Remarkably, LG’s G5 TV series benefits from the second major revamp of the brand’s take on OLED screen technology in just three years. Dubbed ‘Brightness Booster Ultimate’ by LG’s People Who Name Things Department, the G5’s new tech combines a second generation of the Alpha 11 processor that debuted on 2024’s LG G4 series with a new ‘Primary RGB Tandem’ panel design.
The new panel design (also known as ‘four-stack’ to its friends) replaces the previous, short-lived Micro Lens Array approach, and involves equipping the G5s’ screen technology with two blue light-emitting layers (one for each of the red and green layers) to deliver a picture that LG claims is substantially brighter and more colourful than any of its previous OLED TVs.
This is promising indeed, given how good the pictures of those previous LG OLED TVs have generally looked. But have LG’s engineers really been able to unlock the full capabilities of another new panel at the first time of asking, without losing the traditional picture strengths LG OLED TVs are so famous for?
Picture quality
True to LG OLED form, the £3299 OLED65G5 uses all the new tools at its disposal to create a rounded and immersive cinematic experience, rather than just ‘showing off’.
That said, the extra brightness unlocked by the OLED65G5’s new panel is substantial enough to be instantly obvious. Measurements reveal 3050 nits of light in its ‘Vivid’ mode up to a test window size of 5%, or 1900 nits on a 10% window in ‘Standard’ mode. These figures represent an increase of almost 30% over 2024’s already punchy G4, and you can really feel all this new brightness in the extra intensity of classic HDR highlights such as bright windows, direct shots of the sun, stars, street lights, sunlight reflecting on glass and so on.
It’s also more subtly, but no less importantly, visible in the OLED65G5’s handling of HDR images that flood the whole screen with bright imagery. Again, measurements suggest full-screen brightness of almost 400 nits, an increase of around 30% again over the G4. This makes a big difference to the consistency of the G5’s HDR delivery with films that contain a mix of light and dark scenes. It’s great to see, too, that the extra brightness is accompanied by impressively little clipping of detail and subtle shading in the brightest highlights of the picture.
It should be said that the G5’s brightness makes by far its biggest impact while watching the OLED65G5 in its ‘Standard’ mode, rather than its more accurate Filmmaker Mode. This doesn’t mean, though, that the Filmmaker (and slightly punchier ‘Cinema Home’) presets on LG’s new TV don’t benefit from the extra brightness - they do. Very high contrast scenes such as the Blade Runner 2049 sequence in which Agent K fights with Deckard against a backdrop of a holographic Elvis performance are clearly a big improvement on the way they look in the G4’s Filmmaker Mode. It’s just that the differences aren’t as pronounced as in the ‘Standard’ mode, and are just as likely to make their presence felt in other areas, such as richer colours, as they are to simply make parts or all of the image look brighter.
For me, the OLED65G5’s enhanced colour volume is actually more impressive than its brightness increase. The new screen covers more of the DCI-P3 colour spectrum, and much more of the BT2020 spectrum, than any previous LG OLED set - and without bleaching bright tones out, looking over-the-top or unbalanced, or leaving tones looking washed out during very dark scenes.
The G5 has a few other smaller, but still important, improvements up its sleeve too. Its screen is a little less reflective than that of its predecessor, for instance, and its pictures are noticeably sharper and more detailed in every preset. This sense of improved sharpness is especially noticeable with upscaled HD sources, as LG’s new processor delivers a level of improvement with its upscaling processing that puts it up there with the very best upscaling I’ve seen from any TV brand.
LG’s motion-handling is now outstanding, too. Even the ‘Standard’ picture preset, with its ‘Natural’ motion setting, now looks cinematic and largely free of unwanted processing artefacts when watching 24fps films. The improved ‘Cinematic Movement’ option will likely still be the preferred option of most home cinema fans, but anyone who’s particularly sensitive to judder will greatly appreciate the now very usable ‘Natural’ setting as a slightly smoother option.
LG’s latest ‘AI Picture Pro’ option similarly shows signs of welcome maturity, being much cleverer about when and how aggressively it tries to improve a picture. In other words, it’s now much less likely to get aggressively involved with native 4K HDR content than it is with SDR, HD or SD content, sensibly figuring that the best-looking sources need much less help. I wouldn’t say the AI picture setting ever felt like a totally necessary addition to any content or picture preset - and it’s interesting that LG only makes it available as an option, rather than it ever being applied to a preset as standard. But it’s good to see the ‘intelligence’ part of the system’s name being refined, at least.
While absolutely stunning for most of the time, the OLED65G5’s pictures aren’t quite perfect. Dark areas can look just a little too dark on occasion, for instance - though the set’s handling of near-black picture information is actually excellent for the most part (especially when it comes to keeping noise out of dark areas).
While the G5’s new level of colour saturation is very welcome, occasionally there are issues resolving subtle blends smoothly and accurately, particularly with deep shades of blue. Especially in the Filmmaker mode, strangely. If you watch the screen from a wide angle the image’s colour tone can shift slightly and take on a more reddish hue - and while the ‘Standard’ picture is the most consistently enjoyable ‘punchy’ setting I’ve seen from an LG OLED TV, occasionally a skin-tone will look a little peaky or a bright sky will look a little artificial. Mind you, the excellent ‘Cinema’ settings solve this issue easily enough, while still giving you more punch than the Filmmaker Mode provides.
Rest assured, though, that for the vast majority of the time your biggest problem with the G5 will be the amount of movie-watching time you put in as you marvel at just how far OLED TV technology has come.
Sound quality
As usual with LG TVs, you need to activate the ‘AI Sound Pro’ mode to get the best out of the OLED65G5’s speakers. This introduces an 11.1.2-channel virtual sound ‘upscale’ that instantly and effectively expands the soundstage into a much larger stage that extends far beyond the TV’s physical boundaries.
Effects both specific/object-based and ambient/score-based are placed very effectively within this enlarged sense of sonic space, too, without becoming brittle or incoherent. In fact, it’s the precision of the soundstage that delivers the biggest improvement over the G4, as the G5 conjures up a world of sound that’s both consistently busier and much more immersive thanks to the accuracy of its detail-placement.
Impact sounds have a surprising amount of forward force, too, and bass is reasonable for a TV that boasts a fairly skinny rear - even if it can dip into sounding a little crackly and distorted with the movie world’s most epic rumbles.
Living with the OLED65G5
The OLED65G5 comes in two different versions: a wall-hanging option, and an option with a desktop stand. So take care to order the version you need. Happily, the OLED65G5 looks crisp, sharp and opulent no matter which version you buy. Its ultra-slender bezel sports a premium-looking gleaming silver finish, and its rear is both reasonably trim (handy for wall hangers) and extremely robust.
The matte dark grey finish of the desktop plate-style base doesn’t feel like it really goes with the gleaming silver of the TV - but it’s extremely heavy-duty, and lets you tidily tuck all your incoming cables into its neck.
Smart features on the OLED65G5 are provided by LG’s latest version of webOS, which is now bolstered by a combination of more wide-ranging, AI-enhanced support for multiple user profiles - so everyone in your household can set up their own individual content, app and even picture- and sound-setting preferences. The TV can now even activate the correct profile by simply recognising the voice of whoever’s engaging with it.
LG has leant into AI so much this year, in fact, that it even includes an AI button on the remote control that takes you straight into a guide on how to communicate with your TV, or access the remote’s mic if you hold it down. There’s also an improved ‘Home Hub’ screen to help you keep track of and control other devices on your network, as well as a built-in ‘customer service’ system where the TV uses AI to help it answer questions about how to improve aspects of your TV’s performance or figure out why something might not be working as you expected.
While the OLED65G5 is an outstanding home cinema and home entertainment TV, it also adds to LG’s reputation for fantastic gaming displays. All four of its HDMI ports support an outstanding roster of gaming features including, for the first time with an LG TV, 165Hz frame rates. Support for variable refresh rates, HDR (including a Dolby Vision game mode), a dedicated ‘Game Dashboard’ menu providing information on the gaming feed, an assortment of gaming aids, and a response time of just 12.9ms its fastest ‘Game’ preset, add to its gaming credentials.
Conclusion
The OLED65G5 adds unprecedented new contrast, brightness and, especially, colour range to LG’s already spectacular OLED TV picture quality, without losing the brand’s flair for the cinematic.
Watching notes
Blade Runner 2049 4K Blu-ray
As well as the fantastically crisp native 4K resolution, gorgeously rich colours and beautifully mastered contrast of Blade Runner 2049’s 4K disc transfer proving perfect demo material for the OLED65G5’s stunning picture quality, its epic Dolby Atmos soundtrack also showcases the improvements delivered by LG’s latest ‘AI Sound Pro’ system.
The Searchers 4K Blu-ray
We didn’t have ‘1956 Western delivering the best 4K Blu-ray picture quality ever’ on our 2025 bingo card - but here we are. And it’s hard to imagine any other TV this year being more effective at delivering this transfer’s incredible detail, colour and contrast than the OLED65G5.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 Xbox Series X
Although it tops out at 4K/120Hz rather than pushing the OLED65G5 to its 165Hz maximum, Black Ops 6 looks dazzlingly good on LG’s latest OLED TV - as well as feeling fantastically immersive, responsive and crisp.
LG’s new ‘Brightness Boost Ultimate’ technology takes the brand’s already outstanding OLED picture quality to another level. Its pictures look brighter, more colourful and sharper, without losing that naturalism and accuracy that’s made them so beloved of home cinema fans for so long. It’s also another consummate gaming monitor, and delivers one of the most effective and comprehensive smart systems around. Its design, finally, is especially good for wall-mounting if that suits your room layout.
Although the OLED65G5 is better than any previous LG TV at handling HD SDR sources, it still deserves to be partnered with the best quality sources. Which remain 4K Blu-ray players - ideally good quality models like the Panasonic UB9000 or, if that’s too much, the UB820.
While the OLED65G5’s sound quality improves on its predecessor, it would still benefit from the addition of a soundbar. LG actually makes a wall-hanging, flat-designed soundbar, the USG10TY, designed especially for its G OLED series. A simple one-bar alternative would be the Sony Bar 9 or, if you want a full surround soundbar experience, I’d recommend the Samsung HW-Q990D.
