The LG C3 OLED is the mid-range model in LG's 2023 OLED lineup, sitting above the entry-level OLED 'B' series LG B3 OLED and below the 'Gallery Style' LG G3 OLED. Aside from the G3's Micro Lens Array (MLA) technology, the C3 comes with everything the G3 does, like the 2023 version of LG's proprietary webOS smart interface and four full HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports. It also has LG's α9 AI Processor Gen6, which promises improved image processing through LG's Brightness Booster Max and AI Tech technologies, as well as the ability to up-mix 2-channel audio into virtual 7.1.2 channel sound using AI Sound.
Our Verdict
The LG C3 OLED is a remarkable TV overall. The very good brightness in both SDR and HDR makes it well-suited to watching anything, from SDR content to the latest hit movies in HDR. It also has superb reflection handling, so the TV can handle bright rooms or glare without issue. But like almost every OLED on the market, it's better suited for a dark room, where its OLED panel, with its deep inky blacks, truly performs at its best. Its very low input lag makes it a gamer's dream, as your inputs are translated almost instantaneously to the screen, and its superb response time makes it a great choice for any fans of fast-moving content, be it sports or games, as action stays clear and crisp throughout. The TV also supports DTS, making it a fantastic choice for your home entertainment center.
- Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
- Fantastic reflection handling.
- Image remains accurate at a wide angle.
- Very good peak brightness in HDR and SDR.
- Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
The LG C3 OLED is an excellent TV for watching TV shows. It has fantastic reflection handling, and combined with its very good peak brightness in SDR, it can handle bright rooms or rooms with lots of glare. Its viewing angle is superb, so the image remains consistent even when viewing the TV entirely from the side. If a group is sitting around the TV to watch the latest episode of their favorite show, they'll have a great viewing experience no matter where they're sitting. The TV also has very good sharpness processing, so lower-resolution content is upscaled well, and when combined with the panel's excellent low-quality content smoothing, your shows will still look great.
- Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
- Fantastic reflection handling.
- Image remains accurate at a wide angle.
- Very good peak brightness in HDR and SDR.
- Excellent low-quality content smoothing.
The LG C3 OLED is an amazing TV for watching sports. It has exceptional reflection handling, which is great when watching shows in a room with glare, and the TV gets bright in SDR, so it handles bright rooms well. The TV's viewing angle is superb, so the image remains consistent even when viewing the TV from the side, so those sitting off-center will have a pleasant viewing experience. It has an incredible response time, so motion, like fast-moving players, is crisp and sharp, with no blurring. The TV has very good color uniformity, so when watching sports with large areas of uniform color, like hockey, you won't be distracted by annoying smudges or color variations in the image.
- Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
- Fantastic reflection handling.
- Image remains accurate at a wide angle.
- Very good peak brightness in HDR and SDR.
- Excellent low-quality content smoothing.
- Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
The LG C3 OLED is a fantastic TV to spend your evenings immersed in your favorite games. Enabling Game Mode doesn't noticeably affect image quality, so your games simultaneously look great and feel super responsive due to the TVs incredibly low input lag; your inputs are translated to the on-screen action almost instantly. The TV has fantastic reflection handling, and combined with its very good peak brightness in SDR, this makes it a fantastic OLED for bright rooms or rooms with glare. The response time is exceptionally low, so no matter how fast the action moves, you won't have any blur or ghosting.
- Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
- Fantastic reflection handling.
- Very low input lag.
- Impressive gaming features.
- HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
- Very good peak brightness in HDR and SDR.
TV is a bit dimmer in Game Mode.
The LG C3 OLED is an excellent TV for watching the latest hit movies. Like all OLEDs, it has incredible contrast, with deep, inky blacks and no blooming around bright highlights. It has very good HDR peak brightness, so bright highlights look great next to the perfect blacks. It also has excellent low-quality content smoothing and very good low-resolution upscaling, so whether you like to watch movies on legacy formats like DVDs or through streaming services like Netflix, your content is free of macro-blocking, and details are preserved. The TV handles judder perfectly, so your movies are judder-free. The TV's color accuracy is excellent, so you don't need to worry about having it calibrated.
- Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
- Automatically removes 24p judder from any source.
- Wide color gamut for HDR content.
- Supports DTS audio formats, which is great for DVDs and Blu-rays.
- Very good peak brightness in HDR and SDR.
- Excellent low-quality content smoothing.
- Fast response time results in noticeable stutter.
- Colors aren't as bright as pure white.
The LG C3 OLED is an outstanding TV to be blown away by the latest hit games in HDR. The TV has remarkably low input lag with Game Mode on, so games feel super responsive; your inputs almost instantly translate to the on-screen action. The TV can handle all commonly used resolutions, like 1440p @ 120Hz and 4k @ 120Hz. It has fantastic reflection handling, and when combined with the TV's satisfactory HDR brightness in Game Mode, you'll enjoy gaming on the C3 even during the day. Still, it's certainly better suited to playing in a dark room. The response time is exceptionally low, so no matter how fast the action moves, you won't have any blur or ghosting.
- Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
- Wide color gamut for HDR content.
- Very low input lag.
- Impressive gaming features.
- HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
- Very good peak brightness in HDR and SDR.
- Colors aren't as bright as pure white.
TV is a bit dimmer in Game Mode.
The LG C3 OLED is a fantastic TV for use as a PC monitor but with some caveats. It has a nearly instantaneous response time and incredibly low input lag, so games, or your mouse cursor, are fluid and responsive, with almost no distracting motion blur behind fast-moving objects. Its viewing angle is amazing, so even if you sit in front of the TV, you won't notice any discoloration or dimming at the edges. It gets bright in SDR and has amazing reflection handling, so it'll look great even if your office setup is in a bright room or in front of some windows. Unfortunately, like many TVs, the C3 doesn't use a standard RGB subpixel layout, so text isn't very clear when used as a monitor. Finally, as with all OLEDs, there's a risk of permanent burn-in when exposed to static elements, like the UI elements of a computer desktop.
- Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
- Fantastic reflection handling.
- Image remains accurate at a wide angle.
- Very low input lag.
- Very good peak brightness in HDR and SDR.
- Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.
Risk of permanent burn-in.
Changelog
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Updated Nov 08, 2024:
We updated the text throughout this review to align it with our current style guide.
- Updated May 02, 2024: Mentioned the newly-reviewed LG C4 OLED in the HDR Brightness section of this review.
- Updated Dec 20, 2023: Mentioned the newly reviewed Samsung S89C OLED in the HDR Brightness In Game Mode section of this review.
- Updated Nov 29, 2023: We retested the TV's input lag outside of Game Mode with firmware 03.20.17. It's now higher than it was and more in line with the LG G3 OLED and LG C2 OLED. We updated the TV's input lag results and text box.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 65-inch LG C3 (OLED65C3), but it's also available in 42, 48, 55, 77, and 83-inch sizes. 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 Costco/Sam's Club variant carries the suffix 'AUA,' supports Wi-Fi 6E (the PUA variant has Wi-fi 5), and comes with store-specific perks, like extended warranties.
| Size | US Model (Wi-Fi 5) | Costco Variant (Wi-Fi 6E) |
|---|---|---|
| 42" | OLED42C3PUA | OLED42C3AUA |
| 48" | OLED48C3PUA | OLED48C3AUA |
| 55" | OLED55C3PUA | OLED55C3AUA |
| 65" | OLED65C3PUA | OLED65C3AUA |
| 77" | OLED77C3PUA | OLED77C3AUA |
| 83" | OLED83C3PUA | OLED83C3AUA |
Our unit was manufactured in March 2023; as shown on the label.
Popular TV Comparisons
The LG C3 is an excellent OLED TV and is an incremental improvement over its predecessor, the LG C2 OLED. It doesn't have the LG G3 OLED's MLA focusing layer, which allows the G3 to get extremely bright, so there's a big difference between the two TVs when it comes to peak brightness. Still, that alone isn't worth the price difference for most people. You could also save some money by going with the cheaper LG B3 OLED, which is dimmer overall, is limited to only two HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports, but otherwise has the same feature set. When compared to OLEDs from other brands, the Sony A95K OLED, the Samsung S95B OLED, and the Samsung S95C OLED are all marginally better than the C3 when it comes to image quality, as QD-OLED panels are very colorful and can output very bright and saturated colors.
If you're still shopping for the best TV for your needs, check out our recommendations for the best OLED TVs, the best 4k TVs, and the best TVs for watching movies.
The LG C5 OLED is better than the LG C3 OLED. The C5 gets noticeably brighter overall, meaning it overcomes more glare in a bright room and delivers a more impactful HDR experience. The C5 also supports 144Hz and has better upscaling, but the C4 supports DTS audio passthrough.
The LG C4 OLED is slightly better than the LG C3 OLED. The C4 gets brighter in HDR, so highlights pop a little bit more on it. The C4 also has slightly better PQ EOTF tracking, so it's a bit more accurate when it comes to the content creator's intent, and its better color volume delivers slightly brighter colors. If you're a PC gamer looking to take full advantage of your high-end graphics card, the C4 supports up to 144Hz versus 120Hz on the C3, so it's the better option for that. However, when viewed from an angle, the C4 has a noticeable green tint, so the C3 is the better choice for wide seating arrangements.
The LG B5 OLED and the LG C3 OLED deliver nearly identical performance. There are no noticeable differences in picture quality, motion, inputs, or smart features. The only notable difference between them is that the C3 supports DTS audio formats. DTS is often used for the main audio track on Blu-ray and 4k Blu-ray discs, so if you're a collector of physical media, the C3 is the better option.
The LG C3 OLED and the LG C2 OLED are very similar TVs, with the C3 being a marginal improvement over its predecessor. The C3 is a bit brighter, but this isn't noticeable in practice. The C3 also has better low-resolution sharpness processing, making legacy content on DVDs or low-resolution online streaming look better than on the C2. The C3's biggest improvement over the C2 is its support of DTS audio formats; this makes it a much more interesting TV for home entertainment fans, as Blu-rays and DVDs tend to use DTS for their audio tracks.
We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests use specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
Older Test Bench: This product has been tested using an older TV test methodology, before a major update. Some of the test results below aren't directly comparable with other TVs. Learn more
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