LG C2 OLED TV review: the ultimate comfort buy?

We get hands-on with the LG C2 – does it still fit the bill a year on from its release in 2022? 

The LG C2 has been a big shot ever since it hit the market. Since succeeded by the LG C3, the C2 remains wildly popular, earning its reputation as one of the best TVs on the market.

LG C2 OLED TV review: the ultimate comfort buy?

HDR Formats

HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision IQ

Gaming Features

ALLM, VRR, HDMI 2.1, 120Hz, Low input lag

Smart Platform

WebOS 22

Audio

Dolby Atmos

How We Review

4.5/5

Editor’s Rating

It’s the kind of TV you want to see for melting into your couch and escaping into another world. The OLED display makes the LG C2 one of the best premium TVs in 2023 for gaming and entertainment. Watching movies is taken to the next level in HDR10, while its refresh rate and connectivity options make it an easy choice for console gaming. Anyone looking for a 4K gaming experience that delivers silky smooth framerates with minimal ghosting will love what they get with the C2. The newer LG C3 might be the better TV on a technical level but the dropped price of the C2 still makes it a compelling choice this side of 2023.

CHECK PRICE

Going beyond the specs, we found the LG C2 to deliver on two main fronts: versatility and value. There’s not many TVs that span from 42- to 83-inches, and deliver a total of four HDMI 2.1 ports. All but the smallest models feature LG’s fantastic EVO OLED panel, which has to be the major selling point of this TV. Aided by the fifth generation Alpha 9 processor and Dolby Vision 4K, LG has undoubtedly hit the sweet spot for creating a beautifully defined image that can handle virtually anything you throw at it.

Gaming performance

LG’s move to build a TV that has such a strong gaming focus is, strategically, a genius play. It’s never been so easy to lose yourself in a game on a big screen. Maybe it’s just because the world’s on fire right now, but escaping into a game for an hour or two on a 4K TV just hits different. 

The combination of 120Hz refresh rate, rapid pixel response time and a low input lag all translate well into a gaming performance. The C2 also comes with a Game Optimizer menu. Naturally, we put the TV through the paces ourselves for an idea of what to expect. 

Game optimizer features

• OLED motion
• Game mode
• VRR & G-Sync
• AMD FreeSync Premium
• AI Game Sound
• Game Dashboard
• Fine Tune Dark Areas
• Menu Color
• White stabilizer
• Dark stabilizer

Switching on VRR means you can adjust your frame rate to match the FPS to whatever your video input is. Meanwhile, the Black and White Stabilizer was helpful for fine-tuning the light and dark areas of the TV, and the AI Game Sound helps to optimize the TV’s sound. On a sidenote, the sound quality on this TV is limited by its slim design, but overall it’s strong.

Competitive gaming

Anyone who competitively games on a console knows that, more than anything, fast response times are key, for both the gamer themselves, and the hardware they use. In our testing, we chose CS:GO to play and loaded the FPS preset from the Game Optimizer menu. For reference, we accessed this by pressing the settings button on the rather bulky TV remote, then went to All Settings > Game Optimizer. We used this to load the FPS preset and set the TV to its native 4K resolution. We also reduced the input lag and tweaked the OLED motion which can all be done in the TV’s Game Optimizer menu.

We couldn’t fault the LG C2 here in any major way. Screen tearing? Absolutely not. Ghosting? Basically none. All this is a testament to the C2’s insanely rapid response time which handles motion blur extremely well. We also found ALLM (auto low latency mode) is an absolute must to avoid any major stuttering. 

That said, though the colours popped, the relatively low 120Hz won’t cut it for competitive gaming if you’re not capped on console. We don’t recommend the LG C2 for competitive PC gaming for this reason, even though the 43-inch variant can be doubled up as a PC monitor. If you go for this option, the lack of DisplayPort means you’d need at least an RTX 30-series GPU or later with an HDMI 2.1 port to achieve high refresh rates.

General gaming

We opted for a few less competitive titles to see how the LG C2 performed in a more casual environment. This is when we got most excited about the OLED panel, which we knew from our testing produced inky blacks and an infinite contrast ratio. We tried out Shadow of the Tomb Raider which has plenty of shadowy moments (duh). We were also keen to see how immersive playing on a 55-inch TV felt compared to a monitor. It did not disappoint…

The LG C2 is highly suited to casual gaming. With HDR enabled, Shadow of the Tomb Raider looked stunning. The exceptionally crisp and dynamic detail produced, regardless of scene lighting, whether the environment was submerged in deep inky darkness, or crisp punchy sunlight, was just incredible. The C2 never felt washed out or out of its depth in even the most taxing of environments. After playing a bit of Elden Ring, Halo, New World and Apex Legends, we really began to appreciate the thin bezel design which helped lose yourself in the game. 

The viewing angles on the LG C2 are strong too. One of the best things about gaming is the social aspect, so knowing that the C2 can handle a crowd without compromising on the viewing experience is a big win.

Our only qualm was adjusting the LG C2’s brightness. It’s great that it has an ‘energy saving mode’, but it did block our attempts of adjusting the brightness at first. For reference, you can adjust the brightness by going to Settings> Picture > Picture Mode Settings. When we finally managed to turn the brightness up to its maximum setting, but found it wasn’t much brighter than its predecessor, the LG C1. With 204.2cd/m² out of the box, the general buyer shouldn’t find any major issues with this. We even asked our friend Steve who has the LG C2 and contributes to PCGuide (our sister site). He told us that he’s moved his C2 to different locations around his house including by a window with direct and indirect sunlight. Encouragingly, he said there was never a time when he wished it was brighter. If you’re not convinced, the LG C2 is going to be the best TV for a bright room, our next best recommendation would be the Samsung ZN95b.

Colour accuracy and picture quality

In this section, the team is testing for colour accuracy and running the TV through uniformity tests, a peak brightness test and a gamut volume measurement as well.

Punchy colours and excellent picture quality are important factors that help create a sense of immersion when playing games and watching movies. LG, like any other major TV manufacturer, tries to provide the best colour via a number of different presents found in the OSD. 

Standard Mode

Out of the box, the Standard preset didn’t hit the highest level – even compared to the LG C1 of 2021. Similar to its predecessor, it offered a 9377K white point, perfect black depth and and infinite contrast ratio. It even featured a 204.2cd/m² max brightness in this preset, with a gamma holding out at 2.09. The average deltaE gave a score of 4.26 overall, which again isn’t a huge improvement compared to the LG C1.

Expert Mode

Moving onto Expert Mode, we got a slightly improved result. The deltaE bumped up to 3.81 and the gamma was much better at 2.19. As you’d hope, the OLED panel produced perfect blacks and an infinite contrast ratio. The white point was much closer to the idea 6500K, at 6108K too. The only anomaly was the lower luminance preset at 160 candelas which was actually lower than the Standard preset. A little weird if you ask us considering this setting was developed for bright room conditions.

Sports Mode

Lastly, we ran the Sports Mode. Once again, we got perfect blacks and an infinite contrast ratio and a 7407K white point. Unexpectedly, Sports Mode delivered the best average deltaE out of the three presets we tested. Gamma was also good at 2.17 candelas, though luminance was low at 134cd/m².

Calibration testing

It’s calibration time! Next, we calibrated the LG C2 to see just how accurate it could go. Have a look at the results below:

The C2 represented a sizable improvement over the C1 when we put it through our calibration software. The white point was almost perfect. Meanwhile, the average deltaE dropped to a decent 1.14. Gamma reached a perfect 2.2, but black depth and contrast ratio took a hit.

So how does this all translate to your viewing experience? The panel looked more accurate, with overly vibrate colours being reduced to more standard levels.

Peak brightness

Last on our list of tests for the LG C2 was checking the maximum and minimum brightness, plus 1120 candelas points on this panel. We used 120 candelas points and a 30-40% window size for this panel. See the results below: 

For the results testing panel uniformity and color gamut check out our sister site’s LG C2 review.

Value for money

Writing in 2023, the LG C2 is still considered a high-end TV. From experience, buying a premium quality TV a year on from its release is a good way of getting better value for money than buying a newly released model like the LG C3.

LG C2 OLED TV

Size

42in, 48in, 55in, 65in, 77in, 83in

Resolution

4K Ultra HD 3840 x 2160p

Screen Technology

OLED

Refresh Rate

120Hz

HDMI

4 x HDMI 2.1

How We Review

Shop on Amazon Check Price

Check price

We monitor discounts and deals over on Amazon and Best Buy we’ve noticed the price drop by $1,000 for the 65-inch, and around $600 for the 55-inch since its release. These are pretty sizable savings, so if you are in the market for a premium upgrade, the C2 model would be our go-to TV in this category.

LG C2 cost at launch (2022):

• 42-inch (OLED42C2PUA) – $1,399
• 48-inch (OLED48C2PUA) – $1,499
• 55-inch (OLED55C2PUA) – $1,799
• 65-inch (OLED65C2PUA) – $2,499
• 77-inch (OLED77C2PUA) – $3,499
• 83-inch (OLED83C2PUA) – $5,499

So, what parting thoughts shall we end on, dear reader and potential buyer?