I just bought my first OLED TV — here's what I love and hate

LG C2 OLED home screen
(Image credit: Future)

As deals editor for Tom's Guide, I'm very particular about the items I buy. Not only do I like waiting for record price lows, but I also like to purchase items that I know will offer some sort of future-proofing, even if only a few years.

My last TV purchase, for example, was the excellent Panasonic 50-inch ST60 1080p plasma TV. Although my TV was still in excellent shape, the screen was starting to suffer from burn-in or image retention. November ended up being the best month ever for OLED TV deals, so I purchased what we named the best TV of 2022 — the LG C2 OLED TV

LG C2 OLED: It wasn't love at first sight

LG C2 OLED TV showing World Cup

(Image credit: Future)

After quickly assembling the LG C2's stand, which is a tad more wobbly than I'd like, my initial reaction wasn't love at first sight. It was more like — is this it? I immediately turned on the World Cup and noticed that close ups of the players looked very detailed to the point where I could see blades of grass on Lionel Messi's beard. However, everything else looked mediocre at best and at times even blurry. 

I tried different channels and programs and I found myself being more wowed by the size of the screen than the picture quality. Whether I was watching local news or Japan's devastating defeat to Croatia, I simply wasn't in love with the image quality coming from the C2. 

Sound was also very tinny. Although LG uses its a9 Gen 5 AI processor to improve the picture and sound quality of what you're watching, I found all audio lacked bass no matter what setting I tried. I'd personally prefer a TV with meaty bass than one with an impossibly thin design, but that's not that much of a dealbreaker for me. (I guess I might need to look for a deal on one of the best soundbars next.)

Here's where the LG C2 really shines

LG C2 OLED TV

(Image credit: Future)

I decided to fire up Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix. The horror anthology is made up of eight spooky tales and like any good horror flick, many of these stories take place in dark environments. Here's where the C2 started to shine. The screen offered deep, inky blacks very close to — if not better — than the blacks I was getting from my Panasonic plasma. There were some instances where I felt dark scenes lacked detail (especially during episode 8: The Murmuring), but generally speaking I was impressed at the excellent contrast coming from the LG C2.

Next, I fired up some HD videos from YouTube. Slowly, I started feeling more confident with my purchase. First, I watched 1080p videos of South Korean chef Paik Jong Won's food adventures. Plates of gochujang pork bulgogi looked so life-like that they had me salivating at the mouth. I was equally impressed by how many shades of red I could see in the bowls of kimchi jjigae that chef Won was cooking.

It wasn't till I started watching 4K movie trailers that I really witnesses the full capacity of the LG C2 OLED. The TV offers an impressively wide color gamut that makes everything seem more life-like. Unlike the 1080p LCD at my parents' house, the C2 doesn't suffer from blooming, which is when you can see light along the edges of an LCD panel.

I'm not a gamer, so I wasn't able to test out the C2's gaming capabilities, but we did name it one of the best gaming TVs for PS5. (This may encourage me to get back into gaming).

Bottom line? Overall, the LG C2 OLED is an amazing TV and now that OLED prices have fallen to their lowest of the year, it's an excellent buy. For more, check out our in-depth LG C2 OLED review

LG C2 65" OLED 4K TV: was $2,099 now $1,699 @ Best Buy
$400 off!

LG C2 65" OLED 4K TV: <a href="https://shop-links.co/link?skuId=6501491&publisher_slug=future&exclusive=1&u1=hawk-custom-tracking&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Flg-65-class-c2-series-oled-evo-4k-uhd-smart-webos-tv%2F6501491.p%3FskuId%3D6501491&article_name=hawk-article-name&article_url=hawk-article-url" data-link-merchant="bestbuy.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">was $2,099 now $1,699 @ Best Buy
$400 off!
The excellent LG C2 OLED TV is still at its lowest price ever. We named this stunning television the <a href="https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-tvs,review-2224.html" data-link-merchant="tomsguide.com"" data-link-merchant="bestbuy.com"">best TV of 2022. It combines exceptional picture-quality with a slick design. It's also ideal for gamers with a 120Hz refresh rate and four HDMI 2.1 ports. It also offers easy access to all the streaming services you could need. Best Buy is taking $400 off the 65-inch model. <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=45724&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FLG-55-Inch-Refresh-AI-Powered-OLED55C2PUA%2Fdp%2FB09RMRNSBF%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"" data-link-merchant="tomsguide.com"" data-link-merchant="bestbuy.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Amazon offers the same price, but stock is limited and at times sold via third party. 

LG C2 42" OLED 4K TV: was $1,299 now $799 @ Best Buy
$500 off!

LG C2 42" OLED 4K TV: <a href="https://shop-links.co/link?skuId=6501500&publisher_slug=future&exclusive=1&u1=hawk-custom-tracking&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Flg-42-class-c2-series-oled-evo-4k-uhd-smart-webos-tv%2F6501500.p%3FskuId%3D6501500&article_name=hawk-article-name&article_url=hawk-article-url" data-link-merchant="bestbuy.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">was $1,299 now $799 @ Best Buy
$500 off!
Don't have space for a giant screen? Best Buy has the 42-inch model on sale for $799, which is $500 off and its lowest price ever. 

Louis Ramirez

As deals editor at Tom’s Guide, Louis is constantly looking for ways to avoid paying full price for the latest gadgets. With over 10 years of deals-hunting experience, Louis price checks against multiple retailers and searches high and low for the best deals to bring readers. A born-and-bred New Yorker, Louis is also an avid swimmer and marathoner. His work has appeared on Gizmodo, CNET, and Time Out New York.

  • Scott-WS
    We recently shopped for an OLED and originally was looking at the LG but once we got to the store, we also compared to the Sony and the Samsung. We liked the Sony picture best, but they didn't have the size we wanted in stock so went with our 2nd choice the Samsung. The LG definitely had the least "sharp" picture of the three. Been very happy with the Samsung the 1 month we've owned it.
    Reply
  • louis_ramirez
    Congrats on your purchase! The Samsung OLED was second on my list, but even on sale it was a tad pricier than the LG C2 (the 65" model). Love my TV now, but I just need to find better (higher-res) content to watch!
    Reply
  • Shayedd
    Based on the article title I was expecting to see a clear list of love/hate. Instead I gathered that you just started watching high-res content at the same time that you got your new tv.
    Reply