LG GX OLED TV Review

The LG GX OLED is a high-end TV in LG's OLED lineup. It's a new TV in 2020 and it sits right below the LG WX, which is an even thinner TV that comes with an external box instead of having the inputs on the TV. Its main competitors are the LG CX OLED, the Sony A8H OLED, and the Samsung The Frame 2020.

The LG GX has an incredible design. It's very thin and the TV has a uniform thickness throughout. There are tapered edges where the front and back panels meet, which allows the TV to sit flush against the wall when wall-mounted, making it look like a picture frame. It comes with LG's Flush Wall Mount, and you can buy feet separately if you don't want to wall-mount it.

LG sells feet you can buy separately for this stand, which is what we did, and they hold the TV well. If you don't plan on wall-mounting it, then consider the LG CX OLED, which is a very similar TV that's cheaper and it comes with a stand.

Footprint of the 55" stand: 45.4" x 10.7".

Note: If you buy the feet separately you also get input covers.

The back of this TV is made out of metal. In the photo, there's a cover where the dedicated wall-mount goes, and you can also VESA-mount it if you choose. There's an L-shaped panel covering the inputs and it allows you to route wires to the center of the TV if you wall-mount it. There's also cable management through the optional feet.

Note: The input covers come with the feet if you buy them separately.

The borders are thin and aren't distracting.

The LG GX is very thin and won't stick out when wall-mounted. It's even thinner than the Samsung The Frame 2020.

Incredible build quality. The LG GX is extremely well-made with a unique design. The back is mainly made out of metal that doesn't flex much and there aren't any visible build quality issues.

Like all OLED TVs, the LG GX has an infinite contrast ratio since it can turn off individual pixels, resulting in perfect blacks.

The LG GX has okay peak brightness. It gets bright enough to combat glare in moderately-lit rooms, but it may not be good enough for a bright environment. Because of its aggressive Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL), its brightness isn't very consistent across different content and it quickly becomes dim with large, bright areas.

We measured peak brightness before calibration, although we normally take the results after calibration. This is because calibrating the TV significantly improved the 100% peak window up to 269 cd/m², while the other results only slightly improved by one or two nits. Since calibration changes per unit, not every TV would get brighter like ours, and some may get dimmer.

We measured the SDR peak brightness in the 'Expert (Dark Room)' Picture Mode with OLED Light at its max and Peak Brightness setting on 'High'. We got the brightest image possible with these settings, as seen in the 10% peak window test.

Update 07/26/2021: We've added two new videos demonstrating the backlight behavior with real content.

Since this TV doesn't have a backlight, it doesn't have a local dimming feature. It can dim pixels individually, so bright objects and subtitles are displayed perfectly, with no visible blooming.

Update 07/26/2021: We've added two new videos demonstrating the backlight behavior with real content.

Decent brightness in HDR. This TV gets bright enough to bring out small highlights in HDR. However, like in SDR, it quickly loses its brightness as large, bright areas cover the screen because of its aggressive ABL. If you want an OLED that gets a bit brighter in HDR, check out the Sony A90J OLED.

We measured HDR peak brightness in the 'HDR Cinema' Picture Mode with OLED Light at its max, Peak Brightness set to 'High', and Color Temperature set to 'Warm 2'.

If you want the brightest image possible, set the Picture Mode to 'HDR Vivid' with its default settings.

The LG GX has excellent gray uniformity. There's very minor dirty screen effect in the center, but it shouldn't be distracting during sports. However, like most OLED TVs, there are faint vertical and horizontal lines that may be visible in near-dark scenes.

Note: Gray uniformity may vary between units.

Since this OLED TV can turn off individual pixels, black uniformity is perfect.

The LG GX has outstanding wide viewing angles. The image remains accurate when viewing at an angle, so it's ideal for wide seating arrangements.

Just like the LG CX OLED, the LG GX has outstanding reflection handling. You shouldn't have any issues placing this opposite a window.

Update 12/08/2020: We remeasured the accuracy after calibrating our spectroradiometer. The review has been updated.

Decent out-of-the-box color accuracy. Most colors are slightly inaccurate and white balance is off, which affects shades of gray. The color temperature is slightly cold and for the most part, gamma follows the target curve well, except extremely bright scenes may be too bright.

We had to calibrate the TV twice because we had difficulty calibrating the 5% and 10% gray stimulus levels while being connected to HDMI 1. We calibrated it again through HDMI 2, so these results are taken from HDMI 2. The color accuracy only slightly improved and you can see our original results from HDMI 1 here:

• White Balance dE: 4.94
• Color dE: 3.09
• Gamma: 2.12
• Color Temperature: 5972K
• White Balance Photo
• Gamma Photo
• Color Space Photo

Note: Color accuracy may vary between units.

If you want a high-end TV with exceptional accuracy out of the box, check out the Samsung QN85A QLED.

After calibration, color accuracy is almost perfect. Any remaining inaccuracies are almost impossible to spot with the naked eye and the color temperature is extremely close to the 6500K target.

We originally calibrated the LG GX through HDMI 1. While trying to calibrate the 10% gray stimulus, it heavily affected the 5% gray stimulus to the point where the screen looked blue. This made it difficult to get a proper image post-calibration. We recalibrated it a second time on HDMI 2, and even though it slightly decreased the final score, it resulted in a better final image. You can see our original results here:

• Score: 9.5
• White Balance dE: 0.34
• Color dE: 1.14
• Gamma: 2.19
• Color Temperature: 6497K
• White Balance Photo
• Gamma Photo
• Color Space Photo

You can see our recommended settings here.

This TV upscales 480p content well, with no obvious upscaling artifacts.

The LG GX upscales 720p content, such as from cable boxes, without any issues.

1080p content looks almost as good as native 4k content.

The LG GX displays 4k content without any issues. Even though it has an RGBW pixel structure, all four sub-pixels are never on at the same time, so there's no loss in color resolution.

The LG GX is a 4k TV that can't display an 8k signal.

The LG GX has an RGBW pixel structure, but all four pixels are never used at the same time. The image above shows the white, blue, and green subpixels. You can see alternate pixel pictures here: Photo 1 and Photo 2. This pixel structure isn't ideal for use as a PC monitor because it affects the way text is displayed.

Excellent color gamut. This TV has near-perfect coverage of the DCI P3 color space used in most HDR content and decent coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space.

The EOTF follows the target curve fairly well until it rolls off at its peak brightness. The EOTF in 'Game' mode is almost the exact same.

If you find HDR too dim, enable Dynamic Tone Mapping and set Dynamic Contrast to 'Medium'. It resulted in a bit brighter image, as you can see in this EOTF.

Okay color volume. Thanks to its nearly infinite contrast ratio, it displays deep, saturated colors well. However, it struggles to display brighter colors.

Good gradient handling, but it's not as good as the LG CX OLED. There's noticeable banding in grays and greens and a bit in reds and blues. Setting Smooth Gradation to 'High' helps smooths out gradients in real content, but it didn't affect the test pattern. Setting it to 'Medium' or 'Low' doesn't affect the gradients all that much. If you want an OLED TV with better gradient handling, check out the Sony A9S OLED.

The LG GX doesn't have any temporary image retention, even after displaying a high-contrast static image for 10 minutes.

Note: Temporary image retention may vary between units.

Unfortunately, like most OLED TVs, the LG GX isn't immune to permanent burn-in. However, we don't expect people who watch varied content to have any issues, but rather it's a problem if there are constant static displays, like if it's used as a PC monitor.

This TV has three features to help burn-in risk. Enabling Screen Shift option, and setting Logo Luminance Adjustment to 'Low' may help with this. There's also an Automatic Pixel Refresher that can be run manually if needed.

You can read about our investigation into this here.

If you're worried about burn-in and would prefer a high-end LED TV, check out the Samsung Q900TS 8k QLED.

The LG GX has a near-instant response time. There's a bit of overshoot in dark transitions, which may lead to motion artifacts in dark scenes, but for the most part, motion looks very smooth.

There's a slight dip in brightness every 8 ms, which coincides with the 120Hz refresh rate and isn't noticeable.

The LG GX has a Black Frame Insertion feature that helps improve the appearance of motion. For it to flicker at 60Hz for 60fps content, set TruMotion to 'User' and OLED Motion to 'High'. It always flickers at 120Hz for 120fps content if you have TruMotion enabled with OLED Motion on any setting. The BFI feature doesn't look as good with 120fps content as it does with 60fps content (above photo) and the crosstalk is bad, so there may be some motion artifacts.

The LG GX can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 120fps, which is known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'. It does a good job at smoothing out motion and it doesn't stop interpolating even in busy scenes, but this may lead to artifacts with fast-moving content. However, the artifacts are hard to notice and not too distracting.

See here for the settings that control the motion interpolation feature.

Due to the TV's very quick response time, there's noticeable stutter with lower frame rate content because each frame is held on longer. Enabling the motion interpolation feature can help reduce this issue.

The LG GX removes 24p judder from any source, as long as Real Cinema is enabled. It can remove judder from 24p content with OLED Motion set to 'Auto', 'Low', or 'Medium'. However, it doesn't remove judder with OLED Motion set to 'High' becauses the backlight flickers at 60Hz. With 60p content, you have to set OLED Motion on 'Medium' or 'Auto' because 'Low' doesn't remove judder completely.

The LG GX supports variable refresh rate technologies to reduce screen tearing. With an Xbox One S connected to the TV, we disabled the FreeSync setting and enabled the G-SYNC setting. The Xbox showed VRR was still working, so we were able to confirm the TV supports HDR Forum VRR.

Find out more about the VRR settings here.

Update 11/04/2020: We've retested the input lag at 4k @ 120Hz with chroma 4:4:4 and VRR using an HDMI 2.1 source. The results are consistent with the LG CX OLED's.

The LG GX has the same low input lag as the LG CX OLED. It's the lowest with VRR enabled, which is great. To achieve the lowest input lag possible, you have to be in 'Game' mode. The TV has an 'Auto Low Latency Mode' that automatically switches into 'Game' mode when a game from a compatible device is launched. For it to work, simply enable Instant Game Response. Sadly, you can't use the motion interpolation feature in 'Game' mode.

If you're using this TV as a PC monitor and want the lowest input lag possible, set the input icon to 'PC' in the Home Dashboard.

Update 11/04/2020: We've retested the TV's ability to display chroma 4:4:4 at 4k @ 120Hz with an HDMI 2.1 source. It can display it properly, but only in 'PC' mode.

This TV supports most common resolutions up to 4k @ 120Hz. It displays chroma 4:4:4 on all resolutions except 1080p @ 120Hz, which is an issue we saw with the LG CX OLED. For it to display 4:4:4, set the input icon to 'PC' in the Home Dashboard.

To achieve full bandwidth, enable HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color.

Update 07/26/2021: We rechecked the supported formats on the Xbox Series X, and confirmed that it does in fact support Dolby Vision, but not with a 4k @ 120Hz signal at the moment. LG has confirmed that they're working on a fix for that.

Update 11/04/2020: We've retested the inputs with an HDMI 2.1 source. All the HDMI inputs support it.

The LG GX doesn't support full bandwidth HDMI 2.1. It only has 40Gbps ports capable of 4k @ 120Hz @ 4:4:4 10-bit, instead of 48Gbps ports which would be able to reach 12-bit, but we don't expect this to make any noticeable difference.

Update 09/16/2021: We had originally listed that the LG GX OLED has an IR In port. The IR port is for an IR Blaster, which is an output device, not an input. There's no IR input on this TV.

The LG GX supports eARC, allowing it to send high-quality Dolby Atmos via TrueHD sound to a compatible receiver through a HDMI connection. To do so, turn HDMI Arc on and enable eARC. Unfortunately, LG has dropped DTS decoding from their 2020 TVs.

The LG GX has a good frequency response. Its bass has some punch to it, but it can't get low enough for any rumble or thump. It gets loud and it has a well-balanced sound profile, so dialogue sounds clear.

LG sells an LG GX Soundbar that also sits flush against the wall.

Decent distortion performance. There isn't much distortion at moderate listening levels. It increases at max volume, but most people may not hear this.

The built-in WebOS interface is easy-to-use and it's fairly smooth to navigate.

Unfortunately, there are ads on the home screen and app store, and there's no way to disable them.

LG's app store has a great selection of apps available to download.

The LG GX comes with the same Magic Remote as most other 2020 LG TVs. You can use it like a traditional remote with its navigation buttons or use it as a point-and-press remote, like a computer mouse. There are shortcut buttons to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. It has built-in voice control that allows you to change inputs, search for content, ask for the weather, and you can even ask it to increase the brightness.

There's a single button underneath the center of the screen. It allows you to turn the TV On/Off, change inputs, volume, and channels.

• Wall-mount (with included screws, tape, and mounting instructions)
• IR Blaster
• Remote (with 2x AA batteries)
• Composite adapter
• User guide