and 9.3ms with Boost mode activated. That’s no change from previous years and still one of the quickest performances around.

There is 4K/120Hz refresh rates but for this year, the LG G5 can hit up to 165Hz with PC games. VRR compatibility in AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync ensures you’re covered on the PC graphic card front, and there’s also Dolby Vision Gaming and the HGIG HDR gaming standard.

The Game Optimizer pop-up screen is still around, allowing for deeper customisation with the Game Genre setting that can optimise the performance. Want to make it easier to see in the darkness? You can do that too, though in my mind, I’d consider that cheating.

Gaming support in webOS includes cord-cutting cloud gaming options in GeForce NOW, Amazon Luna, Xbox app (which is new for 2025), Utomik, Blacknut and Twitch broadcasting.

Connectivity

• 2^nd Gen MLA tech
• Dolby Vision x Filmmaker mode
• Wide range of gaming features

LG’s OLEDs offer HDMI 2.1 support across all HDMI inputs, so you’re covered for eARC (audio), ALLM and VRR (gaming) along with QFT – Quick Frame Switching that reduces latency during gaming – and QMS, Quick Media Switching that eliminates black screens when switching to an HDMI input. The Apple TV 4K also supports this feature.

Otherwise, it’s the usual connectivity list of a headphone out, digital optical out, satellite, two RF aerials, Ethernet, three USB 2.0 inputs, and a CI+ 1.4 common interface slot.

Wirelessly, there’s Wi-Fi 6 onboard (Google Cast, AirPlay 2, and WiSA), and with Bluetooth 5.3, and with the Bluetooth Surround Ready protocol you can have an LG Xboom speaker acting as surround speakers.

Features

• Primary RGB Tandem panel
• Dolby Atmos audio
• Dolby Vision x Filmmaker adaptive mode

As far the HDR goes, there’s HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision (the IQ version that adapts the picture to the amount of light in a room). The Dolby Vision x Filmmaker mode is back, and this time around it supports the TV’s light sensor, automatically adjusting the picture in response to the brightness of your room.

The big difference is that the G5 OLED doesn’t pack LG’s MLA (Micro Lens Array) panel. In fact, MLA no longer exists, replaced by the Primary RGB Tandem panel, which without descending into technobabble, is even brighter and can hit a peak of 4000 nits. Because of that increase in brightness, contrast, viewing angles and colour performance should be a step up over the G4 OLED.

The 4.2-channel system is allocated 60W of power and LG’s α11 AI Sound Pro feature claims to up-mix Dolby Atmos sound to 11.1.2 virtual channels.

AI Acoustic tuning will tweak the sound for room conditions, while WOW Orchestra merges the speakers of the TV and LG soundbar to create a bigger soundstage.

Picture Quality

• Incredibly bright for an OLED
• Strong colour performance
• Excellent motion handling

I’ve searched high and low, side to side and in every nook and cranny; and do you know what I found? No green tint whatsoever.

This TV is bright – fabulously so for an OLED. Measuring the brightness of this TV and the equipment I have can only be described as ‘inadequate’. My colourimeter flatlines after an initial reading 2500 nits as it can’t read any higher than that (RIP i1Display colourimeter).

It’s not the first TV to reach this level and it won’t be the last, but anyone saying that (premium) WOLEDs can’t go bright should have a look at the LG G5 OLED.

But it’s not all about the brightness, so the first port of call is exploring the TV’s black levels with Alien: Romulus (Dolby Vision, 4K Blu-ray).

Compared to a Panasonic W95A Mini LED I have in at the same time and there’s fractionally more detail on the Panasonic in dark areas but which TV has the advantage seems to flip depending on the scene.

If anything, the LG sports a slightly darker image. This is perhaps down to the differences in each TV’s adaptive technologies.

Switching to Across the Spider-Verse, and if there’s perhaps an area where the OLED can’t quite match Mini LED, it’s with colour volume – Miguel’s costume features slightly darker reds, yellows are more saturated while pinks stand out more on the Panasonic W95A than on the LG. It’s a small difference but for a film as colourful as this that small difference counts.

Vivid mode is an area I haven’t loved on previous LG OLEDs but it’s markedly better here than on the G4 OLED. I still wouldn’t recommend Vivid over other modes, but it is a chance to see the TV performing without limit – and the picture is more balanced than before, with less harshness and noise in the dark parts of the image. Skintones are still too hot for my liking though, some of the complexions in Cinderella (HDR10, 4K Blu-ray) veer towards bleached white.

With its motion processing, you’ve got three options in Smooth Movement, Natural and Cinematic Movement; as well as judder and blur customisation.

Watching World War I soldiers navigate the trenches in 1917, there’s some judder, blurriness and slight tearing with Smooth Movement but I’d actually rate is an improvement over the 2024 models.

With the Natural setting there’s less judder, less noise although a little bit of stutter as soldiers navigate through crowds of people. Cinematic Movement remains the best option – issues are practically non-existent but you benefit from the slight processing for image that looks the most natural – ironic given there’s a Natural setting.

Upscaling

The LG G5 OLED looks absolutely mighty when upscaling 1080p content. Watching Justified on Disney+, the TV reveals so much detail in people’s skin, clothing, and the general environment – the clarity is so good I could almost mistake it for a 4K image. Colours look excellent in LG’s Cinema mode.

A Blu-ray of Disney’s Tomorrowland looks sharp without looking boosted or noisy. SDR blacks are excellent, inky but with detail, while colours look natural in Filmmaker Mode. It’s also the first time I’ve noticed a Blu-ray in Filmmaker Mode that doesn’t look overly dark.

Brightness isn’t overjudged, and at times the image can almost feel HDR-esque with a depth I’d expect from a 4K Blu-ray.

The level of processing applied here is excellent. From the detail of faces to clothing, surfaces and all other textures – it looks convincingly natural without looking sharpened or noisy with not a single hair out of place.

Dropping down to a DVD of There Will be Blood and the good news keeps rolling. Black levels are solidly deep, and there’s good shadow detail during the early scenes where Plainview climbs out of a pit.

There’s minimal noise and no hint of blurriness despite the lower resolution. While a DVD on a 4K TV won’t convince anyone in terms of sharpness, there are good levels of clarity, definition and detail. In terms of upscaling, this is as good as I’ve seen on any TV in 2025.

Sound Quality

• Buzzing with bass
• AI Sound Pro mode
• Clear dialogue performance

With Civil War and Alien: Romulus the LG G5 OLED struggles more than it excels. Low frequencies bring out some buzzing from the speakers in the TV’s AI Sound Pro mode (less so in Cinema) and the LG’s sound isn’t the loudest.

Dialogue is at least clear and naturally conveyed but compared to the Panasonic’ W95A’s built-in sound system and the LG doesn’t sound as loud or has as much impact – there’s a much sense of the chaos of a crowd before an explosion goes off towards the beginning Civil War.

The Panasonic is also much better at pushing dialogue a bit further away from the TV. The LG G5 sounds flatter by comparison though AI Sound Pro can assist with this.

But for a film such as Civil War, the LG G5 OLED lacks the energy, punch and snap of other TVs. Bass can flip between some distortion or sounding boomy, and with broadcast content the AI Sound Pro mode can sound thin and sibilant.

Despite that, the G5 OLED sounds better than the G4 OLED but that doesn’t mean you won’t want to factor in one of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars if you’re considering a purchase of this TV.

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