The LG B4 OLED is LG's entry-level TV in their 2024 OLED lineup. It sits below the LG C4 OLED and uses LG's α8 AI Processor 4K, which is designed to provide better image processing and can automatically optimize the TV's picture and sound settings. Only two of the four HDMI ports on last year's LG B3 OLED had HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, but this year's model has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four HDMI ports. The TV adds 'Filmmaker Mode' as a picture setting for Dolby Vision, designed to preserve the content creator's intent without needing to change any settings. The TV uses the 2024 version of LG's webOS, and it has a 20W 2.0 channel speaker built-in that can be virtually up-mixed to 9.1.2 using the α8 AI Sound Pro feature. LG is releasing the B4 in a new, smaller 48-inch model, which in the past was only available in their C Series lineup and their discontinued A-Series lineup. It's available in five sizes: 48-inch, 55-inch, 65-inch, 77-inch, and 83-inch.
The LG B4 OLED is amazing for mixed usage. It has a nearly instantaneous response time for clear motion, which makes it an excellent choice for watching sports, using it as a PC monitor, or playing video games. Speaking of video games, the TV has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four of its ports for up to 4k @ 120Hz with VRR, so it's fully compatible with modern gaming consoles. The TV is suitable for use in a bright room due to its fantastic reflection handling and very good SDR brightness, but it really shines in a dark room, with deep, inky blacks that are sure to impress. If you regularly watch TV with friends, the TV is a good option due to its wide viewing angle, but there is some color shift and a noticeable green tint the more you move off-center.
The LG B4 OLED is great for watching TV shows. The built-in webOS is loaded with streaming apps, so it's very easy to find your favorite shows. If you still watch older shows on DVD or are stuck watching low-quality streams, the TV has very good upscaling and does a good job smoothing out low-quality content. The TV has good SDR brightness and fantastic reflection handling, so it overcomes glare in a bright room. It's a good option for watching TV with friends due to its wide viewing angle, but there is a noticeable shift in color the more you move off-center, which leads to a green tint when viewed from an angle.
The LG B4 OLED is excellent for watching sports. The TV is suitable for watching the game with friends due to its wide viewing angle, but there's a noticeable green tint when the screen is viewed from an angle. It has excellent uniformity, so you won't be distracted by the dirty screen effect when watching sports with large areas of the same color, like hockey. The TV overcomes glare due to its very good SDR brightness and fantastic reflection handling, so it's suitable for a bright room. Finally, there's no noticeable blur behind quick-moving objects and players due to the TV's nearly instantaneous response time.
The LG B4 is outstanding for playing video games. The TV has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four of its ports and supports up to 4k @ 120Hz with VRR, so it's fully compatible with modern consoles. Enabling Game Optimizer doesn't impact image quality, so you don't have to trade picture quality for performance while gaming in SDR. There's no noticeable blur behind fast motion due to the TV's nearly instantaneous response time, and its exceptionally low input lag means there is no noticeable delay between your controller inputs and what happens on screen. The TV looks exceptional in a dark room due to its nearly infinite contrast ratio that delivers deep and inky blacks, but it's also suitable for a bright room since it overcomes glare thanks to its very good SDR brightness and fantastic reflection handling.
The LG B4 OLED is fantastic for watching movies in a dark room. The TV has outstanding pre-calibration SDR accuracy, so it doesn't require calibration if you care about accurate colors. It removes 24p judder from any source, so movies are judder-free no matter how you watch them. The TV's remarkable contrast and incredible black uniformity deliver deep, inky blacks with no blooming when bright highlights are on screen, so it looks exceptional in a dark room. When it comes to HDR content, the TV's good HDR brightness delivers highlights that stand out, but it's not bright enough to properly display very bright highlights. Still, HDR content is impactful, and due to the TV's wide color gamut, colors are vibrant and lifelike.
The LG B4 OLED is fantastic for playing video games in HDR. It displays fast motion with no noticeable blur due to its nearly instantaneous response time, and its exceptionally low input lag delivers a responsive experience with no noticeable delay between your controller inputs and what happens on screen. Blacks are deep and inky in a dark room due to the TV's nearly infinite contrast ratio, and using Game Optimizer has no visible difference on HDR brightness, so you can enjoy an impactful HDR gaming experience without sacrificing performance. Finally, the TV is fully compatible with modern gaming consoles due to its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports for up to 4k @ 120Hz and VRR support for nearly tear-free gaming.
The LG B4 OLED is superb for use as a PC monitor. The TV has very good SDR brightness and fantastic reflection handling, so it overcomes glare in a bright room. Its nearly instantaneous response time means there's no noticeable blur behind quick cursor movements or when scrolling through pages, and its exceptionally low input lag delivers a very responsive desktop experience. You won't be distracted by the dirty screen effect when browsing the web due to its excellent uniformity, and you can sit close to the screen, with the sides remaining consistent with the center due to its wide viewing angle. The TV properly displays chroma 4:4:4 from a PC, which is essential for clear text. Unfortunately, due to its RWBG subpixel layout, there are still minor clarity issues with text, although most people won't be bothered by it.
Text visibility issues due to the TV's RWBG subpixel layout.
We tested the 65-inch LG B4 (OLED65B4PUA), and the results are also valid for the 48, 55, 77, and 83-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. The variant that carries the suffix 'AUA' supports Wi-Fi 6E (the PUA variant has Wi-Fi 5).
Size | US Model (Wi-Fi 5) | Variant (Wi-Fi 6E) |
---|---|---|
48" | OLED48B4PUA | OLED48B4AUA |
55" | OLED55B4PUA | OLED55B4AUA |
65" | OLED65B4PUA | OLED65B4AUA |
77" | OLED77B4PUA | OLED77B4AUA |
83" | OLED83B4PUA | OLED83B4AUA |
Our unit was manufactured in March 2024, and you can see the label here.
The LG B4 OLED is an excellent entry-level OLED and has noticeable improvements over the LG B3 OLED. The biggest difference is its increased brightness in both SDR and HDR, which makes it more suitable for a brighter room, and it delivers a more impactful HDR experience than its predecessor. Unlike the LG C4 OLED, the B4 maintains almost all of its HDR brightness while using the Game Optimizer, which actually makes it a bit brighter overall than the C4 while using that mode. This makes it an excellent choice for gamers, especially since it has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four of its ports and is available in a 48-inch model.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best OLED TVs, the best gaming TVs, and the best 48-49-50-inch TVs.
The LG C4 OLED is better than the LG B4 OLED for the most part. The C4 has better reflection handling and slightly better SDR peak brightness, so it handles a bit more glare in a bright room, and it has better low-quality content smoothing. The C4 also has better overall HDR brightness, so highlights in HDR content stand out a bit more on it. However, the C4 is noticeably dimmer while using the Game Optimizer, whereas the B4 maintains its brightness, so they are very similar in brightness while using that mode.
The LG B4 OLED and the LG C3 OLED are very similar overall. The C3 has better low-quality content smoothing, and its viewing angle is a bit better, with less color shift as you move off-center. The C3 also gets brighter overall, so it overcomes a bit more glare while watching SDR content in a bright room, and highlights stand out a bit more in HDR content. However, the C3 is noticeably dimmer while using the Game Optimizer, whereas the B4 maintains its brightness in that mode, which makes it a bit brighter overall while using Game Optimizer.
The LG B4 OLED is better than the LG B3 OLED. The B4 has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports, whereas the B3 only as it on two, so the B4 is more versatile if you have multiple high-bandwidth devices. The B4 also gets brighter overall, so highlights stand out more in HDR content, and it can overcome more glare in a bright room while watching SDR content. On top of that, the B4 has better HDR gradient handling for less banding.
The Samsung S90C OLED is better than the LG B4 OLED. The S90C gets brighter in HDR, so highlights pop more on it. The S90C also displays more vibrant, lifelike, and bright colors overall due to its wider color gamut and better color volume, and its better viewing angle means that there is very little color shift when watching the TV from an angle. However, the B4 has better image processing, so low-resolution and low-quality content looks better on it, and it supports Dolby Vision and DTS audio formats.
The LG B4 OLED is better than the Samsung S85D OLED. The LG is brighter in HDR, and it maintains its brightness much better while using 'Game Mode,' leading to a more impactful HDR experience. The LG is also more accurate in HDR, and its SDR accuracy is significantly better without needing calibration. Additionally, the LG has the edge with low-quality content smoothing, and it supports Dolby Vision and DTS audio formats.
The LG B4 OLED provides better picture quality than the LG QNED90T. The B4 has better pre-calibration SDR accuracy and PQ EOTF tracking, so it's the more accurate TV overall. The B4 also has a quicker response time for less blur behind fast motion and lower input lag, so it's the better TV for gaming. Additionally, the B4 has better contrast that provides inky blacks, and its wide viewing angle makes it more suitable for use in a group setting. On the other hand, the QNED90T is the brighter TV, so it fights more glare in a bright room.
The LG B4 OLED and the Panasonic Z85A OLED are evenly matched, but there are some minor differences. The LG is brighter in SDR, so it handles more glare in a room with the lights on. The LG also has a bit less banding in color gradients and does a slightly better job cleaning up artifacts in low bitrate content. However, the Panasonic has slightly better upscaling capabilities.
Outside of the two feet instead of a central stand, the B4 has a very similar look as last year's LG B3 OLED. It's a thin TV with a silver frame and thin black bezels. It looks elegant and modern overall.
Unlike the LG B3 OLED, all sizes of the B4 use two wide-set metal feet instead of a stand. The feet hold the TV very well, and there is minimal wobble when the TV is pushed on. The feet lift the TV about 3.2 inches above the table, so pretty much any soundbar will fit underneath without blocking the screen. The TV comes with two plastic clips that can be attached to the feet for cable management.
Footprint of the 65-inch stand: 41.6" x 9.25"
The LG B4 OLED has a dark gray metal back panel that feels almost like fabric, with a matching dark gray plastic central panel that houses the inputs. Some of the inputs face the side and are close enough to the edge of the TV that they are accessible when it's wall-mounted, but the back-facing inputs are nearly impossible to reach if you have the TV mounted to the wall. If you use a mount like LG's Slim Wall Mount that mounts the TV very close to the wall, the backports are unusable unless you use a 90-degree HDMI adapter. Since one of those back-facing HDMI ports is the eARC port, this really limits you if you want to wall-mount the TV with a soundbar plugged in.
The LG B4 is an OLED and has no backlight, so its self-lit pixels give it the same performance as a TV with perfect local dimming and no zone transitions. We still film the zone transition video on the TV so you can see how it compares to a TV with local dimming.
The LG B4 has good HDR brightness. In combination with its remarkable contrast, it gets bright enough for highlights to stand out, but it's not bright enough to properly display very bright highlights. Unfortunately, large bright scenes are significantly dimmer than smaller, specular highlights due to its aggressive Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL).
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
There's no noticeable difference with HDR brightness when the TV is set into Game Optimizer.
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
The LG B4 has exceptional PQ EOTF tracking. It follows the curve almost perfectly until it approaches the TV's maximum brightness. With content mastered at 600 or 1000 nits, there is a gradual roll-off near the TV's peak brightness to maintain some detail in bright highlights. With content mastered at 4000 nits, the roll-off happens much sooner to preserve detail in very bright highlights.
The LG B4 has very good SDR brightness. It gets bright enough to handle glare in a bright room, and the TV's Automatic Brightness Limiter isn't aggressive in SDR, so you don't have to deal with the screen dimming considerably when large areas of brightness are present.
These measurements are after calibration with the following settings:
The LG B4 has an excellent color gamut. It has outstanding coverage of the DCI-P3 color space used in most HDR content, but colors aren't mapped well in the DCI-P3 color space. Greens and cyans are the most off, but there are noticeable inaccuracies with all colors, and all colors are undersaturated.
The TV has good coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 space, which is increasing in popularity. Unfortunately, colors are inaccurate and undersaturated across the board in the Rec. 2020 color space.
The LG B4 has good color volume. It displays dark, saturated colors very well, and its ability to display bright whites is excellent. It doesn't display other colors nearly as brightly as it does whites, but it's still enough to display impactful colors.
The LG B4 has outstanding pre-calibration accuracy. There is a bit of too much blue and red in some shades of gray, but it's so minor that even the most keen-eyed observers won't notice it. Color temperature is incredibly close to our target of 6500K and colors are so accurate that color enthusiasts will be pleased. Gamma is a bit off of our 2.2 target though, with bright and dark scenes being displayed too brightly.
After calibration, the TV is even more accurate. White balance, gamma, and color temperature are close to perfect, and colors are even slightly more accurate than they were before.
You can see our full calibration settings here.
The LG B4 has an excellent viewing angle. Unfortunately, there's a noticeable green tint when you look at the screen from an angle, and the green tint worsens the more you move off-center, although it's not as noticeable as it is on the LG C4 OLED.
The TV has fantastic reflection handling. Its glossy screen finish does an outstanding job of reducing the intensity of direct reflections and significantly reduces the intensity of indirect reflections.
The TV has very good HDR native gradient handling. There's some noticeable banding in dark grays and dark greens, but all other colors have minimal banding or no banding at all.
The LG B4 has good low-quality content smoothing. It does a very good job of preserving details while doing a good job at removing artifacts, but there is still some noticeable macro-blocking in dark scenes. Setting 'Smooth Gradation' to 'High' behaves differently than last year's model and doesn't actually smooth out many artifacts at all. The picture you see is with 'Smooth Gradation' set to 'Medium'.
You can see the results with the other settings below.
The LG B4 OLED does a very good job at upscaling low-resolution content like DVDs or lower-resolution streams. Details are clear enough, but very fine details are hard to make out.
Sharpness processing was calibrated with no over-sharpening for low-resolution content, with the following settings:
The LG B4 uses a WOLED panel with a RWBG pixel structure where all four pixels are never lit at the same time. Due to its subpixel layout, it has minor issues with displaying text on Windows since ClearType isn't well optimized for non-RGB subpixel layouts, but most users won't be bothered by this.
The LG B4 has a nearly instantaneous response time, resulting in incredibly clear motion with almost no blur behind fast-moving objects. Due to the sample-and-hold nature of OLED technology, there's still some persistence blur when gaming at 60Hz, but it's not noticeable at higher refresh rates.
The LG B4 doesn't have a traditional backlight and doesn't use pulse-width modulation (PWM) to dim each pixel, but it's not completely flicker-free. There's a slight dip in brightness that corresponds to the TV's refresh rate. This differs from the PWM flicker on TVs with LED backlights and occurs on every OLED we've tested. It's not noticeable, and most people won't be bothered by this, but it can still bother people who are extra sensitive to flicker.
The TV has an optional black frame insertion (BFI) feature that reduces the appearance of persistence blur caused by the TV's nearly instantaneous response time. It can only insert black frames at a 60Hz refresh rate.
The TV has an optional motion interpolation feature to help improve the appearance of motion. It works well with slower scenes but struggles with fast-moving action, so there's noticeable haloing and artifacts present in busier scenes, especially if you use the settings too aggressively.
Unfortunately, due to the TV's nearly instantaneous pixel response time, there's stutter with low frame rate content, which is most noticeable during slow panning shots.
The TV removes judder when watching 24p movies or TV shows when the Real Cinema setting is enabled, even from sources that can only send a 60Hz signal, like a cable box. Unfortunately, movies and TV shows aren't judder-free when BFI is enabled because the BFI feature only flickers at 60Hz.
The TV supports FreeSync and HDMI Forum VRR and is certified as G-SYNC compatible, ensuring a nearly tear-free gaming experience from any VRR-enabled source.
The LG B4 OLED has exceptionally low input lag when set to Game Optimizer with 'Prevent Input Delay' set to 'Boost,' resulting in a very responsive gaming experience with very little delay between the actions on your controller and what happens on screen. For chroma 4:4:4 to work properly, you must set the input label to 'PC,' or the '4:4:4 Passthrough' setting must be enabled.
The LG B4 supports all common formats, but it doesn't support 144Hz like the LG C4 OLED and the LG G4 OLED do. It displays chroma 4:4:4 properly, which is important for clear text from a PC.
There are two settings you can use to passthrough proper chroma 4:4:4. The first is to change the input label to 'PC.' The second is to enable the '4:4:4 Passthrough' setting in the 'HDMI Settings' menu. Both of these options work the same and lock you out from using the 'Peak Brightness,' 'Noise Reduction,' 'MPEG Noise Reduction,' 'Smooth Gradation,' and 'Real Cinema' settings.
The TV is fully compatible with everything the PS5 offers, like 1440p @ 120Hz and 4k @ 120Hz, as well as HDMI Forum VRR. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about switching to Game Optimizer to get the lowest input lag.
The TV is fully compatible with everything the Xbox Series X|S offers, including 1440p @ 120Hz, 4k @ 120Hz, HDMI Forum VRR, FreeSync Premium Pro, and Dolby Vision gaming. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about switching to Game Optimizer to get the lowest input lag.
The LG B4 supports the full 48Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1 on all four HDMI ports. This allows you to take full advantage of multiple high-bandwidth devices, like if you own both current-gen consoles and a high-end gaming PC.
The TV supports many audio formats, including DTS audio formats, which is great if you like to watch DVDs or Blu-rays, as they often use DTS for their main audio tracks.
The LG B4 has a decent frequency response. The TV speakers don't produce much bass, but the sound profile is well-balanced enough that the dialogue is clear. The speakers can get pretty loud, but there are compression and pumping artifacts at maximum volume.
The TV's distortion handling is okay. There's no audible distortion at moderate listening levels, but there's very audible distortion near and at max volume.
The TV runs the 2024 version of LG's proprietary smart interface, webOS. The interface is fast and easy to use, and it supports user profiles, so you can customize the home page for different users.
Unfortunately, the TV has a bug that sometimes causes it to not properly switch out of the Game Optimizer setting, so you're locked out of settings that should be available in other picture modes. To fix this, you can turn the TV off/on or change the input label a few times. When you do this and switch to a different picture setting, everything works as it should.
Another bug causes the TV to flash on and off aggressively after enabling Game Optimizer. This lasts for a few seconds before the connection stabilizes.
There are two settings in the 'Home Settings' menu, namely the 'Home Promotion' and 'Content Recommendation' settings. These settings remove the top banner ads and suggested content from the home screen. This gives your home screen a clean look, but there's no way to remove ads from the apps page.
The LG B4 OLED TV has a great selection of apps, so it's easy to find your favorite content. You can also cast content from your phone onto the TV or play videos from a USB stick.
The LG B4 has the same Magic Remote as the LG B3 OLED. You can use the remote as a pointer or use the traditional buttons to control the TV. The TV also supports hands-free voice control through microphones on the unit itself. You can use your voice to change inputs, open apps, search for content, and ask for the weather and time.