Now let’s get this out of the way. When it comes to contrast and viewing angles, OLED is absolutely unbeatable. If I had the budget to build my own home theater room in my home and money was no object, I would mount the largest OLED TV I could get my hands on in that room. Something like LG’s 98-inch G5 OLED, which would set me back a whopping $25,000.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t have that much change lying around and most homes don’t have purpose-built blacked-out home theaters. Most of us who have a regular living room in our houses or apartments struggle with windows, lamps and ceiling lights in a room that serves as the living center of our home. This is where our kids watch cartoons, this is where we watch the big game, and this is where we have family movie nights. I’m increasingly skeptical that OLED is the best choice for most families. MiniLED TVs are cheaper, brighter and almost as impressive.
OLED is brighter than ever, but the targets remain fluid
The LG C5 is bright enough for an OLED panel and enough to ward off some light indirect reflections. The image above was taken during a scene in Dolby Vision, with the blinds open on my living room windows. If you look closely you can see them, but they aren’t overly distracting. Every year, LG’s OLED lineup and OLED TVs as a whole get brighter and brighter. Models like the Samsung S95F and LG G5 are leading the way this year, delivering over 2,000 nits of maximum HDR brightness and over 700 nits of total brightness when watching SDR content.
OLED brightness has made great strides in a short period of time. The LG C5’s peak brightness in HDR is a more than 50 percent improvement over the LG C1 from just four years earlier. But now TV makers have used MiniLED to push the boundaries of TV brightness to insane levels like the TCL QM9K’s 5,500+ nits peak brightness in HDR. As the goalposts continue to move, OLED remains in the rear view.
The high cost of OLED remains a serious factor
Remember the dream TV I wanted to put in my hypothetical media room? If you thought $25,000 sounded like a lot to pay for just 98 inches, that’s because it is. These days you can buy a fantastic 98-inch MiniLED for less than $4,000. The problem is that OLED panels become exponentially more expensive as they get larger. Gamers are already very familiar with this concept when comparing a 27-inch OLED monitor to a 32-inch monitor or larger.
OLED TVs like the LG C5 are premium products, and at least with the C5, that shows in the TV’s build quality and design options. While there could be some savings if you don’t strive to make the thinnest, most aesthetically pleasing product, I doubt a thicker case or one made of plastic would close the gap significantly.
TVs like the LG C5 OLED will continue to find buyers
For a cinephile like me, the LG C5 OLED was a joy to live with. At night, with the sun setting and the lights turned off, I enjoyed cinematic content with the rich contrast and perfect blacks that only OLED can deliver. Everything from scenes in space to darkly lit rooms was just gorgeous, with no light leakage, no halo effect, and perfect black uniformity. For anyone who spends most of their time watching content in such an environment, the LG C5 and other OLED TVs of this type remain a good choice. But when it comes to brightness, price and practicality, I fear that OLED keeps falling behind.
