The LG C9 OLED is an excellent TV. Like all OLED TVs, it delivers outstanding dark room performance, thanks to the perfect inky blacks and perfect black uniformity. It has an outstanding response time, delivering clear motion with no blur trail, but this does cause stutter when watching movies. This TV also supports HDMI 2.1 on all four ports, and even though there aren't many HDMI 2.1 sources available, it could help make your TV future-proof.
Unfortunately, like all OLED TVs, there's a possibility of experiencing permanent burn-in, and the brightness of the screen changes depending on the content (ABL), which may bother some people.
Our Verdict
The LG C9 OLED is an outstanding TV for most uses. The OLED panel produces excellent picture quality for most uses, with perfect blacks and wide viewing angles. It has a nearly instantaneous response time, which is important for gaming or use as a PC monitor. Unfortunately, there's a risk of burn-in, and the brightness of the screen changes with different content, which may be distracting.
- Perfect blacks.
- Fast response time, low input lag.
- Wide viewing angles.
- Brightness variation due to Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL).
- Risk of permanent burn-in. (See here)
The LG C9 is an outstanding TV for watching movies. With OLED's ability to turn individual pixels off, you get perfect blacks when watching in the dark. This emissive technology also allows the TV to display bright objects in dark scenes with no blooming at all. Its near-instantaneous response time results in fast scenes that look clear and almost blur-free; however, it may also cause lower frame rate content to appear stuttery.
The LG OLED C9 is an excellent TV for watching TV shows during the day. It has good peak brightness and an impressive anti-reflective coating, so you shouldn't have any issues, even in a bright room. It also has wide viewing angles, which is great if you like to walk around with the TV on.
The LG C9 is an excellent TV for watching sports. Its extremely fast response time delivers an image with almost no motion blur, and there's very little dirty screen effect that can be distracting. Its wide viewing angles are perfect for watching a game with a big group of friends, and lower resolution content like cable sports are upscaled well, without any visible artifacts.
The LG C9 is an exceptional TV for gaming. It has a remarkably low input lag and near-instantaneous response time, so fast-paced games look crisp, with almost no motion blur. It supports variable refresh rate to reduce screen tearing, and it has been certified to work with recent NVIDIA graphics cards. When gaming on a compatible console like the Xbox One, its 'Auto Low Latency Mode' saves you the trouble of having to switch picture mode.
The LG OLED C9 is an excellent TV for watching movies in HDR. The OLED panel produces perfect blacks, it has a wide color gamut, and good peak brightness in HDR. Unfortunately, the TV's automatic brightness limiter (ABL) causes the brightness to fluctuate with different content, which may bother some people.
Excellent TV for gaming in HDR. It has excellent gaming performance, thanks to the nearly instantaneous response time and low input lag. It has an excellent wide color gamut and good peak brightness in HDR. The brightness changes with different content, though, and this might bother some people, especially with bright games. There's also a possibility of burn-in, which might be an issue due to the static elements found in most games.
The LG OLED C9 is an excellent TV to use as a monitor, as it has an excellent low input lag and outstanding response time, making your desktop experience feel responsive. However, care should be taken to avoid static user interface elements being displayed for a long time, as there's a risk of permanent burn-in. The TV can also display chroma 4:4:4 properly and it has wide viewing angles, so the image remains accurate even if you sit up close.
Changelog
- Updated Jul 03, 2020: We've retested the VRR minimum range. We can confirm that it's <40Hz.
- Updated Jun 25, 2020: We incorrectly listed this TV as flicker-free, but it's not.
- Updated May 21, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.5.
- Updated Feb 21, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.4.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 55" C9 (OLED55C9PUA), and we expect our results to be valid for the 65" (LG OLED65C9PUA), and the 77" (LG OLED77C9PUA) models as well.
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their LG C9 doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review. Note that some tests such as the gray uniformity may vary between individual units.
| Size | Short Model Code | US Model | EU Model | Notes |
| 55" | OLED55C9 | OLED55C9PUA | OLED55C9PLA | |
| 65" | OLED65C9 | OLED65C9PUA | OLED65C9PLA | |
| 77" | OLED77C9 | OLED77C9PUB | OLED77C9PLA |
The LG C9 we tested was manufactured in March 2019; you can see the label here.
Popular TV Comparisons
The LG C9 is an excellent OLED TV and outperforms most similarly-priced LED models. See our recommendations for the best OLED TVs and the best smart TVs.
The LG C5 OLED is a bit of an upgrade over the LG C9 OLED. If you're thinking about upgrading, the most significant difference you'll notice is an increase in brightness. The C5 can handle more glare in a bright room thanks to its higher SDR brightness. HDR is more vivid and impactful, with brighter specular highlights and higher full-frame brightness, so those bright outdoor shots really stand out the way the content creator intended. The C5 also has slightly better color reproduction.
The LG CX OLED and its predecessor, the LG C9 OLED, are two very similar-performing TVs. The C9 has better gray uniformity and viewing angles, but that could be due to panel differences. The CX has better built-in speakers, and the black frame insertion works at 120Hz, but it causes some duplication in motion. Overall, they're two excellent TVs that should please most people.
The LG C3 OLED is a better version of the LG C9 OLED. The C3 is brighter in both SDR and HDR, so it overcomes more glare in a well-lit room while watching SDR content, and highlights in HDR content stand out more. The C3 is also capable of up to 4k @ 120Hz, so it's the better option to pair with modern gaming consoles.
The LG C4 OLED is an across-the-board upgrade over the older LG C9 OLED. The C4 gets noticeably brighter in both SDR and HDR and keeps that punch even on full-screen bright scenes, so glare and daytime viewing are easier to deal with, and highlights pop more. It also adds 4k @ 144Hz support, lower input lag, and the latest Game Optimizer features, giving competitive gamers smoother motion and quicker response. Picture quality otherwise stays familiar—perfect blacks, wide viewing angles, and Dolby Vision on every HDMI 2.1 port—but the C9's dimmer screen and 120Hz ceiling now feel dated. Unless you find the C9 at a steep discount, the C4 is the smarter buy.
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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