LG OLED65G36LA Review: 65-Inch 4K OLED TV

The LG OLED G3 arrives billed as the brightest OLED television to date, and it largely lives up to it. This review is based on that published test, not on a hands-on trial of our own.

Like its predecessors, the G3 is a set designed above all to be wall-mounted. Its "Design Gallery" remains a success: a flush back only 245 mm deep across its entire surface, with grooves left free to route cables for a clean installation, though there is no system for relocating the connections as on some Samsung sets. It ships with everything needed for wall mounting, so a conventional stand costs extra. The Design Gallery has matured over the years into a genuine piece of craftsmanship, with no fault to find in the materials, assembly or finish. LG does not skimp on connectivity: HDMI 2.1 with 4K at 120 Hz, ALLM, VRR and QMS across all four ports, with eARC on the second, plus antenna and satellite connectors, an Ethernet port, an optical audio output, three USB ports, Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6. The audio is a 4.2 system rated at 60 W, but it sorely lacks the roundness, depth and scale to match the picture; it is clear enough to make everyday viewing a pleasure, supports Dolby Atmos and the returning DTS:X, and WoW Orchestra can pair the set's speakers with an LG soundbar.

LG's in-house platform is the perfect example of a good alternative to Google TV. The annual webOS update brings little beyond new tiles for gaming, sport, music, home-working and the dashboard, but the platform stands out for its breadth of features and apps and, above all, its responsiveness: apps appear in a flash and switching on, waking and switching off take barely a moment, for one of the best user experiences around. AirPlay 2 and HomeKit are on board, along with hands-free voice control through built-in microphones. The Magic Remote is unchanged, keeping its gyroscope and again forgoing any backlighting. For gaming the G3 matches the C3, with input lag measured at 12.8 ms.

Measurements were taken in Filmmaker mode with the default energy-saving option switched off. Factory calibration is sound overall: the colour temperature leans a touch red, at an average of 6,092 K, though that is easily corrected in the advanced settings. Colorimetry is otherwise perfectly respected across every shade, skin tones included, with an average Delta E of 1.63 — close to flawless. HDR is slightly less flattering at 2.21, with two small chromatic drifts, but contained enough to call the set faithful. It supports HLG, HDR10 and Dolby Vision, adapts the picture to room lighting via an ambient sensor for Dolby Vision IQ, but LG still omits HDR10+. In HDR the G3 is a revelation: in Filmmaker mode the peak brightness reaches an unprecedented 1,533 nits for an OLED, far beyond LG's previous efforts, leaving the OLED EX panel of the C3 behind and surpassing even Samsung's QD-OLED for sheer brightness. The curve smooths from 60% luminance on a 10% window, MLA seemingly at its peak. The ABL remains aggressive — the peak almost halves on a 25% window, though at just under 800 nits there that is still more than a C3 manages on a 10% window — and it falls to around 300 nits on a full-screen window, a good result where other OLEDs struggle to exceed 200. Where the QD-OLED panels pull ahead is colour volume: the G3 keeps a wide palette like its predecessors but does not advance on that front, though coverage stays very good at 72.79% of Rec. 2020 and 95.91% of DCI-P3.

More than 5,000 microlenses sit over each pixel of these new W-OLED panels, and the difference from a set like the C3 is so stark you would almost think you were looking at a Mini-LED. The G3 produces images of wild dynamism, marrying OLED's perfect blacks to explosive brightness that lifts the HDR experience another notch; crucially, it does not appear to dim heavily when moving between dark and bright scenes, so small highlights pop while broad bright scenes stay clear, adding markedly to the realism. A real step has been taken, even over OLED's already superb image, with better near-black detail too. That brightness and a new anti-reflective treatment, Vanta Black, also make it a strong OLED for sport, gaming and everyday television, the coating now diluting direct and indirect reflections as effectively as Sony and Samsung manage. Colours flatter the eye but do not reach the level of the QD-OLED Samsung S90C or Sony A95L — the G3 keeps fine colours even in the highlights, but some hues look less vivid than on those rivals. Video processing, handled by the α9 AI 4K Gen6 chip, is on a par with the C3: upscaling from Full HD to 4K is convincing, and motion handling is fluid with few artefacts, even if Sony and Panasonic remain slightly ahead.

On power the G3 is a strong performer, far less hungry than most OLEDs at a measured 60.5 W/m², around 15% below the C3. In all, this is an astonishing television on several counts, and LG has kept every promise: with MLA it delivers one of the best OLEDs ever made, the huge rise in peak brightness the standout, sharpening HDR and erasing OLED's main weaknesses with scenes that stay bright in all conditions and greater precision in the lows and highs alike. The one regret is that the colour volume is no wider, as it is on QD-OLED. Otherwise it is close to faultless: exemplary build, a refined wall-mount design, an excellent interface and complete features for a fluid, pleasant daily experience, plus clear progress on the anti-reflective coating and a significant drop in power draw. It is only a shame those last two improvements are confined to the G3 rather than the rest of LG's OLED range.