As display enthusiasts might expect LG has once again put great effort into improving the HDR experience on their flagship TVs, but if that’s all they did I certainly wouldn’t be writing this article.
No, this year LG has surprised me with a few additional upgrades that really elevate the G series into a legendary TV in 2025. During my time with the display at LGs suite I can say it’s so good I’ll be shocked if they can significantly improve their TVs again by next year.
So what changed? Well LG did something really strange, they ditched MLA. MLA, or Micro Lens Array is a technology LG presumably spent much time and money perfecting to improve the brightness and viewing angles of their displays, and it’s something that was thought to be crucial for LG in order to compete with QD OLED (which is also very impressive this year reaching up to 4000nits).
However, MLA came with one downside. Contrast suffers in a bright room as it appears to light up or cause something else in the TV to reflect light much like QD OLED; though not nearly as extreme. With the “alleged” move to LGs new rumored 4 layer OLED technology this year the efficiency and brightness has been improved so drastically (LG is claiming 40% brighter than the G4, and I measured over 3,300nits in an HDR highlight) that they decided to forgo the expensive MLA layer, which means the perfect black levels even in a bright room are back, AND it’s brighter leading to overall far better contrast in a bright room.
On top of that LG has increased the refresh rate to 165Hz which will come as a pleasant surprise to PC gamers as this really feels like the sweet spot of a refresh rate in 2025 for incredibly smooth motion and low response times.
Honestly at this point the only thing LG needs to improve is the color by eliminating the white sub pixel, possibly viewing angle tint (though I didn’t spot any obvious signs on this years model so far, so perhaps they have to some extent), and moving to 240Hz for PC gamers to make gaming just that little bit better and match the best OLED monitors. Oh and making it in 48 & 42” sizes for the US using the new 4 layer design for PC gaming as well.
But it feels like I’m already so spoiled with the quality of the G5s picture I almost feel silly for making these requests. That’s why this year based on my hands-on time at CES viewing the eye opening brightness, contrast, and speed of the LG G5 I’m naming it the best TV of CES 2025.