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The LG G4 is one of the most stunning premium displays I’ve tested. It’s designed with enthusiasts in mind, so it pulls no punches when it comes to high-end features and elegant design touches. Its OLED panel delivers an infinite contrast ratio and it’s one of the brightest displays of its kind.
Judged against other 2024 models, the LG G4 is easily one of the best TVs you can buy for top-notch image quality. In some picture-performance metrics, it is the TV to beat. However, last year’s G3 was also an incredible display in its own right, and it remains in stock at many retailers for less money. The G4 does offer some improvements in color and brightness, but the upgrade is subtle.
For now, we lean toward recommending the G3 for most buyers while it remains in stock. But the G4 is technically the best OLED TV LG has ever made. Once it comes down in price, it will be an easy recommendation for any shoppers who want a high-end display.
LG 65-inch G4 OLED 4K TV
The G4 is one of the most impressive OLED TVs we’ve tested, but its benefits over last year’s more affordable G3 are subtle. However, unlike its G3 counterpart, this 65-inch model comes with a stand and supports a faster 144Hz refresh rate for smoother PC gaming.
The G4 comes in 5 sizes and includes a stand or wall mount
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The G4 is available in 55-, 65-, 77-, 83-, and 97-inch editions. Every size has the same basic specs, with the exception of the 97-inch model, which is missing LG’s brightness-boosting micro-lens-array (MLA) technology. As a result, that size will be a bit dimmer than the rest.
In the past, LG only included wall mounts with its G-series TVs, but for 2024, it now packs in a stand with some sizes. Buyers who opt for the 55- or 65-inch G4 get a pedestal stand included in the box. Larger sizes come with a slim wall mount instead. Stands and wall mounts are also sold separately.
I reviewed the 65-inch model, so my unit came with a stand. The pedestal is made up of two pieces, with a tube that snaps into a flat base. The tube has a flexible clip that’s supposed to slot into the base before you secure it further with screws, but this clip snapped off when I tried to install it. LG sent a replacement and the new piece clipped together without any issue. I’m not sure if this was a manufacturing defect or just user error on my part, but I don’t expect this to be a widespread issue.
Once assembled, the stand does a nice job of keeping the TV steady and fully upright, though there is some minor wobble if you tap it with some force. The design looks elegant and is an improvement over the G3’s optional stand from last year, which caused the panel to tilt back slightly. It’s also nice that you can attach the screen in two positions: low for a more flush look or high to leave room for a soundbar in front. Whichever position you choose, the G4 looks lovely resting on an entertainment console. Its metal construction feels sturdy, and its thin profile of just under one inch gives it a handsome aesthetic that screams premium.
On the back of the panel, you’ll find various ports, including four HDMI 2.1 inputs to support up to a 4K/144Hz signal. Some brands, like Sony, still limit a few of their ports to HDMI 2.0, even on their high-end sets, so it’s nice to see a flagship display that offers full speed on all its HDMI connections.
The G4 comes with LG’s latest Magic Remote, which is similar to previous iterations. It lets you use traditional click buttons or motion controls (you can point it a the TV to move a cursor on screen). However, the remote isn’t backlit and I do wish the buttons felt more distinct. The Home button is right under the volume controls and I often found myself accidentally hitting the wrong key.
The display offers jaw-dropping image quality with bright HDR performance
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The LG G4 delivers high-end image quality that’s a clear step above cheaper TVs. Often, when I review a display, I can’t help but immediately focus on imperfections. But with the G4, that nitpicky voice in my head had almost nothing to pipe up about. Instead, I just found myself getting lost in how stunning the TV’s images look. This is the kind of display that even jaded reviewers like myself can simply sit back and enjoy. It easily cements itself alongside the Sony A95L and Samsung S95D as one of 2024’s best premium TVs.
The G4’s impressive image quality is largely due to its OLED panel, which delivers wide viewing angles and deep black levels that disappear into a dark room. High-dynamic-range (HDR) highlights shine with pin-point precision across dark backgrounds without any of the blooming or backlight uniformity issues you might see on a QLED TV. Check out our QLED vs. OLED comparison for more details on how the technologies stack up.
Thanks to LG’s MLA tech, the G4 is also one of the few OLEDs that can easily reach beyond 1,000 nits of brightness. This is a cool feature since 1,000 nits is the max that most HDR content is graded for. As a result, the G4 can do a great job of displaying bright highlights, like explosions, with the level of intensity that content creators intended.
Using a standard 10% test pattern (a white box that takes up 10% of the screen), I initially measured a peak of 1,450 on the G4, but the TV then gradually raised to about 1,520 nits before steadying again in the mid 1,400s. That’s the second-highest reading I’ve seen on any OLED. Only Samsung’s S95D beats it with a peak of around 1,730 nits, but the G4 can actually sustain its brightness for a longer period of time. This gives users plenty of headroom to adjust picture modes to boost luminance in rooms that let in a lot of light.
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Of course, just getting bright on a test pattern is pointless if the TV doesn’t have the processing smarts to apply that brightness effectively to real-world content. Thankfully, the G4 excels in this regard. LG has improved its picture processing over prior generations, and the results are fantastic, with a clean and accurate image that pops from the screen.
“Aquaman” is one of my go-to 4K Blu-ray discs for highlighting bright HDR imagery, and the G4 handles the movie’s rich palette and bold highlights with ease. The climactic underwater battle is packed with fast-moving action, colorful creatures, and explosions, and the G4 presents this controlled chaos with crisp detail, smooth motion, and bright flashes of pure HDR spectacle.
The TV handles dimmer sequences with equal finesse. The burning church scene in “1917” perfectly demonstrates the perks of the G4’s OLED panel. The sequence segues from pitch-black shadows to areas filled with bursts of firelight. The G4 handles these transitions seamlessly without any of the patchy halos or vignetting that can plague QLED sets.
The G4’s picture processing even excels with lower-quality sources like HD YouTube streams and cable TV in standard dynamic range (SDR). This kind of content doesn’t look as good as 4K material (and it’s not expected to), but the G4 maintains a clean image with fewer artifacts than I’ve seen on cheaper sets from TCL and Hisense. Sony still has a slight edge with the upscaling quality of its high-end TVs, but the G4 isn’t far behind.
Cons are few and far between, but colors can’t quite match those of TVs with quantum dots
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This really is one of those premium displays that you need to go over with a fine-tooth comb to criticize. But since that’s my job, there are a few picture-related weaknesses to report. For one, the G4 can occasionally crush details in especially dark portions of its image, but this is common on a lot of OLEDs. I also noticed some minor banding in my test scene from “Ex Machina” on 4K Blu-ray, with a bit more pixelation visible in the scene’s deep red hues than I’ve seen on competing OLEDs from other brands.
It’s also worth noting that, unlike high-end Sony and Samsung OLEDs, the G4 does not use quantum dots in its panel. This means its color volume isn’t quite as high, so vivid colors can’t get as bright as they would on a Sony A95L or Samsung S95D TV. But this limitation is hard to notice unless you’re watching a side-by-side comparison of those displays.
Finally, while the G4’s glossy screen does a great job of preserving high contrast in a bright room, it can produce noticeable reflections. With the blinds open in my office I could see glare during the day, but the TV’s high brightness helps to combat this. With the screen set to 50% brightness, I never found reflections to be too bothersome. But if glare is a primary concern in your room, you’re better off with the Samsung S95D, which is the only OLED that uses an anti-reflective matte screen.
How does the G4 compare to the cheaper G3?
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As stunning as the G4 is, it’s important to remember that this TV’s predecessor, the G3, is still in stock at many retailers for less money. When looking at the 55-, 65-, and 77-inch versions of both TVs, the difference between the G4’s image quality and last year’s G3 is subtle.
The G4 can get a little brighter than the G3, and LG’s improved picture processing uses that high luminance in a more efficient way. I was able to view both TVs side-by-side while displaying the same HDR content, including scenes from movies like “Batman v Superman” and “Pan.” The G4 did offer a bit more pop in specular highlights, and the colors looked a tad more realistic, but it was far from a night-and-day difference.
However, there is a bigger difference if you’re specifically comparing the 83-inch versions of both TVs. The 83-inch G3 does not use MLA technology, while the 83-inch G4 does include this feature. As a result, the 83-inch G4 can get substantially brighter than its G3 counterpart, which cements it as one of the best 83 to 85-inch TVs you can buy.
The G4’s price will decrease as the year goes on, and retailers will eventually phase out stock of the older G3 entirely, so any comparison will become moot. But for now, shoppers considering a 55-, 65-, or 77-inch G4 should check to see how much the G3 is selling for first. Unless you’re buying the 83-inch model, we don’t think the G4’s improvements are worth the extra money to most people.
The G4’s webOS interface is solid but not my favorite
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Like all LG TVs, the G4 uses the brand’s webOS smart TV interface. Though I prefer other systems like the Roku OS and Google TV, webOS gets the job done. Most people will be satisfied with it, but you can get snappier performance from a dedicated streaming device.
There’s a homepage with various rows of icons that let you jump into different TV apps and access content recommendations. Some ads are visible by default, but LG actually lets you disable them from appearing on the home screen. I don’t find ads on other smart TV systems to be distracting, but this is a nice perk for those who are bothered by them.
The navigation speed is solid, but graphics for icons are occasionally slow to load. This is especially true when booting up the TV. During my testing, the home screen would sometimes appear with blank icons, and it could take about a minute for these images to load. The same was true for certain apps, like Disney Plus, that would open quickly but then take longer for their images to actually populate. To be clear, this wasn’t an issue every time I used the TV, but it’s not something I ever encounter when using stand-alone streaming devices, like my Roku Ultra.
The TV supports voice search through a button on the remote or via hands-free commands when you say, “Hi, LG.” The hands-free feature worked well at first, but it would randomly stop functioning at various times throughout my testing. I found a fix by deactivating the “Quick Start+” setting in the TV’s menu.
Quick Start+ is supposed to enable faster boot times, but I didn’t notice a difference with it deactivated (it also didn’t have any impact on the icon loading issue I mentioned above). So, if you run into any problems with hands-free voice control, I recommend turning Quick Start+ off to see if that solves the issue.
Gamers get smooth performance with up to a 144Hz refresh rate
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The G4 is packed with all the advanced features gamers could want, including support for up to a 144Hz refresh rate when paired with a PC (a feature last year’s G3 was missing). The TV is also compatible with a variable refresh rate (VRR) to prevent screen tearing and auto low latency mode (ALLM) to initiate optimized game settings.
LG has a dedicated gaming pop-up menu that displays helpful details like frames-per-second (FPS) and offers easy access to a larger Game Optimizer menu with more settings. While playing several PS5 games, the G4 offered buttery smooth performance with no signs of panel-related stuttering, smearing, or ghosting. HDR image quality is also gorgeous when playing supported games like Marvel’s Spider-Man, Cyberpunk 2077, and Ghosts of Tsushima.
LG also supports a few cloud gaming services, including built-in access to the GeForce Now and Amazon Luna apps. However, unlike Samsung, LG does not offer access to the Xbox app to stream Game Pass titles without a console.
Should you buy it?
Steven Cohen/Business Insider
The LG G4 is an absolutely gorgeous high-end TV. Sony’s more expensive A95L does edge it out slightly when it comes to overall image accuracy and color volume, but the G4 is an excellent alternative for buyers who want a premium OLED that costs a bit less. However, potential buyers should check to see how much last year’s G3 is selling for first.
The 55-, 65-, and 77-inch G4 models do offer image quality improvements over the G3, but the jump in brightness and color performance is subtle. If you can still find the G3 for less money, it remains a better value for most buyers. But remember, you’ll need to buy a stand separately if you don’t want to wall mount it.
That said, the 83-inch version of the G4 is a different story. That size offers a bigger jump in image quality over its G3 counterpart, with a more dramatic increase in brightness. It’s also the only OLED in this class to be sold at such a big size. If you want a high-end 83-inch TV, the G4 is my top recommendation, bar none.
