I tried a super-bright 83-inch OLED TV and now projectors are ruined for me

Date:
Fri, 27 Jun 2025 05:48:29 +0000

Description:
The LG G5 is an impressive OLED TV and, as I found out, in its 83-inch guise, it's a true home cinema gem.

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I, like many of you Im sure, love nothing more than curling up on the sofa to watch a movie. Perhaps unlike you, however, I also have an unshakeable need
to watch said movies on a huge TV ideally something from our guide to the best TVs and with a full surround sound system to get the most enjoyment out of them. Why do things by halves?

Until recently, I was making do with a 77-inch LG G4 OLED . Its a phenomenal screen that made me fall in love with my movie collection all over again. But after a while, it began to look small. I needed something bigger. Something better .

To get a huge screen experience at home without spending the equivalent of a house deposit, a projector is your best bet its perhaps the closest we can get to an authentic home cinema experience.

I recently wrote our Hisense C2 Ultra review and found it to be outstanding when it came to color reproduction, sound and, perhaps most importantly,
size, as I was able to project an image larger than 80 inches onto my wall.
If Id had it set up in my main room with my Sonos home theater system, I
could have easily asked myself the question, Have I achieved peak home
cinema?

The answer, as it turned out, was no. Thats because Ive recently taken delivery of an 83-inch LG G5, one of the best OLED TVs money can currently buy. Thanks to its sheer size (I reckon I could still fit the 97-inch model
in my viewing space), combined with its new, super-bright four stack tandem RGB panel , the G5 has ruined projectors for me entirely. Big screen, bigger brightness

Having previously owned the G4 OLED released in 2024, I wasnt sure how LG could improve upon what I thought was the best screen Id personally ever
seen. But when I heard the rumors that the South Korean company had produced
a new type of OLED panel, comprising individual blue, red and green layers to create light, and resulting in much higher brightness, boy, was my interest piqued. The insane brightness of the G5 OLED allows colorful movies such as Wicked to really pop. (Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

As the measurements in our LG G5 review prove, its the brightest OLED weve ever tested, measuring 2,268 nits on a 10% HDR window in Filmmaker Mode. We tested the 83-inch version of the Samsung S95F, which shares the same panel
as the LG model, and recorded a slightly higher reading of 2,388 nits. However, this measurement was taken at a Samsung event rather than in our own testing facilities.

What this means in real-world speak is that the LG G5 is highly adept at displaying HDR content, and it gives TV shows and movies a much greater sense of depth, as its able to better distinguish between light and dark areas of a picture. My colleague James Davidson has previously written a deep dive explaining just how good the G5 handles various content . From
black-and-white movies such as Oppenheimer through to eye-popping color films like Elemental , and I couldnt agree more when he says its a truly
picturesque TV.

I normally have the brightness turned up to the maximum 100 setting, but
there have been times, particularly when my room is especially dark, that Ive had to turn it down. Leaving it at 100 can sometimes be retina-searing! The Hisense C2 Ultra projector delivers excellent colors, but needs a darkened room to really shine. (Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

Projector brightness is measured in lumens, and so its trickier to compare. Its claimed to get a rough equivalent , you can multiply the number of nits
by 3.426 to get the brightness figure in lumens. In the LG G5s case, taking the 10% window figure of 2,268, that would mean a projector would need to measure 7,770 lumens to be comparable.

While projectors do exist that can reach, or surpass, this figure, theyre usually reserved for large event spaces and not intended for home use. Therefore, a home projector simply cant match the capabilities of the LG G5, making the TV a far better option for movie buffs like me. Defence against reflections

Another area where the bright panel of the LG G5 has projectors beat is dealing with ambient light. This one might not come as that much of a surprise, but its something worth noting when deciding on how to kit out your main room for the ultimate viewing experience.

Your opinion on screen reflections may differ from mine. You may want to banish them entirely, or you may be OK with the odd reflection on the screen if the overall picture quality makes up for it. Im in the latter camp, and find the LG G5s combination of brightness which does a fine job more often than not of combating reflections anti-reflective coating and overall
picture quality to be more than satisfactory.

I'm not in any way going to say there are no reflections in the G5's screen, because there are, they just don't bother me that much.

If you need to banish reflections completely, then a TV such as the Samsung S95F will be more to your liking. It employs a second-generation Glare-Free screen to dissipate light reflections across the screen into a haze-like effect.

James Davidson has also previously compared the anti-reflective capabilities of both the Samsung S95F and LG G5 side by side , so you can more easily determine exactly how both screens fare against pesky ambient light. Even
with light coming in through the windows to the right of the screen, there's barely a reflection in sight. (Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

In my opinion, the way the Samsung TV deals with light results in too much of a grey tone across the screen. I cant deny it does a better job overall with reflections, as Ive never been able to see myself in the screen something that can happen with the LG.

More often than not, though, Im not watching TV in a super bright room (I often find it surprising that a lot of people do watch TV with all the overhead lights on, to be honest). Sure, theres light coming in through windows from outside during the day, but when day turns to dusk and then to night, I have a few smart lights turned on around my room, and usually theyre set to minimum brightness. In these instances, Samsung's Glare-Free tech becomes redundant, and in my mind, it allows the LG G5 to truly shine.

With a projector, youre going to struggle quite a bit in daylight conditions, although I did find the Hisense C2 Ultra did a decent job of combating
ambient light during my review. At night, the situation naturally improves, but the fact remains it still cant quite match the super-bright levels of the LG G5. A stronger connection

The final reason why the LG G5 and any TV for that matter beats out a projector for my home cinema viewing is the fact that it allows for a neater solution when connecting external devices.

My soundbar sits below the TV with the connecting HDMI cable running through the TV's stand to the eARC port. Everything is tucked away nicely and tidily, and other external devices are hidden in the unit that the TV sits on.

If I wanted to set up a projector lets say, behind my sofa and viewing position Id have to run a long HDMI cable across my floor to reach the soundbar. No, thank you. I love having no visible cables in my setup. (Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

This does only apply to certain projector styles, however i.e. long-throw projectors.

Ive previously tested the Xgimi Aura 2 ultra-short throw (UST) projector and was pretty amazed by how well it performed. A UST projector could sit on my same TV unit and project an equally large image (or larger) onto the wall.
But it needs dark lighting conditions to really come to life, and it uses the inferior Android TV operating system, which didnt give me access to some streaming apps. LGs webOS 25 OS, meanwhile, is virtually flawless in my opinion Im not such a fan of the new Magic Remote , however.

I did concede that the audio performance of the Aura 2 was far more
impressive than expected, delivering a powerful, detail-rich sound with effective object placement. For authentic surround sound, it can be connected to an external system, which I imagine would be just as tidy a solution as what a TV provides.

With projectors such as the Hisense C2 Ultra, however, I wouldve most likely set it up on my coffee table in the center of the room. While it can project
a large image from a short distance, my unit would have been too close for it to perform to its full potential. But then, where would I put my bottle of wine at night? Its not a compromise Im willing to make. The TV stays! Peak cinema

Since owning the LG G5, I have been more excited than ever to watch a wide variety of movies and TV shows. Ive even invested in a Sony UBP-X700 4K Blu-ray player and begun building my disc collection to take full advantage
of the screens technological wizardry.

For me, Ive hit peak cinema at least until the LG G6 comes along. You might also like I tested Samsung and Sonys 2025 QD-OLED TVs side-by-side, and its a battle for the ages HDMI 2.2 is officially ready to bring 4K 480Hz, and even up to 16K video heres when to expect it on TVs and monitors I tried the next-gen version of the best budget portable projector, and its an amazing all-rounder that should have Samsung worried



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/televisions/i-tried-a-super-bright-83-inch-oled-tv-a nd-now-projectors-are-ruined-for-me


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