LG OLED65C3 review (2023) comes with excellent picture quality

The price of the LG OLED65C3 goes up, making it more expensive than Samsung’s first-generation QD-OLED and the same price as the Sony A95K, which both use panel technology that claims to be more accurate and colorful. Not too long ago, the only difference between LG’s C-series and G-series models was how they looked and what kind of speakers they had. In 2021, however, the G1 got a brighter screen than its C1 sibling.

LG OLED65C3: Description

The LG C2 from last year had a brighter screen, but the G2 got a new heatsink, so the difference in performance between the two ranges stayed the same. Again, the LG OLED C series model has great performance in all areas. It has a good mix of features, picture quality, and gaming credentials. The C3 builds on what came before it, and the difference between it and the C2 model from 2022 isn’t that big. But why fix something that wasn’t really broken?

The Alpha 9 AI Processor 4K Gen6 chip and the latest OLED panel, which together are called OLED Evo, give the TV a little more brightness. Also, like last year, the video processing is now among the best on the market in terms of upscaling, detail, smooth gradation, and motion. The LG C3 is part of the C series of OLED Evo TVs, which have always been the best in the LG OLED line. This year, the C3 is farther ahead of the G3 in terms of performance and design than ever before.

The only difference between the C and the G used to be the way they looked, since they both used the same panel and processing. However, in at least the last two model years, that gap has grown, with the G series now offering the very top of the OLED Evo tree while the C series has become the company’s mass-market luxury option with slightly less features.

LG OLED65C3: Pros and Cons

Specification Table

LG OLED65C3: Design

LG is sticking with the design it used for the first time with the C2, which is fine with us. The narrow stand is elegant and gives the set a small footprint that makes it easy to find a place for it. It’s thicker at its thickest point than the uniformly thin G3 (4.7cm vs. 2.4cm), but that thick area, which houses the set’s connection, processing hardware, and speakers, only covers a portion of the set’s back, leaving the rest to be almost miraculously thin.

Some people, especially those who mount their TVs on the wall, will still like how the G3 looks like a picture frame, but we think the C3 is the more stylish and eye-catching TV. The C3, like the C2, is very light for a 65-inch TV, weighing in at only 16.6kg. That’s a lot less than the G3 (23.9 kg) and Sony A80L (23.3 kg), but the C3 still feels like a very well-made product.

LG OLED65C3: Features

This is, of course, a 4K TV, and it meets HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision IQ standards. Its overall specs are made for both gamers and people who watch a lot of movies or TV. No matter how you use it, the 6th generation of LG’s Alpha9 picture processing engine is in charge of the picture quality. Not surprisingly, LG talks a lot about how powerful this latest version is, especially the Light Boosting Algorithm and Light Control Architecture, which are designed to get the most brightness out of the panel at both the peak and full-screen levels. Other HDR-related features of the Alpha9 Gen 6 are Dynamic Tone Mapping Pro and Expression Enhancer.

Physical inputs include four HDMI 2.1a ports, one of which supports eARC, and all four support 4K@120Hz, ALLM, VRR, HGiG, G-Sync, FreeSync Premium Pro, and everything else that makes for a powerful console gaming experience. For 2023, LG has also added Quick Media Switching, which is a new HDMI 2.1a feature. Sources that support QMS, like the Apple TV 4K, can have their frame rates matched instantly when switching between programs. This prevents the dreaded HDMI “bonk,” or those short, annoying blackouts on the screen.

LG OLED65C3: Picture Quality

As with the G3 and other LG OLEDs, our favorite setting for Dolby Vision content is Dolby Vision Cinema Home. It’s almost as accurate as Dolby Vision Cinema, but it’s a bit brighter, which makes the image stand out. When you play Top Gun: Maverick, it’s easy to see how well the C3 handles colors and contrast. The image is refined, subtle, and detailed, and some highlights do look a little brighter than they did from the C2. But we are talking about a very small difference here.

There’s also good detail in the movie’s shadows, and while low-light colors look a little pale, it’s not as obvious as it was with the G3. In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with how the C3 delivers. It works a lot like the C2, but with a little more “pop” and “sharpness.”

The problem comes when you compare it to the Sony A80L, which in its Dolby Vision Bright mode is much more dynamic, with brighter highlights and stronger blacks. However, it still delivers a level of authenticity and subtlety, especially in terms of colors, that makes it an all-gain, no-pain situation. It could be said that the Sony’s Dolby Vision Bright setting isn’t 100% real, but the same could be said about the LG’s Dolby Vision Cinema Home setting, and the Sony does a great job of improving the signal, so there’s no real reason to complain.

And when we set both TVs to their most accurate modes, Dolby Vision Cinema on the LG and Dolby Vision Dark on the Sony, the Sony is still the more striking and powerful of the two. The highlights are brighter and better defined, there are even fewer bands, better contrast, and the image as a whole has more depth.

LG OLED65C3: Performance

Even though the OLED65C3 isn’t a huge improvement over the C2 model it replaces, the improvements are enough to make this TV a pretty good choice in terms of picture quality and gaming experience. There are many ways to process pictures that can be looked into. But for us, the best balance is found when the Dolby Vision Cinema Home setting is used with the OLED pixel brightness just a few points below its maximum setting.

With the C3 set up this way, both a 4K UHD Blu-ray of Dune and a Netflix stream of the Power of the Dog look fantastic. The LG OLED65C3 is a convincing and interesting watch in every important way. Its color balance is naturalistic, with colors that are nicely saturated but not too bright, and it makes a wide range of tones with a lot of depth. Black tones are, as you might expect, dark, but they are also different and full of detail, even in scenes that are mostly dark.

Final Words

To say it again, there’s nothing really wrong with the picture quality of the C3 by itself. It’s a lot like the C2’s, which we loved, but it has a little more power and better upscaling.

The problem is that the price has gone up at the same time that the upgrades have been kept to a minimum. This puts the C3 in competition with cars that seem to have been given more care. When you add in the fact that the sound isn’t all that great, it’s hard not to be disappointed by 2023’s C-series model, even though it’s still a very good TV.

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