It should go without saying, but earning a spot on our list of the best TVs isn’t easy. A TV has to compete against dozens of competitors in over a dozen different categories, including color saturation, color accuracy, brightness, contrast, motion handling, and more.
In recent years, the top spot has been held by some truly great TVs such as the LG C3 OLED, Samsung QN90C, Sony A95K OLED and currently the Hisense U8N. But according to our latest lab tests, the crown could return to LG with the LG G4 OLED.
We recently put the G4 OLED through our testing process, and the results are mighty impressive. It has some of the best color accuracy and vibrancy of any TV we’ve ever tested, and thanks to LG Display’s META 2.0 OLED panel with micro-lens array technology, it boasts Mini-LED brightness levels.
We’ll have to see how the TV holds up in an everyday viewing environment, but judging by the lab results, it looks like the LG G4 OLED is a shoo-in for the best TV of 2024.
LG G4 OLED test data compared
| LG G4 OLED | Samsung S95D OLED | Sony Bravia9 | |
| SDR brightness (10%, in nits) | 358.47 | 276.05 | 498.16 |
| Delta-E (lower is better) | 1,4041 | 3,5085 | 1,7971 |
| Request 709 Gamma coverage | 133.26% | 99.80% | 99.16% |
| HDR brightness (10%, in nits) | 1487.61 | 1777.15 | 2554.87 |
| UHDA-P3 range coverage | 97.29% | 99.97% | 95.32% |
| Rec. 2020 Gamut Coverage | 72.91% | 89.73% | 78.02% |
| Input delay (ms) | 9.2 | 9.2 | 17.1 |
What you see here is the LG G4 OLED against the two flagship TVs from Samsung and Sony, the Samsung S94D OLED and the Sony Bravia 9 Mini-LED respectively. These are, in my professional opinion, the three best performing TVs of 2024 — and you can see how close the competition is between the three.
What stands out to me when I look at the test data is the color saturation, SDR brightness and the out-of-the-box color accuracy of the LG G4.
What stood out to me when looking at the test data was the LG G4’s color saturation, SDR brightness, and out-of-the-box color accuracy. HDR brightness is a category that is always going to be won by Mini LED TVs (though hats off to Samsung’s flagship QD OLED here for putting out such a high number), but the G4’s 1487.61 nits is more than double what we saw from the LG G-series three years ago.
What this should prove to you is that LG Display’s MLA technology is the real deal. Yes, Mini LED and QD OLED are still brighter, but they compromise on color accuracy or contrast. The G4 OLED is the middle ground that should deliver high brightness, good contrast, and high color saturation.
So will the LG G4 OLED be the best TV of 2024?
If you’ve read any of our many TV reviews before, you know that our lab tests play a big role in how well a TV scores, but they’re not everything. We’re still looking at half a dozen other factors, such as the usability of the smart platform, the sound quality of the TV’s built-in speakers, the motion processing and upscaling precision, and the gaming performance, in addition to small details like the design of the remote control.
When determining which TV deserves the title of best TV, we also look at the price-performance ratio. Not everyone has hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on a MicroLED TV, so we only give the award to TVs with a realistic price.
However, based on all these factors, I think Samsung and Sony have every reason to be concerned about the G4 OLED. We’ll have to continue our anecdotal testing before we can make any definitive decisions, but our test data shows that the G4 OLED has the right equipment to take the top spot.
Stay tuned for the full LG G4 OLED review, which will be posted here in the coming week.