'The complete package': I tested the LG G6 OLED TV side-by-side with the G5
in our testing rooms and the difference is clear

Date:
Sat, 28 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Description:
The LG G5 was one of 2025's best OLED TVs but the LG G6 improves in the
right places, even more dramatically than I expected

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter The LG G5 was one of the best-performing TVs of last year, delivering superb picture quality with gorgeous colors and strong contrast. It was also one of the best options for gaming, with a full suite of features and razor-sharp performance, as well as an intuitive smart TV platform. While it was a
premium TV, it was good value for what it delivered.

Its successor, the LG G6, has some mighty big shoes to fill. Earlier this year, I saw the LG G6 and LG G5 side-by-side at a demo event, but now the G6 has now arrived in our testing labs for longer-term testing. I still use the G5 regularly for testing discs in my Blu-ray Bounty column, so I put the G5 and G6 next to each other, and compared the two using some 4K Blu-rays I regularly use for testing TVs, with a signal splitter from our trusty Panasonic DP-UB820 Blu-ray player. Article continues below You may like The
LG G6 OLED TV details leak, teasing more brightness and other upgrades I compared the LG G6 to Samsung's best, and it's the new reflections king LG announces new OLED TVs at CES, including some major brightness boosts Brightness and reflections While the LG G5 (right) may appear brighter in
some peak areas on screen (the snow on the ground), the G6 appears more accurate with more balanced white tones (Image credit: Future) Equipped with
a new-gen Primary Tandem RGB OLED 2.0 panel, the LG G6 promised a brightness upgrade over its predecessor, and its delivered. The G6 registered 2,471 nits of peak HDR brightness (10% window) in Filmmaker Mode, compared to the G5s 2,268 nits. While this is only an incremental increase, fullscreen HDR brightness (100% window) in Filmmaker Mode on the G6 clocked in at 455 nits, which is a huge jump from the G5s 331 nits.

But what does this mean for pictures? In brighter scenes, such as a series of clips of snow from the Spears & Munsil UHD Benchmark s demo material, the G6 has higher brightness in fullscreen parts of the picture.

While the G5 actually appears brighter in some peak areas, such as the snow
on the fence in the photo above, this is likely due to intentional Filmmaker Mode tweaks, where G6 pulls back on the vibrancy. This results in a more balanced picture, with no over-exertion of bright tones, which is how the G5 can appear at times. The G6 (left) is the better choice for bright rooms, due to its far superior reflection handling, despite the fact the G5 looks brighter in this scene during The Batman . (Image credit: Warner Bros. / Future) One area where the G6 shows a real upgrade over the G5 is reflection handling. While the G6 still shows some mirror-like reflections, they are significantly reduced compared to the G5. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Watching darker scenes from movies such as The Batman , Alien: Romulus and Dark City in bright conditions, with overhead lights on in our testing lab, the G5 actually has higher perceived brightness, but the obvious mirror-like reflections make viewing difficult.

The G6, despite appearing dimmer, is much better at reducing mirror-like reflections, leaving a cleaner and more distration-free image, as is clear in the photo above. The G6 even looks better than the Samsung S95F 's matte anti-reflection screen in bright rooms, balancing the pros and cons the two TV's approaches to beating reflections. Contrast and shadow detail In dark room conditions, the G6 (left) demonstrates better contrast, with deeper blacks, while the G5's (left) dark tones can appear marginally raised in the same scenes (Image credit: Warner Bros. / Future) Using The Batman , one of
my go-to discs for contrast testing because it's so damn dark, both the G6
and G5 demonstrate very strong contrast with a great balance between light
and dark tones. As Batman walks through the halls and rooms of Mayor
Mitchells house, the lamps on the wall and flash bulbs of cameras have a nice punch on both TVs and contrast well with the dark walls and floors. What to read next I tested 3 affordable OLED TVs from LG, Samsung and Philips side-by-side I compared 3 elite OLED TVs, and the cheaper option beats LG and Samsung I tested LG G5 OLED TVs HDR upgrade, and the brightness boost is very real

Where the G6 impresses is that not only do peak areas on screen, such as the aforementioned lamps, look brighter than the G5 but blacks are deeper resulting in more natural looking contrast.

The G5s dark tones appear raised in comparison, so while the G5 may appear
the more eye-catching on the surface, the G6 appears to be the more accurate result. This follows what LG told me about how the more restrained Filmmaker Mode on the G6 is by design in the pursuit of accuracy.

Both TVs demonstrate great shadow detail, with objects and textures in dark areas on screen still visible. As Bruce enters the Batcave, rocks and steel
in the roof are still defined on both TVs and again, although its marginally more visible on the G5, the G6 strikes that nice balance between detail and black accuracy. The G6 (left) delivers better contrast of a shot of planet from Alien: Romulus , with better reflection handling again. The G5 (right) still does a good job in its own right, however (Image credit: 20th Century Studios / Future) Alien: Romulus is another movie with plenty of high
contrast scenes. Both TVs deliver strong shadows and deep black levels, but the G6s are deeper and more authentic. Again, shots of space show the G5s blacks are marginally raised in comparison, but are still solid overall.

Again, the G6 was best for watching in bright rooms as although the G5 was brighter, revealing more details in dark areas such as the textures of the ships panelling, the G6 did a better job with reflections, so more of the picture was clearer. Colors While the G5's (right) colors may look brighter
in this market stall scene from The Sound of Music , but the G6 (left) colors are more detailed, richer and well-rounded (Image credit: Disney / Future) Colors are the most obvious place where LG has intentionally dipped the vibrancy of the G6 in Filmmaker Mode compared to the G5. Watching The Sound
of Music , colors do look brighter and more saturated on the G5.

But its the G6 that looks better on the whole. The red, yellow and orange fruits in the market stall appear more natural on the G6, while also still having a nice punch to them. Colors also appear more balanced on the G6, with brighter colors contrasting more appealingly with paler colors, and a deeper and more beautiful richness to every hue.

This is the case with the green grass and blue sky against the white clouds and brown mountain during the Do Re Mi scene. On the G6, everything appears more realistic, whereas some areas on the G5 look a touch too punchy and bright in comparison.

Skin tones are another area where the G6 appears more accurate. On the G5, they can sometimes look too red, whereas on the G6 skin tones appear more true-to-life, with a more consistent color throughout. Again, colors appear brighter on the G5 (right) but they're much more refined on the G6 (left) shown in the butterflies from The Wild Robot (Image credit: Universal
Pictures / Future) Switching to an animated movie, The Wild Robot, again colors have the higher perceived brightness on the G5, but look more
authentic on the G6, with more color depth.

As Roz is surrounded by multi-colored butterflies and explores the lush,
green woods, the G6 appears to have a more rounded color profile. While the G5s color reproduction is still brilliant, with a good punch and richness,
the G6 is the more complete package. Sound Using The Mask as a sound test for its cartoon-ish sound effects, using both TVs' AI Sound Pro modes, the G6 (left) delivers a more balanced sound profile with more bass (Image credit: Arrow Video / Future) The G5s AI Sound Pro mode was my choice during my testing last year, delivering good accuracy, a wide soundstage and some solid impact. The G6 comes with fewer sound presets including lacking my previous go-to, which was Entertainment so AI Sound Pro is the mode I used for both TVs.

While Id still recommend one of the best soundbars with both TVs for audio that really matches the fidelity of the pictures, I decided to compare the
two models' built-in sound, because LG has changed things for the G6.

Using The Mask , I was surprised by just how different they were. The G6 has
a much more forward, direct sound that focuses on the mid-range and low
tones, creating a warmer profile. As The Mask is first introduced, any
crashes and effects have more of an impact on the G6 compared to the G5. Both TVs have great sound mapping, accurately capturing the direction of sound as The Mask tornadoes around, moving across the screen.

Switching to The Batman s Batmobile/Penguin chase scene, the G6 delivers much more bass, capturing the rumble of the Batmobiles engine ignition sequence more accurately. The G6s sound profile suits the scene more, with pinpoint precision of bullet sprays and squealing tyres and horns.

The G5 still has good positional accuracy and width, and it offers clear speech, but its more restrained sound doesnt quite deliver on the same level as the G6. LG G6: a big upgrade While the G5 (right) is still a great TV in its own right, the G6 (left) has improved on its predecessor in all the right ways (Image credit: Future) The G6 is a clear upgrade on the G5. The tweaked Filmmaker Mode delivers better color accuracy, more balanced contrast with richer black levels, a major fullscreen brightness boost, and crisper, more authentic textures. The G5 still has fantastic picture quality in its own right, but its impressive what LG has managed to do with the G6 in Filmmaker Mode

Under the hood, both these TVs have a list of features to match the best gaming TVs , with 4K 165Hz, total variable refresh rate support, Dolby Vision Gaming and very low latency. webOS is still one of the best smart TV
platforms around, because it's fairly intuitive and well laid out, even for those who like to experiment with settings.

The 65-inch G6 is set to launch for $3,399 (UK and Australia pricing TBA), which is the same as the G5s launch price. The G5 is likely to be the more tempting option on price alone, because the 65-inch model is $2,199 / 2,249 / AU$3,189 right now, and honestly, the G5 is still a brilliant TV.

But, if youre planning to upgrade your TV later in the year or even early
next year, the G6 is well worth the wait, because it's inevitable that its price will come down too. Today's best LG OLED evo AI G5 4K Smart TV 2025 deals 1,399 1,199 View 1,999.99 1,199.98 View 1,699 View Show more We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices The best TVs for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

Read our full guide to the best TVs 1. Best overall: LG C5 2. Best under 1000: US: Hisense U8QG UK: TCL C7K 3. Best under 500: US: Roku Plus Series
UK: TCL C6K Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to
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