LG G3 65"

If there's one manufacturer we consistently reserve the highest marks for, it's actually LG. No, we're not talking about the company's entire output across a myriad of categories, but rather specifically their OLED televisions, televisions we here at Gamereactor widely consider to be a kind of standard for the entire field. If you ask us, LG has long managed to set the agenda in the market thanks to magnificent contrast, excellent gaming features, solid user interface design (if only for the most part) and a slim profile.

Although they usually face stiff competition from the other established giants in Samsung, Sony and others, we've always recommended LG's OLED panels, and that certainly doesn't change with the G3, a TV that you might soon be able to get a little cheaper, thanks to the introduction of a new range at CES in Las Vegas in a few days.

So what can we say here? Well, firstly, LG has made small changes to their so-called "Gallery Design", which makes the TV even more uniform and slim. This means it can be mounted closer to the wall, and via the new flush-fit bracket, cables can be easily guided through channels at the back. Furthermore, the edge itself is now made of metal, probably aluminium, rather than glass and plastic, giving the whole TV, if only from the side, a slightly different look. Of course, the G model is still available with a zero-gap wall mount, and you'll need to buy legs for it if you insist on placing it on a piece of furniture. The hardware itself is impeccable, the only thing is that LG continues to launch some of their most expensive TVs with a pretty awful remote control. Sure, it's functional, but either LG needs to offer two different ones, or functionality and aesthetics should go hand in hand more seamlessly.

In keeping with tradition, LG has also updated their software, called WebOS 23. It was quite shocking to see their overall user interface take a step back a few years ago, and since that plummet, LG has been improving responsiveness and design year after year. Thankfully, that continues here with a less obtrusive centre panel, better menu design and more focus on your apps rather than boring ads.

The panel is LG's own OLED, and as before it supports 120Hz, Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG, as well as support for Dolby Atmos and DTS. This time, however, it's an MLA OLED, a so-called "micro lens array", a technology that LG says can drastically improve the brightness of OLED panels, which has often been considered the panel type's only real weakness. However, it's not just brightness, but also viewing angle and energy efficiency that should see a boost as a result of its implementation. MLA consists of a layer of micrometre-sized convex lenses that maximise light emission from the OLED panel and prevent light reflecting back into the panel and being lost. That's a fancy way of saying that LG, via MLA, optimises the amount of light that escapes the panel's layers, theoretically giving the G3 up to 2100 NITS in small areas and an overall improvement of 30%.

So does it work? Well, yes, it certainly does. Via Filmmaker HDR, we achieved a NITS test score of just over 1500 NITS, which is the brightest brightness we've ever measured from an OLED. However, this is measured in a relatively small window, and both our own results and those seen elsewhere confirm that LG is still lagging behind the likes of Samsung's S95C. It's still a 70% improvement over the previous generation, and more specifically the C2. We also measured a delta-E score of 2.8 in the same setting, which is also impressive.

Not only does the brightness give better results in films and TV shows, it also helps in games, which traditionally use contrast, highlights and HDR to create dynamics and depth in the image. LG now has far more tools to optimise the image here, and it shows throughout, whether it's Baldur's Gate III, Dead Space Remake, or a fast-paced game of The Finals. Brightness, contrast, depth and responsiveness ensure LG continues to produce the best picture, and now by several orders of magnitude thanks to the implementation of MLA.

It's not just the MLA panel that makes the G3 exquisite for gaming. LG continues to implement meaningful gaming features, and by now the overall package is so impressive that it's hard not to get carried away. First up, of course, we have four HDMI 2.1 ports, all of which can give you 4K/120Hz. There's still VRR, AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync, there's still ALLM and there's still low input lag of just over 8ms when using the Game Optimiser suite in Boost Mode.

In fact, we highly recommend using the Game Optimiser every time you play, which automatically turns off little extra settings, but without losing what makes the panel itself so special. You can also choose between different game genres to tweak the game to your liking, and boy does it work.

LG has also gone further with their in-built speakers, but we don't need to spend a lot of column space to say that if you've spent all the money on a G3, you deserve to spend money on a pretty basic soundbar that will offer more than LG can fit in this slim panel. We're talking 4.2-channel with Dolby Atmos and DTS, as I said, and it sounds... fine. Fine, without being flashy.

Overall, though, the G3 is a huge home run, a victory worth celebrating. No, it's not exactly cheap, the 65" model tested is currently priced at £2,300, but boy do you get a lot of TV for your money.