I would rate the 65" CX as a 5/5 TV, but the number of software issues/bugs I've experienced have made me very upset. I would actually pay more money to get most of the "smart" features removed. I will update this review if they update the software.
My Setup: Apple TV 4K, PC with 2080ti, 7.1 surround sound receiver.
Picture/Image Quality: [6/5] Superb. You can't beat LG OLED, and this is no exception. Best color, black levels/contrast, and overall image quality I have ever seen. 4K HDR/Dolby vision is *spectacular*. Only warning: Display is very glossy, so make sure this is in a dark room or opposite a dark wall as any light source behind the viewer will be visible. Right now I am running 4k60 for movies and 1440p120 for most games. There are no HDMI2.1 sources as of this review so I can't test 4k120 gaming on it yet but I am hyped to! TruMotion is useless, just turn it off. I actually prefer the smoothness, but the artifacts are unreal. Any scifi show with star fields is a great example, the interpolation makes tons of mistakes and glitches out constantly. LG Engineers: Load up The Expanse on Prime Video with TruMotion set to "smooth" to see exactly what I mean.
Sound: [5/5] Not used at all (I have it running on an external 7.1 setup), but it's fine for on-tv sound. That said, who on earth uses on-tv sound on a $3k TV?!
Software/OS: [1/5]. BUGS FOR DAYS (more on this later) The gist of it is there are a million settings, often tucked away after menu UNDER menu UNDER YET ANOTHER menu. Options are in places that don't make any dang sense. Like seriously just just give me a flat, unified "picture settings" and have all the options under there instead of 5 different settings panes down different nonsensical nested paths. Even better, some settings will silently wipe out your other settings. For example, if you find AI picture settings (which is not in video settings btw) and turn that on it will nuke your current profile's settings without warning. And then there's profiles. There are a lot of them, and you can customize them (Game, Standard, Cinema, etc). One thing that wasn't obvious to me was profiles have different settings available. What I mean by that is you can change some things on "Cinema" that you can't on "Standard" etc.
Bugs on launch firmware:
-Tons of flicker issues when using GSYNC with PC. Sometimes the flicker is the "long black" flicker that lands every 30 seconds or so and you get a black frame for ~0.5-1sec every 30 seconds. Then there is the gray static flicker that lands every 5-6 sec and lasts ~0.2-0.4s. The only way I was able to get both to go away was to use "game" mode with ALL filtering, TruMotion, etc set to off. Instant response and deep color on, and in Nvidia control panel make sure you're using nvidia color settings, color type = RGB (the YC something something settings all caused flicker... and RGB is best anyways), full black level range (not limited!). GSYNC set to "GSYNC Compatible", low latency mode set to ultra. This took a lot of trial and error on my part with a 2080ti/latest nvidia drivers. Of course I'm plugged direct into the TV and tried multiple HDMI cables. I think it's finally working now with the above settings *knock on wood*. The system shouldn't be this fragile!
-Optical out audio will sometimes hitch every 15-20 seconds. Because of problems with Apple TV 4K -> receiver -> TV HDMI loop when using Dolby vision (looks like my receiver can't handle it), I had to go source -> TV -> optical return to receiver. This worked great at first, but the TV will randomly begin hitching where audio will turn off/on for 1-2 sec every 15-20 seconds. Restarting the TV fixes this until it pops up again. NOTE: You must actually turn the TV off, sleep mode doesn't fix it.
-Not really a bug: The default shutdown behavior is "sleep", and if you have to restart the TV to fix a flicker/sound hitch bug sleep will often not fix it. You need to go into energy settings and tell it to actually shut down when you hit the power button (lol). It's fine, it boots up super fast anyways.
-Instant Response bugs: The TV can get into a loop where the screen will flash, "The Instant Response is on" banner will appear, and then it will flash again and the banner will re-appear. This seemed to be a deal-breaker at first because with instant response off you get a TON of input lag (move mouse, cursor moves wayyy later. Controls feel rubbery). The good news is I was able to work around this by switching to the "game" profile, which leads to the next bug:
-Auto power saver profile: The tv seems to want to randomly switch to the auto power saver video profile, and it causes lots of problems. Switch off this profile ASAP and if you have problems see if the TV randomly switched you back to it.
[Misc Negatives]
-Super invasive anti-privacy features are all on by default. This TV will report on everything you do/content you watch unless you opt out. Personally there's so much tracking that I'm not giving this thing network access unless I want to update the software.
-It's SUPER thin. Like, half as thick as my iPhone. That's technologically amazing, but handling this thing honestly spooks me. You really need to baby it setting it up and I was honestly paranoid it'll crack just lifting the thing even with two people being careful. Imagine lifting a wobbly 90 lb glass mirror that's half as thick as your phone. It's kinda like that so make sure you're spreading it's own weight out (don't grab by top corners for example!). I'd love something that I can lift and not worry it'll crack. Once it's on the wall who cares how thick the back plate is?
-Smart Home features: Maybe this is cool if you want it, but personally I'd never use a TV to run my house. Given the privacy/invasive tracking that is on by default, you'd have to be crazy to hook your whole house up to this IMO. LG: Take a look at how Apple is treating privacy (on device learning, differtial privacy etc). When you start your relationship with the customer trying to track everything they do and making it hard to opt-out they're not going to trust you when you want to have a hot mic in their living room and automate their toaster. Just my 2c.
[Summary]
-This is the best TV I have ever owned. The picture is breathtaking, the only thing holding this back is the abysmal software. I'm also super hyped to try 4k120 this fall when the next gen GPUs come out. I'd LOVE to give this a 5/5, and if they patch the software I will certainly return to do so.
| Brand Name | LG |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 79.1 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 10.6 x 67.8 x 40.3 inches |
| Item model number | OLED77CXPUA |
| Speaker Type | Built-In |
