lg 42 inch lcd panel free sample

Over the last couple of years there has been an increase in the number of people looking to the TV market for their next desktop monitor. OLED technology is only just starting to appear in the monitor market in any mainstream way (e.g. the recently released Dell Alienware AW3423DW) and so many people have been turning to OLED TV’s instead. These offer the benefits of OLED technology like near-instant response times, pixel level dimming, true blacks, excellent contrast ratios and excellent HDR performance. Modern OLED TV’s also provide key gaming technologies like 120Hz, 4K, G-sync/FreeSync and other monitor-like capabilities. The key is that they also remain relatively affordable compared with high end flagship monitors.

The main challenge though in going this route though has been screen size. Since 2020 there have at least been some fairlyreasonable size options in the OLED TV space, with 48″ models like the LG 48CX being a popular option. We tested the LG CX back in October 2020 and considered it specifically as a desktop monitor. We felt, as do many people, that 48″ is just way too big for a desktop monitor. If you’re looking for a screen for occasional desktop use, but mainly for gaming, consoles, movies etc then it’s certainly an interesting option, but we just feel that 48″ is too big, and is uncomfortable as a monitor. This year LG have tried to bridge the gap between monitor and TV even more with the introduction of their 42″ sized C2 model. It’s a smaller option and starts to become a bit more viable to many, but is this enough of a change? How is it as a desktop monitor and how does it perform?

We have the LG 42C2 OLED with us now for review and again we will be testing and evaluating the screen as a desktop monitor. We will put it through all our usual testing and measurements to see how it performs and whether we would recommend this as a new, smaller OLED TV option for these kind of uses. We won’t really be delving in to the TV features much like the tuner, Smart TV features, apps etc but you will find plenty of other reviews online focused on using the screen as a TV if you need.

The LG 42C2 is obviously a very large screen, far bigger than the majority of desktop monitors. This is probably going to be your first consideration when looking at this screen – have you got the space for it on your desk and is it too big for your common uses? We will talk about the size and its pros and cons in the different sections of this review.

There are two simple feet that you have to screw on to the bottom/back of the screen which is a fairly simple and quick job. Just prop the screen on a couple of cushions or something while you do that. Oddly the two feet are labelled A and B, but there’s no corresponding A and B on the screen to match them up to! Still, it’s easy to tell which one goes on which side. We don’t like the design of these feet and this “stand” as much as the older LG OLED screens where they have a bar across the bottom of the screen. That’s still featured on the larger models including the 48″ C2. On the 42″ model here it probably looks and feels a bit more “monitor like” we suppose, leaving a gap from desk to screen, but it isn’t as practical for hiding cables behind it. LG do provide a couple of cable clips to try and help you do this, but it’s not an easy job to really hide those behind the thin feet.

From outer edge to outer edge there is about 72cm between the two feet so you need to have a large desktop space to fit this screen. Remember, this is the smallest of LG’s OLED TV range at 42″. The “stand” (if you can call it that) doesn’t offer any ergonomic adjustments and so the screen feels quite weird at first being very vertical. There’s no tilt, height or swivel adjustments which we certainly miss when trying to use this on a desk as a monitor. We had to resort to a temporary workaround as you can see:

Thankfully LG have done away with the rather deep protruding section at the back of the screen like on some older models so you don’t need a particularly deep desk to accommodate the screen. Or rather, it can sit quite far back on the desk; you will still ideally want quite a deep desk so you can sit a sensible distance away from the screen. The back of the screen is encased in a matte black plastic, and there are VESA 300 x 200mm mounting holes if you’d rather wall or arm mount the screen instead of using the limited stand.

The screen doesn’t come with much, but LG do include an easy to use, intuitive and versatile remote as pictured below. This is slightly different from older generations of this remote like the one we have with our LG CX OLED, but it’s largely the same in function. The OSD is easy and quick to navigate thanks to the remote control, including using the pointer function. Sometimes you feel like you have to drill through various sections to get to the setting you want, and the software doesn’t remember where you were before, so it’s not as quick as it could be on some occasions. When using the ‘Game Optimiser’ mode you get quick access to that menu which is useful (more on that later).

The screen features integrated Dolby Atmos speakers which are considerably more powerful and capable than the kind of speakers you would typically find in a desktop monitor. This is certainly one big benefit with the screen being a TV. LG’s “AI Sound Pro” includes a range of modes that create a wide range of environments, including useful features like a mode to enhance voice quality and levels. For optimal sound you can also connect the screen to an external amplifier and speaker system using HDMI ARC/eARC, or even wirelessly using Bluetooth if you have suitable speakers. For other systems you can also output over the optical SPDIF connection although the pass-through of certain audio types will be more limited. Overall for desktop monitor use the sound system and speakers are far more capable here than you would get from a desktop monitor.

We should note that as this is a TV, the screen does NOT feature any DisplayPort connection which does make it less accessible as a monitor to many people. you would also need to make sure you have a very modern graphics card with HDMI 2.1, which means forking out a lot more money on top of the screen, to be able to power it at 4K 120Hz for instance. Had the screen featured the more common PC DisplayPort 1.4 connection, this could have been available to many more graphics cards and systems. This is one of the limitations of using an OLED TV like this as a monitor right now, although other manufacturers such as Asus are looking to use the same 42″ OLED panel in a more monitor-like offering later in the year too. Those would then drop many of the TV-type features, so it depends what you’re after. From a PC usage point of view we would have loved to have seen DisplayPort available here.

Also keep in mind that LG do not provide any cables with the screen, so there’s an additional cost for an Ultra High Speed HDMI cable if you want to use HDMI 2.1 from a compatible modern graphics card properly. Other HDMI 2.1 devices like the PS5 and Xbox Series X come with a suitable cable at least, but for your PC you will probably need one.

LG promote their new 2022 C2 OLED screens as featuring their new ‘OLED Evo’ technology. It’s all over their webpage and even on the box for the screen. Many people associated this branding with the new “OLED EX” or “WBE” panels from LG Display, which is a newer generation of OLED capable of offering improved brightness as a key improvement. LG Electronics as the TV manufacturer don’t use the OLED EX branding that the LG Display panel producers talk about, but many people assumed that the two were the same – if a screen is marketed as OLED Evo, it should feature an OLED EX panel and offer these new improvements, right?

Actually the early stock of the LG 42C2 screens were identified (by HDTVtest) as featuring the older generation “WBC” panels. This can be identified via the spectral distribution of the panel, and incidentally we have confirmed our sample also features one of these WBC panels. There was a lot of fuss made of this by many media outlets, going as far to suggest that people should wait for the supposedly “new and improved” panels later in the year when LG Electronics start using the WBE panels instead.

Despite much confusion in the market about the situation, what this “OLED Evo” term actually means officiallyis (as LG replied to HDTVtest when asked about it) “a combination of cutting edge picture algorithms powered by the α9 Gen 5 AI processor as well as OLED technology”.It’s not about the panel as such, it’s about the processing and resulting picture quality. They went on to say that “LG’s 2022 42 inch C2 model offers the same picture quality and longevity, regardless of the parts or panel it may come with.”

So from a marketing and branding point of view, both the WBC version currently being used, and the future WBE versions are referred to as “OLED Evo”. But should you wait for a WBE panel for the improved brightness? Actually, on the 42″ and 48″ models it shouldn’t make any difference as both should be capped to a similar brightness level due to the size, and neither feature the new “Brightness Booster” technology that the larger models offer. Had this been a 55″ or 65″ model we were talking about with the older WBC panel then yes, you may have missed out on the brightness improvement of the WBE panel. But on the smaller screens like the 42C2, it doesn’t make any difference anyway.

What about other benefits like supposedly improved lifespan and reduced image retention? HDTVtest showed through some initial testing that the image retention behaviour is likely to be very similar between the WBE and WBC panels, and claims about this and general lifespan probably remain to be substantiated. From a brightness and picture quality point of view there should be no improvements or changes. In fact one thing Vincent at HDTVtest did point out when comparing a WBE vs WBC panel side by side is that the newer WBE panel has a more noticeable pink tint when viewed from an angle. In which case one could maybe argue the older WBC panel is better and you should snap one up while they’re being used?

We did notice some small issues though with this mode, and it relates to the non-standard sub-pixel structure of this OLED screen. Rather than RGB sub-pixel layout that Windows is expecting, these LG OLED panels use a RGBW (RGB + White) structure. As a result, the rendering of fonts in Windows is not 100% perfect. It looks very good on the most part, and we suspect that from a sensible viewing distance for a screen this size it would be hard for many people to spot these issues. But during our testing and usage we did notice a few text fringing problems.

Obviously one of the key benefits of this OLED panel is the fact it can generate true blacks. Each pixel can be fully turned off individually, resulting in basically an infinite contrast ratio. There’s no need for backlight local dimming here like there is on LCD’s and the black depth and contrast ratio surpass all LCD panel technologies including VA panels by a long way. Blacks look inky and deep, and you get local contrast between different areas of an image. This is further accentuated by the glossy screen coating which helps the blacks look deep.

Like most OLED screens there is a minor fluctuation of the backlight, and in this case it is every 8.33ms regardless of whether you are running at 60Hz or 120Hz input. You can see on the graph above that the 0V would be an “off” state, so the amplitude of this fluctuation is minor, and does not produce any visible flickering or anything like that in practice. It’s not the same as PWM on an LCD monitor where the backlight is rapidly switched fully off and on when trying to dim the brightness level. Obviously being an OLED panel there is no backlight here anyway, and this minor fluctuation didn’t cause us any problems in real use and would be considered flicker free.

This term has become a little mixed up in the OLED market and really it can be used for two different things. One is related to how OLED panels operate from a technical and physics point of view, the other has become associated with an image protection feature common on these LG OLED TV’s (and maybe others). We will look at what applies on this screen here:

1)On the one hand OLED panels all have an inherent limitation with the panel itself. The power consumption of these panels is highly dependent upon the content displayed. With a pure white image, every pixel must be lit, while with a pure black image every pixel is off. As the display has a maximum power usage, this opens up the capability for OLED displays to allocate more power per pixel to create a higher maximum luminance when not displaying a full-white image. This is different to LCD panels where a separate backlight unit sits behind the panel and can produce the same max luminance level regardless of the screen content, and how much of it is white in this example. On the OLED screen the percentage of the display that is lit up compared with a full white display is known as the Average Picture level (APL). You will see then on OLED panels that with a low APL (like a small 1% window size of white) the maximum peak brightness is achievable. This peak brightness reduces normally as the window size increases, as this is where the Auto Brightness Limiter (ABL) feature comes in. If you try and display a bright area over a certain window size you will find that the screen is dimmer than if that window size was smaller.

The point at which this ABL feature kicks in based on the size of the APL will vary on different panels. We will measure that later on in the HDR section for the absolute max peak brightness levels, but in normal desktop SDR usage it is unlikely to present a problem. At a calibrated 120 nits brightness level we measured the screen at varying white window sizes from 1% all the way up to 100%, and at no point did this ABL kick in, the 120 nits was maintained at all levels. It nearly achieves the same at 150 nits, although this is dimmed slightly for a full white screen (100% APL) to 136 nits. A minor dimming but a bit of a sham as it can clearly handle this brightness ok at other settings. For a calibrated 200 nits, this was sustained for all APL except the top end, where at 100% APL the brightness dimmed to 150 nits.

2)What makes this a bit confusing is that in the OLED TV space the term “ABL” has become associated more with a more visible and noticeable image retention feature including on these LG OLED TV’s which is officially called ASBL (“Auto Static Brightness Limiter”). This is actually called “Temporal Peak Luminance Control” (TPC) by LG but because it dims the screen it’s become associated with the term “Auto Brightness Limiter” (ABL). This image retention saving feature detects static content on the screen and unless there is a regular (but fairly small) change in the APL the pixels are dimmed in brightness to help avoid image retention problems. In the most common usage for a TV of video, movies, gaming etc the content and therefore the APL is changing regularly and so you should rarely see this TPC feature kick in, although if you leave something paused for a short while you might notice it. When the APL changes again, the screen brightness increases back to what it was before. If you’re using the screen for desktop PC usage then working with static content can result in this feature turning on and you will spot the overall image dim after a couple of minutes. Then maybe brighten again when you change something. This does mean that when using the C2 as a PC monitor this is fairly noticeable in general uses and can be annoying. It also makes the screen less practical for any colour critical work.

There is no way to disable ASBL/TPC without access to the service menu unfortunately, which requires specialist equipment to access and may have warranty implications. You may want to have a read of our OLED Dimming Article which talks about about this topic and all these different terms in a lot more detail, and also provides info about disabling it on the LG C2.

Luminance, black depth and contrast ratio (static)– measuring the brightness, black depth and resulting contrast ratio of the mode being tested, whether that is at default settings or later after calibration and profiling. We aim for 120 cd/m2 luminance which is the recommended luminance for LCD monitors in normal lighting conditions. Black depth should be as low as possible, and contrast ratio should be as high as possible.

We should note that the coverage of wider colour spaces like DCI-P3 is good at 98.4%, and a pretty decent attempt at the Rec.2020 space at 74.4%. Adobe RGB coverage was a bit of a shame, as the screen cannot fully cover that reference space (94% coverage) and so it’s not that well suited to working in that colour space for professional or photo work. You’d probably want a professional grade desktop monitor for that kind of thing anyway. The LG 42C2 is more aimed at content consumption like gaming, HDR, movies and video; and the colour gamut offered is perfectly adequate (and fairly typical) for that use case.

This mode immediately looked better to the naked eye. The overly cool and bluish appearance had gone, and we had a far better colour temp. In fact we measured a white point of 6393k being very close now to our target (2% deviance). Across the greyscale range the colour temp was also much more stable with a 6421k average (1% deviance). Gamma was still decent and close to our 2.2 target and only slightly low in places (2.16 average). The greyscale accuracy was now far better than the Eco mode, with dE 1.1 average. Already this mode was miles better than the default Eco mode!

If you want to know the best settings for the LG C2 OLED for PC use, check out our guide on our YouTube channel. Don’t miss out on some of these important settings! How to configure an LG C2 OLED display when using it with a PC. Including SDR and HDR content, office work and gaming. These TV-only settings can get you a much more accurate picture with a few simple changes.

Like the older generations, the LG C2 series will support hardware level calibration. Portrait Displays have not yet updated their Calman software to include details and options for the C2 2022 range officially (currently in beta), but it does still work when selecting the 2021 models as the pipeline is the same for these new screens.

The screen features a built-in pattern generator for the software which means that you do not need an expensive external pattern generator. This hardware calibration allows you even better control over the setup if you have a compatible calibration device and one of the Calman software packages. Note that for many casual users, simple setting changes will be sufficient given the results we’ve seen above to get an accurate and comfortable setup. You can check our our comprehensive guide to using the Calman ‘LG AutoCal’ software here.

We wanted to test here how uniform the brightness and colour temp were across the screen especially as some users have reported issues with coloured tints on their screens, most commonly a bluish tint towards the edges. Measurements were taken at 36 points across the panel on a pure white background. The measurements were taken using an X-rite i1 Display Pro colorimeter with a central point on the screen calibrated to 120 cd/m2. The below uniformity diagram shows the difference, as a percentage, between the measurement recorded at each point on the screen, as compared with the central reference point.

It is worth noting that panel uniformity can vary from one screen to another, and can depend on manufacturing lines, screen transport and other local factors. This is only a guide of the uniformity of the sample screen we have for review.

We did find our screen showed some visible blue tinting along the right hand edge, perhaps 3 inches or so wide. We measured the colour temp across the screen which showed that this right hand edge was around 400k cooler (~6900k white point) than the rest of the screen. It was not a problem during most usage unless you had full screen white or light grey content, certainly not something you’d ever see in gaming or movies. But if you were using full screen office documents, you might notice this cooler strip along the edge. We will report back if we see any improvements over time with further usage and as the OLED panel is bedded in a bit more, as that could perhaps balance out the pixels and colours more.

I would say I am borderline with the LG C2 as to whether this is too big for a desktop monitor or not. In my opinion, the older models including at the time the smallest 48″ option were just too big for the vast majority of people and we found them impractical for this kind of usage. The 42″ model is definitely better, but it’s still a beast of a screen on your desk. You will definitely need to consider 1) the desk space you have, 2) how deep the desk is and how far away you can sit from the screen and 3) whether the massive size is really practical for your common use types.

We will talk about gaming and multimedia later, but for office work it’s usable, but probably still too big for most people in our opinion. Like I said, I’m borderline personally, having been using it for a fair while to carry out this review. On the plus side, the 3840 x 2160 resolution is very usable at this size without needing any OS scaling (leave Windows at 100% scaling). That means you get a large desktop area to work with, and the text is of a sensible and comfortable size. You don’t have to worry about whether your application will handle the OS scaling properly, everything can be run at normal 100%. This means you get proper use of the full 4K desktop space, unlike most 4K monitors where you have to use scaling to make text readable and sensible, but in doing so cut down on that desktop real-estate. 40 – 42″ is about right to properly use 4K resolution comfortably we think.

The pixel pitch is 0.2421 mm here, so the text is the same equivalent size as a 21″ 1080p monitor (so smaller and denser text than common 23 – 24″ 1080p models which is nice), and also the same as a hypothetical 28″ 1440p model (so slightly larger text than a common 27″ 1440p screen). So it’s a comfortable and decent text size, and a good sized screen for 4K resolution without scaling for desktop use. On the other hand, the sheer size of the screen means you will be having to move your neck quite a lot to look around the screen and it’s not as comfortable as a normal desktop monitor size. It’s a good resolution and desktop space for split screen working and multi-tasking though. You will need to be able to position it a sensible distance away from your sitting position, probably a fair bit deeper than you might be used to having your monitor at. This makes it a bit more comfortable.

The glossy screen coating is another consideration that you don’t normally have to make with a desktop monitor as there’s not many glossy panels in that space. The LG 42C2 has a glossy panel coating which means you get more reflections than a traditional monitor with an anti-glare (AG) coating. You need to be more careful about positioning of the screen relative to windows and lights, but we didn’t find this too much of a problem during normal usage to be honest. Having a glossy screen does mean that the image looks clear and sharp, and it helps ensure those true deep blacks look deep and inky and are not impacted by any light diffusion of an AG coating – something some reviewers have observed with the OLED based Dell Alienware AW3423DW which has a hybrid AG/gloss coating. On balance having a glossy coating is probably the better solution here for OLED so you can enjoy the blacks and contrast properly.

The screen has a blue peak at 457 nm, and although it is not part of the Eyesafecertified range of products, it does have a blue peak that is just beyond the supposed harmful range according to Eyesafe between 415 – 455nm, which is good news. You can see here by the way from the spectral distribution where the green and red peaks are merged that our sample is one of the WBC panels we talked about earlier. There is a low blue light setting in the OSD menu as well which you can click on and off. With it enabled the colour temp drops from our calibrated 6500k to ~ 5380k in Expert Bright mode.

We will not go too much in to potential concerns around lifespan of the OLED panel, colour shift, dark spots or image retention/burn-in here. You can read our OLED Displays and the Monitor Market article for more information about those potential issues. As a desktop monitor if you are going to use the screen for many hours per day, some of these things might become an issue in time. In our fairly short period of time testing and using the screen we noticed no issues in any of these areas. The TBC (aka ABL) feature was more of an annoyance and distraction to be honest, and although it’s there to try and help with life-span it might become an issue for some people for desktop type use, where it is more common to display a lot of static content.

The screen uses an OLED panel which is well-known for its near-instant response times. As a result it does not need to use overdrive technology in the same way as a desktop LCD panel would, or there at least aren’t any controls for the response time or overdrive in the OSD menu here. LG don’t quote a response time in their spec, but true <1ms G2G should be expected from this technology.

The OLED panel provides super-deep blacks and infinite contrast ratio which is of course excellent for gaming too. This helps ensure great shadow detail and true blacks. You may find optimal appearance in a darkened room though. The glossy screen coating helps ensure the colours “pop” and blacks look deep and pure, but can lead to some unwanted reflections depending on your viewing conditions. Be careful if you have windows or lights in front of the screen. The wide viewing angles of this technology are excellent and make the screen suitable for viewing from many different positions if you need. These wide viewing angles importantly include the freedom from things like the pale/white “IPS glow” that you get on darker content on that common LCD technology. There’s none of that here on the OLED panel.

If you want to know the best settings for the LG C2 OLED for PC use, check out our guide on our YouTube channel. Don’t miss out on some of these important settings! How to configure an LG C2 OLED display when using it with a PC. Including SDR and HDR content, office work and gaming.

We also took some measurements in the Game Optimiser preset mode as shown above. You can see that the colour temp setting in this mode is “0” and this leaves us with an overly cool default setup again like we had in the default Eco preset mode when we first powered the screen on. The gamma is good, but the overly cool setup means greys and whites look a bit bluish, and this impacts the greyscale accuracy. The overly cool setup and the over-saturation of the wide gamut panel mean that colour accuracy for sRGB content isn’t good either.

The LG C2 OLED like all other TV’s unfortunately does not offer a DisplayPort input which is by far the most widely used video interface output on PC graphics cards, including older generation options. If you wanted to use high refresh rates and VRR from a desktop monitor its much easier to use from most systems as DisplayPort is commonly used on those displays as the connection of choice. More people can therefore have access to these gaming features without needing to invest at the same time in the latest and greatest graphics card, even if they’ve got an older card.

To connect a PC to the LG C2 OLED you are going to need a graphics card with an HDMI output, this will need to be v2.0 at a minimum which thankfully has become more widespread in recent years. If you want to use the LG C2 OLED for gaming, and ideally make use of features like the 120Hz refresh rate and G-sync/FreeSync to their full extent that you’re going to invest in the latest generations of graphics cards with HDMI 2.1.

So basically in summary if you have only an HDMI 2.0 output graphics card you can run the screen at 60Hz and native resolution without much issue, which is fine for desktop use and movies. You cannot use the full 10-bit colour depth panel / 12-bit processing, but 8-bit is supported and should be sufficient for most people anyway who might buy this kind of screen. It’s not really the kind of screen you’d buy for high-end graphics or photo work anyway. The issue is that if you want to use 120Hz for gaming, and you definitely should if you want vastly improved motion clarity, then you have to make some sacrifices to the colour output to get there from HDMI 2.0. Chroma sub-sampling is explained in more detail in our review of the Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ (where it is needed to reach the maximum 144Hz refresh rate at 4K) so we won’t go in to loads of detail here about what it is. In basic terms it will restrict the colour output to allow enough bandwidth to support the resolution and refresh rate, but this can lead to some loss of detail and clarity, especially evident when viewing text.

One other option open to users, especially for gaming, would be to lower the resolution and push higher refresh rates and frame rates that way. It will make it easier on your system, and you can also avoid having to sacrifice chroma and colour quality. We found the screen natively supported 1080p and 1440p resolutions from within Windows without us needing to create custom resolutions from the control panel. At 1440p and 120Hz you could run at 8-bit colour depth but with full range RGB chroma (no sub-sampling needed) from was good. Lowering another step to 1080p allowed for up to 12-bit colour processing too. The screen does have a very good upscaling algorithm as well, so this content can look pretty decent even when not running at native resolution, so it’s certainly an option if you have an older graphics card and maybe even if you have HDMI 2.1 but just want to drive higher frame rates and settings. You would probably have to switch between these resolutions in Windows before gaming though which could become a pain.

Above are the response times at 120Hz. Thanks to the OLED panel these are super-fast, with an average of only 0.6ms G2G measured! The best case was an incredibly impressive 0.3ms as well. All transitions can keep up easily with the frame rate demands of 120Hz, and in fact this screen could comfortably keep up with 1000Hz if the panel could support it! Let’s hope OLED refresh rates are driven much higher in the coming years, as it’s a really well suited technology for that. There is some minor overshoot in a few transitions but nothing that creates any visible artefacts or halos in real use.

For the lowest lag performance you will need to ensure you are running in the ‘Game Optimiser’ mode for a start. Without this on and outside of the game preset mode the lag is super-high like with many TV’s and you will definitely want to avoid that for gaming. The more processing features you turn on in the menu as well, the more lag you will potentially add outside of this game mode. There is also an additional “reduce input delay (input lag)” setting in the game optimiser menu with options for ‘standard’ and ‘boost’ available. This seems to make a small improvement to the lag figures. 120Hz is definitely faster than 60Hz mode, providing an impressive 4.3ms total lag in the best case. This is much better than older TV’s and there’s a real focus on making this suitable for fast paced gaming from LG. They’ve done a decent job here, although it isn’t quite as fast as gaming monitors still which are regularly <1ms signal processing lag. T

The LG C2 models feature a black frame insertion function, which operates a bit like a strobing blur reduction backlight on an LCD screen. With there being no backlight here to strobe on and off, instead a black frame is inserted in to the image periodically to “clean” the human visual system for moving content and improve perceived motion clarity. This mode is available via the Advanced Settings > Clarity > TruMotion > OLED Motion setting with a simple on/off toggle. There is no control over the timing or length of the black frame, but you do still have access to other screen settings including the OLED light level so you can make the image brighter or darker as you wish.

Unlike the previous CX and CX1 generations of this screen this BFI mode seems to be only work at 60Hz which is odd. It’s still available to turn on in the OSD menu when operating with a 120Hz input but doesn’t actually activate the BFI feature (confirmed with an oscilloscope and visual observations). We noticed a minor increase in screen brightness by about 15 nits when enabling this mode at 120Hz which implies maybe it is a setting that is supposedto do something, and there’s nothing in the user manual that states whether it is supposed to work at 120Hz or not. Perhaps this is a bug, or something that LG plan to add later, but it seems odd to not feature it when it was included on the older generation screens.

At 60Hz when OLED motion is activated there is a very noticeable flickering to the screen, and this may put a lot of users off we think. It operates at 60Hz, inserting a new black frame every 16.67ms in sync with that refresh rate. Fans of true 60Hz “strobing” will be pleased, but it does create a lot of flicker at such a lower refresh rate. It has an impact on screen brightness as well, but we measured a maximum luminance of ~127 nits at 100% OLED light level, and a minimum of ~25 nits at 0%. This 60Hz frequency is optimal for a 60Hz input, and on the older CX model there had been two settings – ‘medium’ which added a black frame at 120Hz and created a noticeable ghost image, and ‘high’ which operated at 60Hz like it does on the C2 here, and was much cleaner. LG have done away with the 120Hz option here which is for the best when it comes to motion clarity.

The BFI mode does a pretty nice job of cleaning up the motion clarity though, making moving objects sharper and clearer, and easier to track across the screen. You can see pursuit camera photos above capturing real-world perceived motion clarity at 60Hz with this mode turned off and on. One other benefit of OLED and this method of blur reduction is that there’s no strobe cross talk and no ghosting images across any part of the screen. The top, middle and bottom regions all look the same and this creates an overall very pleasing blur reduction option. It’s a shame this can’t operate at 120Hz though on the C2 display which would be even clearer and sharper. Let’s hope LG maybe add this later!

The LG 42C2 is very well positioned to handle the latest games consoles as were the previous CX and C1 generations. The screen features a native 3840 x 2160 “4K” resolution and 120Hz refresh rate and has 4x HDMI 2.1 ports with proper HDMI 2.1 capabilities (unlike many HDMI 2.1 advertised screens). These ports are also the full 48Gbps capacity links, allowing for 4K 120Hz 4:4:4 chroma where supported by the console and content. This is available from the Xbox Series X (not that there’s really content that gives you this), but the PS5 is limited to 4:2:2 chroma anyway due to the console itself.

Most desktop monitors, even those advertised with the very lapse and pointless VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification lack any form of local dimming for HDR. So by their nature cannot actually improve the dynamic range of the display! Sure, they can accept an HDR input source (usually just HDR10) and some may offer slightly brighter screens, maybe 10-bit colour depth, maybe a wider colour gamut but they don’t always and the HDR 400 spec doesn’t require any of that either! But without local dimming there’s no improvement to the dynamic range at all and you are basically limited by the LCD panel’s native contrast ratio. For a TN Film or IPS panel this would max out at around 1000 – 1300:1 and for a VA panel maybe around 3000 – 5000:1. Local dimming is a vital component of HDR.

For the top-end HDR experience in the monitor market today you’d be looking currently at some of the niche and very expensive top-end models with a Full array Local Dimming (FALD) backlight. We’ve reviewed models like the Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ and PG35VQ in the past with 384-zone and 512-zone local dimming backlights for instance. These meet the upper tier HDR 1000 standard so can reach even higher peak brightness of 1000 cd/m2, along with wide gamut colour space and 10-bit colour depth. These FALD options, and some newer “mini LED” options like the Asus ROG Swift PG32UQX we’ve also reviewed for instance (HDR 1400 with 1152 zones) have even more (and smaller) dimming zones and represent the best available HDR options on desktop LCD monitors today. The problem is these models are very expensive and top-end, and even with many hundred zones, it can still leave you with some issues for HDR content. Blooming and halos are still a problem when smaller highlights are needing to be brightened, and while the more zones the better, it will never be as optimal as per-pixel dimming like on OLED.

So the dimming capabilities of the OLED panel here easily surpass all desktop monitors when it comes to HDR, and the true black and infinite contrast make it ideal for improving the dynamic range. This particular LG C2 OLED also has the necessary wide gamut and 10-bit colour depth support (with 12-bit processing) so it offers the boosted colours and appearance associated with HDR content too. Being a TV it is also more equipped than most LCD monitors, even those at the top end, at handling different HDR standards, being able to support HDR 10, Dolby Vision and HLG standards.

There was a reasonable peak brightness here from the panel at 717 nits, and this was possible for small sized windows and also up to 10% white window. Thanks to the OLED panel you don’t get any halos or blooming, and so these highlights stand out very nicely and produce an excellent observed contrast thanks to the true blacks of the panel. The peak brightness is basically the same as the CX and C1 generations, and some people may be disappointed that it cannot get higher, especially when you can get much higher peak brightness specs from Mini LED/FALD backlit LCD displays. In fact you can find some LCD screens like the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 for instance that can reach 2000 nits.

There was much promotion by LG of a 20% improvement in peak brightness with their new “OLED Evo” technology, so why isn’t that seen here? Actually that brightness improvement is possible thanks to LG’s “Brightness Booster” technology, which is only being added to the C2 screens 55″ and larger. It is not featured on the 42″ or 48″ models due to their size and due to heat dissipation concerns and burn in risks. So 42″ users will have to live with the peak brightness being basically the same as the older generation CX and C1 models which is a shame. We would have loved to have seen boosted brightness here as well.

With DTM turned on you can notice a fairly obvious change to the brightness of the screen to the naked eye, particularly in darker content. The top graphs tracking the PQ EOTF and luminance levels show that the brightness is increased a little beyond the target in dark to mid grey shades which is what is making it brighter to the user. With DTM turned off in the bottom graphs you can see that darker greys follow the PQ EOTF properly, although the roll-off point is more gradual and curved that the target when you reach a grey shade of 60 (measured along the horizontal bottom axis). This has the effect of making the brightest shades a bit more distinguishable than they otherwise would be and compensates a little for the (relatively) low peak brightness capability of the OLED panel, making highlights stand out a bit more.

ContrastInfiniteAmazing contrast thanks to the self-emitting OLED panel where pixels are turned fully off for full black. Produces incredible contrast ratio and shadow detail

Response times0.6ms G2G at all refresh rates with very low overshootResponse times are excellent and near-instantaneous thanks to the OLED panel. Don’t expect wonders for motion clarity at 60Hz though still. Refresh rate plays an important role here. You do get some additional judder on 24p content for panning shots in movies as a result of the response times being so fast. You may want to experiment with the TruMotion anti-judder settings here if it’s a problem

There was a lot to test, measure and consider when reviewing the 42C2 OLED and the main question we were trying to answer here is whether this makes a good desktop monitor or not? Short summary, yes, we think it does – with some caveats.

The main issue we had with the older CX and C1 generations was the size of the models available. Even the smallest 48″ models were just too large for a desk in my opinion. It’s just too big, cumbersome, difficult, and sometimes painful to use something that big on your desk as a monitor. The text size also wasn’t great as 4K on a 48″ screen is a fairly low pixel density. LG’s new 42″ size is definitely a much better option, and having used the screen for many hours over the last couple of weeks we have found it usable and comfortable on the whole. You will need to consider if you’ve got the space for it, whether your desk is large enough and whether you can sit a sensible distance from it, but if you can then we don’t think that 42″ is too large nowadays. It gives you a very usable screen size for 4K resolution at 100% scaling, with a nice boost in desktop space as a result compared with 4K monitors where you lose a lot of that space due to the need to use scaling on a smaller screen. The text size and pixel density was more akin to modern monitors and that was definitely welcome.

For general everyday usage there were some drawbacks though. Text sharpness and clarity wasn’t perfect because of the unusual pixel structure, the TPC OLED protection feature (aka ABL) feature was sometimes annoying when dimming the screen, and the lack of any ergonomic adjustments without even a small tilt range made it a bit uncomfortable to use. The glossy coating was also sometimes a bit of a challenge with reflections, although it is still preferable to use this coating option for optimal picture quality and when considering other uses like HDR and gaming. The lack of some monitor-type features like DisplayPort, USB type-C, USB ports, KVM switches etc are also a shame, but on this screen they’ve been replaced instead with more TV-like features like smart TV apps, decent speakers etc – after all, this is still an LG TV range product. The default setup is really poor, but easily adjusted and improved thankfully to a decent standard, and there’s a proper sRGB emulation mode too which is great news. Of course in the back of your mind you still have that concern around image retention and burn in that could be an issue to some users when using the screen for lots of static content. So for general monitor usage, while it’s definitely better than the older generations thanks to the smaller size, you have to live with a few shortcomings still.

If we think about gaming, HDR and multimedia then the C2 really shines and in many ways sets itself apart from normal desktop monitors. The instant response times, true blacks and infinite contrast ratios of OLED technology are superior to nearly all desktop monitors, which are still reliant on LCD technology. You won’t get anywhere near this performance from the LCD market. Thankfully you also still get excellent gaming features like 4K @ 120Hz refresh rate, decent VRR support and G-sync/FreeSync certifications too. The refresh rate won’t keep up with the latest gaming monitors, and motion clarity and frame rate support won’t be quite as good as a result. The lag is low, but not as low as modern gaming screens so if you’re focus is on competitive gaming, FPS or achieving absolute optimal gaming performance then you will still find better in the monitor market. But then that’s not really the gaming niche this screen is going after, it’s more for people who want to play a variety of games, including PC and console games, and in various genres. We would love to see refresh rate increased for future LG OLED generations as 120Hz feels a bit limited for PC gaming nowadays – can we have a 240Hz OLED please LG?

One gaming area that was a bit disappointing was the BFI blur reduction mode. If you like pure 60Hz strobing then the performance for that is very good, and OLED is very well suited to handling this kind of feature. We found the obvious flickering too distracting. We have no idea why the 120Hz BFI mode doesn’t currently work, but we hope LG haven’t removed it and will update via a firmware later on, as that’s likely to be a far more usable mode. For now, it’s a missing feature that the older CX and C1 models had. Not everyone likes these modes, but keep this in mind if you do.

HDR performance is excellent as you’d expect from an OLED panel. The multi-format support, per pixel dimming, true blacks and infinite contrast ratio come in to play again here to create an amazing experience. Sadly the 42″ and 48″ models of the C2 range lack the 20% brightness boost of the new C2 range, so the peak brightness capabilities is still similar to the older models. Still, HDR is something this screen does very well for gaming and video.

All in all the 42C2 feels a lot more like a monitor/TV crossover than the CX and C1 generations thanks to the new 42″ size. The performance is largely similar to the older models when it comes to gaming, HDR and general usage so if you already have an older model it’s probably not worth upgrading to a C2. But, if you were holding off because the old models were too big, or have been on the fence considering an OLED TV as a monitor then this could be a great time to look at the C2. It’s pretty reasonably priced when you consider the features, specs and capabilities and line that up with a high end gaming monitor. The 42″ C2 is available from various places in several regions including Amazon (affiliate link). You can keep an eye on availability and pricing of all the other sized C2 models in your region like the 48″ model on Amazon here (affiliate link).

42″ size is far more usable as a desktop monitorGeneral/office use still a little limited due to text clarity issues, TPC/ABL and image retention concerns

LG did not announce pricing for any of its 2022 TVs yet, leaving people like me to speculate freely. The 88-inch 8K model sells for about $30,000 now, so I"d expect the 97-inch version to cost at least $40,000 despite its lower resolution. The 48-inch is currently selling for $1,100, so I expect 2022 holiday pricing for the 42-incher to be about $1,000.

Just days into the new year, we already have a good idea of what TV shoppers can expect in 2022, starting with more 8K sets, more LCD sets that use Mini LEDs in backlights, plus some interesting developments in OLED TVs, which traditionally have topped our TV ratings.

Shoppers can also expect to see more jumbo-sized TVs—many with screens that measure 85 inches or more—at more affordable prices. A few TV brands have announced TVs with screen sizes of almost 100 inches.

You’ll also see more OLED sets alongside the LCD televisions that dominate the market. The number of brands already offering these types of TVs includes LG, Skyworth, Sony, and Vizio. The good news is that shoppers are likely to see even lower prices on entry-level 4K OLED sets this year.

The big news for LCD/LED TVs is the use of Mini LEDs in backlights by several brands. By shrinking the size of the LEDs, companies can cram thousands of them into the backlight behind the LCD panel, then divide them into zones that can be dimmed or illuminated, just like conventional LEDs. But because they’re so small, they can be controlled more precisely to help improve brightness, contrast, and black levels, and help reduce the halos you often see on LCD TVs when a bright image appears against a dark background.

This can help the best LCD TVs perform closer to OLED TVs, which don’t require a backlight. Instead, every individual pixel gives off its own light and can be turned on and off individually, so if part of a picture is supposed be completely black, it can be.

Hisense’s new flagship U9H sets will feature increased brightness—up to a claimed 2,000 nits—and use Mini LED backlights with more than 1,280 full-array local dimming zones. Just below these sets will be the U8H models, with many of the same features, though with peak brightness of 1,500 nits. This year, U8H sets also get Mini LED backlights. For HDR (high dynamic range) performance, both series support Dolby Vision and Dolby Vision HQ, HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG HDR formats, as well as Filmmaker mode and Imax Enhanced mode.

Unlike most companies, Hisense announced prices and availability for its 2022 sets this week. The 75-inch U9H set will be available in late summer for $3,200, while the UH8 sets will arrive in midsummer in 55-, 65-, and 75- screen sizes. Prices start at $1,099.

The U7H Series sets—which arrive in midsummer in 55-, 65-, 75-, and 85-inch screen sizes, with prices starting at $800—target gamers with many of the same features, but at a lower price. They lack the Mini LED backlights and higher brightness found on models in the two top series, but do come with the Next-Gen TV tuner. The U6H-Series sets, with prices starting at $580, extend the ULED TV platform to a wider group of consumers looking for 50- to 75-inch TVs.

This year, LG will again manage a familiar balancing act, touting improved performance in its LCD lineup while continuing to promote its OLED TVs as the pinnacle of TV performance.

As in the past, the most advanced OLED tech will go into the company’s interior design-focused Gallery, or G series, sets. However, improvements are also being made to LG’s C2 series lineup, which has typically offered the best bang for the buck of any LG OLED TVs. This year you’ll see OLED TVs in both bigger (a 97-inch behemoth) and smaller (42-inch) screen sizes.

One change is that LG is rolling out its higher-performing Evo OLED panels to C2-series sets 55 inches and bigger. Last year, these panels, which use a new pixel structure to improve brightness, were reserved only for the pricier G-series models. This should help improve these sets’ HDR performance, though last year’s models earned top marks for that attribute in our TV ratings.

Despite using the same panel, LG says the G2 models are about 20 percent brighter than the C2 sets. The G2 sets have the company’s Brightness Booster technology, which uses a more advanced algorithm and better heat dissipation to achieve higher peak brightness this year, according to the company. A new composite fiber material used in the sets will make the TVs in these series much lighter, which should make wall-mounting a bit easier and reduce shipping costs.

While the smallest OLED TV last year was a 48-inch model, this year the C2 series will include a 42-inch option. (There will also be 48-, 55-, 65-, 77-, and 83-inch C2 screen sizes.) The G2 series will get the monster 97-inch set, along with 83-, 77-, 65-, and 55-inch models.

Last year LG launched a less expensive A series, which will continue this year as A2 models. Like most companies, LG doesn’t disclose pricing until the new models are close to shipping, probably two to three months into 2022. There will also be a B2 series, which differs from the A2 sets mainly in that it has a 120 hertz, instead of a 60Hz, panel. (Higher refresh rates can reduce motion blurring and have benefits for gaming.)

For its LCD-based lineup, LG will be continuing its QNED TVs—like we needed another acronym—that use Mini LEDs in the backlight. Though last year all QNED sets—which combine LG’s own NanoCell color technology with quantum dots—used Mini LED backlights, this year it’s missing from the entry-level QNED80 sets, which have more conventional full-array LED backlights with local dimming.

Once again LG’s top TVs get a new, more powerful processor and AI, with features such as the ability to detect faces and objects on the screen, then analyze the info on a scene-by-scene basis to make image and sound adjustments. The processor is also used to upgrade lower-resolution content to the set’s higher 4K or 8K display.

And for gamers, there are some new features, such as a Game Optimizer menu that offers better access to gaming features such as a new Dark Room mode that adjusts the TV’s brightness when playing in a room with the lights off. LG now supports both the Nvidia GeForce Now and Google Stadia cloud gaming services.

We’ll talk more in more detail about QD OLED technology in another article, but the main difference is that like quantum-dot LCD TVs, it uses a blue light source combined with quantum dots to produce rich, natural-looking colors. While reports of Samsung working on this new TV tech have circulated for several months, the company didn’t have anything to say about it beyond accepting an CES Innovations award for the development. Samsung tells us it will have more information about these new sets soon.

Samsung also noted that it will have a MicroLED TV—basically the LED equivalent of an OLED TV, where every pixel generates its own light, with no need for a separate backlight—in a new, smaller 89-inch screen size this year, joining the 101- and 110-inch models already available. No prices were given, but last year’s model were prohibitively expensive for most consumers. The 110-inch model, for example, cost about $150,000 when it shipped last spring.

Samsung also showed a new product, called the Freestyle, which is a portable projector, smart speaker, and ambient lighting device all rolled into one. It has auto focusing, keystone, and leveling features, so it can automatically adjust the projected image—from 30 to 100 inches—at almost any angle and still maintain the proper proportions. It has the same smart TV system as Samsung TVs, with built-in access to streaming services, a 5-watt omnidirectional speaker, and it and will work with voice-powered digital assistants.

After a few years’ absence—and a bit of drama—Sharp is returning to the U.S. TV market this year with a line of Roku TVs. Sharp hasn’t released any specifics beyond saying that its lineup will include both HD and 4K models, in 50- to 75-inch screen sizes.

As for Sony’s LCD TV Lineup, the big news is that the two top series—the Z9K and X95K—get Mini LED backlights. Sony claims its Backlight Master Drive technology will offer more control over the Mini LEDs than conventional methods.

Starting last year with its XL Collection, TCL has been focused on big TVs, 80 inches and larger. In 2022 the company’s lineup will be topped by a 98-inch QLED-set that just started selling for almost $8,000.

TCL offered the first Mini LED TV we ever tested three years ago, and last year expanded the technology into its popular 6-series 4K lineup. This year the company is building Mini LEDs into the new flagship TV in its XL Collection. The set is an 85-inch 8K QLED X9 model that uses a new OD Zero Mini LED backlight technology. That technology enables the company to build a set with an ultrathin profile under 10 millimeters (or about 0.4 inches) deep.

Based on your feedback and comments, we bought six LG OLED C7, which played real, non-altered content. It gives a more realistic, real-world example of what to expect depending on how you usually use your TV.

This test ended in 2019, as we feel that we now have a good understanding of what types of content are likely to cause burn-in. However, we still haven"t addressed the issue of longevity in general, and we don"t know if newer OLED panels are still as likely to experience burn-in. To that end, we"ve decided to start a new accelerated longevity test to better understand how long new TVs should last and what are the most common points of failure. Although burn-in isn"t the main goal of this test, we"re hoping to better understand how newer OLED panels compare to the older generation of OLEDs. It"s generally accepted that burn-in isn"t as much of an issue as it used to be, but it"s unclear just how much better the newer OLED TVs are. With new panels, new heatsinks, and even brand-new panel types like QD-OLED, there are a lot of unknowns.

Update 11/05/2018: After more than 5000 hours, there has been no appreciable change to the brightness or color gamut of these TVs. Long periods of static content have resulted in some permanent burn-in (see the CNN TVs); however, the other TVs with more varied content don"t yet have noticeable uniformity issues on normal content. As a result, we don"t expect most people who watch varied content without static areas to experience burn-in issues with an OLED TV. Those who display the same static content over long periods should consider the risk of burn-in, though (like those who watch lots of news, use the TV as a PC monitor, or play the same game with a bright static HUD). Those concerned about the risk of burn-in should go with an LCD TV for peace of mind.

The total duration of static content. LG has told us that they expect it to be cumulative, so static content, which is present for 30 minutes twice a day, is equivalent to one hour of static content once per day.

There are a few different "pixel refresher" functions that run on LG OLED TVs. An "automatic" pixel refresh runs when the TV is turned off after four hours of cumulative usage. This requires the power to be connected, and LG has told us that this takes between 7 and 10 minutes to complete. As a result, this pixel refresh is automatically run at each power cycle of our test (4 times per day).

The LG A2 has a simple style similar to its predecessor, the LG A1 OLED. It features two V-shaped feet as the stand, and the back panel is flat except for the housing for the inputs.

The back of the LG A2 features brushed metal that covers the panel and plastic housing for the inputs. The side-facing inputs are easy to access, but there are a few back-facing ones that are harder to reach if you wall-mount the TV.

The LG A2 has excellent build quality. It feels solid, and there aren"t any noticeable quality control issues. There"s a bit of flex on the plastic housing of the inputs, but this is normal for LG"s OLEDs, and it"s only an issue if you press against it.

The LG A2 has a near-infinite contrast ratio that results in perfect black levels when displayed next to white objects. It means blacks look deep and inky in a dark room, even if there are bright objects on the screen.

The LG A2 has okay SDR peak brightness. It"s an improvement over the LG A1 OLED, and while it gets bright enough to fight glare from small light sources like a lamp, it isn"t a good choice to place it opposite a bright window. There"s some variation in brightness between different scenes due to its Automatic Brightness Limiter, but it isn"t as aggressive as other OLEDs.

The LG A2 doesn"t have a backlight, but thanks to its near-infinite contrast ratio, it"s equivalent to a perfect local dimming feature. There"s no blooming around bright objects in dark scenes, and bright white pixels are displayed perfectly even if they"re surrounded by black pixels. We still film these videos on the TV, so you can see how it performs and compare it with a TV that has local dimming.

The LG A2 has alright HDR peak brightness. It gets bright enough to make small highlights stand out versus the rest of the image, but it isn"t as bright as other OLEDs for a truly impactful HDR image. These results are from the "Cinema" HDR Picture Mode with the OLED Pixel Brightness at its max, Adjust Contrast on "100", Peak Brightness on "High", and the Color Temperature set to "Warm 50".

The LG A2 has incredible PQ EOTF tracking. It means that it displays images at their correct brightness right up until its peak brightness, where there"s a sharp roll-off, resulting in a loss of fine details in bright objects. If you still find the image too dim, you can use the same settings as in the HDR Brightness box, but with Auto Dynamic Contrast on "High" and Dynamic Tone Mapping enabled. It makes the image appear brighter, as you can see in this EOTF, but it doesn"t change the peak luminosity.

The LG A2 has excellent gray uniformity. The screen is uniform throughout, and there"s minimal dirty screen effect in the center, which you won"t notice during sports. Like any OLED, there are faint vertical lines with near-dark scenes, but you only notice them if you sit really close.

The LG A2 has a wide viewing angle that makes the image remain consistent from the sides. It means that it"s ideal for wide seating areas, but some colors lose their hue at narrow viewing angles, so it isn"t as ideal if you need to sit close as the edges of the screen start to look inconsistent.

The LG A2 has a WOLED panel because it uses an RWBG subpixel layout with all four pixels in a line. All four pixels are never on at the same time, and you can see alternate pixel photos below:

The LG A2 has an excellent HDR color gamut. It has near-perfect coverage of the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space, and it"s future-proof because it also has good coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space. However, tone mapping is off in each color space, similar to the LG C2 OLED, meaning details are lost in some scenes.

The LG A2 has good color volume. It displays dark colors well, but it doesn"t display colors as bright as the Sony A95K OLED, and it"s limited by its incomplete color gamut.

Even though the LG A2 is likely less prone to burn-in than older OLED panels, there"s still a risk. OLED panel technology has significantly advanced since our real-world burn-in test, which used 2017 models, so we don"t really know just how likely it is that these TVs will experience burn-in. We"ll be starting a new burn-in test shortly to determine how effective each of these new panel technologies are at reducing the risk of burn-in, so our estimated burn-in risk score may change.

The LG A2 has a near-instantaneous response time that results in almost no motion blur behind fast-moving objects. However, there"s still persistence blur due to the sample-and-hold method of OLEDs.

The LG A2 isn"t technically flicker-free because there"s a slight dip in brightness every eight ms, which coincides with the refresh rate. However, it isn"t the same as pulse width modulation on LED TVs because it isn"t a full on and off, and it isn"t noticeable either.

The LG A2 can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 60 fps. Unfortunately, there"s a ton of artifacting with any fast-moving object, which gets distracting.

Unlike the higher-end LG B2 OLED and the LG C2 OLED, the LG A2 is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate and doesn"t support variable refresh rate technology to reduce screen tearing. It means you can"t play high-frame-rate games, and you"ll see tearing if the frame rate of your game drops.

The LG A2 supports common signals up to 60Hz and displays