The LG B2 OLED is a mid-range OLED TV, replacing the 2021 LG B1 OLED. It sits between the LG A2 OLED and the LG C2 OLED in LG's 2022 lineup and is extremely similar to the C2. The main difference is that the B2 has a different processor, and it uses another type of OLED panel, meaning it doesn't get as bright in HDR as the C2. Still, this TV has a bunch of the same features, like the built-in webOS smart platform that makes it easy to stream your favorite content, and for gamers, it has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on two ports, and it supports FreeSync, HDMI Forum VRR, and G-SYNC variable refresh rate (VRR) formats. It's also available in a few sizes, from 55 to 77 inches, but it's not available in smaller sizes like the C2.
The LG B2 is a fantastic overall TV. It's remarkable for watching movies in dark rooms thanks to its near-infinite contrast ratio with perfect blacks, and it's also excellent for watching HDR movies, but some colors don't look vivid. If you watch shows or sports in bright rooms, it's impressive as it has incredible reflection handling to fight glare from a few light sources, but it doesn't get bright enough to fight a ton of glare. It's incredible for gaming as it has features to take full advantage of the PS5 and Xbox Series X, supports variable refresh rate (VRR) support to reduce screen tearing, and has low input lag and a near-instantaneous response time for smooth motion. It's fantastic to use as a PC monitor, but OLEDs risk permanent burn-in when exposed to the same static elements over time.
The LG B2 is remarkable for watching movies in dark rooms. Blacks look deep and inky in the dark thanks to the near-infinite contrast ratio, and there's no blooming around bright objects either. It doesn't have any trouble upscaling lower-resolution content like from DVDs or cable boxes, and it automatically removes 24p judder from any source. Sadly, movies appear to stutter due to the quick response time, which can be distracting.
The LG B2 is impressive for watching TV shows in well-lit environments. The reflection handling is incredible, and it has good SDR peak brightness depending on the content, but it's not bright enough to fight a ton of glare. It also has a wide viewing angle that makes the image look the same from the sides as if you were watching from in front. The built-in webOS smart platform has a ton of apps available to download, and the TV doesn't have trouble upscaling low-resolution content if you watch cable TV. If you use over-the-air signals, it unfortunately doesn't support 4k channels.
The LG B2 is great for watching sports. Fast-moving players and balls look smooth with minimal motion blur, and it has great gray uniformity that makes playing surfaces look good. It has a wide viewing angle, making it an ideal choice for wide seating areas as people from the side see a consistent image. It has incredible reflection handling if you have a few lights around, but it doesn't get bright with large areas of bright colors, like while watching sports, and it's not enough to fight a ton of glare.
The LG B2 is incredible for gaming. It has a bunch of gaming features like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and VRR support that make it fully compatible with the PS5 and Xbox Series X. It also offers a quick and responsive gaming experience thanks to its low input lag and near-instantaneous response time. Lastly, it's remarkable for dark room gaming as it has a near-infinite contrast ratio that produces deep blacks, and there's no blooming around bright objects either.
The LG B2 is excellent for watching HDR movies. It looks incredible in dark rooms as it displays deep and inky blacks and has perfect black uniformity without any blooming. It displays a wide color gamut in HDR, but its tone mapping is off, so colors don't look the most accurate. It also has okay HDR peak brightness, enough to make some highlights stand out, but it doesn't get bright enough to deliver a truly satisfying HDR experience with bright and vivid colors.
The LG B2 is fantastic for HDR gaming. It delivers incredible gaming performance thanks to its VRR support, HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, quick response time, and low input lag. It's also fantastic for dark room gaming because blacks are deep and inky, and it displays bright objects without any blooming. Its HDR experience is excellent thanks to its dark room performance, but some highlights don't truly pop, and not all colors look vivid.
The LG B2 is fantastic to use as a PC monitor. Your mouse movements and keyboard inputs feel responsive thanks to the low input lag, and you won't notice motion blur thanks to the quick response time. It also has a wide viewing angle that makes the image remain consistent if you sit too close, and the reflection handling is incredible if you want to use it in a room with a few lights around. Sadly, OLEDs risk permanent burn-in when exposed to the same static elements over time, like from a PC's user interface.
We tested the 65-inch LG B2 (OLED65B2PUA), and the results are also valid for the 55 and 75-inch models. Note that the last three letters in the model number (PUA in this case) vary between retailers and individual regions, but there's no difference in performance. It's available in the US and Europe, but it's not available in Canada.
Size | US Model | Europe Model |
---|---|---|
55" | OLED55B2PUA | OLED55B26LA |
65" | OLED65B2PUA | OLED65B26LA |
77" | OLED77B2PUA | OLED77B26LA |
If you come across a different type of panel or your LG B2 doesn't correspond to our review, let us know, and we'll update the review.
Our unit of the LG B2 was manufactured in April 2022, and you can see the label here.
The LG B2 is a fantastic OLED TV. It delivers deep blacks, and it has features for console gamers. Unlike previous years, the B2 is a clear step down from the LG C2 OLED in terms of peak brightness, so if you watch a lot of HDR content, it's best to spend just a bit more for the C2. However, if you don't care about brightness and just want the incredible picture quality that OLEDs are known for, the B2 doesn't disappoint.
See our recommendations for the best OLED TVs, the best LG TVs, and the best TVs for movies.
The LG C2 OLED is a higher-end TV than the LG B2 OLED, so it performs better overall. They have the same SDR peak brightness, but in HDR is where the C2 stands out as it gets brighter and highlights pop more. The C2 also has better gradient handling, resulting in less distracting banding while watching HDR content.
The LG C1 OLED and the LG B2 OLED are similar OLEDs. The B2 is the better choice if you need something to use in a well-lit room because it gets brighter in SDR. However, their HDR brightness is similar, and the C1 has better gradient handling, so if you watch HDR content, it's better to go for the C1.
The LG B2 OLED is better overall than the LG A2 OLED. The biggest difference is with the peak brightness, as the B2 gets much brighter, delivering a better HDR experience. The B2 also has many gaming features that the A2 doesn't have, like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and VRR support.
The Sony A80J OLED and the LG B2 OLED are similar TVs. If you only watch movies and shows in dark rooms, the Sony delivers better overall picture quality as it has better gradient handling and gets brighter in HDR. However, if you want something to use in a bright room, the LG is the better choice, and it also has better overall gaming performance if you're a gamer.
The LG B2 OLED and the Sony A80K OLED are both excellent TVs, with a few minor differences. While they each have OLED panels with the same near-infinite contrast, the LG is the better choice for well-lit rooms as it gets brighter in SDR. The LG is also better for gaming thanks to its lower input lag and FreeSync VRR support. However, the Sony TV has a few advantages with image processing as the motion interpolation feature looks better, which is great for watching movies.
The LG B2 OLED is better overall than the LG CX OLED. The B2 is a newer TV that improves in many areas, like the peak brightness and viewing angle. While the two TVs are similar overall, the B2 delivers a better viewing experience.
The LG G2 OLED is higher-end than the LG B2 OLED. If you want the best picture quality, the G2 gets brighter, delivering a better HDR experience. However, the B2 still delivers the same remarkable dark room performance, and if you want to place your TV on a table, it comes with a stand, which the G2 doesn't have.
The LG B2 OLED has more features than the LG A1 OLED, so if you're a gamer and need HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and VRR support, the B2 is the better choice. The B2 also performs better in well-lit rooms as it gets brighter, and highlights pop more in HDR. If you don't care about extra features and you're not after premium picture quality, the A1 delivers the same incredible dark room performance as the B2, thanks to its near-infinite contrast ratio.
The Samsung S95B OLED is a better overall OLED than the LG B2 OLED. The Samsung gets brighter for a more satisfying HDR experience and displays a wider range of colors. While the Samsung is better for watching bright content in bright rooms, it isn't as good for watching dark content in bright rooms because reflections cause the black levels to raise, making them look gray. If that bothers you, using the B2 in a bright room is better.
The LG G1 OLED and the LG B2 OLED are similar TVs. Although the G1 is a higher-end model than the B2, the B2 is newer and has new technology that allows it to get brighter in SDR. If you often use your TV in a bright room, the B2 is the better choice. However, what makes the G1 different is that it has a unique design meant to sit flush against the wall, so if that's what you prefer, go for the G1.
The Samsung S95C OLED is better than the LG B2 OLED. Both TVs deliver fantastic picture quality in a dark room, but the S95C has much brighter colors that look more vibrant and life-like in HDR. The S95C also gets significantly brighter, so specular highlights stand out better. Finally, the Samsung is better equipped for gaming, with four HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports and a faster refresh rate for PC gamers.
The Sony A90J OLED and the LG B2 OLED are similar TVs. The LG is a better choice if you're a gamer because it has lower input lag. Also, if you want to use the TV in a well-lit room, the LG gets brighter. However, if you watch movies, the A90J is a better TV because it has better image processing and improved gradient handling, so movies appear more life-like.
The LG B2 OLED is an upgrade from its predecessor, the LG B1 OLED. The main difference is that the B2 gets brighter, so its overall picture quality is superior; this makes it a better choice for well-lit rooms. However, if you're watching movies in dark rooms, there isn't much difference, except the B2 gets brighter in HDR, so highlights pop more.
The center-mounted stand has a small footprint and keeps the TV stable, but it doesn't prevent all wobble. Sadly, it only raises the bottom of the screen about 2 inches off the table, so placing a soundbar in front blocks the screen.
Dimension of the 65-inch TV: 22.0" x 9.6" (the actual footprint where the stand touches the table is 17.3" wide).
The LG B2 has a metal back panel, and the part housing the inputs is plastic with a brushed aluminum look. Some of the inputs are side-facing and easy to access with the TV wall-mounted, but the back-facing ones are harder to reach, and you can't make the TV sit flush against the wall if you have cables plugged into the back. Speaking of which, there's a clip for cable management to help keep your setup clean.
The LG B2 comes with a detachable cable management clip that adds about 0.43" (1.1 cm) to the total thickness, and it means the TV doesn't sit flush against the wall if you wall-mount it. However, you can easily remove it if this bothers you. The above measurements don't include the clip.
The LG B2 has excellent build quality. It's well-put-together, and there aren't any obvious quality control issues. It has a solid metal back panel, but the plastic portion where the inputs are feels cheap and flexes easily. Despite the stand's small size, it still supports the TV well, and there's only a bit of wobble from front to back.
The LG B2 has good SDR peak brightness. It's enough to fight glare if you have a few small lights around, but scenes with larger areas of bright colors, like in hockey or basketball, are dimmer due to the Automatic Brightness Limiter. Even though the TV gets brighter than the LG C2 OLED with the test slides, the C2 is still brighter with real content, but the difference isn't too noticeable.
This was tested in the 'Expert Dark Space' Picture Mode with the OLED Pixel Brightness at its max, Adjust Contrast on '85', Color Temperature set to 'Warm 50', and Peak Brightness on 'High'. These results are from after calibration, but the results are the same from before calibration.
Enabling the Peak Brightness setting causes a variation in brightness between different scenes. Disabling it keeps the brightness more consistent, but large areas are still dim. You can see the results with it disabled below:
If you want the brightest image possible and don't care about image accuracy, use the 'Standard' Picture Mode with OLED Pixel Brightness and Adjust Contrast set to '100', Auto Dynamic Contrast on 'Medium', Peak Brightness on 'High', and Color Temperature set to '0'. This results in a peak brightness of 556 cd/m² in the 2% window.
The LG B2 has okay HDR peak brightness. It's enough to make some small highlights stand out, but its overall HDR experience isn't as good as other OLEDs like the LG C2 OLED. Like in SDR, larger areas of bright colors are noticeably dimmer, so it looks best when there's a small highlight on a dark background. The EOTF tracks the target PQ very well until the peak brightness where there's a slightly sharp roll-off, causing a loss of fine details with some really bright scenes.
These results are from the 'Cinema' HDR Picture Mode with the OLED Pixel Brightness and Adjust Contrast each at '100', Peak Brightness on 'High', and Color Temperature set to 'Warm 50'. If you find the image too dim enable Dynamic Tone Mapping and set Auto Dynamic Contrast to 'High'. This makes the image appear brighter, as you can see in this EOTF, but it doesn't change the peak brightness.
The LG B2 has okay HDR peak brightness in Game Mode, and it looks the same as outside of it. Although the results are slightly dimmer in Game Mode, there's no visible difference. These results are in the 'Game Optimizer' Picture Mode with the same settings as outside of Game Mode.
The LG B2 has an excellent HDR color gamut. It has fantastic DCI-P3 coverage, which is the common color space used in most HDR content and has decent coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space. However, tone mapping is off with both, resulting in inaccurate colors, especially with green between both color spaces.
The LG B2 has decent color volume. It displays dark and bright colors well, but it's limited by its incomplete color gamut and can't display colors as bright as pure white. It means that some colors don't look vivid like they do on the Samsung S95B OLED.
The LG B2 has excellent out-of-the-box accuracy in SDR. It displays colors well and has minimal inaccuracies to the white balance. However, the color temperature is on the cold side, giving the image a blue tint, and gamma doesn't follow the 2.2 target for moderately-lit rooms as most scenes are too dark.
The LG B2 has incredible accuracy after calibration to the D65 white point. It's easy to calibrate thanks to the already-excellent out-of-the-box accuracy, and you won't have any issues with the image accuracy.
You can see the settings for our calibration here.
The LG B2 has great gray uniformity. The screen is uniform throughout, and there isn't any noticeable dirty screen effect in the center, which is good for watching sports or using it as a PC monitor. It doesn't have a pink tint like the LG C2 OLED, likely because it uses a different type of OLED panel. Like any OLED, there are faint vertical lines in near-dark scenes, but they're hard to notice unless you really look for them.
The LG B2 has a remarkable viewing angle. Although colors start to shift at really wide angles, the image remains consistent as you start to view it off-center, making this a fantastic choice for wide seating areas.
The LG B2 has incredible reflection handling. It handles even strong light sources well, so you won't have many issues using it in a bright room unless you have a full-screen webpage open or you're watching sports because the screen gets dimmer with full-sized bright objects.
The LG B2 has an optional black frame insertion feature to reduce persistence blur. It only flickers at 60Hz, which is disappointing if you play 120Hz games and want to use the BFI feature. The BFI score is based on the flicker frequency and not the actual performance.
The LG B2 can interpolate lower-frame-rate content up to 120 fps. Like most TVs, it works well with slower scenes but struggles to keep up with fast-paced content. It doesn't stop interpolating even when the action gets busy, but it doesn't look as bad as some other TVs.
Due to the quick response time, lower-frame-rate appears to stutter as each frame is held on longer. Enabling the motion interpolation feature can help reduce the stutter.
The LG B2 automatically removes 24p judder from any source, which helps with the appearance of motion in movies.
The LG B2 supports all of the common VRR formats, and they work without issue for a nearly tear-free gaming experience. It supports Lowframe Rate Compensation (LFC) when the frame rate drops below 40 fps, but the minimum VRR range is 40 fps on devices that don't support LFC, like the PS5.
The LG B2 has very low input lag for a quick and responsive feel. Setting Prevent Input Delay to 'Boost' helps ensure the lowest input lag possible in Game Mode, even with VRR enabled. However, if you have the BFI feature enabled, you need to leave Prevent Input Delay to 'Standard', which increases the input lag.
The LG B2 displays any common signal up to 4k @ 120Hz on HDMI ports 3 and 4. It displays proper chroma 4:4:4 with all its supported resolutions, which helps make text look clear when using the TV as a PC monitor. HDMI 1 and 2 are limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, so they can't take full advantage of the TV's capabilities.
The LG B2 doesn't have any issues using the PS5 and Xbox Series X to their full capabilities. You can also play Dolby Vision games up to 120 fps on the Xbox. You need to connect your console to HDMI 3 or 4 for full HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and to use the console to its full capabilities.
The HDMI 2.1 ports support the full 48 Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1, which is an improvement over the LG B1 OLED, which has a max bandwidth of 40 Gbps. However, because one of the HDMI 2.1 ports is also the eARC port, you can only use the full HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on one other device with HDMI 4 if you connect a receiver. Sadly, the tuner only supports ATSC 1.0, so you can't use it for over-the-air 4k channels.
Unlike the LG B1 OLED, this TV doesn't have an analog audio output, so you can't connect headphones or speakers that require this connection.
You can pass high-quality uncompressed Dolby Atmos audio to a compatible receiver, but the LG B2 doesn't support DTS or DTS:X passthrough. It's disappointing because many Blu-rays use this audio format.
The LG B2 has a decent frequency response. It's good enough to listen to clear dialogue, but you need a dedicated subwoofer if you want the best sound experience with proper bass.
The LG B2 has a newer version of the LG webOS interface than the LG B1 OLED. It now supports user profiles, meaning you can customize it for each person in your household, and it's easy to use. LG advertises it as webOS 22, but the TV reports itself as using version 7.1.0. It uses a different processor than the LG C2 OLED, but navigating through the interface feels similar.
The LG Magic Remote has a point-and-press feature that makes it easy to navigate through the menu, kind of like a Wii remote. The built-in mic allows you to ask it to change inputs, open apps, and search for content. Unlike the LG C2 OLED, it doesn't have a mic built into the TV for hands-free control.