LG B4 OLED  TV Review

The LG B4 has decent 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:

• HDR Picture Mode: Cinema
• OLED Pixel Brightness: 100
• Contrast: 100
• Auto Dynamic Contrast: Off
• Dynamic Tone Mapping: Off
• Peak Brightness: High
• Color Temperature: Warm 50

Although this model is dimmer in HDR than many higher-end OLED models, it's still significantly brighter than a cheap OLED like the Philips 974 Series OLED.

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:

• HDR Picture Mode: Game Optimizer
• OLED Pixel Brightness: 100
• Contrast: 100
• Dynamic Tone Mapping: HGiG
• Peak Brightness: High
• Color Temperature: Warm 50

The LG B4 has okay SDR brightness. It gets bright enough to handle glare in a bright room, although it's better suited for a moderately lit room. Fortunately, 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:

• Picture Mode: Dark Space, night
• OLED Pixel Light: 100
• Peak Brightness: High
• Color Temperature: Warm 50

The TV has remarkable contrast and a nearly infinite contrast ratio. Due to OLED's self-lit pixels, the TV displays bright highlights next to perfect inky blacks, making it very impressive in a dark room.

Since OLEDs don't use lighting zones and instead have individual pixels that can be lit up to their maximum brightness next to pixels that are turned off, there's no blooming when bright elements are surrounded by deep blacks.

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.

There's no difference in dark scene behavior between the calibrated picture modes and when the TV is set in Game Optimizer.

Because OLEDs can turn off individual pixels, the TV has incredible black uniformity with no blooming or halo effect around bright objects.

The LG B4 has very good SDR color volume. Its coverage of the DCI-P3 color space is outstanding, and it covers the majority of that space, only struggling a bit with some very light colors. Unfortunately, its coverage of the wider BT.2020 color space is more limited. If you like to force your TV into a wider SDR color space, then the LG B5 OLED gets noticeably more colorful than the B4.

The TV has good HDR 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.

If you want a similar TV overall with brighter colors, the higher-end LG C5 OLED offers that.

The LG B4 has outstanding pre-calibration SDR 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.

See our full calibration settings.

The LG B4 has outstanding accuracy in HDR before calibration. Its white balance is fantastic, but there's not enough blue in some lighter grays, which makes its color temperature slightly cooler than 6500K. The TV's color accuracy is excellent, but there are some mapping errors throughout, most notably in warmer colors.

The TV has incredible accuracy in HDR after calibration. Its white balance is a bit better now, but there's still a bit too much blue in mid grays, so the TV's color temperature is just a touch too cool. However, most people won't notice these very minor inaccuracies. Colors as a whole are slightly more accurate than before, but there's still some very minor mapping errors, and reds are a bit undersaturated.

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 TV 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 the LG B3 OLED 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.

• Smooth Gradation: Off
• Smooth Gradation: Low
• Smooth Gradation: High

The TV 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:

• Sharpness: 16
• Super Resolution: High

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 OLED has very low input lag when set to Game Optimizer with 'Prevent Input Delay' set to 'Boost,' resulting in a responsive gaming experience. 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 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 delivers sharp motion at its maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. There's a bit of overshoot when some shades transition from a dark state to near black, but these transitions settle quickly, so you don't notice it.

The TV delivers sharp motion at its maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. There's a bit of overshoot when some shades transition from a dark state to near black, but these transitions settle quickly, so you don't notice it.

The TV's CAD at 60Hz is fantastic. Most transitions from one RGB level to another are nearly instantaneous, but it's slightly slower when transitioning from blacks. There's also still some noticeable persistence blur due to the nature of a 60Hz refresh rate.

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.

Unfortunately, with firmware 23.20.20 and 23.20.24, there's a handshaking issue with Dolby Vision and VRR enabled at the same time, and the screen will constantly go black for a brief moment every few seconds. You have to disable one or the other for the TV to work properly. This wasn't an issue on the older 03.10.37 firmware.

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 LG B4 OLED does a very good job of interpolating 24fps content to 30fps. The motion interpolation feature has outstanding consistency, but motion still lacks some fluidity. The TV's nearly instantaneous response time causes stutter that minimal motion interpolation can't fully eliminate. As a result, slower camera movements in low frame rate content are still a bit choppy. 

The LG B4 removes 24p and 25p judder from native apps and external devices that send a 24Hz or 25Hz signal, like an Apple TV with the 'Match Frame Rate' feature enabled. However, the TV doesn't properly remove judder from any 60Hz sources, which causes motion to look jittery if you're watching content from an older streaming device or cable box. 

To remove judder on this TV, the Real Cinema setting must be enabled. Unfortunately, this setting is locked when OLED Motion Pro (BFI) is enabled, so movies and TV shows aren't judder-free when BFI is enabled, since the BFI feature only flickers at 60Hz.

This TV is completely free from micro-judder with all 24p and 25p content, so motion in complex scenes is mostly smooth.

The TV has a nearly instantaneous response time, resulting in incredibly clear motion with almost no blur behind fast-moving objects when watching all types of content.

The LG B4 OLED is free from any transition artifacts when watching movies, shows, and sports. There isn't any ghosting or unwanted intermediate colors during transitions, so colors remain consistent and pure, even during fast-paced scenes and sports.

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 LG B4 has mediocre direct reflection handling. It doesn't do the best job reducing the intensity of direct reflections, so glare from lamps or windows opposite the screen is distracting.

The LG B4 OLED has exceptional black levels in a bright room. Black levels are barely raised in a room with ambient lighting, and they remain deep and punchy.

The TV has great total reflection handling. Its glossy screen finish significantly reduces the intensity of indirect reflections, and there's no light banding or other distracting artifacts.

The TV has good perceived color volume in ambient lighting. Colors shown at all levels of luminance are still vibrant and saturated in a bright room since they only lose a small amount of saturation from ambient sources of light.

The TV 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 great gray uniformity. There are some very faint vertical lines on the panel, but these aren't noticeable from a normal viewing distance.

The LG B4 Series 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 white subpixel does an excellent job helping the TV display bright whites, but it dilutes the color purity of greens and reds.

The LG B4 OLED 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.

Outside of the two feet instead of a central stand, the B4 has a very similar look to 2023'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.

Although the B4's two feet aren't quite as premium as the stand included with LG's C Series lineup, they do the trick and still look good. There are no quality control issues with the TV, and it's built solidly.

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. LG promises at least four years of webOS updates on their TVs, and the B4 is expected to receive webOS 25 towards the end of 2025.

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 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.

A single button is on the bottom of the TV in the middle. You can use it to turn the TV on or off, change inputs or channels, and control the volume.

• Remote (with 2x AA batteries)
• User manuals
• Stickers
• Cable management clips

The LG B4 OLED TV 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.