LG OLED65C2

Bringing Evo screen tech to LG's C Series is a bright idea, says Steve May - but choose your presets wisely...

-  Steve May

FACED WITH THE prospect of serious OLED competition from outside the LG Display family for the first time, LG has pointedly raised its game with its C2 TV. This latest iteration of its best-selling C Series comes in more sizes than ever before (42in, 48in, 55in, 65in, 77in, and 83in) and boasts significantly higher brightness (on models 55in and up).

Not any old brightness, mind you. This is an 'Evo' class screen, which sets it apart from the company's A and B Series OLEDs, and hints at all sorts of panel and processing sophistication.

The Evo moniker refers to both the glass itself and the processor it's allied to - here that's the Alpha 9 Gen 5. The most powerful silicon yet from the Korean manufacturer, this has the brawn to intelligently analyse images in real-time, directing power usage much like Simon Rattle conducting the LSO.

So, when the kids are mooching around their dark mansion in Locke & Key (Netflix), the C2 directs surplus energy away from darker areas of the picture to any bright highlights that might benefit. LG dubs the technique Brightness Boosting, and it seems remarkably effective when it comes to both full-field brightness and HDR peaks, reducing the need for heavy-handed tone mapping.

Stop pouting!