I've been totally open about my love for the Sony Bravia 8 II. Not only is it the current What Hi-Fi? Awards TV of the year, it's also the TV I use at home.

Seeing as I've been reviewing TVs for almost 20 years, that hopefully says a lot.

The Bravia 8 II is also on sale right now, with the 65-inch version available for £2099 at Richer Sounds.

That's not the cheapest it's ever been (that would be £1979), but it's still a good price for what is an absolutely awesome TV.

If I were looking to buy a premium TV right now, though, it's the 65-inch LG C5 I would go for.

It's a step-down OLED rather than a flagship like the Bravia 8 II, but it's still an absolutely cracking all-rounder of a TV, and it's currently available for £1299 at Amazon.

That price difference is just too big to ignore.

In our review, we awarded the C5 five stars, praising it for delivering "excellent all-round performance" that punches well above its price.

It's one of those rare TVs that doesn't have any glaring weaknesses, making it an easy recommendation whether you're a movie buff, sports fan or gamer.

Picture quality is the obvious highlight. The C5 produces rich, vibrant colours without sacrificing authenticity, while its contrast is superb, delivering the deep blacks and bright highlights that OLED TVs are famous for.

It's also wonderfully sharp and detailed, with excellent motion handling that keeps everything from fast-paced football to blockbuster action films looking smooth and natural.

Gaming is another area where the LG excels. All four HDMI sockets support the full HDMI 2.1 specification, including 4K/165Hz, VRR and ALLM, making it one of the most comprehensively equipped gaming TVs around.

Now, let's be clear: the Sony Bravia 8 II is still the better TV. It's brighter, more vibrant and more refined, producing an even more cinematic and authentic picture. Its built-in sound system is also leagues ahead of the LG's, delivering audio that's fuller, weightier and more immersive than almost any other TV.

If money were no object, I'd still tell you to buy the Bravia 8 II.

But money almost always is an object. And when you're looking at an £800 price difference, the LG C5 becomes the smarter buy.

MORE:

Here are all of the best TVs and best TV deals available right now

And here are the best soundbars

If you’re looking for a new OLED TV over Prime Day, you will be pleased to learn that the five-star LG C6 we christened “the firm’s finest step-down model to date” mere weeks ago has had its price slashed.

Right now you can grab a 55-inch LG C6 for £1427.98 at Amazon. That is a solid £371.02 saving on the TV’s launch price.

But, before you go rushing to grab one, I’d urge you to check out the even better deal I have spotted on the older LG C5. You can pick one up on Amazon for £906.09. That’s a solid £993.91 saving on its launch RRP and the best price we have seen for it.

Why pick the LG C5 when the C6 offers a performance upgrade? It’s a good question, especially when our reviewers reported:

“[The LG C6] is a big upgrade by C-series standards. We don’t typically get too excited about processor upgrades, but the Alpha 11 Gen 3 has forced a brighter and richer performance out of the same OLED EX panel technology, and improved upscaling and shading subtlety. The extra brightness and richness have benefits across the picture, resulting in a more enticing, dynamic and three-dimensional delivery.”

The answer comes down to another key metric we always factor into our buying advice: value for money.

Yes, the C6 offers improvements on the C5. But, having run the two head to head in our test rooms, we don’t think they currently justify the difference in price. £423 is a lot of money, especially during a cost of living crisis. Even if you do have the spare cash, we can think of a better investment that will fix both TVs’ biggest weakness: their middling audio.

Neither set offers good enough audio quality for a truly immersive home cinema experience. So, even if you do have the cash to buy the C6 right now, we still recommend investing in the LG C5 and then using the money you have saved to buy a decent Dolby Atmos soundbar.

If you pull the trigger now, the five-star Sony Bravia Theatre System 6 featured in our best Dolby Atmos soundbars guide is selling for £399 at Amazon (save £150) right now. It will match wonderfully with the LG C5.

That price will even leave you with enough cash to invest in a cold pint, or iced coffee, to help get through the heatwave…

MORE:

These are the best OLED TVs we have reviewed

Check out our Prime Day 2026 home cinema deals live hub

Our picks of the best 55-inch TVs

We've waited 13 agonising years for GTA VI to finally hit consoles.

After what's felt like a never-ending onslaught of leaks, delays, and speculation, we're officially less than six months away from what could be the biggest gaming launch in history.

While securing a copy is top priority – pre-orders start at midnight tonight – I'm taking the release of this hotly anticipated title as an excuse to level up my gaming setup, and what better time to do it than during Amazon Prime Day?

I've found the ideal gaming TV, a soundbar system that will put you in the centre of the action, and a console that should not only be powerful enough to handle GTA VI but also ensure that the high-resolution, neon-adorned streets of Vice City shine in glorious 4K.

Regarding the console, I recommend the Sony PS5 Pro. We haven't reviewed it yet, but its dedicated upscaling feature leads us to believe that it will offer extra headroom for the expected demanding graphical requirements of GTA VI.

As someone who has gamed on a PS5 since launch (including the superb GTA V remaster), and has also been eyeing up a PS5 Pro since Sony unveiled it back in 2024, seeing it drop in price this close to GTA VI's official pre-order date simply feels like the fates aligning.

As for the TV, I felt as though the LG C5 was a no-brainer. It's our current Award-winner in various categories, including "best gaming TV", and the 55-inch (which is the size we reviewed first and can thoroughly recommend) is currently £1000 off – that's a mind-blowing saving.

It sports four full bandwidth HDMI sockets that support up to 4K/144Hz (or 4K/120Hz with the PS5 Pro), and LG's Game Dashboard feature will be the perfect sidekick during your car chases and shootouts this November.

Finally, the Samsung HW-Q990F (another Award-winner, no less) is also enjoying an unbelievable discount of just over £1000. With Dolby Atmos on board (which the PS5 Pro supports for gaming now), it's bound to get you immersed in GTA VI's sprawling city, especially with planes and helicopters soaring overhead.

And with another HDMI 2.1 socket on board (bringing the total of this system to five), we could even bestow it with the title of "best gaming soundbar".

However, what makes it truly stand out is the incredible subwoofer, which should add some serious low-end punch to gunshots, explosions and car engines.

All of the components listed here work in tandem to also deliver a superb home cinema experience, meaning movies, TV shows and music will also benefit from this do-it-all system too.

And with Prime Day in full swing, you can expect to save a staggering £2080 in total; what's not to like?

MORE:

Find the best Amazon Prime Day home cinema deals here

Check out our picks for the best gaming TVs

As well as the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

On Monday, I wrote about how tempted I was to buy the 42-inch LG C5, which had dropped to a record-low £649.

I already own what I consider to be the best OLED TV available – the awesome Sony Bravia 8 II – but, at that price, the C5 was well worth buying for use in my spare room, where it could perform gaming and work monitor duties, as well as the odd streaming binge.

But yesterday, I updated that story to point out that the price for the 42-inch had dropped to £623. The previous price that I had thought was unbeatable had been beaten.

And now, would you believe, it's been beaten again: the 42-inch LG C5 is down to just £611 at Amazon.

That's a nuts price for a TV this good.

At £611 from Amazon, the 42-inch LG C5 is one of those deals that feels almost too good to be true.

In our five-star review, we praised its wonderfully balanced OLED picture, excellent motion handling, natural colours and superb contrast, all of which combine to deliver a brilliantly engaging and authentic viewing experience.

It's also among the most comprehensively specified gaming TVs available, with four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets supporting 4K/144Hz, VRR, ALLM and Dolby Vision gaming.

The sound is fairly ordinary, but that's a common weakness among TVs at any price and one that's easily fixed with one of the best budget soundbars.

Everything else about the C5 feels premium, making this deal particularly impressive. At £611, you're getting a TV that performs like a flagship for little more than the price of many mid-range rivals.

MORE:

Here are all the best TVs you can buy right now

And here are all of the best Amazon Prime Day TV deals

TVs are getting bigger, and bigger… and bigger.

Hisense and TCL have been selling 116-inch and 115-inch TVs for quite some time now – and both of those look fairly modest compa red with Samsung’s behemoth 130-inch RGB Micro LED TV, which was unveiled at CES 2026.

The sensibly sized living rooms of many British homes are simply not built for a TV of that size – and many will find a proper surround sound package to be a squeeze as well. So does that mean you simply can’t fit a home cinema system into your house?

Of course it doesn’t!

We have tested plenty of smaller TVs and soundbars with modest footprints; and what they lack in size, they make up for in performance.

In fact, I have built a complete system, which includes a 42-inch OLED TV from LG, a superb scaled-down Hisense soundbar package (which even supports Dolby Atmos), and a five-star Amazon streamer that is no bigger than your average chocolate bar.

All of these products are Award-winners and, thanks to Amazon Prime Day, they are now all hugely discounted. At launch, this set-up would have cost you £1418; thanks to some pretty astonishing Prime Day discounts, it can now be yours for just £862.

This trio of petite home-cinema gadgets strikes the three core pillars of any good home cinema setup: picture, sound, and content.

And if you are happy to use LG’s webOS software platform and don’t mind a slight decrease in picture and sound performance, you could ditch the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max entirely, saving you a further £40.

The 42-inch LG C5, a compact OLED TV, is the definition of small yet mighty. Sporting a panel that delivers inky blacks and perfect contrast with ease, the C5 is a superb choice for movies – it’s and our pick for the best gaming TV, too.

We applauded its sharp, warm and rich picture, which we felt was hugely cinematic despite the comparatively small screen size from the 55- and 65-inch sets we usually test.

Furthermore, its gaming features are second to none. With a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz – ideal for PC gamers and more than enough for console gamers – and four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets. The smaller display also makes this a solid choice for dedicated gaming rooms, and it can even be used as an oversized desktop monitor.

The only area that the C5 stumbles in is sound. OLED TVs, in our experience, often disappoint when it comes to their built-in sound systems, and it’s no surprise that a TV this small doesn’t break the mould.

That’s where the Hisense AX5125H comes in. Tongue twister of a name aside, this soundbar system delivers proper surround sound at a price as modest as its footprint. The package includes a soundbar, subwoofer and two surround speakers, all of which pair wirelessly and with very little fuss out of the box.

We were surprised by its weight, scale, and spaciousness, which (much like the C5) far exceed its size. Dolby Atmos is supported with two dedicated upward-firing drivers on the main soundbar unit, and there’s even an HDMI 2.0 passthrough socket. (Maybe Sonos could learn a thing or two.)

The LG and Hisense make a great cinematic space-saving duo – and, in truth, you could leave it there. But by adding the heavily discounted, Award-winning Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max, you get a pretty big streaming upgrade.

Amazon’s top-tier Fire TV Stick delivers 4K streams with oodles of detail and natural colours, and with an extremely comprehensive selection of apps, you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to content.

If you’re looking longingly at our best TV deals and best soundbar deals pages, but think that you can’t get involved with the Prime Day sales due to a lack of space, then hopefully this petite (and massively discounted) home cinema setup has changed your mind.

MORE:

Check out the best Amazon Prime Day AV deals live

As well as the best Amazon Prime Day hi-fi deals

And find the best OLED TV deals here

We all love a bargain, which is why many of you may be looking for a stellar Prime Day deal on an LG C5.

And why not? The 42-inch LG C5, 48-inch LG C5 and 55-inch LG C5 all earned five-star ratings. The range also picked up not one, but three trophies during our latest What Hi-Fi? Awards.

And, while it has since been replaced by the five-star LG C6, having tested the two head-to-head in our viewing rooms, we can confirm the older C5 remains a very competitive performer and a valid option for any movie fan – especially when discounted.

At first glance, this is especially true right now, with pretty much every size of the LG C5 currently discounted. You can see a quick Cliff Notes of the best early Prime Day deals we’ve spotted on each below.

• Get the 42-inch LG C5 for £649 at Richer Sounds (save £750).
• Get the 48-inch LG C5 down to £759 at Richer Sounds (save £650)
• Get the 55-inch LG C5 down to £989 at Richer Sounds (save £910)
• Get the 65-inch LG C5 down to £1299 at Richer Sounds (save £1400)
• Get the 83-inch LG C5 down to £3052 at Richer Sounds (save £2480)

So, it’s a no-brainer, right? Time to click that magic checkout button and treat yourself to a shiny new OLED?

It would be all too easy to say yes, as those are solid prices on very good TVs. In fact, the 83-inch LG C5 deal is the best price we’ve seen on the giant OLED.

But, if you want my advice, I’d not pull the trigger yet, as I think the C5 will go down in price even further during Prime Day.

There are two simple reasons why. First, because while those are very good prices, outside of the 83-inch deal, we’ve seen all the other sizes slightly cheaper in the past. Not always by much, but £50 saved is a big deal for a lot of us right now, given the current cost of living crisis.

Second, because Prime Day tends to bring particularly impressive deals on C-series sets. Last year, we saw prices for the older C4 hit record lows across multiple sizes during Prime Day, and my instincts tell me the same will happen for the C5 this year.

Which is why, with Prime Day not even officially started, my advice right now is to wait and see what the actual event brings to the table. After all, you only have a few more hours to wait…

MORE:

Check out our Prime Day Home Cinema Deals Live Hub

We rank the best OLED TVs

Our picks of the best TVs money can buy

I am a very lucky guy: the best TV I've ever tested (and I've been reviewing TVs for 19 years) is also now the TV I use at home.

That TV is the Sony Bravia 8 II, and it really is as awesome to live with as I had expected.

• View all the Prime Day deals

Why, then, am I eyeing up another TV in the Amazon Prime Day sales?

Two reasons: I'd love to add an OLED to my spare room for gaming, and this deal is just too exceptional to pass up.

£623 at Amazon is just unbelievable for a TV this good, and it takes it from a super-premium option that would have to be your main TV, to a good price to pay for a second room TV.

My plan for this 42-inch OLED is to use it as a gaming TV and a monitor for work.

Its gaming specs are impeccable: four HDMI 2.1 sockets that all fully support 4K/144Hz, 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM; a superbly implemented HGIG mode for super-accurate HDR in games; and a Dolby Vision gaming mode.

It's great as a monitor, too, with neat, user-created software available that enables monitor-style features such as auto-wake.

Even if you've no interest in gaming or productivity, though, the 42-inch C5 is awesome for TV shows and movies, with a really balanced and authentic performance that makes full use of OLED's perfect blacks and pixel-level contrast control.

Other than the limp sound (which I recommend solving with one of the best budget soundbars), this TV is great at everything it does, and I think it's just irresistible at this price.

MORE:

Here are all the best TVs you can buy right now

And here are all of the best Amazon Prime Day TV deals

Sony has added Direct Connect support to more of its TVs, including multiple Award-winning OLED sets.

The Japanese AV brand originally launched its Direct Connect feature with its duo of new True RGB TVs, the Bravia 9 II and Bravia 7 II.

The feature lets users connect a pair of the brand's latest Rear 9 or Rear 8 surround speakers and a compatible subwoofer directly to their TV. Compatible subwoofer models include the Sub 7, Sub 8 or Sub 9

The feature uses the TV's speakers as the centre, left and right channels, with the connected speakers providing surround sound and low-end support.

While it launched as an exclusive feature for the 2026 range, Sony has updated a selection of TVs from 2023, 2024 and 2025 to support the wireless surround sound feature. The list of included models is as follows:

• A95L (2023)
• Bravia 9 (2024)
• Bravia 8 II (2025)
• Bravia 8 (2024)
• Bravia 7 (2024)
• Bravia 5 (2025)

We're especially pleased to see the A95L featured here, as while we praised its built-in sound system in our review, we also reported: "we rather wish Sony gave you the option to add a subwoofer directly to the A95L, as that would make it even more formidable".

Job done, thanks to this update. Unfortunately, the Award-winning A80L misses the cut, as do other premium Sony sets from 2023, including the X95L and X90L.

While it may sound similar to LG's new Dolby Atmos Sound Suite range, Sony's system works slightly differently. Direct Connect does not use Dolby Atmos Flex Connect, and a maximum of two speakers and one subwoofer can be connected. LG's system allows for multiple sets of speakers to be paired directly with the TV.

Furthermore, Sony intends for users to place the speakers behind or adjacent to the listening position to create a surround sound effect, rather than using them as dedicated front left and right channels.

The update is rolling out now in Europe and the US, and it brings Sony's My Cinema interface, which collects the picture and sound features into a new-looking user interface, to the models mentioned above.

MORE:

Check out our picks for the best Sony soundbars

As well as the best OLED TVs

And read our full LG Sound Suite System review here

Can you believe that there was a time when Samsung didn’t feature a single OLED TV in its range? That all changed in 2022, when it put its spin on OLED by adding a layer of Quantum Dots and launched the excellent S95B QD-OLED TV.

Five years later, the brand is now reaping the benefits of the self-emissive panel technology. It now makes some of the finest OLED TVs around – take the five-star S95F and S90F duo from last year – and its 2026 lineup features more OLED TVs than ever before.

Of course, Samsung was never going to celebrate half a decade of OLED success without taking things up a notch, which is why it has introduced a new, rather unusual flagship model that takes inspiration from one of the brand's other most successful models.

That new flagship OLED is the S99H, a premium QD-OLED TV that oozes style and sophistication, thanks at least in part to its aesthetic similarities to the wildly successful, design-led The Frame LCD range.

Here, though, those smart good looks have been blended with the core abilities of the excellent S95F – with a generous helping of performance upgrades for good measure.

The result? A showstopping OLED TV that blends style and substance, and one that we think could dethrone the current reigning champion of our best OLED TV list: the Sony Bravia 8 II.

Price

We have the 55-inch Samsung S99H before us today, and it’s officially priced at £2499, though in true Samsung fashion, that launch pricing hasn’t stuck around for long. We’re already seeing a £100 decrease across all sizes, which puts the 65-inch version at £3199, the 77-inch model at £4199, and the 83-inch size at £5999.

Now, we need to clear something up regarding model numbers for different regions.

In the US and Australia, Samsung is calling this model the S95H. Despite the different name, it is an identical TV. In these regions, you’ll find the 55-inch S95H for $2500 / AU$3999, the 65-inch S95H for $3400 / AU$5299, the 77-inch S95H for $4500 / AU$7999, and the 83-inch S95H for $6500 / AU$9995.

That's not the end of the story, though. To confuse things even more, Samsung is selling a model under the S95H name here in the UK, too, but it’s a different TV. From what we gather, it is the same TV as the S99H, but without the metal frame-style design. In fact, it looks identical to last year’s S95F.

So, to reiterate, the S99H we're testing here is known as the S95H in the US and Australia, but that is not the same as the UK's S95H TV. Yes, we have given some constructive feedback to Samsung on all of this.

Got all that? Then let's consider the S99H's competition, which primarily comes in the form of Sony’s awesome, Award-winning Bravia 8 II, the 55-inch version of which, after around a year on sale, now costs around £1799 / $2600 / AU$3995. That makes it significantly cheaper than the S99H in the UK, but there's rough pricing parity between the two TVs in the US and Australia.

There’s also the 55-inch LG G6 to consider, which appears to be widely discounted to £1840 here in the UK, but is so far sticking to its $2500 / AU$3995 launch price in the US and Australia, respectively.

Design

We’re confident in saying that this is one of the most unusual-looking TVs to enter our AV testing room.

Samsung clearly took inspiration from its hugely popular The Frame TV when it came to designing the S99H, and while this television’s looks won’t be to everyone’s taste, we’re just pleased to see a TV company that’s willing to push the boat out when it comes to design.

The S99H features a two-layer design, with an OLED screen section mounted onto a slightly larger metal backplate, with a roughly 2cm gap between. Samsung calls this its “FloatLayer” design.

It’s hard to describe, but the effect it gives is essentially a floating OLED panel surrounded by a premium metal frame. Much like LG’s G-series, this TV is designed to be wall-mounted, and while we can’t do that in our testing room, we have seen it wall-mounted at various hands-on events leading up to launch.

In short, the S99H looks like a work of art when it's fixed to a wall, as the floating design becomes really quite striking and effective. Despite the two-layer design, the overall depth is just 2.8cm, which also helps to sell the futuristic look that Samsung is going for.

Unfortunately, the TV doesn’t look quite as suave when it’s set up in its tabletop configuration. Samsung includes two quite cheap-feeling plastic feet with the TV that feel somewhat at odds with the rest of the premium design, and the metal bezel and floating design look less convincing when it's not attached to a wall.

Samsung also includes two remotes in the box: a “traditional” button-heavy number, and a sleeker “smart” remote. The latter includes both a USB-C socket and a small solar panel on the back for easy recharging, though it’s frustratingly not backlit. Then again, neither are the remotes included with the aforementioned Sony or LG TVs, so we can’t knock Samsung too much here.

Features

Samsung’s penchant for cramming (almost) every imaginable feature into its TVs is, once again, evident with the S99H.

We’ll start with the QD-OLED display, which Samsung has managed to squeeze even more brightness out of since we last saw it on the S95F. It can now reportedly reach a whopping 2700 nits in the Movie picture mode, and as you’ll come to find out in the picture section of this review, there are plenty of instances in which we find ourselves being taken aback by how bright this TV can get.

Samsung has also improved its Glare Free coating this year, making it more effective at combating reflections and glare from ambient light. The matte display also makes artwork from Samsung’s Art Mode feature look more realistic for those who want a TV that blends into its surroundings.

In usual Samsung fashion, HDR support comes in the form of HDR10+ (including the Adaptive and Gaming versions), HDR10 and HLG, but not Dolby Vision.

Samsung's answer to Dolby Vision 2, HDR10+ Advanced, is also supported by the S99H. Unfortunately, no content is available in the new format yet, and we don't have a date for its arrival. Amazon is said to be working on adding it to Prime Video in the not too distant future, though.

Hardcore PC gamers will be pleased to learn that the S99H can handle signals right up to 4K/165Hz, as well as the console-friendly 4K/120Hz format, across all four of its HDMI 2.1 sockets. VRR, ALLM and HDR10+ Gaming are also all supported.

All of the connections are built into a side-facing nook in the rear of the TV, which is a departure from the One Connect box that has come with Samsung’s previous flagship OLED TVs.

One Connect does live on, though, and in a quite remarkable way: Samsung is offering an optional Wireless One Connect accessory, which is set to launch in July for £299 / $350 (AU price TBC).

This features four HDMI sockets, and because it connects to the S99H wirelessly, it takes the total HDMI 2.1 socket count to a staggering eight. That’s enough to support all three of the current-generation consoles, a gaming PC, a 4K Blu-ray player, a soundbar or AVR, and a streaming device, and you’d still have one spare.

The S99H also supports Dolby Atmos, both via HDMI eARC and through its built-in 4.2.2-channel 70W sound system.

Samsung offers two simplistic sound modes, Standard and Amplify, but there is also a range of Samsung-specific sound processing features based on its Vision AI platform, including Object Tracking Sound Plus, Active Voice Amplifier Pro, Adaptive Sound Pro, and AI Sound Controller Pro; all of which are fairly self-explanatory.

Q Symphony also returns. This allows you to use the TV’s speakers in unison with those of a connected Samsung soundbar, but it should be approached with caution – we generally find that a good soundbar performs best when the less capable speakers of a TV don't get involved.

AI also steps in to help with picture processing, as Samsung has implemented its 4K AI Upscaling Pro, AI Motion Enhancer Pro and Auto HDR Remastering Pro features, alongside a Real Depth Enhancer contrast enhancement system and Colour Booster Pro.

On the subject of AI, Samsung has applied its “AI for All” mantra in swathes here, as the S99H is positively dripping in artificial intelligence, right down to the AI button on the remote.

A click of this button brings up Samsung’s Vision AI interface, which can recognise on-screen content and provide extra contextual information. This includes related content, cast information and prompts to find out more detailed information about the show or movie.

Scrolling from this page brings us to a more generalised AI interface, from which Samsung allows you to pick your preferred system. Here you can ask for recipes, generate AI wallpapers, or ask general questions. The sky is, hypothetically, the limit.

This is all made possible by the same NQ4 AI Gen3 Processor found in last year’s S95F, as well as Samsung’s Tizen OS platform. The operating system has had a fairly comprehensive refresh for 2026, with a new content bar at the top that splits your apps into categories including entertainment, gaming and art, and the operation feels generally slicker.

App coverage is mostly excellent, with a wide range of international and domestic streaming applications. Currently, the only missing app is BBC iPlayer; we’ve reached out to Samsung, which says that it expects to add iPlayer support soon.

Samsung TV Plus, which features hundreds of free over-the-internet streaming channels, is also included, and gamers are well looked after thanks to the presence of apps for services such as Xbox, Amazon Luna, and Nvidia GeForce Now.

Picture quality

It’s clear that Samsung has been working to tweak and adjust its picture processing over the years in the pursuit of achieving that final pinch of picture quality excellence, and the S99H is evidence that its work has paid off. This is Samsung’s most mature TV yet, and it’s all the better for that.

We opt for Filmmaker Mode as our preferred picture preset, albeit with a couple of tweaks to get the best performance possible: we switch Colour Temperature from its Warm 2 default to Warm 1, and turn the judder and blur reduction settings up to 1.

The resulting picture is extraordinary, and it makes any content we throw at it – from Blade Runner 2049, Civil War, Pan and Drive, to No Time To Die and The Batman – shine. We have the S99F set up next to the Award-winning Sony Bravia 8 II, and despite the tough competition, the Samsung delivers an unflinching visual feast.

Starting with the opening scene of Blade Runner 2049, we find that the S99H serves up oodles of contrast, which results in a deeply three-dimensional picture with superb highlights.

The overhead shot of the solar farm instantly draws us in, thanks to the superb detail levels mixed with the excellent sense of depth. We also approve of how the S99H handles the gloomy, bluish-grey sky, as well as the skin tones of Officer K and Sapper Morton.

In fact, the S99H makes the Sony Bravia 8 II look a bit green in our head-to-head comparison, and skin tones start to look a bit pasty, too. Sony TVs have traditionally leaned towards the cooler side when it comes to colour reproduction, even in Filmmaker Mode, but it’s interesting to see these TVs take a different approach, particularly as they use the same panel technology.

This is most evident in the scene from Pan in which the floating pirate ship enters a cavern; the Samsung runs rings around the Sony when it comes to maintaining low-light colour volume. Skin tones are noticeably warmer and more vibrant on the Samsung in this instance. That being said, the Sony is evidently better at maintaining shadow detail.

In fact, some shadow detail is lost entirely on the S99H, especially during dark sequences in moodier flicks such as Drive and The Batman. In both films, we find facial features and clothing textures occasionally succumb to darkness, while the Sony has no trouble keeping them visible.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Samsung takes the crown when it comes to delivering dazzlingly bright highlights; in fact, we’re adding the S99H to the list of TVs that we’ve had to shield our eyes from physically.

Reverting to the exceptionally bright (and critically dismal) Pan, we find the mix of punchy, concentrated highlights and rich colours stealing our attention away from the Sony entirely.

However, the more conventional-looking Civil War is the perfect test disc to highlight exactly what this TV does well. Everything from the night-time forest fire sequence to a helicopter gliding over a lake and the Charlottesville military camp looks fantastic.

There’s a real sense of nuance here that previous Samsung TVs haven’t always been able to capture. Foliage, for example, is wonderfully textured and detailed without looking over-etched, and while the colours do seem a smidge over-saturated compared with those from the Bravia 8 II, it's not to an extent that looks instinctively wrong.

The sequence that shows the journalists driving through a forest fire seals the deal here. The mix of detail, depth and contrast served up by the S99H is remarkable – the striking, bright flames contrast wonderfully with the dark background, and there is a real sense of intensity and warmth derived from how Samsung's OLED handles highlights.

We fire up the standard Blu-ray of Logan to assess the S99H’s upscaling capabilities, and it's a similar story here, too. Detail levels are superb, and if we weren’t so eagle-eyed, the S99H could almost have fooled us into thinking we were watching a 4K disc.

Colours are also nicely balanced, and motion remains solid, too. This TV excels regardless of what you throw at it.

Sound

It’s not just the picture performance that Samsung has improved. Sound has also been upgraded, which is a good sign after the S95F’s middling delivery.

We stick with Civil War, which highlights everything from dialogue to explosions, and even Dolby Atmos height effects. The rhythmic swooping of helicopter blades is delivered with a strong leading edge, underpinned by a pleasingly controlled dose of bass.

Moving on to the scene in which Lee and Jessie have a heart-to-heart conversation in a wooded area, we approve of how the S99H captures the subtle characteristics of their voices well, and overall, the dialogue is crisp and well-defined. The atmospheric effects, including birds chirping and leaves rustling in the wind, sound pleasingly spacious, too.

There is plenty of height and width to the sound, which is also evident in Blade Runner 2049. The sequence in which Officer K returns to his home from the police precinct is another example of how the S99H captures atmospheric sounds to great effect.

The booming audio adverts are placed with impressive precision and plenty of height, while the S99H somehow manages to beam the sound of the bustling street in a way that creates a fairly convincing sense of immersion.

While we’re on the subject of Blade Runner, we put the S99H through our usual chapter two stress test and find that Samsung has changed its approach. Where many of the brand's previous models have been quite bassy but a little prone to distortion, the S99H digs less deep but proves to be almost entirely distortion-free.

Sony takes a similar approach with the Bravia 8 II (and many other of its TVs), and we ultimately find it to be a sensible compromise. We would of course like more bass weight, but if that has to be sacrificed somewhat to reduce distracting distortion, then so be it.

It’s not all good news on the sonic front, though: like the S95F, the S99H simply doesn't go very loud. Even close to its maximum volume levels, this is an easy TV to talk over. The Amplify setting helps to negate this somewhat, but it does result in some dynamic compression.

The Sony Bravia 8 II also does a better job of organising the sound during scenes with lots of competing effects. The ending battle of Civil War is a perfect example, as the Sony balances dialogue, explosions, and vehicle sounds with care to create a more impactful and immersive soundscape.

With all that said, the S99H is still a big improvement over the S95F where sound is concerned, and it's ultimately a very usable (and even enjoyable) built-in sound system.

Verdict

There’s no other way of putting it; Samsung has knocked it out of the park with the S99H.

With a refined approach to picture tuning, a feature set that (with one key caveat) many TVs can only dream of, and a greatly improved sound system compared with last year’s model, the company’s latest flagship OLED TV takes the title from the S95F as the best TV the company has made to date.

The bold new design might not suit all tastes, and die-hard Dolby Vision fans may be disappointed, but we’re struggling to find reasons not to recommend the Samsung S99H to anyone considering splashing some serious cash on a flagship OLED TV.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony Bravia 8 II

Also consider the LG G6

Read our Philips OLED910 review

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and budget Mini LED sets tried and tested

Sony has just announced its two new “True RGB” TVs for 2026, and it should come as no surprise that I am rather excited to test them out.

The Japanese giant has delivered a slew of superb TVs since its most recent Bravia relaunch in 2024. The Bravia 8 and Bravia 8 II are two OLED TVs that I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone looking for a premium, cinematic TV; and the Bravia 7 and Bravia 5 are both superb mid-range options that don’t compromise on picture quality.

While the Bravia 9 wasn’t perfect, it hinted towards Sony’s future ambitions, and in many ways it showed some serious promise. With its successor, the Bravia 9 II (and its step-down sibling, the Bravia 7 II) now official, things are all clicking into place.

Well, almost everything…

While I haven’t seen these TVs in action yet – my fellow What Hi-Fi? Team AV members have been lucky enough to, and you can check out their Bravia 9 II and Bravia 7 II hands-on reviews here – there is one hiccup on the spec sheets for both TVs. And it’s a bit of a tough pill to swallow.

Once again, there is only a limited number of HDMI 2.1 sockets. Both the Bravia 9 II and Bravia 7 II sport just two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets, and one of these has to double as the eARC socket.

This means that if you have a Dolby Atmos soundbar without HDMI 2.1 passthrough (such as the Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra) and more than one of the latest gaming consoles (and/or a gaming PC), then you’re going to need to make some performance sacrifices with at least one of them; namely, 4K/120Hz support with VRR.

Sony hopes that you’ll be using one of its home theatre sound systems with your Bravia TV, most of which (but not all) feature HDMI 2.1 passthrough support, which does negate this issue.

But with LG and Samsung offering four full-bandwidth sockets for nearly seven years, and now Philips and Hisense offering an equal number on their premium 2026 TVs, it’s becoming harder to justify Sony’s exclusion.

Especially when we remember that this is one of the biggest names in gaming. Sony’s own PlayStation 5 continues to dominate this generation of console gaming, and while there are some Sony TV-specific features you can unlock by connecting the PS5 with a Bravia TV, we still think it is best paired with an LG C-series OLED.

To give Sony some credit, the Bravia 9 II and 7 II have clearly been in development for quite some time; our TV and AV Editor, Tom Parsons, first saw an early prototype of Sony’s True RGB TVs back in early 2025, and I followed up with a behind-closed-doors demo at IFA 2025.

Sony told us that it was already too far into development using the existing flagship MediaTek chipset (we presume this to mean the Pentonic 1000 or 900) to switch to the newer Pentonic 800, which Philips and Hisense are using on their respective flagship TVs this year, to achieve the full suite of HDMI 2.1 sockets.

That being said, Sony has been outfitting its TVs with just two HDMI 2.1 sockets for quite some time now; the A80L sitting in my living room, which is more than three years old, only has two full-bandwidth ports.

Ironically, if you want a Sony TV with four HDMI 2.1 sockets, you’ll have to look far past the new True RGB range and opt for the Bravia 3 II, which leans towards the budget end of things with its direct-lit, global dimming LED display.

While it’s not a dealbreaker – certainly for most consumers – and I’m still very keen to see how these new True RGB TVs will perform, Sony’s gaming stumble is hard to ignore.

We’ll be sure to test how the Bravia 9 II and 7 II interact with a PS5 during our testing, so keep your eyes peeled for our upcoming reviews coming soon.

MORE:

Read our Sony Bravia 9 II hands-on review

As well as our LG C6 65-inch review

And check out our picks for the best TVs

Sony is on a roll with the sheer volume of products it is delivering at the moment, with the Xperia 1 VIII smartphone and the 1000X The Collexion wired headphones storming the scene earlier this year.

Home cinema fans have not been forgotten either, as there is a range of new TVs hitting the market as well.

That includes the Sony Bravia 7 II, which the brand is presenting as the little brother of the Sony Bravia 9 II. Both of these models are the poster boys of the brand’s first RGB LED TV venture, under the punchy name ‘True RGB’. Sony says this technology offers “up to four times the colour volume of the OLED” and outdoes Mini LED brightness, dubbing it “virtually infinite in colour, brightness and depth”.

Those are strong claims, but how does the technology actually perform? I got a preview of the Sony Bravia 7 II at an event in Sony’s European headquarters. I didn’t get the chance for any serious testing, but it certainly gave me a taste of what will be entering our test room.

Price

Sony has released UK pricing for the Bravia 7 II, which you can find below, alongside the launch pricing for the Sony Bravia 7. We're awaiting US and Australian pricing, but we'll update this table when that information is given to us:

As you might have guessed, the inclusion of the sparkling new technology has resulted in a rise in pricing for this year’s models. We don’t have the pricing for other regions yet, but we can be pretty sure those regions will also see a price hike. It’s also good to see two new sizing options, with the smaller 50-inch and the gigantic 98inch models now added.

Also on the market at roughly the same level is the LG C6; that OLED’s 65-inch model launched at £2500 / $2699 / AU$3999, and we gave it a dazzling five-star verdict, praising its rich picture quality and brightness.

Design

The Bravia 7 II is a bit of a departure from its predecessor in terms of design, especially with its stand. Instead of sporting two separate feet at the bottom, there is a ‘mirage stand’ which offers a transparent strip of plastic to conceal wires under the base of your screen.

There wasn’t much to hide when I saw the TV in action at the showcase, but it created a decent illusion that there was no clutter beneath the set. The stand is available with all of the Bravia 7 II models, with the exception of the 98-inch model.

There’s a brand-new remote control with this model as well. It looks sleek yet practical, and features a backlight so you can use it easily while watching movies in the dark. It can also be recharged via a USB-C port and is made from 80% recycled plastic.

As a whole, the TV feels sturdy and well built. It has a plastic bezel around the screen, where the more expensive Bravia 9 II uses metal, so it feels slightly less premium to the touch in comparison. Despite that, the Bravia 7 II offers a sturdily designed screen.

Features

Also a new addition for this line is Sony’s X Wide Pro feature, which the brand claims to allow “colours [to] stay consistent even at wide viewing angles”. To test this, I tried watching the screen from some fairly challenging angles: brightness and colour vibrancy levels remained impressively strong.

This is a noticeable improvement over the Bravia 7, as we found that backlight blooming became more noticeable if you have to watch the TV from a wide angle.

As mentioned, the Sony Bravia 7 II is offering ‘True RGB’ technology. At its core, RGB Mini LED places independent red, green and blue LEDs into an optical lens behind an LCD panel. This differs from Mini LED technology, which uses blue LEDs that must be converted to red and green (recently, this has most widely been achieved using Quantum Dots). That should, in theory, lead to a brighter performance and a wider colour gamut than OLED and Mini LED.

Sony has not gone into a whole lot of detail on the nitty-gritty, but we do know the sets feature “new backlight drive” technology.

When asked about the number of dimming zones and maximum brightness levels, Sony’s representatives kept schtum about the details. All it has said so far is that it will offer “exceptionally high peak brightness” and “precise luminance control”.

The TV is also powered by Sony’s proprietary RGB Backlight Master Drive Pro, which “drives each LED with high precision, improving brightness, reducing blooming, and producing purer colour than conventional Mini LED displays”.

Samsung, Hisense, LG, Philips and TCL are also launching TVs this year featuring their own take on RGB Mini LED, so we think it's fair to say that Sony has its fair share of competition in this space.

The Sony Bravia 7 II supports Dolby Vision, but there is no HDR10+ on the cards. That’s the same story for all Sony TVs on the market, but it's still a bit of a shame for those looking for comprehensive HDR support.

Sony is also offering “Studio Calibrated” modes for streaming platforms, including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which should adjust the picture depending on what service you are using.

Audio-wise, Sony has outfitted the 65-inch model that I saw with two full-range drivers and two subwoofers, creating a total audio power output of 40W. Sony has been very clear that this arrangement differs depending on the screen size, with the larger screen options slated to sport beefier built-in sound systems.

At the back of the TV, you will find four HDMI ports, including two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets. Having just two seems like a bit of a shame, especially considering one doubles as your HDMI eARC socket for connecting external audio devices.

Hisense's UR8, a competing step-down RGB Mini LED TV, has four full bandwidth sockets, as do Samsung and LG's upcoming RGB Mini LED sets.

Picture

I saw the Bravia 7 II briefly in action, side by side with the rival LG C6. Both of the sets were in the Vivid picture mode, though, and I didn’t get a chance to fiddle around with the settings to get them to my liking. That makes it hard to judge, and we will need to wait until we can test the TV in our own test room before we make a verdict.

But we can certainly get a glimpse of how the Bravia 7 II performs from the showcase. When watching a scene from Angry Birds, Red’s feathers look colourful and punchy. There is a little more detail in the feathers of the round bird compared with the C6 as well. The shadow detail in his furrowed black monobrow is a little clearer with the LG model, however.

Switching to Aladdin, as our hero makes his way around a spice market, there is a solid sense of three-dimensionality, which gives the scene an immersive feel. It’s also an impressively bright picture, especially when put head to head with the LG OLED, and there is not much difference between the two from this first look.

As I said, this brief glimpse is not enough to comment properly on the picture quality, but it still looks popping and detailed, judging from the Vivid mode.

Sound

Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear a peep from the Sony Bravia 7 II. When sound was played, it was through the newly announced Sony Bravia Trio soundbar package (which we should get to hear in our test room soon).

What we do know is that Sony’s AI-powered Voice Zoom 3 is included with the new model, which lets you customise the volume of voices and ambient audio. The brand is also offering “evolved” 3D Surround Upscaling, which it says can expand stereo into wider 3D surround.

When we reviewed the 55-inch Sony Bravia 7, we found that it creates a “soundstage that projects nicely away from the TV’s physical chassis” and we called it “very good for a TV in this price category”. Hopefully, Sony maintains this strong audio performance with the next generation.

Early verdict

It’s too early to give a verdict on the Sony Bravia 7 II, and we will have to wait until we get the model in our test room to give a thorough review.

Sony’s launch into ‘True RGB’ is certainly an exciting proposition, and our first look at the TV shows that it offers promising vibrancy and three-dimensionality.

We will have to see if these strong first impressions hold up after our thorough review process.

MORE:

Check out our review of the Sony Bravia 7

This is our LG C6 review

These are the best TVs

It might surprise you to learn that, expensive though they can be, there’s not a lot of profit in TVs. That’s why manufacturers have increasingly been trying to sell add-ons alongside them – most notably soundbars.

Of course, any soundbar will work with any TV via the universal HDMI eARC connection, so brands have had to find ways to incentivise buyers to stay loyal to a single ecosystem.

Partly, that’s been through bundle deals – “buy one of our TVs and get money off one of our soundbars”, that sort of thing – but manufacturers have also introduced synergistic features such as integrated controls, wireless TV-to-soundbar audio connections and, most controversially, systems that synchronise the speakers in both devices.

Why is that controversial? Because, broadly speaking, these features are usually worse than simply using the soundbar on its own – yet buyers are often led to believe they are missing out if they don’t enable them.

Thankfully, Sony is discontinuing its version of the feature, Acoustic Centre Sync, in future TVs and home cinema products. Now I’d like Samsung and LG to do the same with Q-Symphony and WOW Orchestra.

To be fair, the concept behind these features does make a certain amount of sense. Why buy a soundbar only to completely disable the speakers built into your TV? Isn’t that just wasting audio hardware you have already paid for?

There are also genuine theoretical benefits. The TV’s speakers can be used to anchor effects and dialogue more directly to the screen, particularly when the soundbar sits low beneath the display.

That’s especially true of Sony’s OLED TVs, which use actuators to vibrate the panel itself in order to create sound. The audio quite literally comes from the screen. If any company was going to make this concept work convincingly, it was probably Sony.

The problem, though, is that even very good TV speakers are generally nowhere near as capable as the speakers in a decent soundbar. In fact, most TV speakers are deeply compromised by the physical limitations of modern ultra-thin TVs.

So when a manufacturer asks the TV and soundbar to work together, you’re often shifting part of the audio workload from the better speaker system to the worse one.

Brands use clever digital signal processing and calibration to create spatial and tonal cohesion between the two systems, and the technical achievement can actually be pretty impressive. But TV speakers and soundbar drivers are so fundamentally different that the result rarely sounds entirely natural or convincing.

To be absolutely clear, there are exceptions. Some specific TV and soundbar combinations can sound pretty good with these features enabled, usually because the manufacturer has spent time properly tuning that exact pairing.

The problem is that most combinations won’t have received that level of optimisation – yet the feature is still there, still heavily marketed and usually switched on by default.

Most people will naturally assume that a feature promoted so heavily by the manufacturer must improve performance, so will leave it enabled without a second thought. Even enthusiasts who are sceptical enough to question it often need to spend a frustrating amount of time A/B testing lots of different content before deciding whether it actually sounds better or worse.

The result is that plenty of people who buy a TV and soundbar from the same brand are unknowingly getting a diluted audio experience rather than an upgraded one.

Whether Sony would phrase it this way or not, discontinuing Acoustic Centre Sync feels like an acknowledgement that the compromises often outweigh the benefits. The company doesn’t want you buying one of its broadly excellent soundbars only to undermine its performance by involving the often inferior speakers in your TV.

I think that’s the right decision.

In most cases, people who spend good money on a soundbar deserve to hear that soundbar operating at its full potential. Sony appears to have recognised that, and I hope Samsung and LG eventually do the same.

MORE:

Here are the best TVs and best soundbars you can buy right now

Read our Sony Bravia 9 II hands-on review

And our Sony Bravia 7 II hands-on review

Sony has finally announced its full 2026 TV range, and guess what’s missing? That’s right – OLED.

It was long suspected that the brand’s new flagship model would be an RGB Mini LED set to replace the Bravia 9 ‘standard’ LED model. And, sure enough, that’s precisely what we’ve got, in the form of the technically formidable Bravia 9 II.

What I wasn’t expecting, though, was no new OLED in the range at all.

No replacement for the Bravia 8 II is no surprise: Sony works on two-year lifecycles for most of its models, and the company’s awesome QD-OLED set is only a year old.

And I’m beyond expecting a replacement to the A90K, which launched way back in 2022 but appears to have been sentenced to lifetime imprisonment in the warehouses of Amazon, Currys and John Lewis.

I was, though, expecting the Bravia 8 to get a replacement. Now two years old, Sony’s W-OLED model is struggling to justify itself against last year’s LG C5 and the newer C6. Surely a nip-and-tuck upgrade would be worth it, both for Sony and consumers who want meaningful choice when buying a step-down/mainstream OLED TV.

Alas, though, there’s not a single new OLED in Sony’s new range, with all three of its existing models expected to run for at least another year.

And that’s prompted in me a dreadful thought: what if Sony plans never to launch another OLED TV? Sadly, the more I think about it, the more I feel that’s a very realistic possibility.

It’s all about profit, of course, which is understandable; it’s saddening nonetheless.

You see, Sony buys all of the panels for its OLED TVs from its rivals: it buys the W-OLED panels for the A90K and Bravia 8 from LG, and the QD-OLED panels for the Bravia 8 II from Samsung.

This, inevitably, eats into the money the brand can make from these OLED TVs, especially while it tries to compete on price with those brands that both make the panels and sell the TVs.

Meanwhile, Sony’s Home Entertainment division, which is responsible for the design, development and manufacture of its TVs (and home theatre products), is about to become a joint venture between Sony itself and TCL, the latter of which will hold a 51 per cent share.

TCL is, of course, the biggest manufacturer of LCD TV panels in the world. It’s famously uninterested in OLED where TVs are concerned, and while it is in the process of building a huge factory where it will produce OLED panels via inkjet printing, these will be for smartphones, tablets and laptops, at least in the first place.

So, once the Sony/TCL joint venture begins operations at the start of 2027, will it have any interest in buying expensive OLED panels from its rivals so that it can produce Sony OLED TVs from which it receives very little profit? Or will it entirely focus on producing TVs using the in-house panel technology supplied by the TCL side of the merger?

Sadly, it’s not hard to imagine the answer to that one.

Of course, Sony says it is very much not done with OLED, and I sincerely hope that’s true, as I’m yet to test a backlit TV that beats an OLED overall. But Sony also needs to operate as a business, which means making profits. And that, I suspect, means saying goodbye to OLED.

With any luck, I’m wrong, but if the Bravia 8 II really does turn out to be Sony’s last OLED TV, at least it’s an awesome one.

MORE:

Check out our Sony Bravia 9 II hands-on and Sony Bravia 8 II review

Here are all of the best TVs you can buy right now

“Four stars! For an LG OLED!?” That was the reaction from many people when we published our original LG G6 review just over a month ago.

As reviewers, we are always unbiased, but we do get why the star rating caused such a kerfuffle.

LG’s OLEDs have been among the best of the best for many years, as the number of What Hi-Fi? Awards they've won demonstrates. So we've all become accustomed to them being awesome, almost by default.

Seeing a four-star LG OLED, especially this year, when Sony isn’t expected to unveil a new flagship OLED and Panasonic is only set to launch one, more affordable OLED, isn't ideal for anyone in the market for a new OLED TV.

In fact, I’d go so far as to argue there’s never been a worse time for the G-series to stumble. Especially, when the issues we encountered around its slightly grey black level and over-aggressive peaks made it hard to recommend, over the now cheaper LG G5, let alone the Product of the Year-winning, Sony Bravia 8 II from last year.

As we said in our review: “LG seems to have dug its heels in on the idea that brighter (and more colourful) is better with the G6 [...] But this new focus brings fresh weaknesses, most notably to black depth and cinematic authenticity.

“The raw materials are clearly here and, with some more considered tuning, the G6 could be among the best in class. As it stands, though, this feels like one step forward and another step back for LG’s flagship OLED range.”

No one likes being the bearer of bad news, but that was the reality, which is why we couldn't recommend it to anyone after an "as the director intended" TV experience.

And while we’re yet to test the Samsung S95H or Philips OLED911, based on our experience with previous sets, which have shown the engineers have a vivid flair when it comes to tuning, this LG fumble could leave a big hole in the market.

Thankfully, there is a silver lining.

Since our review was published, LG has been in touch, promising that the problems we encountered were due to issues with the software – issues that have supposedly been fixed in a newer version. So, understandably, LG wants us to test it out.

This is why, right now, we have a new LG G6 sitting in our test rooms, next to our reference LG G5 and Bravia 8 II, complete with the new software, ready for testing.

Next week, myself and TV and AV editor Tom Parsons will be doing a Groundhog Day (or a Palm Springs, if you prefer), re-testing the G6, to see if the new software does indeed fix the issues we found.

So watch this space. And if you’re thinking about buying a new flagship OLED, wait a little longer to see if LG’s flagship series can regain its five-star lustre.

We’ll be updating our review with our latest findings once we’ve finished running the new review unit through our rigorous comparative testing process. It's far from guaranteed that we will see any improvement but we're always willing to check and be sure.

If you have any questions ahead of us re-testing the G6, drop a comment on this page, and we’ll do our best to get you an answer.

MORE:

These are the best OLED TVs money can buy

We rank the best 65-inch TVs

Our picks of the best TVs for serious movie fans

With any luck, everyone knows by now that even the best-sounding TVs sound pretty rubbish by home cinema standards.

But we don't all have the space, budget or patience for a full system comprising an AV receiver, speaker package and the cables required to wire everything up.

In truth, even the super-popular soundbar systems that typically combine a bar, a wireless subwoofer and two wireless surrounds (the Samsung HW-Q990H, for example) are “too many boxes” for many people.

So, what’s the solution for those who’ve forked out for a gorgeous, premium TV and want equally gorgeous sound without all of the boxes and/or cables?

The premium solo soundbar, that’s what. In fact, that’s exactly the problem that the soundbar was originally designed to solve.

These days, a premium soundbar is a very sophisticated bit of kit that typically combines svelte styling with effective Dolby Atmos processing for movies and games, plus music streaming, simple operation, and the option to add additional speakers further down the line.

Here, we’re pitching four such soundbars against one another.

The benchmark is the Sonos Arc Ultra – the successor to the multi-Award-winning Arc and now an Award-winner in its own right.

This is a soundbar that really nails the confluence of simplicity and sound quality, and, being a Sonos product, the Arc Ultra also functions as a multi-room speaker for music.

The Sonos Arc Ultra and Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 have met before, albeit in slightly different circumstances, with the Sony priced much higher.

These days, you can usually get it for the same price as the Sonos, making the head-to-head far hotter, especially as the Bar 9 has features that the Arc Ultra does not, such as DTS:X support and HDMI passthrough.

This isn’t a head-to-head test, though: two newer soundbars are looking to disrupt the Sonos vs Sony scuffle.

The first of those is the very fancy LG Sound Suite H7. As the name suggests, this is a component in LG’s new Sound Suite family of speakers, but it’s also a Sonos Arc Ultra-rivalling soundbar in its own right.

Finally, but most unusually, we have the JBL Bar 1000MK2, which, as you may have spotted, isn’t really a solo soundbar.

However, we’ve decided to include it here as the ability to connect the surround speakers to the main bar means it can function as a solo bar – albeit one that also comes with a subwoofer.

Which of these premium soundbars deserves the spot beneath your lovely TV? Let Dolby Atmos battle commence!

Picking a winner

Each of these premium soundbars proves that you don’t need a stack of separates and a room full of speakers to get genuinely enjoyable cinematic sound from your TV.

Of course, they all tackle that challenge in slightly different ways.

The JBL leans into flexibility and sheer spectacle, the LG focuses on design and cutting-edge tech, the Sony majors on immersion and detail, and the Sonos aims to blend simplicity, sophistication and sonic excellence into one sleek package.

4. LG Sound Suite H7

All four are good products in their own right, but there is a clear hierarchy here, and in fourth place is the LG Sound Suite H7.

The H7 is certainly an interesting proposition. Its styling is refreshingly different from the norm, and those who own a compatible LG TV will appreciate the way it integrates visually and functionally with the screen. It’s also packed with features, including Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, which will be a real boon if you decide to expand your system in the future.

There’s no denying, either, that the H7 sounds impressive out of the blocks. It goes loud, delivers plenty of bass weight and throws effects around the room enthusiastically enough to create a decent sense of scale.

Ultimately, though, it lacks the refinement and subtlety of the best soundbars here. Dynamics are a little blunt, detail levels aren’t especially high, and there’s a hardness to its delivery that can become fatiguing over longer listening sessions. Dolby Atmos effects are present, but they don’t knit together cohesively enough to fully convince.

It’s a decent soundbar, then, but against this level of competition, decent simply isn’t enough.

Read the full LG Sound Suite H7 review

3. JBL Bar 1000MK2

Third place goes to the JBL Bar 1000MK2 – and this one is perhaps the trickiest to judge.

Strictly speaking, it’s not really a solo soundbar at all, thanks to the inclusion of a wireless subwoofer and detachable surround speakers. But because those surrounds can be physically attached to the main unit, we felt it deserved a place in this test – and we’re glad we included it.

There’s no question that the JBL delivers the biggest and most overtly cinematic presentation here. With the surrounds deployed, it creates an impressively expansive soundfield, and the dedicated subwoofer gives action scenes a level of low-end heft that the true solo bars simply can’t match.

It’s a hugely entertaining listen, too, with a bold, energetic character that makes blockbuster movies enormous fun.

The problem is that it’s not the most nuanced or controlled performer on test. Bass can occasionally become overbearing, subtle details are sometimes overshadowed by sheer bombast, and musicality isn’t really its strong suit. In stereo music playback, particularly, the Sonos and Sony sound noticeably more balanced, cohesive and sophisticated.

If your priority is maximum home cinema impact with minimum hassle, the JBL remains a very appealing option. But as an all-round premium soundbar package, it falls short of the class leaders.

Read the full JBL Bar 1000MK2 review

2. Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9

Which brings us to the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9.

When this soundbar first launched, its pricing made it difficult to recommend wholeheartedly, but now that it can regularly be found for around the same money as the Sonos Arc Ultra, it becomes a much stronger proposition.

And it really is an excellent soundbar. Sony has managed to produce an impressively spacious and immersive presentation from a single bar, with Dolby Atmos effects projected with remarkable precision. Its sense of verticality is particularly convincing, and it fills a room with sound more effectively than almost any rival.

It’s detailed and dynamic, too, with crisp dialogue, excellent placement of effects and plenty of punch when movie soundtracks demand it. The inclusion of HDMI passthrough and DTS:X support also gives it a useful edge in the features department.

Ultimately, though, while the Sony is deeply impressive, it doesn’t quite achieve the same all-round balance and naturalness as the Sonos. There are moments where its presentation becomes just a touch forward or forceful, and while it sounds spectacular with movies, it’s not quite as consistently musical or cohesive across all content types.

Read the full Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 review

1. Sonos Arc Ultra

The Sonos Arc Ultra nails the brief.

It delivers Dolby Atmos with scale, precision and convincing height effects, but it never loses sight of subtlety or cohesion in the pursuit of spectacle. Dialogue is crystal clear, effects are expertly placed, and there’s an openness and spaciousness to the presentation that makes movie soundtracks utterly engrossing.

Crucially, it’s also the most musical soundbar here. Whether you’re watching films, gaming or simply streaming music, the Sonos sounds balanced, expressive and refined in a way that its rivals can’t quite match.

The lack of HDMI passthrough will be an annoyance for some, and the Sonos app isn’t quite back to its slick best yet, but many buyers are unlikely to bother with the app after initial setup and the superb performance of the Arc Ultra far outweighs those relatively minor niggles.

The Sonos Arc Ultra will surely be beaten one day – but today isn’t that day.

Read the full Sonos Arc Ultra review

Here it is, folks: our first full review of an RGB Mini LED TV.

We have previously run extensive hands-on tests of a couple of RGB Mini LED TVs – most notably the huge Hisense 116UX – but, due to their astonishing sizes and prices, we’ve had to do the testing outside our own facilities. In our world, that’s not a full review, so those TVs haven’t received star ratings.

The 65-inch Hisense UR9 we have before us today is designed to address the size and price issues that have until now prevented more people from hopping on the RGB Mini LED bandwagon.

This set, then, is leading the mainstream RGB Mini LED charge. And, while it’s a fair way short of perfect, particularly next to a flagship OLED TV, the UR9 is an impressive TV in its own right and a tantalising glimpse at the technology’s long-term potential.

Price

Price is always a hugely important factor whenever we test a product, but it’s particularly crucial to how the Hisense UR9 will be viewed.

In the UK, the launch price of £2999 places the 65-inch UR9 in the same category as flagship OLED TVs such as the new LG G6 and last year’s Award-winning Sony Bravia 8 II.

In Australia, though, the AU$3999 price puts the Hisense UR9 up against step-down OLEDs such as the LG C6.

Most interestingly (and confusingly), while the announced launch price in the US was a super high-end $3500, when the TV actually arrived in shops, the tag was a vastly cheaper $2000, placing the UR9 in an entirely different category, below even step-down OLED models.

Essentially, then, this Hisense is a rather different proposition in each of those three regions. Seeing as we are UK-based and it’s a UK sample we’re reviewing, though, it’s the UK price that we are primarily working with here. And that means the UR9 is going to have to face off against the mighty Bravia 8 II QD-OLED.

Design

The Hisense UR9 is not one of those modern flagship TVs that disappears into your living room.

At 4.5cm thick, it’s decidedly chunky by current premium TV standards, particularly next to the impossibly slim OLED models with which it competes on price.

The rear panel is completely flat, though, which makes the UR9 fairly tidy for wall-mounting, and the overall build feels solid and substantial.

The TV’s general styling is perfectly pleasant, too, though it stops short of being genuinely luxurious. Bezels are slim enough, the dark metallic finish is smart, and the overall aesthetic is clean and restrained, but the UR9 lacks the slick elegance and premium flair of rivals such as the Sony Bravia 8 II and Samsung S99H/S95H.

Hisense has made some nice, practical decisions, though.

The centrally mounted pedestal stand has a relatively narrow footprint of around 42cm, making the UR9 easier to place on narrower furniture than many similarly sized rivals. It also offers two height positions, allowing you either to keep the screen sitting low and tidy or raise it slightly to create extra clearance for a soundbar.

Rows of tiny perforations run down both sides of the set, while larger openings line the top edge. These house the UR9’s side- and up-firing speakers, which form part of its integrated Devialet sound system.

Overall, then, the UR9 is more functional than fashionable – a practical, purposeful TV rather than a particularly glamorous one.

Features and specs

The headline feature here is, of course, the UR9’s RGB Mini LED backlight.

Unlike a conventional Mini LED TV, which uses a white backlight shining through a colour filter layer, the UR9 instead uses separate red, green and blue Mini LEDs to generate colour directly. In theory, this approach allows for both greater brightness and more precise colour reproduction.

Hisense claims peak brightness of up to 3500 nits for the 65-inch model we’re testing here, alongside 980 local dimming zones and a native 170Hz panel, all driven by the company’s Hi-View AI Engine RGB processor.

Gamers are generally very well served – with one unusual caveat. Unlike most premium TVs, which have four HDMI sockets, the UR9 has just three. These are accompanied by a PC-gaming-friendly DisplayPort connection – something that remains extremely rare on TVs.

Is a DisplayPort connection more valuable than a fourth HDMI socket? We have our doubts, but to a small number of very committed PC gamers, it may be very useful.

All three of the HDMI sockets are 2.1-specified, though, with support for 4K/170Hz (and the console-friendly 4K/120Hz), VRR and ALLM. Some brands, including Sony, still offer just two HDMI 2.1 sockets on their TVs.

The UR9’s input lag is decent rather than exceptional. We measured 32.5ms at 60Hz in the standard Game mode, though enabling the Refresh Rate setting reduces that figure to a more respectable, though far from groundbreaking, 24.6ms.

The UR9 supports every significant HDR format currently in use – HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision – plus the intelligent Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive variants that respond to ambient room lighting conditions.

It is also IMAX Enhanced certified, and the UK version of the TV features an anti-reflective, anti-glare screen coating that proves fairly effective at combating bright-room reflections.

Audio specifications are unusually ambitious by TV standards, too. The UR9 features a Devialet-tuned 4.1.2-channel speaker system with dedicated up-firing drivers, plus support for both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks.

In the UK and Australia, the UR9 runs Hisense’s own VIDAA smart platform, while the US version instead uses Google TV.

VIDAA still isn’t the prettiest smart system around, but it’s fast, responsive and logically laid out. App support is broadly very good, too, with all of the major streaming services and UK catch-up apps present and correctly supporting the relevant picture and sound formats.

There are, however, a few frustrating omissions. Most notably, the Apple TV app lacks access to the Apple TV store and users’ purchased libraries, so it can’t be used for movie purchases and rentals. That’s a real disappointment, as Apple’s pay-as-you-go store is the best around.

While far less important for a TV, it’s worth noting that music streaming support is sparse, too, with Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music and Qobuz all absent. There are no cloud gaming apps, either.

The inclusion of Freely is welcome, though, as it allows live TV channels to be streamed over the internet without an aerial connection.

Picture quality

The Hisense UR9 makes a superb first impression. In fact, perhaps the most impressive thing about it is just how rarely it behaves like a traditional backlit TV.

Before getting into that, though, some setup advice is required, because the TV’s default HDR settings do it few favours.

When first fed HDR10 content, the UR9 automatically switches into its HDR Energy Saving mode which, despite its name, is surprisingly aggressive. Colours skew cool and bluish, motion processing is overly intrusive, and the overall image looks unnatural and overcooked.

HDR Standard and HDR Dynamic are similarly best avoided, both pushing sharpness, brightness and processing much too hard.

Thankfully, Filmmaker Mode proves far more successful. It delivers the most accurate and balanced picture of the available presets, and it quickly becomes our preferred overall option.

Interestingly, though, IMAX Cinema is also unusually compelling. While its underlying settings appear almost identical to those of Filmmaker Mode, it consistently produces a noticeably brighter and punchier image without obviously compromising balance or naturalism.

As a result, we would stick with Filmmaker Mode for dark-room and purist viewing, but happily switch to IMAX Cinema during the daytime or whenever we fancy a little extra visual intensity.

Once properly configured, the UR9 is an extremely accomplished performer.

Play 1917 on 4K Blu-ray, and the opening logos immediately demonstrate just how well controlled the TV’s backlight system is. Blooming around the bright white text is minimal, black depth is strong, and colours look rich, warm and nicely cinematic.

More importantly, the local-dimming system generally goes about its business without drawing attention to itself. Throughout our testing, the UR9 almost never exhibits the flickering, brightness pumping or visibly shifting backlight behaviour that can make many Mini LED TVs distracting.

That consistency quickly emerges as the UR9’s defining strength. While many bright Mini LED TVs constantly remind you that they are dynamically manipulating a backlight behind the scenes, the Hisense instead achieves a broadly very composed, stable and natural delivery that often feels surprisingly OLED-like.

Blade Runner 2049 showcases this particularly well. Black depth is consistently strong, shadow detail is excellent and subtle blooming is tightly controlled. There’s also impressive richness and stability to colours, especially reds, which look wonderfully pure and saturated without drifting into pink or magenta tones.

Extra-bright HDR material suits the UR9 especially well, too. Pan looks spectacular here, with dazzling highlights and bold, vibrant colours that comfortably outgun the Sony Bravia 8 II for outright brightness in many scenes. Sunlight bursting through clouds and glinting off the fantasy scenery of Neverland is delivered with real punch and intensity.

Crucially, though, the UR9 generally achieves this brightness without sacrificing balance. Skin tones remain natural, and there’s a pleasing cinematic warmth to the image – and it doesn’t drift into gaudiness.

Motion handling is strong, too. The default Film setting is decent enough, but switching Motion Enhancement to Clear results in noticeably smoother pans without introducing the distracting soap-opera effect or processing artefacts that such systems often create.

The notoriously difficult Matera cemetery and chase sequence from No Time To Die is handled particularly well, with impressively little judder to the panning shots and clean rendering of drifting smoke and rapid camera movement.

Dropping down to standard-def and SDR, our Kiss Kiss Bang Bang DVD is reproduced with pleasing warmth, strong detail and impressively clean upscaling. Colours are arguably pushed a touch too hard at times, but the overall presentation remains highly enjoyable and consistently cinematic.

For all of the UR9’s strengths, though, direct comparisons with a top-tier OLED TV still reveal the limitations of even this undeniably refined RGB Mini LED model. Despite its impressive local-dimming system, the Hisense simply cannot match the pixel-level contrast control of the Sony Bravia 8 II.

Extremely bright highlights against deep black backgrounds are sometimes handled slightly conservatively, presumably to avoid blooming. Perhaps counterintuitively, those bright white logos against pitch-black backgrounds appear more intense and impactful on the Sony OLED than on the much brighter, on paper, Hisense.

More significantly, the OLED TV produces a more solid and perceptually three-dimensional image across the board. Objects and characters stand out from their surroundings with greater depth and dynamism, while subtle gradations within clouds, shadows and highlights appear more convincing and refined, creating a more rounded look.

This isn’t a new phenomenon: we have documented that extra solidity you get from OLED plenty of times previously, most notably when we used the Sony Bravia 8 OLED as a comparison in our Bravia 9 Mini LED review. But it bears repeating for those who are choosing between an OLED and a backlit TV.

Viewing angles are another clear OLED advantage. While the UR9’s picture performance doesn’t entirely fall off a cliff when you move off-axis, the sweet spot in which it performs at its very best is surprisingly narrow.

And while the UR9 usually keeps blooming impressively well controlled, especially for a backlit TV, particularly torturous scenes can still expose its limitations.

The bomb-test sequence in Oppenheimer is a great example. From the UR9, there’s a slight general greying to the image, plus some visible glow around isolated spotlights in the darkness. The opening starfield of Alien: Romulus, meanwhile, reveals that the UR9 cannot simultaneously maintain truly inky blacks and perfectly intense star highlights in the way an OLED can.

To be clear, the Hisense performs well in these scenes by LCD standards, and many owners may never notice such shortcomings during normal viewing. But they do prevent the UR9 from truly matching the effortless contrast precision and dimensionality of the best OLED TVs.

Sound quality

Developed in partnership with Devialet, the UR9’s 4.1.2-channel speaker system delivers a surprisingly expansive and full-bodied presentation by TV standards, with particularly impressive width and height effects.

The Theatre sound mode is the most immediately striking of the available presets, producing a presentation that extends well beyond the physical boundaries of the TV and creating a convincing sense of spaciousness with Dolby Atmos soundtracks.

There’s decent bass depth, too, and the UR9 maintains good composure at high volumes, avoiding the harshness and distortion that can afflict many flatscreen TVs when pushed hard.

The overall presentation is smooth and rich in character, which makes the UR9 an easy and enjoyable listen over long viewing sessions.

It isn’t perfect, though. Dynamics are a little stunted, and action scenes lack some of the punch and excitement they deserve, while dialogue could be projected with greater clarity and emotional expression.

The Theatre mode also slightly overplays its hand at times. While its extra spaciousness is undeniably appealing, it introduces a faintly diffuse and echoey quality to voices, along with a slight sense of delay that makes speech sound less natural than it should.

As a result, we find ourselves preferring the Standard sound mode for most content. It still sounds pleasantly spacious and open, but delivers dialogue with greater focus and cohesion while maintaining good weight and scale.

Ultimately, while even a modest dedicated soundbar will comfortably outperform it, the UR9’s audio system is better than that of most TVs, even at this lofty level.

Verdict

In several ways, the Hisense UR9 is one of the best backlit TVs we have ever tested.

Most of the time, you’re not even made aware that it is a backlit TV, so good are its black levels, its control of blooming and its consistent, flicker-free contrast.

While it is possible to trip up the backlight, it’s quite hard to do so, and many buyers may never see an unsightly bloom in their period of UR9 ownership.

But while this first mainstream RGB Mini LED TV is broadly mercifully free of the flaws that generally afflict backlit TVs, it still can’t match the overall picture quality of the best OLED models.

The pixel-level contrast control of OLED brings benefits in several areas. There are the notably brighter highlights on very dark backgrounds that even accomplished backlit sets, such as the UR9, are too cautious to go all guns blazing with for fear of blooming. There are the almost flawless viewing angles, too, which the UR9 is a long way from matching.

The biggest thing, though, is the generally more solid, more perceptually three-dimensional image that OLED provides. Next to the Bravia 8 II, the Hisense UR9 simply looks flatter, less dynamic and less impactful.

Ultimately, as enjoyable and technically impressive as the UR9 is, we can’t think of a good reason you would buy it over a flagship-grade OLED, and that’s the level at which Hisense is pitching it – at least in the UK.

Of course, if you are someone who has a flagship-level budget for their next TV and a general aversion to OLED, the Hisense UR9 should be right around the top of your list.

If you’re a UK buyer, it’s probably a good idea to wait and see if we get a massive US-style discount before placing an order, though.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 4

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Also consider the Sony Bravia 8 II, LG G6 and Sony Bravia 9

Here are all of the best TVs you can buy right now

Surround sound systems come in practically every shape and size these days, but there's one modern alternative that we've seen sweep the world of home cinema.

We are, of course, talking about wireless soundbar systems. Bose has just unveiled its Ultra Lifestyle soundbar, subwoofer and wireless speakers, and it joins the likes of Sonos, LG, Sony, Yamaha and Samsung in offering an ecosystem of home audio products that can work together to essentially create a proper surround sound experience.

While they vary in quality – we've recently raved about Samsung's superb HW-Q990H, while LG's Sound Suite system didn't quite hit the mark – there's no doubting they are super popular, convenient, and effective ways to achieve surround sound without filling your living room with bulky floorstanding speakers.

We're even seeing companies get creative with their soundbar systems. Majority recently impressed us with its pint-sized Bowfell Halo Atmos system, and Hisense scored a coveted What Hi-Fi? Award with its superbly affordable AX5125H package.

While they won't suit everyone, and a true surround sound speaker package will always win in terms of delivering proper cinematic sound, there are plenty of great options around, and it's reminding us of a previous home cinema audio trend.

A full surround sound system in a box isn't a new phenomenon; in fact, they were all the rage in the early 2010s. Samsung, Panasonic, LG and many more used to sell a whole home cinema in a box, combining a DVD or Blu-ray player alongside a compact wired 5.1 speaker set, unlocking surround sound for the masses without the need for an AV receiver.

Our review of the Panasonic SC-BTT590 from back in 2012 highlights how capable these systems once were. We complimented this system, saying "the handover between speakers is smooth, making for a convincing surround sound".

Stretching even further back to 2010 with the Award-winning Sony BDV-E370, which featured an "easy, idiot-proof set-up" and speakers that "deliver surprising scale and power".

These nifty, streamlined systems were made to combine cinematic sound with plug-and-play convenience, which sounds like a very similar objective to the soundbar systems we're seeing today.

The biggest difference between the home cinema in a box systems of old and the current soundbar packages is the inclusion of a Blu-ray player that once acted as a hub to drive these speakers.

That's to be expected in a world dominated by streaming and massively improved wireless audio protocols, but being the physical media advocates that we are, it's a shame nonetheless.

But it's not all doom and gloom. Sonos, Bose, LG and Sony all take a modular approach, allowing you to connect surround speakers and subwoofers as you see fit, and most of these companies offer components at different price points.

More customisation and different speaker configurations mean you can essentially build a surround sound package that better suits your needs and budgets, which is always a plus.

Sony, in particular, has welcomed this approach with open arms, as it now offers five different optional subwoofers and three different types of wireless sound speakers.

So, are soundbar systems secretly just a revival of one of the 2010s ' best home cinema trends? We think they're more of a spiritual successor with the same mission statement in mind: save people from their TV speakers by bringing simple, effective cinematic sound to the masses.

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Check out our picks for the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

As well as the best surround sound systems

And find the best soundbar deals here

RGB Mini LED is the TV industry’s big push for 2026.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s about to become the best or most popular display technology – but it is the one being marketed most aggressively, with some brands even positioning it as an OLED killer.

I’ve now seen a fair few RGB Mini LED TVs in action, and I’m not yet convinced. The headline benefits – higher brightness and greater colour volume – are fairly clear, but they don’t obviously outweigh OLED’s core advantage: self-emissive pixels.

As I recently reported, LG says “OLED is still king” – though given that its business is deeply tied to OLED panel production, that stance isn’t exactly surprising.

More interesting, then, is the view from Philips.

Danny Tack, Senior Director of Product Strategy and Planning at Philips, which is launching its own RGB Mini LED TV this year, puts it plainly: “We think OLED still is better.”

That aligns with what I’ve seen so far – and Tack boils the difference down to one simple point:

“This [Philips’ MLED981 RGB Mini LED TV] has 11,520 zones, but OLED has, like, 8.2 million zones – because every pixel is a zone. [That means] we can still have much deeper black, more accurate black.

“Although [the MLED981] is pretty good, pretty well tuned, and there are so many [dimming] segments, there will still be, here and there, a danger of a halo, and a border of the dimming zone.”

That’s the crux of it. Even with thousands of dimming zones, Mini LED still can’t match OLED’s pixel-level precision – so issues such as blooming and imperfect blacks don’t disappear entirely.

Philips is a particularly useful voice in this debate because it produces TVs across all major panel technologies. And Tack, in particular, has a reputation for prioritising picture quality over all else.

So why launch an RGB Mini LED TV at all?

As with LG, the answer is largely about size and price. As Tack explains, the MLED981 is aimed at “somebody who wants a big screen size, good picture quality, and a more affordable price – the bigger the screen size, the more affordable Mini LED is over an OLED.”

Accordingly, Philips is (at least initially) launching the MLED981 only as an 85-inch model – the size at which OLED prices rise sharply and become truly out of reach for most buyers.

Mini LED also still has two notable advantages: brightness and colour volume.

“You could say also in terms of full-screen brightness, Mini LED is better than OLED – 800 nits versus OLED, which is now reaching 450 nits – so under bright conditions, this might be a better offer,” Tack says.

“Colours [are also] a bit more intense, but then again, at an angle, compared to OLED, less so. There are lots of pros and cons.”

In other words, RGB Mini LED absolutely has its place – particularly if it’s a very big, very bright, and relatively affordable TV that you’re after.

But on balance, Philips’ view is clear – and it’s one I share: right now, OLED remains the benchmark for overall picture quality.

Could RGB Mini LED overtake it? Possibly – perhaps even this year. Sony, in particular, is talking a big game with its True RGB technology.

For now, though, OLED remains the TV technology to beat.

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Here's why I think the Philips OLED951 could be the TV of the year

These are all of the best TVs you can buy right now

It’s early days for 2026 TVs, with some brands (Sony, for one) yet to reveal their full ranges – but I’ve already spotted a front-runner for TV of the year, and it’s probably not the model you’re expecting.

The model I’m talking about is the Philips OLED951.

In picture terms, this is Philips’ flagship TV for 2026, and while many brands seem to be taking a fairly evolutionary approach to their OLEDs this year, Philips is really pushing the boat out.

On paper, it ticks almost every box: picture performance, gaming features, spectacular flourishes and future-proofing.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that the on-paper promise will translate to real-world perfection, and we’ll have to conduct a full review before we can deliver our verdict on that.

But, having now briefly seen it in action, I think there’s a good chance the OLED951 can really deliver.

Here, then, are seven reasons I think this Philips flagship OLED could end up being the TV of 2026.

It’s an OLED

An obvious one this, but the Philips OLED951 is… well… an OLED.

That’s a good thing in my book. The RGB Mini LED invasion is upon us, and there are some very good RGB Mini LEDs already out and on the way (including one from Philips), but I’m yet to see any evidence that the technology’s various strengths are a match for the pixel-level contrast control of OLED.

Perfect black pixels next to bright white or coloured ones make for unbeatable contrast, which has benefits right across the picture, particularly in terms of solidity and perceived three-dimensionality.

An OLED-beating RGB Mini LED TV might one day materialise – I’m open to that – but I predict that in 2026, at least, the best TV will be an OLED.

Brighter than the LG G6

We’ve written plenty of times about how brightness is a long way from the most important thing for a TV to deliver.

Still, lots of brightness headroom can be useful for a TV to deliver the goods in a brightly lit room. It also adds a degree of future-proofing, just in case Hollywood suddenly starts mastering lots of movies to 4000 nits (something I see very little evidence of, for what it’s worth).

Brightness isn’t going to be an issue for the OLED951, though, because Philips claims it can hit a peak brightness figure of 4500 nits, and a full-screen brightness of 400 nits.

Those are improvements over last year’s already very bright OLED950 of 800 and 50 nits, respectively.

Those figures, if achieved, will also make the OLED951 a good deal brighter than the LG G6, which shares a ‘Meta 4.0’ Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel with it – something that Philips says is down to its unique picture engine.

But will those figures be achieved? Having seen the OLED951 running against the OLED950 (see the photo above), it certainly looks like it. The OLED951 looked so much brighter that the figures given actually seem conservative.

And this isn’t just brightness for the sake of brightness, either, because, as we’ve seen in our own testing, when increased brightness is combined with OLED’s perfect black and pixel-level light control, the result is even greater contrast, which, as mentioned above, tends to make images look more solid and three-dimensional.

That was certainly the case in the side-by-side demo – the OLED951 really popped.

Four HDMI 2.1 sockets and custom settings for every game

Finally, Philips’ flagship OLEDs (and most of its other models, in fact) will have four HDMI 2.1 sockets.

These will all be able to accept gaming signals of up to 4K/165Hz, complete with VRR and HDR, including in the Dolby Vision format.

Sure, LG and Samsung have been offering OLEDs with four HDMI 2.1 sockets for years, but when combined with everything else the OLED951 offers (more of which I’ll get to), that still makes it a tantalising proposition for gamers.

Another feature that will appeal to gamers like me is the ability to customise settings for individual titles.

These settings can be designed to improve the picture (extra brightness and vibrancy for Rocket League, perhaps, and a darker, broodier presentation for Alan Wake II), give you an advantage over online rivals (through an onscreen crosshair or enhanced shadow detail, for instance), or deliver geeky gaming info such as the current frame rate.

If you’re a gaming picture quality obsessive, that’s very neat.

Ambilight and AmbiScape

Look, I know it’s not to everyone’s taste, and I certainly don’t think it makes sense for all content, but Ambilight – which extends the onscreen action onto the wall around the TV in the form of coloured light – remains a spectacular feature.

And now your room lights can be synchronised with what you’re watching more easily, too. This isn’t an entirely new feature, but previously, you needed Hue bulbs.

Now, thanks to the new AmbiScape feature, lights that conform to the Matter standard will be supported – and there are loads of those. That will make it far more affordable and flexible to get your lounge lights in on the Ambilight action.

Again, this won’t be an upgrade for all content, but play the aforementioned Rocket League, and it’s impossible not to get an extra thrill when a goal creates a flash of brilliant colour right across your room. It works brilliantly for colourful animated movies, too, such as the Spider-Verse series.

Dolby Vision 2

Will Dolby Vision 2 be a big deal in 2026? There’s a strong possibility it won’t be, as we’ve still had no news on actual content in the format.

It is coming at some point, though, and our first looks at it in action have been very impressive, so if you’re buying a TV this year, it’s well worth considering going for a model that supports the format.

That makes Philips’ new OLED951, OLED911 and OLED811 particularly appealing, because they will be the first OLED TVs to support Dolby Vision 2. In fact, they will also support the even more advanced Dolby Vision 2 Max, which adds, among other things, the very interesting Authentic Motion feature.

The Dolby Vision 2 and 2 Max support will be added via a post-launch software update (October is the current ETA), but don’t go thinking that 2026 OLEDs from other brands will follow suit: Dolby Vision 2 also needs to be baked into the hardware, and based on what we’ve been told so far, this hasn’t been done in the case of, for example, LG’s new models.

Excellent anti-reflection tech

Fighting reflections is a key theme in current TV development.

It’s probably fair to say that Samsung is best at it: its top OLEDs suppress reflections incredibly effectively.

But it does this by using a matte panel, and that tends to make blacks look quite grey in a well-lit room.

The new Meta 4.0 OLED panel from LG Display, though, suppresses more reflections than the previous version while still retaining the glossy finish that allows it to produce almost perfect blacks, even in strong ambient light.

According to official figures, the reflectance has been reduced from 0.6 per cent to 0.3 per cent. That doesn’t sound like a huge change, but in reality, it makes a clear difference.

We first saw this new anti-reflection tech in the G6, which massively impressed us with its combination of reflection suppression and deep blacks, and it looked equally excellent in the demo of the OLED951 against last year’s OLED950.

This is one of those things that really comes down to taste, with some people being perfectly happy with the matte look of the Samsung models. I personally prefer the glossy look, though, and the new panel in the LG G6 and Philips OLED951 strikes the best balance of anti-reflectivity and black performance that I’ve so far seen.

Dual Engine picture processing

Those already in the know about Philips’ 2026 TV lineup might be wondering why I’m getting all excited about the OLED951 rather than the OLED911.

After all, everything I’ve written so far also applies to the OLED911, and the OLED911 also has a Bowers & Wilkins sound system that, if form is to be believed, will make it one of, if not the, best-sounding TV in its class.

The reason is that the OLED951 has the Dual Engine version of Philips’ new 10th Gen P5 AI processor, whereas the OLED911 has the single-chip version. This unlocks some extra picture processing features that should further improve certain things, such as bright details and banding suppression.

The difference perhaps won’t be huge – we’ll need to fully test both models to find out – but as someone who subscribes to the ‘all TVs should be partnered with a dedicated sound system’ philosophy, I’ll always choose the potential for better picture quality over a better sound system.

You may feel differently, of course, and that’s fine. If that’s the case, I strongly recommend you read Lewis Empson’s Philips OLED911 hands-on.

That also looks like an excellent TV – but on paper (and from what I’ve seen of it so far), the OLED951 is the one that ticks every box for me.

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Could Sony's True RGB be the RGB Mini LED tech to beat OLED?

No one likes a broken record. So if you’ve read any of my recent rants about TVs and their bizarre focus on nits, I apologise.

But, after helping review the LG G6, the firm’s latest flagship OLED TV, I can’t help myself. Why? Because many TV makers still aren’t listening.

To catch readers up, the LG G6 is a particularly big deal if you’re looking to upgrade to a top-tier OLED TV this year. This is because two key players aren’t expected to release flagship OLED TVs in 2026.

Sony – because its two-year re-release cycle and new partnership with TCL, means it is very unlikely we’ll see a successor to the Award-winning Bravia 8 II arrive any time soon. Panasonic – because it’s selling its TV division to Skyworth and only has one new OLED set arriving this year, the entry-level Z86C (Z85C in mainland Europe).

So if you’re planning on buying a new OLED at this level in 2026, you’re likely only going to be able to pick between the LG G6, Samsung S95H or Philips 911.

And I had high hopes for the LG G6, mainly because, though the company shouted about how the set could go 20 per cent brighter than the outgoing LG G5 at launch, it spent far more time talking about changes it has made to let it offer a more true-to-life picture.

So, unboxing it in our test rooms and plonking it right next to the G5, ready to run our standard suite of comparative tests, I was legitimately excited.

Not to spoil our review, but immediately the TV proved that the first of LG’s claims is true. The TV was noticeably brighter and delivered a truly spectacular performance that will delight fans of blow-your-socks-off experiences.

But the problem is, it does so at the expense of other picture quality metrics that I, and many others, would argue are equally if not more important than brightness.

First up is colour accuracy. Like many of the Mini LED sets I’ve reviewed over the past two years, skylines in particular suffer. For example, during a scene from our Civil War test disc, the skyline is much brighter than what’s on show with the G5, but the G6’s colours look washed out.

The oomph the extra nit count offers comes at the expense of richness, making the scene look flat, by comparison. Honestly, it gave me flashbacks to when I was testing the since-replaced TCL C855K, which suffered from similar issues.

Problems with the G6’s black level continue this theme. Flipping to Sinners, the TV artificially raises the black level in a bid to offer more dark detail. Yes, it adds some detail but, concurrently, it makes parts that are meant to be pitch black look a little grey.

Considering perfect blacks and pixel-level light control are two reasons OLED sets can justify their premium prices, this feels like an odd decision by LG. Again, it’s something I normally worry about with Mini LEDs not OLEDs.

And what’s worse is that there’s no way to fix it. After hours of fiddling with the TV’s settings, including Filmmaker mode, which is meant to turn off all processing, nothing worked.

Yes, people like pop. And yes, the G6 is still a good TV that will delight people who want that punch. But, for cinephiles and more serious movie fans, who value accuracy and consistency, it feels odd, and a move in the wrong direction.

Hence, the need to repeat my rant against peak brightness chasers and pen this piece. Here’s hoping the S95H and OLED911 don’t make the same mistake. It’ll be a bad year for premium OLED buyers if they do.

MORE:

These are the best OLED TVs we’ve tested

We rank the best Mini LED TVs

Our picks of the best soundbars

We're almost a third of the way through 2026, and if there's one takeaway from the world of TVs, it's that maybe too much is happening.

I'm deeply immersed in the release schedules and latest technologies tied to the likes of Samsung, LG, Sony, Philips, Panasonic, Hisense and TCL, and yet even I'm finding 2026 to be one of the most confusing years for TVs to date.

Part of that is a good thing, as we're getting lots of exciting innovations this year, which are sure to define generations of TVs to come, but they're ultimately meaningless if the messaging is unclear.

I've been catching up with the brands mentioned above since January, getting behind-the-scenes access to some of the more exciting TVs to launch this year. But, despite my extensive access to TV experts from said brands, I still have plenty of unanswered questions...

RGB Mini LED: mid-range marvel or premium panel tech?

The biggest TV news of 2026 is that practically every TV manufacturer is launching new backlit TVs with this state-of-the-art panel technology.

RGB Mini LED looks to be the successor to Quantum Dot Mini LED, as it strips away the QLED layer and swaps a white backlight for individual red, green and blue LEDs in the pursuit of greater colour accuracy and backlight control.

On paper, this sounds great, and we've even seen a few impressive sets, including the Hisense UR8 and TCL RM9L, in action. We've also just been treated to a demo of Sony's True RGB system.

The issue is that these companies can't decide where to position RGB Mini LED. And this lack of clarity on its place in the pecking order is already causing confusion.

Samsung and Hisense seem to be championing it as flagship technology, meaning it's reserved for premium models that sit alongside (or, in some cases, above) OLED TVs. Samsung's R95H appears to sit alongside the brand's S95H QD-OLED this year, which can only signify that the Korean AV giant sees it as a top-of-the-line technology.

Philips and LG, on the other hand, maintain that it sits below their respective OLEDs. Philips has been more open about this, as it claims "OLED is still the reference", and the company's mid-range MLED981 sits below even the entry-level OLED761.

So, which one is it? Is this new panel tech best suited to flagships? Or is it not capable of challenging even some of the most affordable OLEDs on the market?

Is OLED in trouble?

We were blindsided by two prominent OLED TV manufacturers, Sony and Panasonic, essentially selling off their TV businesses to Chinese firms, TCL and Skyworth. The latter is only handling Panasonic's European TV division.

Both Japanese giants are known for producing high-quality, and often fairly pricey, OLED TVs, but that may be about to change. While we can't speak entirely for Sony, we do know TCL's firm anti-OLED stance (specifically for TVs, the company uses OLED for mobile and automotive displays), so we don't have high hopes.

What we can presume is that Sony likely won't launch a premium OLED TV this year, as it now employs an unconventional release schedule, where each model is only refreshed every two or three years – or in the case of the A90K, possibly longer. The Bravia 8 II launched last year, so we expect this to stick around until 2027.

Speaking of not launching a new premium OLED, Panasonic confirmed that the Z95B will continue as its flagship offering in 2026. As it stands, the entry-level Z86C will be the only new OLED from the legendary Japanese AV company this year.

Pair that with the LG G6 being the first in the series to not score five stars (you can read our full LG G6 65-inch review here), things are already looking interesting for this year's What Hi-Fi? Awards judging process.

All we'll say is that it's a good job that the LG C6 is a simply superb OLED TV, as it might be among a modest cohort of new models this year.

Is Dolby Vision 2 really coming this year?

The final slightly baffling hot topic in the TV world is Dolby Vision 2. Now, I've seen it in action a couple of times, and I have to say that it looks superb, but there are so many unanswered questions.

Hisense and TCL were announced as launch partners at IFA 2026, and yet neither referenced it at their respective launch events in Europe last month. Furthermore, when questioned about it, Hisense confirmed that it should be coming to its 2026 TVs, but possibly not at launch. Instead, it'll likely be added via a software update down the line.

Philips, on the other hand, made no qualms about Dolby Vision 2 Max being supported on its 2026 OLEDs, including the OLED911. This feels more promising, especially when LG and Sony have remained especially tight-lipped about the new HDR format for quite some time.

There is, of course, the issue of Dolby Vision 2 content. To our knowledge, the only services that will support Dolby Vision 2 are Canal+ and NBC's Peacock service, neither of which really has the mainstream draw of Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime Video.

It is, of course, early days, so we could see more services pick the format up, but the creation of Dolby Vision 2 content is still a mystery right now.

Looking to a buy a TV now? Here's my advice...

If you're in the market for a TV now, my honest advice would be to hold out until we gain a little more clarity.

The best TV that we've tested this year (so far) is the LG C6, and while it is brilliant, it's also expensive right now. We expect this price to drop steadily throughout the year, as the C5 and C4 did, so your patience should be rewarded.

We're also yet to review any of the new RGB Mini-LED models, so if you can wait until we make a judgment on these upcoming TVs, we'd recommend doing so. It's entirely possible that RGB Mini LED could surpass OLED in terms of picture performance, but we won't know until we try them ourselves.

And if you're confused by the state of the TV world in 2026, then don't worry – we live and breathe TVs here, and even we're feeling a bit overwhelmed.

MORE:

Read our full LG C6 65-inch review

The LG C series is a bit of a mess right now, and it's all the better for it

Check out our picks for the best OLED TVs

We have been eagerly awaiting the UK pricing of LG’s latest stream of OLEDs, and the day has finally arrived. The price tags of the C6, G6, B6, and W6 OLEDs have been unveiled, and it’s great news.

All of the models are cheaper than last year’s OLED entries across all sizes. The most premium TVs will still set you back a fair bit if you are looking to upgrade your home cinema system, but it is a welcome addition to see a slight price drop.

For the LG G6, the pricing is as follows:

As you can see, the latest G6 model is coming in at a lower price than the previous LG G5 models across all sizes. That is especially prevalent with the larger screen sizes, as the eye-bogglingly big 97-inch screen is a whole £9000 cheaper than the G5.

But how does the G6 actually perform? Well, lucky for you, we recently published our comprehensive review of the new OLED.

The 65-inch model scored a solid four-star review after being rigorously put through its paces in our test room. We praised its punchy picture quality and excellent gaming specifications, but colours do look slightly overcooked in a way that could leave cinephile purists feeling disappointed.

We will have to see how the other sizes perform, but its colourful performance with the 65-inch model bodes well.

Next up, here is the pricing for the LG C6:

Once again, the step-down OLEDs' prices are lower than last year's entries.

The 77- and 83-inch versions of the C6 feature Primary RGB Tandem OLED technology for the first time, which could be the biggest C-series upgrade in years. We are yet to get these models in our test room, but we have reviewed the 65-inch entry.

It scored a glowing five-star rating, dazzling with brighter, richer and more refined picture quality. The G6 also improves upon the C5's audio performance, as voices sound a little warmer and Dolby Atmos effects are projected further away from the screen when required to create a greater sense of scale.

But what about the pricing of the LG W6, the brand's newest Wallpaper TV?

• 77-inch LG W6: £4700
• 83-inch LG W6: £6800

LG's art TV provides a store of more than 5000 regularly updated digital artworks that users can use as screensavers. It offers wireless connectivity and integrated speakers, and measures an impressive 9mm in thickness so it can sit mostly flush on your wall.

This is not LG's first Wallpaper TV, with the last iteration coming out back in 2017 in the form of the W7. It launched at a high-end price point, which made it simply unattainable for many, so it makes sense that LG has dropped the price tag for its latest art model.

We got a chance to see the W6 in action at the start of the year at CES, and although we will need to wait until we have thoroughly tested the model to deliver our verdict, we find:

"Black levels look just as deep, rich and neutral, for starters, with no obvious signs under the CES show lights of any green or magenta tinting, even if viewed from the side."

Finally, LG has also released the pricing for its B6 series:

These prices mean the B6 series can offer a genuinely affordable range of OLED TVs from the brand, which will be welcome news for those who cannot stretch to the above models.

The reason LG has been able to drop the pricing so much on an already budget range is thanks to the development of a new SE OLED panel. The majority of the cost saving has been made by removing the pricey polariser.

Without this, the B6 will likely be more reflective than current OLED models, but they should also be brighter than current budget sets, hitting something in the region of 1000 nits rather than the 600-700 nits of models such as the LG B5.

We have yet to test any of the B6 sizes, but keep your eyes peeled for our review of the budget range.

MORE:

Here is our review of the LG C6

And these are our thoughts on the LG G6

Check out the best OLED TVs we recommend

The G6 is the latest incarnation of LG’s wildly popular G-series Gallery OLED, and one of 2026’s most highly anticipated new TVs.

It’s under particular pressure this year. Changes in the TV landscape mean it's one of only a select few new “premium” OLEDs set to launch in 2026, so a lot of eyes will be on it.

And, despite initially impressing our reviewers (at least after a couple of early flaws were fixed), the preceding G5 later came fourth out of four in our 2026 flagship OLED shootout.

The big question, then, is whether the G6 can take LG back to the top of the OLED TV performance pile.

Having thoroughly put it through its paces against both its predecessor and last year’s TV Product of the Year, we finally have an answer to that question.

Price

The 65-inch G6 we’re reviewing has a price tag of £3000 / $3399 / AU$4999. That makes it cheaper in the UK and Australia than the G5 was at launch (£3300 / $3400 / AU$5299), while US launch pricing has remained unchanged.

There's no denying that the G6 is still a very premium TV, but the price drops versus last year are very welcome. It will be fascinating to see if Samsung takes a similar approach with the pricing of its S95H.

As is to be expected, the G6’s launch price is vastly higher than the now-discounted prices of 2025 flagship OLEDs such as the G5, Samsung S95F and Award-winning Sony Bravia 8 II.

But prices should fall quite quickly. LG OLEDs have a reputation for being discounted faster and farther than most rivals.

Design

The LG G6 looks identical to the G5 in nearly every way. So much so that we frequently had to check the serial numbers of the two when setting them up on our test benches to make sure which was which.

The TV is mainly designed to be wall-mounted, hence the picture frame-style design, but the 55- and 65-inch versions are available with a stand if you prefer. The versions without the stand come with a Zero Gap wall mount instead, which allows for the TV to be mounted more or less flush against the wall.

But while the design certainly delivers on the promise of the ‘Gallery’ designation, it’s rather too familiar at this point, having barely changed since 2020’s GX. The upcoming Samsung S95H is a far more exciting take on the same concept.

Despite this minor qualm, the G6 is functionally sound and nicely unobtrusive. Our sample came with the pedestal stand, and while that doesn’t have a swivel mechanism, it’s sturdy and indicative of the set's generally excellent build quality.

The stand’s two height options and a fairly thin and flat plinth also make it generally easy to place a soundbar in front of the TV without blocking the screen.

The only big gripe is the lack of changes to the remote. It remains a chunky, cheap-feeling, plastic affair that doesn’t feature backlighting or USB-C charging – two things we’ve come to expect of a set at this level.

Motion controls still feature, adding some occasionally useful point-and-click functionality when navigating the set’s menus, but even so, the remote feels in need of a proper overhaul at this point.

Frustratingly, many markets were treated to a new LG TV remote last year, but the UK still has to make do with the old model.

Features

Like its design, the G6 doesn’t change the key ingredients in LG’s current OLED recipe. At its heart, you’ll find a Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel. That’s the same tech we saw in last year’s G5.

For those unfamiliar with it, Primary RGB Tandem uses a ‘four-stack’ panel structure to try and help an OLED offer higher peak and operating brightness levels, while retaining colour volume and accuracy, even during low light scenes – an area its predecessor, micro lens array (MLA), struggled with, especially against Samsung’s rival QD-OLED technology.

The only technical change to the panel is the inclusion of a new Reflection Free Premium display certification, which promises to reduce reflections to less than 0.5 per cent – meaning it should work better in less than ideal conditions with lots of stray, reflection-causing light.

But, while the fundamental panel tech remains largely unchanged, the inclusion of a new Alpha 11 Gen 3 AI processor means LG is quoting some pretty palpable improvements for the G6.

For starters, the chipset’s new Hyper Radiant Colour Technology system means that the set can offer “20 per cent higher” peak brightness levels than the already dazzling G5.

But more importantly, as peak brightness is one of many screen-quality metrics, the tech also aims to allow the G6 to offer better colour accuracy and a generally “more lifelike” picture. Finally, motion handling, upscaling, tone mapping and audio processing are also meant to be better thanks to the new silicon.

On the subject of audio, the G6 comes built in with Dolby Atmos FlexConnect functionality. This is a hot ticket item that aims to let the TV automatically connect to compatible speakers, including the LG Sound Suite we recently reviewed, to create a surround sound package.

The tech includes the ability to use the G6’s built-in speakers as the central channel, and clever room and viewer location optimisation powers. Though the tech is in its infancy, it’s a nice touch that gives the G6 an element of future-proofing.

However, there is one minor, pigmy-sized elephant in the room when it comes to next-gen Dolby tech. Specifically, the G6 doesn’t support Dolby Vision 2 (“the future of home cinema”, if Dolby is to be believed) – and it seems fairly unlikely that it ever will.

For now, as we’re yet to see any content mastered in the format, it’s not a deal breaker. But it is a minor concern for those who tend to keep their TVs for five years or more, especially as Philips has confirmed its 2026 flagships will support the standard, as will several non-OLED sets from TCL and Hisense.

LG has hinted that it may add the functionality via an over-the-air update at a later date, but the lack of certainty is still a minor frustration considering the G6’s price. People paying this amount don’t want a TV that’s out of date within a year. Though until we see the benefits of Vision 2, we want to emphasise that it's a minor gripe. We don’t currently know how big a deal Vision 2 is in general.

The supported standards remain Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG, meaning outside of Vision 2, the only other noticeable absence is HDR10+.

The TV’s broader feature set is, like that of all of LG’s recent flagships, more or less flawless. WebOS 26 supports pretty much every app you can think of, ranging from Now to Apple TV, Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, all of which are present and work correctly. We’re also pleased to see it continue to support niche streaming platforms, including the anime-focused Crunchyroll and Hidive.

Gaming functionality lives up to LG’s strong track record, with all four HDMI 2.1 inputs offering up to 4K/165Hz gameplay with VRR and ALLM, and Dolby Vision Gaming HDR supported.

LG has also added more game-streaming features, including a new low-latency interface and a dedicated controller developed alongside popular gaming peripherals manufacturer Razer, which can be connected directly to the TV – though this is sold as an optional accessory.

Picture

So what difference does a piece of silicon and general spruce make for a flagship OLED? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

Powering up the G6 next to the G5 in both sets’ out-of-the-box settings, the new OLED immediately reveals a focus on two things: selling quite how bright it can go, while simultaneously increasing the amount of dark detail on offer. And on paper, this makes sense, letting you get a more dynamic, punchy image with eye-catching peaks traditionally reserved for Mini LED sets, coupled with the pitch blacks OLEDs are famous for.

And it does make a very strong opening impression. Running our tried and true Civil War 4K Blu-ray, the entire screen burns brighter than any previous OLED we’ve tested, with the American countryside scene offering palpably higher peaks and more vibrant colours. Dark parts of the surrounding foliage offer more detail, too, with every leaf and twig looking sharper and clearly visible.

Even compared with last year’s other Primary RGB Tandem OLED and QD-OLED flagships, the G6 is significantly brighter. The picture offers noticeably more eye-catching spectacle as a result.

And, while we’re not convinced this makes the picture more lifelike, as LG promised, the new focus is, in many ways, a positive. If pop’s what you value, make no mistake, the G6 will delight.

But as the film switches to the next shot, issues creep in. The helicopter’s flight looks too smooth, with it bouncing rather than cutting through the sky. More pressingly, some detail, especially subtle gradients of reds and oranges in the setting sky, is lost, as the set pushes the brightness at the expense of richness, making it look slightly flat.

Traditionally, we’d have put this down to using the out-of-the-box Standard picture setting. Nearly all the TVs we review are overly aggressive with their processing here. But switching to Filmmaker Mode, while the positive aspects of the picture remain and some issues are mitigated, to our surprise, the G6 continues to over-brighten parts of the picture.

We also continue to experience jarring over-saturation, with greens in particular proving problematic, adding an air of artificiality not present on the G5 – which is a surprise given Filmmaker Mode’s focus on offering an as-the-director-intended experience.

The issue becomes even more apparent when we switch to our Pan test disc, which remains our go-to brightness stress test thanks to its atypical 4000 nits mastering. Once again, the G6 is clearly brighter than the G5 and our Product of the Year Award-winning Sony Bravia 8 II, but the pop comes with a slight loss of colour volume and at a clear expense of accuracy.

Going through every picture mode, even after tweaking the settings for hours, we can’t settle on a combination that we’re happy delivers the authentic, accurate picture we would expect, which is a great shame for those who value accuracy over razzmatazz.

We end up settling on Filmmaker Mode with TruMotion set to the subtle Cinematic Movement option, and Dynamic Tone Mapping switched off, as the best compromise – but we’re still left unsatisfied.

Our 4K Blu-ray of Sinners, in fact, illustrates another issue. While the G6 produces a generally wonderfully immersive experience, with the dark night-time speakeasy oozing atmosphere and the vampires’ eyes, brooding in the fields, holding spectacular malice, we find that skin tones tend to look a little green and, more disappointingly, that the darkest parts of the picture simply aren’t dark enough.

It seems as though LG has chosen to raise the black floor slightly, perhaps to increase shadow detail, but we regularly find that what should be perfect black looks slightly grey.

We experienced the same issue with the step-down LG C6, but this could be more or less fixed by changing the Near Dark Detail setting from 0 to -1. This doesn’t quite do the trick with the G6, though, which still looks a little grey. Pushing down to -2, though, removes too much dark detail in its quest for deeper black. Ultimately, as with the picture settings in general, we struggle to find the perfect balance.

That isn’t to say that the black depth vs shadow detail issue is a huge one. On the contrary, not everyone will notice it without the benefits of a side-by-side comparison, but as we watch the opening of Alien: Romulus, we’re frustrated by the need to choose between perfect blacks and detail levels.

While the G6 is rather bombastic in its delivery of HDR content, it’s noticeably more considered with SDR. Playing our old faithful Blu-ray of True Grit, the differences between the G6 and G5 are subtle, and it becomes immediately more apparent that they’re from the same family of TV.

The G6 upscales the film with suitable care, retaining its intentionally grainy, Spaghetti Western feel without flattening it or adding noise. Characters’ stitched, thick cotton clothes are nicely sharp and detailed, and there’s a pleasingly light touch that is missing from the TV’s HDR performance. Here, it feels as though the G6 is carefully improving the experience, while remaining true to the source material.

Sound

Audio quality is a key area in which LG’s flagship OLED TVs have struggled to impress in our review rooms for the past few years. And, while we’re not reaching for the party streamers with the new G6, there’s no denying it is a step in the right direction.

Playing an iconic scene in Sinners, where Sammie, aka “Preacher Boy”, performs the blues, the G6 delivers a noticeably fuller, more robust sound than the G5, which offers up a thin and hollow rendition by comparison.

The guitar’s plucked strings have some bass to them, and Sammie’s wailing vocals are nicely audible and separate from background noise.

As the medley grows, adding new tracks to the mashup, the set delivers a decent sense of directionality, with each addition swooping in as the camera carves a path through each room and musical era.

But it’s still a good deal short of perfect. The low end isn’t powerful enough to deliver the oomph you need to do the scene justice, and the delivery lacks the precision to handle the vocalist's wailing vibrato, which is nearly entirely lost.

The TV also struggles to maintain a rhythmic and tonal hold on proceedings as ever more musical strands are added, and in the end, it becomes more of a cacophony rather than the intended complex medley.

This theme continues as we switch to chapter two of Blade Runner 2049. The speakers’ low end is too weak and flabby for the scene’s synth track, which occasionally sounds more like a child blowing a raspberry, rather than a booming synthetic growl.

Ultimately, while the G6 is certainly an improvement on the G5, it’s still a long way short of rivals such as the Sony Bravia 8 II and Philips OLED910, and is even beaten by certain step-down OLEDs, such as the Sony Bravia 8.

In fact, we’d say the C6 sounds better than the G6, which makes us wonder if the Gallery design is the biggest cause of LG’s G-series sonic struggles.

As ever, though, our criticisms of TV audio quality need only be taken into account if you’re ignoring our strong advice that any new TV should be partnered with a dedicated sound system.

Verdict

LG seems to have dug its heels in on the idea that brighter (and more colourful) is better with the G6. The set feels quite different to past G-series models as a result, delivering a memorable, punchy experience that immediately catches your eye.

For those after a bombastic home cinema experience, this makes the LG G6 a good TV; one capable of offering a strikingly bright, punchy picture with vivid, vibrant colours.

But this new focus brings fresh weaknesses, most notably to black depth and cinematic authenticity. The raw materials are clearly here and, with some more considered tuning, the G6 could be among the best in class. As it stands, though, this feels like one step forward and another step back for LG’s flagship OLED range.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 3
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony Bravia 8 II

Also consider the LG C6

For last year's model, see our LG G5 review

Read our Samsung S95F review

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and budget Mini LED sets tried and tested

It's April and finally spring time, which in the UK means wildly inconsistent weather where you'll be met with rain and even snow for one half of the day, switching to blinding sunshine and warm temperatures without any warning. It certainly keeps us on our toes.

What remains consistent through it all is a steady of stream of hi-fi and home cinema products entering our test rooms, and we have a few highly-anticipated products to get started on this month.

This includes the first of Cambridge's new range of active wireless speaker systems; brand-new Onkyo hi-fi in many, many years; a sequel to Samsung's Award-winning Dolby Atmos system; and LG's flagship 4K OLED. We are also curious to find out how a high-end Optoma projector fares, and whether Acoustic Energy can repeat its sublime sonic success with a floorstanding model.

As ever, please do get in touch in the comments below or ping us an email at whathifi@futurenet.com if you have any questions about the products we're testing, and we'll do our best to get back to you with an answer. Enjoy the sunshine when it arrives!

Cambridge Audio L/R S

Cambridge Audio made a splash with the launch of its first-ever active wireless speaker systems earlier this year, and we have the smallest and cheapest of the trio – the L/R S (in the middle, above) – in for testing.

The active speakers feature Bluetooth aptX HD streaming, a USB-C input for easy desktop use, and 50 watts per channel of built-in amplification. Costing £399 / $549, these compact speakers are available in six finishes (including some colourful green and orange ones) and are in direct competition with the Award-winning Ruark MR1 Mk3. Exciting.

LG G6

Hot on the heels of the five-star C6, LG’s flagship 4K OLED is in our test room to establish whether it’s worth the extra outlay.

We’re expecting a more polished and refined version of the Primary RGB Tandem OLED performance of last year’s G5 – but will it deliver that? And will that be enough for the G6 to topple the Sony Bravia 8 II from the flagship OLED top spot? We can't wait to find out.

Onkyo Icon A-50

It has been many years since we had any Onkyo hi-fi in our test rooms, and the Icon A-50 streaming amplifier has plenty going on to make up for the wait. Combining 140 watts of Class A/B amplification with excellent network streaming features, the A-50 is a thoroughly modern hi-fi component that includes HDMI ARC connectivity, a moving magnet and moving coil phono stage, and is encased in a sleek, minimal design.

Will Onkyo's comeback to the world of hi-fi be a success? Let's find out.

Acoustic Energy AE309 Mk2

Acoustic Energy's AE300 Mk2 standmounters wowed us with their understated but incredibly accomplished performance for the price, nabbing a Product of the Year Award and earning a spot at the top of our best stereo speakers list.

Can this sonic goodness be replicated in a floorstanding model? We have the AE309 Mk2 towers in our test rooms, which feature the same cabinet construction and new drivers as their illustrious standmount sibling. At £1199, the AE floorstanders will be going up against the hugely enjoyable Fyne Audio F501E (another Award winner), and we're excited to hear how they fare.

Samsung HW-Q990H

The sequel to Samsung’s Award-winning Q990F Dolby Atmos soundbar system, the Q990H looks very similar to its predecessor, but it features enhanced processing for an apparently more immersive performance. As before, the new system includes a 'bar, a pair of wireless surround speakers and a subwoofer in the package.

We’ll be testing the new model directly against the old one to find out if the upgrades are worthwhile.

Optoma UHZ78LV

Priced at £6000, Optoma’s new flagship home cinema projector has rivals such as the Sony VPL-XW5000ES, Epson EH-QB1000 and BenQ W5850 in its sights. Its secret weapons? A massive claimed peak brightness of 5000 lumens and support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+ (as well as standard HDR10).

That could make the UHZ78LV an excellent choice for mixed-use rooms as well as dedicated home cinemas – if the performance is up to scratch. We'll find out this month!

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The proposed Sony and TCL joint partnership has taken another step forward today, with the new entity to be called 'Bravia Inc'.

This new name has been revealed as part of an announcement that the TCL/Sony takeover of Sony's Home Entertainment business has moved from the "memorandum of understanding" phase announced in January, to a "legally binding definitive agreements" phase.

I don't know about you, but I think 'Bravia Inc' is a pretty cool name, and it also suggests to me a Sony-first focus that I find encouraging.

And there are other details to be encouraged by if you're concerned about the future of Sony TVs and home cinema.

For starters, while we know that TCL will have 51 per cent control of the new company, whereas Sony will have 49 per cent, Bravia Inc will be headquartered in Sony's Tokyo HQ, and its CEO will be Sony's Kazuo Kii.

And, according to a Sony representative, "the two companies will be considered nearly equal partners".

Yes, I do worry about the "nearly" in that quote, but I think the new company being based at Sony and being led by a long-term Sony staffer are positive signs.

I don't want it to seem as though I don't have respect for TCL's involvement here, by the way, because the Chinese brand of course has a lot to offer, but it's the future of the Japanese legend that I'm most concerned for – and I know many readers feel the same.

As I wrote previously, this merger has the potential to be a good thing for both Sony and TCL, if the qualities of each are leveraged in the correct way.

And, indeed, that does appear to be the plan, with the Sony representative explaining that Bravia Inc will marry "Sony’s high-quality picture and sound technology, premium brand value, and operational expertise, alongside TCL’s advanced display technology, global scale, manufacturing footprint, end-to-end cost efficiency, and vertically integrated supply-chain capabilities."

This is what most of us want: Sony's peerless processing and premium products, boosted by TCL's scale and bleeding-edge hardware.

That quote, though, has given me pause for thought: where does OLED factor into all of this?

TCL, famously, cares not for OLED. Its focus is very much on advanced LED backlighting. More zones, more brightness and, as of 2026, so-called 'Super QLED' tech.

The prospect of Sony getting access to this panel technology at the developmental stage and weaving its magic to produce future flagship backlit TVs is naturally tantalising, but will there also be OLEDs in the range? I'm beginning to doubt it.

The beauty of this partnership from a business perspective is presumably that Sony will have first and super-cost-effective dibs on TCL's panel hardware. Does it also want to be buying notoriously expensive OLED panels from LG Display and/or Samsung Display? I don't think so.

Would the TCL (slightly more than) half of Bravia Inc even allow such a thing? Again, I'm not sure.

There is the possibility that TCL will eventually leverage its new inkjet OLED factory for the production of televisions, but that's far from a sure thing, and there's a question mark over how well-suited inkjet OLED panels are for use in TVs anyway.

All of which has got me wondering: could the Bravia 8 II, Bravia 8 and A90K turn out to be Sony's last OLED TVs?

We may not know for a while yet – Bravia Inc isn't expected to start its operations until April 2027 – but I certainly hope not.

In my eyes, OLED is still the best TV technology, and Sony leaving it behind would be a great shame.

MORE:

Read our Sony Bravia 8 II review and Sony Bravia 9 review

Here are our hands-on impressions of the new TCL X11L, TCL RM9L and TCL C8L Super QLED TVs

And these are all of the best TVs you can buy right now

If you’ve spent any time at all reading the TV reviews here on What Hi-Fi?, you’ll know that panel technology alone does not make a TV.

Even televisions that use the same panel can look vastly different from one another, and that’s before you consider all the other things – such as features, design and sound quality – that might sway a buying decision one way or the other.

When the LG G5 was released last year, it sent the Micro Lens Array (MLA) tech that had been behind its flagship panels for the last two years packing, and replaced it with new, cutting-edge Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel technology.

A few other TVs also bought into this tech – notably the Panasonic Z95B and the Philips OLED910 – and since we’ve already put the LG G5 and the Z95B up against one another, it’s high time we considered how the Philips OLED910 compares with its panelmate too. Let the battle begin.

Philips OLED910 vs LG G5: pricing

Considering the LG G6 is currently prepping itself for the shelves, the LG G5 is now much cheaper than it was at launch (though perhaps not as cheap as it will be in a couple of months).

This price would have brought it much closer to the original price of the Philips OLED910 if a recent price drop from Philips hadn’t widened that gap once again. That is, of course, if you live in the UK or Europe – Philip OLEDs aren’t available in the US or Australia.

We tested both of these TVs at 65 inches, and currently you can pick up that size of the LG G5 for around £2499, while the OLED910 is available for as little as £1799.

The 65-inch G5 has gone as low as £1899 in the past, but we've never seen it available for less than the OLED910.

If 65 inches doesn’t suit your space, you’ll have more choice on size with the G5, which is available in 48, 55, 77, 83 and 97 inches – though it’s worth noting that the 48- and 97-inch sets do not use the Primary RGB Tandem panel, and so therefore will not reach the same brightness levels.

That, perhaps, makes the fewer size choices of the Philips OLED910 less of an issue, with the 55- and 77-inch options, alongside the 65-inch set, most likely covering the screen sizes most people want – and at considerably lower prices.

When it comes to pricing, then, the Philips takes an easy win.

Winner: Philips OLED910

Philips OLED910 vs LG G5: design

Whatever design you prefer is the right answer to which is best, but we’d argue there is more to like about the design of the Philips OLED910 over the LG G5.

The Kvadrat fabric covering the under-screen speaker gives it a stylish, furniture-esque look, and four-sided Ambilight only adds to its flair.

The G5, by comparison, is as slim (2.4cm) and attractive as its predecessors – but it’s a design that has gone unchanged since the G1.

It feels ready for a makeover, but there’s absolutely nothing to dislike here otherwise. The Zero Gap wall mount makes for a super flush fit if you are looking to mount it, but if not, be sure to look out for the version that comes with the tabletop stand – in the UK, that’s currently only available for the 55- and 65-inch versions.

Slim and sleek is all well and good, but we have to pay the OLED910 its dues for its greater aesthetic consideration.

WINNER: Philips OLED910

Philips OLED910 vs LG G5: features

We already know that the LG G5 and the Philips OLED910 share the same super-bright Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel, with peak brightness claims of up to 4000 nits, but what in their feature lists separates them?

For a start, behind those panels are, of course, two different processors – the Philips 9th Gen P5 and LG’s Alpha 11 AI Processor Gen 2. Both are the companies’ most powerful TV chipset, with AI smarts on board that claim to offer a helping hand when it comes to making the picture and sound the very best for what you’re watching.

In the G5, that includes AI Picture Pro and AI Sound Pro, the former covering off a range of picture enhancements, such as AI Perceived Object Enhancer (which aims to boost the three-dimensionality of the picture), AI Super Upscaling and OLED Dynamic Tone Mapping.

LG has also installed an AI chatbot into the G5, which is on hand to help you get your picture how you want it, or solve issues with your TV. For those who don’t feel confident trawling through a settings menu, you can say things such as “my TV isn’t bright enough” to have the settings automatically adjusted.

For the OLED910, the on-board AI helps to classify what it is you’re watching and adapt the picture quality to suit. It also offers similar AI-judged improvements to things such as sharpness, colour vibrancy and contrast, though as always you can turn these off if you prefer.

Elsewhere, the Philips OLED910 continues its commendable commitment to supporting all four of the current HDR formats – that’s HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, alongside the basic HDR10 and HLG.

The G5, by comparison, only supports Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG. That covers off the majority of content, in honesty, but the additional support on the OLED910 does keep you covered for absolutely everything, and futureproofed too.

Where the Philips really loses ground is in its connectivity, and this has a particular impact on gamers.

On the LG G5, you have four full bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets, all capable of handling 4K/165Hz signals with VRR and ALLM (which covers off the 4K/120Hz max for consoles and 4K/144Hz for fancy PCs), while the OLED910 only has two, with a maximum limit of 4K/144Hz.

One of the HDMI 2.1 sockets also doubles as the eARC port, so you’ll be reduced to just one for your gaming machines if you need it for a soundbar or other sound system. That's not the end of the world if you don't mind any further devices being limited to 4K/60Hz, but it will be an annoyance to many gamers.

We’d also lean towards the LG G5’s webOS platform over the OLED910’s Google TV platform. For us, webOS wins on ease of use and speed, but it also offers a more comprehensive selection of streaming apps, with BBC iPlayer currently missing from Google TV.

It’s closely run in this section, with some wins on both sides. But we think the TV with the best, most impactful features for most users is the LG G5.

WINNER: LG G5

Philips OLED910 vs LG G5: picture quality

Given that both of these TVs received five-star reviews, you can imagine there’s little to grumble about in the way they handle pictures. However, even with the same panel behind them, there are differences in their delivery that might sway your buying decision.

Thanks to that new Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel, the G5 and OLED910 are noticeably brighter than their predecessors, and – most importantly – handle their additional nits well.

Philips does seem to put HDR levels of brightness behind SDR content on all of its picture modes though, which is something we wish was optional, even if it doesn’t impact the overall picture performance.

Colour handling is excellent on both, with punchy and vibrant pictures that clearly benefit from the additional colour volume afforded by this panel. There’s the occasional oversaturation of skin tones in some scenes on the Philips OLED910 that we don’t notice as much in the G5, but overall both sets balance vibrancy and accuracy with few complaints.

Both offer Filmmaker Mode alongside a whole host of other picture options – it’s the picture setting we recommend, since it is the most accurate and usually switches off all additional processing. However, we actually found the OLED910 leaves some of it turned on, mostly for helping the TV to look its best at various levels of ambient lighting.

It’s worth experimenting here and deciding for yourself if there’s any positive impact, but if you’re particularly against any form of added processing, some extra care will be required in the OLED910’s menus to make sure it’s all off.

You can expect sharp, detailed and insightful pictures from both TVs. If pushed, we’d say the Philips gets closer to the solidity and three dimensionism of the Award-winning Sony Bravia 8 II, which is also helped by the OLED910’s better handling of dark scenes – there’s a slight black crush from the LG G5 that means you lose some shadow details in the darkest parts of a picture.

Overall there are some pros and cons for both TVs, but both offer a superb picture with lots to like. We’re chalking this one up as a draw.

Winner: draw

Philips OLED910 vs LG G5: sound quality

While these TVs might come close in picture quality, when it comes to sound quality, there is a clear winner.

The LG G5 offers a 60W 4.2-channel system, while the Philips OLED910 has a 3.1-channel 81W system, produced by B&W, that sits underneath the screen like a soundbar.

Overall, the G5’s performance is disappointing. Even with our preferred Cinema preset, it just isn’t able to dig deep and deliver much bass at all, nor is it very assured with low-level dynamics, meaning dialogue often sounds lifeless and dull.

It’s a really unexciting sound, which means, without a doubt, you’ll need to add to the G5 by way of a soundbar or surround sound system.

However, the Philips OLED910 proves that not all TV sound has to be bad, and manages to deliver a wide, detailed sound, with good effect placement (even with Atmos sounds), impressive weight and a really lovely tonal balance by TV standards.

Dynamics are impressive for a TV too, and there’s a much better handling of low-level dynamics, meaning voices have realism and character, while bigger volume changes are handled well too.

There’s a little softness to deep bass, but you’ll be hard pushed to find a TV that sounds better.

Of course, a good soundbar will be even better, but you’d need to invest in something around the level of the Sonos Arc Ultra for a significant upgrade on what this TV can do.

WINNER: Philips OLED910

Philips OLED910 vs LG G5: verdict

As always, there can only be one winner, and given how close these TVs come in key areas such as picture quality, the value offered by the Philips OLED910 is hard to ignore.

Throw in nice-to-haves such as Ambilight, a pretty great built-in sound system and a living room-friendly design, and that saving over the G5 starts to look even tastier.

However, this particular head to head isn’t cut and dried by any means, and if gaming is a key consideration for you, we might be inclined to recommend the LG G5 because of the additional HDMI 2.1 ports.

The better smart system and full complement of catch up apps is also a mark in the G5’s column, as is that stunningly slim wall-mounted design, which might be worth the additional outlay.

Still, the Philips OLED910 is to be applauded for how much it offers at such a great price.

Getting a 65-inch TV with a performance this good for well under the £2000 mark is nothing short of a bargain. If you choose it as your next TV, we think you’ll be very happy indeed.

OVERALL WINNER: Philips OLED910

MORE:

Read our full Philips OLED910 review and LG G5 review

Here are all of the best TVs you can buy right now

Wondering when we’re going to review the LG G6 OLED TV? Then I have some good news.

A 65-inch LG G6 is sitting in our test rooms right now, plonked next to its predecessor, the LG G5, and our current Product of the Year winner, the Sony Bravia 8 II.

Yes, I’m primed to start running them through our rigorous comparative testing process on Monday morning.

And while I’m 99 per cent excited, thanks to the firm’s step down model, the LG C6, impressing when we tested it a few weeks ago, there’s a tiny part of my brain that’s slightly worried.

Why am I worried, and moaning in general, when I’m about to get paid to play with (review) one of 2026’s most exciting TVs?

Well, it's because I wasn’t the biggest fan of last year’s LG G5.

In fact, if you read our coverage last year, then you’ll know that when we ran a head-to-head test with nearly all of last year’s flagship TVs, including the LG G5, Samsung S95F, Sony Bravia 8 II and Panasonic Z95B, I liked it the least.

While I stand by our five-star review, as the set is holistically great, it was the worst offender for a personal bugbear of mine with modern TVs: its bombastic focus on constantly showing how punchy and bright it could go

Yes, of all the flagship sets in the shootout, the LG G5's image felt the least finessed.

I said as much in a separate op-ed at the time, where I reported a particularly hazardous moment running a scene on our Dune: Part 2 4K Blu-ray test disc: “The image lacked finesse, with the TV raising the brightness across the entire panel, rather than limiting its efforts to the sections it was meant to.

"This is an issue I usually experience on Mini LED sets, which have to charge sections, or zones, of a backlight, but not OLEDs, which offer pixel-level light control. This hindered dynamic range, and the sheer aggressiveness of the continuous jumps in the peaks meant that I found myself wincing.”

Pretty damning stuff and further proof that, as I’ve said multiple times before, TV makers’ current focus on selling a high peak and operating brightness (nit count) as a primary metric for screen quality is misguided.

If you want an “as the director intended” experience, there are far more ingredients to consider: colour volume, colour accuracy, motion handling, and dark detail, to name a few. Just going bright isn’t good enough.

And because of that, I’m hoping LG’s toned things down with the G6 for 2026.

This is especially important as all evidence suggests we’re going to see far fewer new flagship OLEDs appear, thanks to Panasonic selling its European TV business and Sony "partnering" with TCL – a firm which famously thinks Mini LED is better than OLED.

So, if the LG G6 doesn't cut the mustard, buyers hunting for a good new flagship OLED may be out of luck.

Thankfully, despite my minor concern, there is plenty of evidence to suggest LG has learned its lesson.

Yes, the firm did make a big deal about the G6 going 20 per cent brighter than the G5 when it unveiled the TV at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

But when we talked to LG representatives at the show, they were equally eager to talk about the refinements it has made to let the G6 deliver a “more lifelike” picture.

Here’s hoping the work’s paid off, as it did on the LG C6. I’ll be finding out next week, regardless.

If you have any questions about the set, drop them in the comments below, or on our social media channels and forums, and I’ll endeavour to get you an answer.

MORE:

These are the best OLED TVs we’ve tested

We rank the best TVs money can buy

Our picks of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars to complement your shiny new OLED

After much anticipation, LG’s Sonos-rivalling premium home cinema system, Sound Suite, launched earlier this month.

As the first such system boasting Dolby Atmos FlexConnect technology, Sound Suite arrived promising revolutionary flexibility in terms of system configuration and speaker placement – and in those regards, it largely delivers.

Unfortunately, LG has also fumbled some of the sonic fundamentals, hence the three-star rating in our reviews of both the Sound Suite H7 soundbar and the Sound Suite system as a whole.

But, having spent two weeks using the Sound Suite system both in our dedicated test room and at home, there are actually lots of things that I really like about LG’s Dolby Atmos home cinema solution.

So let’s spend some time giving praise where it’s due by detailing Sound Suite’s many strengths – before embarking on the less pleasant task of flagging its weaknesses.

Strengths

Excellent Dolby Atmos placement

The way Dolby Atmos is handled is without doubt the Sound Suite system’s most impressive quality.

During Blade Runner 2049, audio adverts float convincingly above the listening position, while environmental effects occupy precise positions within the room. In F1, commentary sits neatly overhead and fireworks spread convincingly across the ceiling.

The system consistently places sounds in very specific three-dimensional locations, creating an impressively immersive Atmos bubble.

Huge cinematic scale

A closely related quality is Sound Suite's ability to fill a room with sound.

From the opening moments of Blade Runner 2049 to the chaotic musical sequence in Sinners, the presentation feels genuinely epic and cinematic. Sound spreads widely across the room rather than appearing confined to the speakers themselves.

Even when the speaker placement isn’t ideal, the system still produces a soundfield that feels satisfyingly expansive.

Oodles of deep, powerful bass

The bundled subwoofer delivers seriously deep and powerful bass.

Impacts, explosions and the heavy smacks of cars colliding in F1 land with tremendous weight, and the system digs impressively deep into the low frequencies.

That bass can occasionally become a little overbearing and lacks some precision, but in terms of sheer depth and presence it’s undeniably impressive.

Loads of punch and energy

The Sound Suite system never sounds timid.

Action scenes hit hard, with plenty of punch helping crashes, gunshots and musical moments feel impactful and exciting.

It may sometimes prioritise brute force over finesse, but if you want your movies to feel energetic and dramatic, LG’s system certainly delivers.

Impressively flexible speaker placement

Dolby Atmos FlexConnect technology is what truly sets the Sound Suite system apart.

Rather than demanding perfectly symmetrical speaker placement, the system analyses where each speaker sits and adjusts the soundfield accordingly. Even in less-than-ideal layouts, it manages to produce a surprisingly coherent and immersive presentation.

It can’t perform miracles, and it's well worth making the effort to place the speakers in the 'correct' positions if possible, but FlexConnect does a remarkably convincing job of compensating for awkward setups.

A stylish soundbar with a useful OLED display

The H7 soundbar itself is an attractive and nicely made piece of kit.

Its clean design looks suitably premium, and the inclusion of a small OLED display is genuinely helpful, clearly showing volume levels, input changes and the currently playing audio format.

It’s a thoughtful touch that many competing soundbars still omit.

Big, stylish M7 surround speakers

The M7 surround speakers are larger than many wireless surrounds, but that size works in their favour.

They look stylish and substantial, and their larger cabinets likely help contribute to the system’s expansive soundstage.

They also integrate neatly with the rest of the system, allowing Atmos effects to move smoothly through the room.

Customisable ambient speaker lighting

LG has added a bit of visual flair with customisable lighting built into the speakers and soundbar.

Through the app you can adjust the ambient illumination to suit your room or mood, adding a subtle cinematic atmosphere to movie nights.

It’s hardly essential, but it’s a fun extra that helps the Sound Suite system feel a little more distinctive.

A sensibly streamlined set of sound modes

Thankfully, LG hasn’t overloaded the system with endless sound presets.

There are just five main options – AI Sound Pro+, Standard, Clear Voice Pro+, Bass Boost and Custom EQ – and most users will find that Standard works best for the majority of content.

The relatively restrained selection makes the system easier to use and reduces the temptation to endlessly fiddle with settings.

A proper bundled remote control

Unlike some rivals that rely entirely on apps or TV remotes, LG also includes a dedicated remote control.

It feels a little light and plasticky, but the buttons are clearly labelled and straightforward to use, making everyday operation simple.

That said, a dedicated Night Mode button would have been a welcome addition.

Weaknesses

A cold and somewhat aggressive sound

While the Sound Suite system excels at scale and impact, it struggles with warmth and subtlety.

Treble and bass reign supreme here, leaving the midrange rather lacking, and there's a forthrightness to the delivery that feels quite shouty.

The overall tonal balance leans towards the cold and aggressive side, which can make the presentation a little fatiguing.

Dialogue can sound brash

Dialogue reproduction is one of the system’s weaker areas.

Voices frequently sound raspy and slightly synthetic, lacking the warmth and natural texture that help speech feel convincing.

Compared with rival systems such as Sonos’ Arc Ultra-based home theatres, voices often feel flatter and less expressive.

Background effects are sometimes exaggerated

The system also has a tendency to push background sounds too far forward.

Ambient noises that should remain subtle occasionally become overly prominent, drawing attention away from the dialogue or main action.

The result can feel slightly unnatural, as though the system is over-emphasising certain elements of the soundtrack.

AI sound processing makes things worse

LG’s AI Upmix and AI Sound Pro+ modes initially sound impressive because they increase scale and weight.

Unfortunately, they also exaggerate background effects and give voices an unnatural, echoey character.

In practice, the Standard mode with AI Upmix disabled delivers the most natural and balanced performance.

No HDMI inputs on the soundbar

While not a unique flaw to the Sound Suite H7 (the Sonos Arc Ultra is another notable culprit), connectivity is more limited than it should be.

The soundbar lacks dedicated HDMI inputs, meaning all sources must be connected to your TV rather than directly into the soundbar.

It’s won't be a deal-breaker for everyone, but those with loads of sources will be frustrated.

No DTS:X support

While not terribly surprising, given how closely LG appears to have worked with Dolby on this debut FlexConnect system, the lack of DTS:X compatibility here is a shame.

While Dolby Atmos is certainly the dominant immersive format, plenty of discs and some streaming services feature DTS:X.

Its absence slightly limits the system’s format flexibility.

The sub and surrounds feel less premium than the soundbar

While the H7 soundbar itself feels nicely built, the other components don’t quite match its premium feel.

The subwoofer and surround speakers feel lighter and less substantial, creating a slight mismatch in perceived quality across the system.

It’s not a huge problem, but it does slightly undermine the premium impression.

Early software bugs

During testing, we encountered a number of frustrating software issues.

Initial setup proved surprisingly fiddly, with each component requiring its own wi-fi connection process and the subwoofer using a different pairing method entirely.

At one point the system also powered on at extremely high volume and refused to respond properly to the remote controls until the app was opened – a genuinely unpleasant experience.

Fingers crossed these issues will quickly be solved via software updates.

No bundle discounts yet

At present, LG isn’t offering any meaningful discounts for buying multiple Sound Suite components together.

Given that the system is clearly designed to be built into a full ecosystem, bundled pricing would make the proposition more attractive – especially considering that Sonos offers big discounts on its system bundles.

As things stand, assembling the full setup feels rather expensive.

MORE:

Read the full LG Sound Suite H7 and LG Sound Suite system reviews

Here are the best soundbars and best surround systems you can buy right now

It’s a turbulent time in the world of OLED TVs, at least when it comes to the business dealings of the big players.

This year we've had TCL buying a 51 per cent stake in Sony’s home entertainment business, and Panasonic selling its European TV division to Chinese firm Skyworth.

But when it comes to the products themselves, the most recent big event for our reviewers was the arrival of the 65-inch LG C6 in our test rooms.

Why? Because after testing the TV and running it head-to-head with its predecessor, as well as a number of Award-winning rivals, it proved to be not just a five-star set but also well worthy of a place in our best OLED TV guide.

Yes, just now the 65-inch LG C6 overcame expectations and entered our list as the recommended new OLED for people who want the latest and greatest hardware.

If you’re wondering why I say overcame expectations, the answer’s pretty simple; when we first saw the 65-inch LG C6 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas at the start of the year, it was one of the least interesting OLEDs in LG’s new range.

Unlike its larger, 77-inch and above, siblings, it doesn’t have a next generation Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel. It just has a basic WOLED.

And while LG has given it a new CPU, the hardware, including its speaker setup and design are largely identical to the older LG C5.

So, all-in-all, a very tepid upgrade at first glance.

But there’s a reason, after 50 years of reviewing AV hardware, that our team of experts remain gainfully employed. Specifically, a specification sheet never tells the full story.

The moment we turned the LG C5 and C6 on in our viewing rooms and ran our standard suite of comparative tests we noticed improvements on the new model.

Despite a fundamental lack of notable hardware changes, the C6 was immediately brighter than the C5, especially while running our Pan stress test. Here, a wealth of detail in the brightest part of the setting sun, lost on the C5, was visible on the C6.

But it wasn’t just the extra nits LG has managed to eke out of the panel that impressed. Colours are better rendered, with characters’ skin tones in particular holding a greater sense of vitality.

But most surprising of all, running our Blade Runner 2049 audio test, despite having the in-built speaker system, optimisations to the tuning and processing help the C6 deliver a much better performance than any other recent LG set we’ve tested.

Bass is undeniably light, with the booming synth track lacking the impact it should, but the speakers manage to avoid distorting and are controlled enough to not completely ruin the scene – an achievement beyond many of the TVs we test, including expensive OLEDs.

The improvements make the LG C6 feel like a proper step forward for the 'step-down' OLED line, rather than the iterative update we expected based on its specifications.

So much so, that our TV and AV editor, Tom Parsons, boldly stated in our review: “The improvements aren’t so massive that an owner of a recent C-series model (or one of its closest competitors) should feel the need to immediately upgrade, but if you are in the market for a step-down OLED, the LG C6 is the new benchmark. And it’s a benchmark that its rivals will find very hard to match, let alone surpass.”

Notice the final part. While it’s too early to tell if arch-rivals Sony and Samsung are up to the challenge, we can safely say they’ll have to come out all guns blazing to do so. A minor update to the models we've already reviewed likely won't do the job.

Either way, we’ve already got a fantastic new step-down OLED to recommend in the shape of the LG C6. Hats off to the LG TV department, you have kicked the year off with a bang!

MORE:

These are the best TVs we’ve reviewed

We rank the best soundbars money can buy

Our picks of the best 65-inch TVs

Original Story 13/03/2026: LG has announced that its 2026 TV lineup and a handful of its 2025 TVs are receiving an audio-focused upgrade.

The latest 3D audio format to hit the AV scene, Eclipsa Audio, has already made its way to various Samsung models (we'll explore this more later), and the technology is now supported, alongside Dolby Atmos, on LG's 2026 TVs, including the C6, G6 and W6.

That’s a wide range of LG TVs, from the OLED lineup to its new RGB Mini LED models. Playback will be supported via both the TV’s built-in speakers and HDMI eARC audio devices, such as soundbars.

The Korean AV giant has also confirmed, via FlatpanelsHD, that a software update is coming to certain of its 2025 TVs as well. It looks as though the G5, C5, C5S and QNED9M will be among the models to receive this update.

Also known as Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF), the 3D audio platform was developed as an open-source alternative to Dolby Atmos.

It is, however, currently not supported on any of the services that provide Dolby Atmos – Netflix, Disney+ or Apple TV – as it is being aimed at content creators on YouTube, allowing them to add immersive audio to their videos.

More interestingly, perhaps, Eclipsa Audio was developed by LG's arch rival Samsung, with Google. Seeing LG apply a feature derived from its biggest rival is a surprising turn of events. Could HDR10+ be next?

MORE:

Read our full LG C6 review

As well as our LG G6 hands-on review

And check out our picks for the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Last year, I called the LG C5 “the best TV for most people”, and that sentiment certainly rings true for the LG C6, which is an even better TV.

We have just awarded it five stars, and while I won’t give our full review away, the bottom line is that there are loads of picture and sound improvements that LG has been very modest about leading up to the release of this highly anticipated TV.

It’s a terrific TV, and it fixes the few niggles we had with the Award-winning C5; but that doesn’t change the fact that the C-series is, and has been for a while, a little bit of a mess. Thankfully, I love that.

The C-series has always floated around in the mid-range of LG’s OLED lineup. It is more premium and has a better feature set than the B-series, but it doesn't get the top-of-the-line panel technology and sleek design of the G-series. And that’s perfectly fine.

For many years, we championed these Goldilocks TVs, as by our performance-per-pound metric, they offered just the right performance for the asking price.

All that changed last year, however, as the latest generation of flagship OLED TVs – which includes the Product of the Year-winning Sony Bravia 8 II and other five-star sets such as the LG G5, Samsung S95F and Panasonic Z95B – really set themselves apart and justified the additional outlay.

Panel technology has come on leaps and bounds since then, with Primary RGB Tandem OLED and QD-OLED now fully established as the step-up options that deliver richer colours, faster refresh rates, and sublime brightness.

That has never affected the C-series, as the C3, C4, and C5 have all used the “traditional” OLED panels, also known as OLED EX. While there have been incremental brightness bumps and improvements in picture processing and tuning, the C-series has stayed in its mid-range lane.

That changes this year. The C6 now comes with a Primary RGB Tandem OLED, but only in its two largest sizes: 77- and 83-inches. Furthermore, it comes equipped with the flagship Alpha 11 Gen 3 processor, whereas previous models have sported the step-down Alpha 9-series processor.

There was once a time when the G-series and C-series were much more aligned – the C2 and G2 from 2022, for example, used very similar panels and processors. That changed from the C3 and G3 onwards.

It now seems as though LG has gone full circle, which is both confusing and great for home cinema fans who want premium features at a cut-down price. Especially, of course, if you’re looking at the larger sizes with that premium panel technology.

When I caught up with LG at CES 2026, I was told that the 77- and 83-inch C6 models are essentially a “G5 plus”, as they seem to use the first-generation Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel that featured on the G5. They even have the new Hyper Radiant Colour technology, and a slightly lesser version of LG’s anti-reflectivity screen tech that is featured on the G6.

With this in mind, I wouldn't be surprised if prospective TV buyers are umming and ahhing at the decision of whether they should pony up the extra cash for the G6 or save with the C6 and get a lot of what the more premium TV has to offer.

This comparison is less close, it must be noted, at the 55- and 65-inch sizes. The clear distinction with the smaller screens is that the C6 uses a WOLED panel, while the G6 gets Primary RGB Tandem OLED.

That being said, we run into a similar problem again at the smaller end of the scale. The C6 and G6 both come in a 48-inch size, and that, too, essentially sounds like the same TV on paper.

Primary RGB Tandem OLED panels don’t come in this size, meaning both sets use WOLED panels and the Alpha 11 Gen 3 processor. If I were your average TV customer and not clued into the AV world to such an extent, I bet I would head straight towards the cheaper of the two.

Now, there are, of course, going to be differences between the models. I highly doubt – and sincerely hope – that LG is going to simply repackage a C6 into that lovely G6 chassis, whack a higher price on it and call it a day; but we'll need to test these TVs to discern exactly what the differences are between them.

The bottom line is that, as of now, the C6 is in its awkward in-between phase. It reminds me of a plot thread from a little film called Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

Anakin Skywalker is granted a place on the Jedi Council in that film, but he is not promoted to Jedi Master. Much like how the LG C6 has been upgraded to include a lot of LG’s top-of-the-range tech, but not been granted the flagship title.

With overlapping features and changes between generations that have widened and closed the gap between the mid-range and flagship models, the C-series can feel like a TV that needs to get its act together. Still, considering how amazing the past three generations of the set have been, I don't mind that at all.

MORE:

Read our full LG OLED65C6 review

As well as our LG OLED65G5 review

And check out our picks for the best OLED TVs

On the face of it, the C6 we’re looking at today is the least exciting OLED TV in LG’s 2026 range.

The B6 (presumably) features a new OLED SE panel, the G6 is set to be LG’s brightest-ever OLED, and the W6 marks the return of the brand’s legendary Wallpaper range.

On top of that, the 77- and 83-inch versions of the C6 feature Primary RGB Tandem OLED technology for the first time, potentially resulting in the biggest C-series upgrade in years.

But we have chosen the 65-inch C6 as our first LG OLED review of 2026.

Why? Primarily because this has long been LG’s most popular series, 55 to 65 inches remains the most popular size, and if LG has squeezed more performance out of its most popular of models it will be a pretty darn big deal.

And here’s the thing: having tested the C6 directly against the C5 over a number of days, we can confirm that LG really has squeezed more performance out of its C-series.

Rather a lot of it, in fact…

Price

The C5 is the current benchmark at this level, so it’s against this that the C6 must be primarily judged.

It’s good news, then, that the C6 has launched with the same US pricing as the C5 did. That’s $2699 for the 65-inch model.

It's even better news that the price has actually dropped in the UK and Australia, with the 65-inch C6 coming in at £2500 / AU$3999. For reference, the 65-inch C5 launched at £2700 / AU$4299.

It's not just the 65-inch version of the C6 that is cheaper than the equivalent C5 was at launch: every size has received a price reduction in the UK and Australia (but remains unchanged in the US).

It’s worth noting, of course, that while launch pricing might look strong compared with the C5 when it first came out, the new model still currently looks very expensive when compared with its now massively discounted predecessor and other 2025 rivals.

As ever, we recommend waiting before buying – prices should drop quickly and significantly.

Design

If you were hoping for a dramatic redesign this year, you’ll be disappointed. The C6 looks essentially identical to the C5 – and, indeed, to several generations of C-series OLED before it.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as LG’s C-series OLEDs remain some of the most handsome TVs available, with a panel that is astonishingly thin across most of its surface. Most of the screen is little more than a few millimetres thick, with the sides maintaining that wafer-thin profile from top to bottom.

Rather than thickening gradually, the panel has a separate rectangular enclosure attached to the lower rear, which houses the speakers, processing hardware and connections. Because this housing only occupies the central portion of the back, the majority of the panel – particularly the edges – remains strikingly thin.

While the picture frame-style G-series range is often considered the best suited for wall-mounting, C-series models, including the C6, arguably look even smarter on a wall. Because the thicker lower housing pushes the screen slightly away from the wall, the ultra-thin panel appears to hover just in front of the surface behind it, creating a subtle floating effect.

The C6 also retains one of the C-series’ underrated strengths: it’s remarkably light for a TV of this size. That makes it easier to handle during installation and particularly appealing if you plan to wall-mount it.

That said, there are a couple of familiar niggles. The combination of a thin panel and sharp edges makes the set surprisingly uncomfortable to manoeuvre despite its low weight, and the angled pedestal stand can make soundbar placement a little awkward.

Still, this is a very attractive and well-made TV, even if it is somewhat overly familiar at this point.

Features

Despite the new model number, the C6 doesn’t introduce new panel hardware at this size. The 55- and 65-inch versions continue to use LG Display’s established WOLED technology, with the newer Primary RGB Tandem OLED panels reserved for the larger 77- and 83-inch models.

That means the biggest upgrades this year come not from the panel itself, but from LG’s latest processing platform.

The headline addition is LG’s new Alpha 11 Gen 3 processor, which brings a number of changes aimed primarily at improving picture refinement.

LG says the chip now uses a 12-bit processing pipeline, allowing for more precise tone and colour management, alongside an additional brightness control layer designed to improve the rendering of intense light sources and reflections.

The new processor also enables Dual AI Super Resolution, which applies two separate AI passes when upscaling lower-resolution content: one focused on sharpening edges, and another dedicated to refining texture and detail. In theory, this should result in cleaner, more natural upscaling.

Another new addition is AI HDR Remastering, which “analyses each frame of video content, enhancing contrast, sharpness, and colour for improved image quality. SDR content is remastered to appear more like HDR, while HDR content is further refined for a more vibrant and realistic viewing experience”.

Elsewhere, LG has made some small tweaks to its webOS platform. The Home Hub shortcut now provides quicker access to recent inputs, a new My Page area allows users to add personalised widgets, and a ‘Continue Watching’ row has been introduced – although at present it only supports Amazon Prime Video, which isn’t very useful at all.

One aspect of webOS that remains slightly divisive is the presence of large banner adverts on the home screen. These promotional panels occupy a prominent position near the top of the interface and can occasionally feel intrusive when you’re simply trying to navigate to an app. Fortunately, they can still be disabled in the settings menu, allowing you to return the home screen to a much cleaner layout if you’d prefer.

AI of course powers lots of webOS features, most obviously the search functionality. In practice, though, we found this to be a bit inconsistent. During testing, it occasionally struggled to launch specific shows from certain apps despite correctly identifying them.

App support, however, remains one of LG’s greatest strengths. All of the major streaming services are present and accounted for, with excellent support for formats such as Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. As ever with LG TVs, the apps are also extremely well optimised, loading quickly and delivering content in the formats they should.

During our testing, BBC iPlayer refused to launch, but this appears to be a certification issue with our early review sample rather than a permanent omission.

One more concrete absence is Discovery+, which isn’t currently available on the platform. That will be frustrating for some UK users, as it’s the route through which certain TNT Sports events – including a selection of Premier League and Champions League matches – are delivered.

Gamers are, as ever with LG’s top OLEDs, very well catered for. All four HDMI ports support the full HDMI 2.1 feature set, including 4K/120Hz, VRR, ALLM and Dolby Vision gaming. PC gamers can now push refresh rates even further, with support for VRR up to 4K/165Hz, though console players will still be limited to 120Hz, as that is still the limit of the PS5 and Xbox Series X.

LG’s Game Optimiser dashboard returns, allowing players to tweak settings on the fly, and cloud gaming support is strong, with GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming and Amazon Luna all available directly through the TV.

HDR support remains unchanged, with Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG supported, but not HDR10+. Interestingly, LG has also opted not to implement the new Dolby Vision 2 format this year, despite its historically close relationship with Dolby. But, with no content currently available (or even dated) in the new format, it’s unlikely to matter for the foreseeable future.

Picture quality

Before diving into the specifics, it’s worth putting the C6’s improvements into context.

Progress in this step-down OLED category tends to be relatively gradual, largely because most TVs in this class continue to rely on variations of the same underlying WOLED panel technology that has been evolving for several years.

So, rather than introducing entirely new hardware each generation, brands instead focus on squeezing incremental gains from the panel through improved processing, brightness management and calibration.

Against that backdrop, the C6’s performance gains feel particularly impressive.

Even in Filmmaker Mode, the C6’s extra brightness over the C5 is immediately obvious. Highlights are more intense, colours have a touch more richness and the overall image carries greater depth and dimensionality.

Watching Pan, for instance, the light glinting off splashing water appears noticeably brighter, while sunsets display more clearly defined colour gradations and richer tones in the surrounding clouds. The result is an image that feels a little more vibrant and three-dimensional without sacrificing the out-of-the-box naturalism that makes LG’s OLEDs so appealing.

This additional brightness also helps with everyday viewing. Even in a reasonably well-lit room, the C6 feels more comfortable to watch in its most accurate picture modes than previous C-series sets.

Colour reproduction benefits, too. Reds and oranges in particular appear slightly richer and more lifelike, lending skin tones a greater sense of vitality without pushing them into artificial territory. Faces display convincing tonal variation and warmth, helping characters feel more tangible and believable on screen.

After extensive testing with the available picture presets and motion options, we ultimately settle on Filmmaker Mode with just two small tweaks: setting TruMotion to Cinematic Movement, and reducing Near Black Detail from 0 to -1.

With Cinematic Movement engaged, motion looks impressively smooth and controlled without introducing obvious artefacts or drifting into the dreaded soap-opera effect. Fast-moving sequences retain plenty of clarity while still preserving a natural, cinematic feel.

The Near Black Detail adjustment proves particularly useful, too. Out of the box, the C6 occasionally prioritises shadow detail slightly over absolute black depth. In the opening moments of Alien: Romulus, for example, the blackness of space can appear just a touch raised compared with the C5.

Dropping Near Black Detail to -1 neatly restores the sort of inky blacks OLED fans expect while still preserving more shadow detail than the C5 manages. The result is an excellent balance of deep, convincing blacks and improved low-light nuance.

The C6’s new Precision HDR Master Pro processing – which underpins the HDR Remastering feature – can also be found in the picture menus.

When enabled with HDR content, however, its effect is extremely subtle in the most accurate picture modes. In Filmmaker Mode and Cinema Home, we often struggle to see any meaningful difference between it being on or off, which likely explains why LG leaves it disabled by default across all presets.

In less accurate modes such as Standard it has a slightly stronger effect, but primarily through exaggerated detail and sharpness, so we still prefer to leave it switched off.

The HDR Remastering feature is also designed to convert SDR material into something closer to HDR, but its results are mixed. While it can add a little extra brightness and punch, it also tends to make SDR images appear cooler in tone and somewhat over-sharpened.

As with most technologies that attempt to manufacture HDR from SDR, the result doesn’t truly resemble native HDR and ultimately feels less natural than leaving the feature disabled.

Fortunately, the C6 performs very well with SDR material even without such processing.

Standard-definition sources retain a broadly similar character to those on the C5, but the C6’s additional processing refinement makes them look a touch smoother and cleaner.

Watching DVD material such as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the image appears impressively vibrant by SD standards, with good contrast and colour depth. Fine elements such as the text on the Valu-Mart sign are rendered with slightly cleaner edges and improved definition compared with the C5.

1080p Blu-ray material remains excellent, too. Films such as Fury look sharp, clean and natural, and while the difference between the C6 and C5 is less noticeable at this resolution than standard-def, LG has achieved a subtle improvement.

Taken as a whole, the C6’s picture performance represents a clear step forward. It’s brighter, richer and more immersive than its predecessor while still delivering the naturalism and cinematic balance that have long made LG’s C-series OLEDs such dependable performers.

Sound quality

Audio performance hasn’t always been a strong suit for LG’s C-series TVs, but the C6 represents a noticeable step in the right direction.

Using the same underlying speaker hardware as its predecessor, LG appears to have focused instead on improving processing and acoustic tuning, and the results are immediately apparent.

With Blade Runner 2049, the presentation feels cleaner and more controlled than on the C5. Bass isn’t necessarily deeper, but it is tighter and more composed, avoiding the distortion that occasionally crept into the previous model at higher volumes.

Voices also benefit from a little more warmth and character, while the overall soundstage feels more spacious. Dolby Atmos effects are projected further away from the screen when required, giving the presentation a greater sense of scale.

Watching Civil War, the improvements become even clearer. Dialogue is more expressive, dynamics are stronger and the overall delivery feels more open and immersive than we’re used to from LG’s OLEDs.

Volume output remains somewhat limited, so the C6 can’t provide a blockbuster soundtrack experience, but within its comfort zone the C6 sounds surprisingly clear and engaging.

It’s still no substitute for a dedicated sound system, of course, but by the standards of TVs in this class, the C6 delivers a pleasingly capable audio performance.

Verdict

While it might seem at first glance to be the least exciting model in LG’s 2026 OLED TV range, the ‘normal’ sized C6 is, in fact, a revelation.

This is a big upgrade by C-series standards. We don’t typically get too excited about processor upgrades, but the Alpha 11 Gen 3 has forced a brighter and richer performance out of the same OLED EX panel technology, and improved upscaling and shading subtlety.

The extra brightness and richness have benefits across the picture, resulting in a more enticing, dynamic and three-dimensional delivery.

LG has finally found some sonic success, too, and the C6 actually sounds pretty good for a TV in its class – though a dedicated sound system is, as ever, highly recommended.

Add in the usual LG C-series strengths of awesome gaming credentials and an app-packed, properly optimised smart platform, and you have a formidable all-rounder of a TV.

The improvements aren’t so massive that an owner of a recent C-series model (or one of its closest competitors) should feel the need to immediately upgrade, but if you are in the market for a step-down OLED, the LG C6 is the new benchmark.

And it’s a benchmark that its rivals will find very hard to match, let alone surpass.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 5

Updates

MORE:

Read our review of the LG C5

Read our hands on impressions of the LG G6

Also consider the Samsung S95F

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and budget Mini LED sets tried and tested

Looking for a home cinema sound solution? You’ll find two paths branching before you: one leads to an AVR and surround sound speaker package, the other to a Dolby Atmos soundbar.

You might think that these devices could live in harmony, but we often see people claiming soundbars to be inferior and incapable of delivering cinematic sound that even remotely rivals that of the best AVRs.

While there is a modicum of truth to that – we have tested hundreds of soundbars, AVRs and surround sound speaker packages in total and find that a true surround sound system will almost always beat the soundbar experience – there is actually plenty of nuance to the matter.

Convenience is the main draw of a soundbar – and the reason I use one myself. Not everyone, especially those in pokey city flats or shared houses, has the space to deploy a full 5.1.2 (or greater) system; and attempting to route cables around a rented property is a concept that sends a shiver down my spine.

There is also the financial aspect: when it comes to budget considerations, a Sonos Arc Ultra for £899 is a far more appealing all-in-one Dolby Atmos solution compared with an AVR and 5.1.2 speaker package, which can cost upwards of £2000.

Put simply, soundbars have their place in this world, and we are fans of them regardless of whether or not they are deemed to be “true home cinema” audio solutions.

But that doesn't mean there isn’t room for improvement.

Relatively speaking, soundbars are much newer than AV amplifiers. Yamaha introduced the first soundbar, the YSP-1, back in 2004, while Denon is credited with introducing the world's first AV amplifier back in 1985 with the AVC-500. That's a 19-year difference, and as we know, a lot can happen in the world of AV in almost two decades.

With that in mind, I feel soundbars could learn a thing or two from their elders, and that sentiment is felt with the current crop of soundbars and AVRs on the market.

Don't be stingy with the HDMI ports…

While soundbars have been improving in this regard in recent years, we are still seeing some models launch without the most important connectivity options. HDMI passthrough – which (I have recently lamented) Sonos and LG have not included in their latest soundbars – is a feature I think every soundbar should include.

AVRs have, understandably, featured an abundance of HDMI sockets for connecting Blu-ray players, streamers, games consoles and more to your TV or projector for quite some time. As such, AVRs have become the beating heart of many home cinema setups, acting as the central interface which manages connected devices and home cinema sound alike.

We have to give the likes of Samsung, JBL and Sony kudos for including full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets on their flagship soundbars; and Sennheiser and Harman Kardon also earn my favour by including HDMI sockets on their ’bars, even if they tend to be of the 2.0 standard and therefore don't support quite as many gaming features.

If a soundbar is going to take up a precious HDMI 2.1 socket – many TVs only have two of these, by the way – then it's only fair that it should give something back.

Fewer apps, more on-screen setups…

I have lost count of how many soundbar apps are currently clogging up my iPhone's storage – and I would rather drop the majority of them. While this isn't a blanket issue, I have tested many soundbars which have less-than-ideally optimised apps, and connectivity is usually the first hurdle to overcome.

I’ve had soundbar apps flat-out refuse to connect to their respective soundbar, and that has locked a handful of crucial features, including calibration, access to sound modes and input selection, leaving them to be handled via a remote control handset or on-device buttons and interpreted by either a dot-matrix display or a confusing array of flashing LEDs.

All of this could be avoided if more soundbar manufacturers included an on-screen setup, one which would allow us to adjust settings without having to rely on an app.

We have recently seen this included on the Yamaha True X Surround 90A, which was a welcome addition, while many AVRs have offered on-screen setups for quite some time. Denon’s range has supported this for a while, and we even saw a trimmed-down (yet surprisingly functional) version included on the JBL MA7100HP, which made setup and operation a lot easier.

Considering many soundbar manufacturers also produce TVs (think Sony, LG and Samsung), an on-screen menu system that ties into their respective smart platforms would be a rather nice touch.

Get serious about sound customisation and calibration…

I think this is where people place the most emphasis on the differentiation between AVRs and soundbars. A soundbar is essentially a plug-and-play device; sure, there are often various sound modes, and most Dolby Atmos-supporting soundbars include a method of calibrating them, but there aren’t often many ways to customise deeply the sound of your soundbar.

Vague EQ settings aside, I understand why soundbars aren’t as in-depth as AVRs when it comes to sound customisation. They are usually aimed at people who have no interest in the complexities of a full home cinema speaker system; for them, the ease of use and immediate sound payoff are the primary concern. That being said, a deeper customisation menu for enthusiasts would go a long way to winning over staunch audiophiles.

Calibration, on the other hand, could easily be improved on many soundbars. We often see soundbars use a built-in microphone, or utilise the microphone in your smartphone, to take measurements and calibrate the sound to your room.

While this is usually pretty effective, I much prefer the accuracy of an AVR calibration system, which usually involves hooking up an external microphone (often included in the box) and placing it in your main seating position, to best tailor the sound to the place you will be watching your movies or TV shows.

We have seen this once on a soundbar – the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max launched with an external microphone for this very purpose. But very few soundbars sporting this feature have passed through our home cinema testing room since.

A more accurate and thorough method of calibrating the sound could negate some of the criticism surrounding the notion that soundbars “don't do real Dolby Atmos”. If you’re spending in the region of £1000 on a flagship model, an included microphone shouldn't be out of the question.

MORE:

Check out our full Marantz Cinema 30 review

As well as our Sonos Arc Ultra review

Here is how to set up and get the best sound out of your AVR

Dolby Atmos FlexConnect has been the subject of much interest for home cinema fans since it was unveiled three years ago at the IFA tradeshow in Berlin.

That’s because it’s a next-generation technology designed to make Dolby Atmos even better in a variety of ways.

So when we finally got the LG Sound Suite system, which features the new technology, into our listening rooms last week, it was a pretty big deal.

Especially as Dolby has made some big claims about the tech, including one promising that compatible speakers will still deliver the “dome of sound” effect, even when placed in suboptimal locations around the room.

I have baulked at this claim multiple times, including when the system first arrived in our test rooms. After all, many companies, including Sony, have made similar boasts about their wireless soundbar systems over the years. And while many have performed better than expected, they still require due care with their placement to deliver the Atmos effect properly.

Which is why marketing material showing the satellites in incredibly silly locations, including having one in front of the viewer’s seat and another two meters behind on a bookshelf, meant I had my doubts.

What can I say? I’m Scott-ish (and by that I mean an RAF brat with roots there who still thanks the stars he has a British, not US accent after years at international school) and naturally pessimistic.

I even said as much in front of Dolby engineers, when I asked them if they were concerned that such strong marketing claims may set movie fans’ expectations a wee bit too high. I’m ashamed to admit I may have even let out an arrogant “tsch” when they affirmed that they were not.

But, you know what, magnanimous home cinema aficionado (snob) that I am, I feel it's important to acknowledge when I’m wrong.

Because, despite our best efforts to trip it up with a prolonged game of move the speaker, FlexConnect’s auto-calibration feature proved to be an admirable performer. No matter how mean we were with our experiments, the system cleverly adjusted its settings, optimising them to our, or the satellites’, new location in the room with a click of a button.

As we say in our Sound Suite review: “Dolby Atmos FlexConnect isn’t a gimmick – it’s an impressively effective technology that (in LG’s hands at least) delivers convincing height, scale and spatial precision even when speaker placement isn’t ideal.”

All in all, while Sound Suite’s slightly brash, shouty audio profile stops it getting a real recommendation from our reviewers, FlexConnect’s room calibration and optimisation, to my surprise, gets a big thumbs up.

Why am I not doing my happy dance (yes, it's very similar to Carlton’s from the OG Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)? Well, for one, while we liked Sound Suite’s calibration and room correction services, we have yet to find a FlexConnect system that we would say sounds really good. Witness this LG’s three-star rating. And that, of course, is a pretty big blocker for us to start recommending buying a FlexConnect system.

Also, we are still on the fence about one other “out there” FlexConnect feature. That is, the promise to let users create Frankenstein’s monster systems using whatever FlexConnect-compatible speakers they want.

The idea here is that people can take any FlexConnect compatible satellite speakers, subwoofers, soundbars, or even in-built TV speakers, and join them together to create a proper Dolby Atmos surround system – whether or not they are from same product line, or even brand.

This controversial feature, which surely opens the door for people to create horribly mismatched systems with speakers that don’t have complementary sonic profiles, is a key concern. And, unfortunately, it's one we didn’t get to test with the Sound Suite.

That's because LG chose to lock its Sound Suite system down and let you pair only certain speakers, soundbars and TVs in a bid to ensure you get a decent experience.

The fact that LG felt the need to do that means I am still concerned about the technology’s supposedly open nature. Especially given my experience helping non-enthusiast friends build systems in the past. Trust me, 99 per cent of the time it’s human error or a lapse in sonic judgement when attempting to match system parts that causes problems…

So opening the door for we gremlins to mess things up further seems a little dangerous, to my mind – or at the very least ill-advised.

Who knows, though? Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong once again when we try making our first FlexConnect system from random compatible parts we find lying around our stock room. After all, I was certainly wrong about Sound Suite and its robust calibration powers. Who's to say pigs won't fly twice?

MORE:

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars we have reviewed

We rank the best surround sound systems

Our picks of the best TVs for serious movie fans

We just finished testing LG's latest flagship Dolby Atmos soundbar and, if you've read our full reviews for the Sound Suite H7 and the Sound Suite system, you'll know that despite a few redeeming features, we ultimately found both products' performance to be a let-down.

The hard, shouty and sibilant sound unfortunately overshadowed the expansive, powerful and detailed qualities of the soundbar and system, which wasn't the outcome we were hoping for.

That being said, there are some positive aspects that we mentioned in our full review, and there's one I'd like to focus on as it stood out as a highlight that other soundbars simply can't match.

In our full review of the Sound Suite H7, we stated that "we have to give the H7 kudos for being the first FlexConnect-enabled soundbar on the market", and this is where the H7 stands out among the competition.

Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is a long-fabled feature which has been bubbling in the background for a few years now, and it's finally entered the soundbar market with the LG Sound Suite H7, alongside the M5 and M7 Dolby Atmos wi-fi speakers.

While LG isn't technically the first to bring a FlexConnect system to market, that credit technically goes to TCL's Z100 speakers, which are currently only available in select markets; these are the first FlexConnect speakers to make their way into our AV testing room.

And what an impression they've made. While their sonic characteristics aren't ideal, the implementation of the flexible speaker placement and what they add to the systems market really is worth praising.

The ease of plonking these speakers down and calibrating them with a press of a button really is appealing. And with our reviews out, we can confirm the system really does do a lot of the hard work for you, automatically working out how to best adjust the sound, regardless of where the speakers are in your listening room.

The Sound Suite system that we tested is also called the Immerse Suite 7 Pro here in the UK, and it consists of the H7 soundbar, two M7 speakers and the W7 subwoofer. The appeal here is that, unlike many other soundbar packages, these speakers can work pretty much anywhere, meaning you needn't stress about where you should put them in your room.

They can work as rear-surrounds, or if you want to reinforce the H7 soundbar, you can use them as front left and right channels with the soundbar acting as an overpowered centre channel. You can even pair an additional set of speakers if you want, front left and right channels alongside rear surrounds.

Now, it's worth noting that Samsung technically supports this on the HW-Q990F, as you can designate the surround speakers as additional front speakers to work alongside the bar. However, this is more of a "one-or-the-other" solution rather than the true flexibility that the LG system provides – hence the "Flex" in FlexConnect.

LG's ThinQ app makes optimising the sound very simple, thanks to the Sound Follow feature, which can identify the user's position in the room and tailor the sound to best suit their seating position. This can be adjusted by a simple press of a button, and it works pretty seamlessly in our experience.

And that ease of use is backed by a genuine sonic improvement, which makes the sound more immersive. While the H7 alone handles Dolby Atmos height effects well, and it creates a big, bold sound in itself, those qualities are hugely upgraded with the inclusion of two M7 Dolby Atmos speakers.

The "bubble of sound" that we keenly seek out with any Dolby Atmos soundbar system is superbly realised with this system, as we find ourselves placed squarely into the centre of the action with the Sound Suite system. Height effects are placed with impressive accuracy, and the sound feels even bigger and more powerful than it does with the soundbar by itself.

We tested everything from jets soaring overhead in Civil War to the booming dystopian hologram adverts being beamed onto the side of a building in Blade Runner 2049, and in every instance, we were wowed by how the surround speakers could keep up with the main soundbar.

The flexibility of how and where you can place the speakers, plus the genuine improvement to the surround sound experience signals to us that Dolby Atmos FlexConnect could really shake up the future of home cinema speakers and soundbars.

And while Sound Suite wasn't the sonic spectacle we were hoping for, it did a great job of demonstrating the capabilities of FlexConnect, and I, for one, can't wait to see where it goes.

MORE:

Read our full LG Sound Suite H7 review

As well as our LG Sound Suite System review

And check out our picks for the best surround sound systems

We're only three months into 2026, and I've already spent most of my year listening to more soundbars than I can count from the likes of Sonos, LG, Samsung, JBL and Harman Kardon.

By that metric, I’ll have listened to hundreds of soundbars by the time 2027 rolls around. But after my latest stint with the LG Sound Suite H7, it doesn't matter how a manufacturer pitches their flagship performance if there are connectivity shortcomings.

While the wireless connectivity options found on the Sound Suite H7 are bountiful, including Bluetooth 5.4, wi-fi, Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect, wired connectivity options are slightly less well served.

In fact, that soundbar has a single wired connection option, and that is HDMI eARC. This is an output socket only, and it isn't backed up by any sort of additional HDMI passthrough sockets.

In our full review of the new LG flagship soundbar, we noted that the lack of any additional HDMI socket "feels like a missed opportunity considering LG has prided itself on featuring four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets on its TVs for quite some time".

Now, this isn't an issue that's exclusive to the LG Sound Suite H7, as its main competitor and notable What Hi-Fi? Award-winner is also missing this feature.

The Sonos Arc Ultra, which is a superb Dolby Atmos soundbar by all our metrics, is also missing an HDMI passthrough socket. Now, this is easily the best soundbar that we have on hand, and I look forward to listening to it every time I'm reviewing one of its many competitors, but I'm not sure if I could live with it day to day.

HDMI sockets are a precious commodity in my house. My Sony OLED TV is already limited in that it only has two HDMI 2.1 sockets, and the four in total that I do have are currently occupied by a PlayStation 5, a Sony UBP-X700 4K Blu-ray player, a Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus, and a Sky Stream box.

That leaves the rest of my AV devices (I admit I probably have more than the average Joe), such as my Apple TV 4K and Nintendo Switch, without an HDMI socket to call home; so, I rely on the very useful HDMI passthrough sockets built into my Sennheiser soundbar to pick up the slack. It's taking up a precious HDMI 2.1 port, so providing a couple of sockets in return is the least it could do.

There are some limitations, such as the fact that these sockets are HDMI 2.0 and don't support the latest gaming functions; however, my ageing Nintendo Switch doesn't support VRR or ALLM, so I'm not too fussed.

We've seen plenty of other soundbars on the market that provide HDMI passthrough sockets too. I have to give Samsung some kudos here: the HW-Q990F offers two HDMI inputs, both rated to support up to 4K/120Hz signals and Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Now that's more like it.

While I really do rate the Sonos Arc Ultra highly, I think Sonos should really consider upping its game in this specific area.

We've seen comments and feedback from various online platforms, with people venting their frustration to Sonos and, more recently, to LG about the lack of HDMI passthrough.

The really frustrating part is that the last LG soundbar that we reviewed, the mid-range, four-star S70TY, featured an HDMI 2.1 passthrough that supported 4K/120Hz gaming. It therefore feels like LG has taken an unnecessary step backwards in this regard.

Controversially, I'm at the point where I probably wouldn't even consider a soundbar unless it had HDMI passthrough.

That might sound extreme, as sound performance is and always will be paramount, but people (myself included) are expecting more from their soundbars these days.

Therefore, functionality is becoming as important as performance, and I think a few soundbar manufacturers need to recognise that.

MORE:

Read our full LG Sound Suite H7 review

As well as our Sonos Arc Ultra review

And check out our picks for the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

LG is clearly gunning for Sonos with its new Sound Suite.

Designed as a modular, multi-speaker home cinema platform, it pairs a flagship soundbar with wireless surrounds and a subwoofer to create a premium, stylish Dolby Atmos system that’s every bit as ambitious as its benchmark rival.

But LG is also bringing something genuinely new to the table in the form of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, a technology designed to adapt to your room to a degree hitherto unseen.

It’s a bold move, but you know what they say about taking a shot at the king…

Price

LG refers to the Sound Suite configuration that we’re looking at as the Immersive Suite 7 Pro. It includes the H7 soundbar (which we have a separate review of), W7 subwoofer and two M7 speakers.

While bundle discounts feel likely in the future, buying the Sound Suite Immersive Suite 7 Pro as a package doesn’t currently confer a special price, so you still need to pay the full amount for the H7 (£900 / $1000), W7 (£600 / $600) and M7s (£400 / $400 per speaker), resulting in a full system price of £2300 / $2400 (Aussie pricing hasn’t yet been announced).

There’s an obvious rival here, in the form of the Sonos Premium Immersive Set With Arc Ultra, which consists of an Arc Ultra (£999 / $1099), Sub 4 (£799 / $899) and two Era 300s (£449 / $479 per speaker).

But while the cost of the separate components is higher if you go with Sonos, there are bundle discounts available that mean the full system currently costs a Sound Suite-beating £2086 / $2311.

That said, the pricing is close enough for these two systems to be considered in very much the same ballpark.

Design

This is a very smart-looking system.

The Sound Suite H7 soundbar is svelte and solid, with a low profile that won’t obstruct the bottom of many TVs and a lovely little display that clearly indicates the format of what’s being played but automatically dims after a set time so as not to distract from what you’re watching.

The mesh cover and metal trim give the H7 a premium look, and the raised icon buttons on the top are easy to find in the dark, should you need to.

The subwoofer and M7 speakers aren’t quite as weighty or solid-feeling as the bar (or their Sonos equivalents), but they are much larger than they look on paper, giving the system a substantial but stylish overall appearance.

It’s possible to wall-mount the soundbar and the surround speakers, and the subwoofer’s relatively slim design and flat back mean it can be positioned neatly against a wall.

The sub can even be laid flat if you prefer, and we can see some people choosing to slide it under their sofa. We find that subwoofers generally perform better when they have room to breathe than when they’re firing bassy frequencies straight up your bottom, but each to their own.

There’s some rather snazzy lighting towards the bottom edges of the soundbar and surrounds, and this can be customised in terms of both brightness and colour. You have a full palette to play with, which is pretty neat if you like that sort of thing (we do).

Features

This is one heck of a speaker-packed system. The H7 soundbar alone features eight full-range drivers (three in the front, three in the top and one in each end), four woofers (all up-firing) and eight passive radiators, which are both front and rear facing.

These work with clever processing (the bar features the same Alpha 11 Gen 3 processor as LG’s 2026 flagship TVs) to produce what the firm refers to as a 9.1.6-channel soundfield.

Each M7 speaker has three 38mm full-range drivers (two front-facing and one up-firing) and a woofer of its own, while the W7 sub boasts a 20cm driver that LG claims can deliver bass as deep as 25.9Hz.

When combined, this amounts to a 21-speaker system. Not enough for you? The Sound Suite system can accommodate up to two further speakers (either more M7s or smaller M5s), and your TV’s speakers, if said TV is a C5, G5, or one of its newer sets.

Arguably, the most interesting thing about the system, though, is the technology it uses to get these drivers working together to produce home cinema sound.

That technology is Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, so called because of the way it can flexibly accommodate less-than-ideal speaker placement. We’ll get to the effectiveness of this in the sound section, below (spoiler alert: it’s pretty flipping effective).

LG has worked closely with Dolby on Sound Suite, to the extent that this is the first family of products to support FlexConnect, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that DTS:X is not supported on top of Dolby Atmos.

Getting sound into the system is simple enough, but there is one obvious disappointment: there’s no dedicated HDMI input. Instead, you are expected to run any external sources into your TV first, and then back out of your TV and into the soundbar via eARC.

That’s neat, simple, and pretty common, even in soundbars at this level (the Sonos Arc Ultra is another offender), but it still isn’t welcome, and there are rivals that offer one (or more!) HDMI inputs and even full support for passthrough of 4K/120Hz signals.

Interestingly, this is also the first soundbar we can recall testing that has dropped the legacy optical connection. One suspects that very few people use the optical connection of a Dolby Atmos soundbar, not least because it lacks the ability to actually handle Dolby Atmos, but its lack here feels noteworthy nonetheless.

There are wireless ways to send music to Sound Suite, of course, including Bluetooth, AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect.

Control is primarily handled via LG’s ThinQ app, which is broadly good but could be a little slicker in its handling of the Sound Suite system.

Getting everything connected to wi-fi proves more fiddly than it should, for instance. Each component has to be added individually, and for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, you must input your wi-fi password separately for each product rather than simply entering it once for the whole system.

The subwoofer, meanwhile, is added via a slightly different process to the soundbar and speakers, which adds to the sense that things could be more streamlined.

Once connected, the app is reasonably well laid out, and mercifully, Sound Suite doesn’t have dozens of baffling sound modes to wade through. Instead, there are just five presets (which LG slightly confusingly refers to as ‘Sound Effects’): AI Sound Pro+, Standard, Clear Voice Pro+, Bass Boost and Custom EQ.

Standard is the mode you’ll likely settle on (as discussed in the Sound section), while Clear Voice Pro+ is essentially a dialogue enhancer for those struggling with intelligibility. Bass Boost feels unnecessary given the system’s already generous low-end output, and the Custom EQ – which offers full manual adjustment – is best approached with caution unless you’re confident in what you’re doing.

AI Sound Pro+ is the most interesting of the presets, automatically analysing what you’re watching and adjusting the presentation accordingly. It also engages the AI Upmix feature, which converts incoming audio into a virtual 9.1.4-channel presentation. AI Upmix can be activated independently, but it cannot be disabled while AI Sound Pro+ is selected.

Dolby Atmos FlexConnect calibration is pleasingly swift. The system quickly assesses speaker positions and, assuming the master volume isn’t set too low, does a solid job of mapping the room.

Some aspects of the process feel slightly old-fashioned, though – notably the requirement to manually measure and input the distance between the soundbar and your listening position. Calibration is also carried out at the system’s current volume level, rather than an LG-defined volume that provides the best results, which seems a little unhelpful.

Within the Sound Settings menu you can trim the levels of the Subwoofer, Centre, Overhead and Side channels individually. There are also toggles for Dynamic Range Control and Auto Volume, though neither should be necessary in most set-ups (there’s a separate Night mode for those looking to temporarily reduce dynamics and bass weight). A separate Tone Settings menu allows independent adjustment of treble, mid and bass levels, providing additional scope for fine-tuning.

One particularly neat feature is the ‘Set Position’ button, which uses the FlexConnect technology to refocus the soundfield towards a different seating position at the press of a button. More on this below.

The app also allows you to assign a function to the heart-shaped shortcut button on the remote, though at present the options are limited to launching a specific internet radio station or Spotify playlist.

As hinted at, unlike the Sonos system, LG Sound Suite can also be operated via remote control, and a serviceable handset is included in the box with the H7 soundbar. It feels fairly light and plasticky, but the buttons are clearly labelled and logically arranged. Volume and input selection are easy to access, and the dedicated AI Sound mode button makes it simple to experiment with presets.

The absence of a dedicated Night Mode button, however, is a bit disappointing, as this is exactly the sort of feature you might want to engage quickly without having to dig into menus or reach for your phone.

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of the audio performance, it’s worth flagging that we did encounter some bugs during our week of testing the Sound Suite system.

Wi-fi connectivity proved temperamental at times, with certain components refusing to join the network on the first attempt and requiring multiple set-up passes through the app.

More concerning was an intermittent volume-control issue. On one occasion, the system powered on at an extremely high volume level – seemingly at or close to maximum – despite having previously been set much lower. The remote’s volume buttons reduced the volume number shown on the soundbar’s display, but the actual output didn’t change. The app, meanwhile, reported the volume as being set far lower than what we were hearing. Only after adjusting the level within the app did the system respond properly. Not a pleasant experience.

At another point, the remote appeared to control only the soundbar itself rather than the system as a whole, and lowering the volume to zero would silence the bar but not the wireless speakers. Curiously, after fully unplugging and reconnecting the system during comparative testing, the issue disappeared and did not return.

These issues weren’t constant, and they will likely be addressed via future firmware updates – this is a brand-new system, after all – but they’re worth noting for anyone who’s planning to go early with a Sound Suite system.

Sound

Before diving into the LG Sound Suite system at its best, it’s worth addressing the AI sound modes – because, while they’re impressively bombastic, they’re not how this system performs at its most convincing.

The AI Upmix feature expands the soundstage and adds scale and weight, but it also exaggerates background sounds and lends dialogue an artificial, slightly echoey quality. Voices become less natural and less clearly defined, even as the overall presentation grows in size.

AI Sound Pro+ takes things further still by also boosting bass and upper frequencies to an extent that further exaggerates some of the system’s less positive sonic traits, such as its limited finesse and lack of midrange fullness. The result is undeniably big, but also aggressive and shouty.

Standard mode is therefore the only sensible option for serious listening. It’s in this setting that the LG system sounds most coherent, balanced and representative of its true character.

And there is plenty to like.

With Blade Runner 2049, the system immediately demonstrates one of its standout strengths: Dolby Atmos placement. The floating audio adverts are positioned with impressive precision, each inhabiting a clearly defined point in space, with one in particular hanging strikingly high and to the left.

During the baseline test, the interviewer is placed further back in the room, creating a tangible sense of depth and separation between him and K. Joi’s disembodied voice in K’s apartment is similarly well placed, helping to create an impressive sense of three-dimensional space.

In fact, the LG places lots of effects more dramatically than the Sonos Arc Ultra system, pushing sounds further along the ceiling and creating a slightly more exaggerated overhead bubble.

Scale is another clear strength. This is a genuinely room-filling system, capable of projecting effects confidently from front to back and floor to ceiling.

The opening race at Daytona in F1: The Movie is delivered with thrilling impact. The commentary floats high above the listening position, fireworks streak cleanly across the ceiling, and the crunching impacts as cars trade blows along the banked section land with satisfying force. The presentation is bold, expansive and undeniably cinematic.

Even the most complex Atmos moments are handled with notable composure. The large-scale musical sequence in Sinners, with its genre-hopping strands and swirling overhead effects, fills the room from every angle without collapsing into chaos. The tonal consistency between the H7 soundbar and the M7 speakers helps maintain cohesion as sounds sweep around the soundfield.

The Dolby Atmos FlexConnect feature also deserves credit. As mentioned, the calibration process is quick and, provided you don’t set the volume too low, pretty accurate in identifying the position of each speaker.

The app also allows you to shift the sweet spot with a tap of the ‘Set Position’ button, effectively refocusing the soundfield towards a different seat.

In practice, this works far better than expected. Within reason, the system does a convincing job of re-centring the presentation, so that even when we move to increasingly off-axis and unconventional seating positions, dialogue and key effects remain anchored, and the overhead layer still feels properly aligned.

FlexConnect is similarly effective at compensating for less-than-ideal speaker placement. While you inevitably lose some of the pinpoint surround-left and surround-right specificity when the M7 speakers aren’t optimally positioned, the system continues to fill the room convincingly and can still place effects impressively high above the listening position. If one speaker is well placed and the other isn’t, your ears are drawn to the imbalance surprisingly infrequently.

That said, FlexConnect can’t perform miracles. With all speakers clustered towards the front of the room, it can’t convincingly swing effects fully over and behind the seating position. The Atmos presentation remains surprisingly spacious, but there are physical limits to what digital processing can achieve.

In short, it’s still well worth taking the time to position the speakers as well as possible, but FlexConnect is more capable than it really has any right to be, and certainly the best technology of its type that we’ve heard.

Bass performance, too, is impressive in terms of depth and power. During the infamously challenging Chapter 2 of Blade Runner 2049, the W7 subwoofer digs deep and delivers substantial low-frequency weight without obvious distortion. There’s more outright heft here than from the Sonos system, and it lends action scenes and musical crescendos real physical presence.

However, once the initial spectacle subsides, the system’s limitations become more apparent.

Even after calibration, the balance feels slightly skewed, with the soundbar a touch recessed against the surrounds and the subwoofer proving slightly domineering.

Each channel can be manually trimmed, but achieving a truly natural balance proves difficult. We frequently find ourselves reducing the subwoofer level, as it can become overbearing, occasionally introducing a broad, slightly indistinct rumble rather than tightly controlled punch.

By comparison, the Sonos system deploys its bass with greater precision and control, delivering punch without the same sense of excess.

Dialogue is, unfortunately, where the LG is at its weakest. While not overtly harsh, voices lack warmth, richness and dynamic subtlety. In the Vegas penthouse scene between K and Deckard in Blade Runner 2049, Harrison Ford’s voice sounds breathier and less expressive than it should, and this is a recurring theme with everything we watch.

Through the LG, voices simply sound flatter and less expressive, with a faint raspiness and a touch of sibilance that becomes noticeable over time. Emotional inflections are missed, reducing the sense of intimacy.

Even in Standard mode, background elements can sit too far forward in the mix. As K walks through the precinct in Blade Runner 2049, for example, the ambient buzz and chatter draw attention away from the opening dialogue of the baseline test. The Sonos keeps those elements more firmly in the background, resulting in a cleaner, more focused presentation.

Similarly, in F1, while the LG delivers scale and impact in abundance, the Sonos sounds tighter and more composed, with a more precise beginning and end to each effect and commentary that feels more naturally integrated into the soundfield.

Music playback follows a similar pattern. In Standard mode (the AI processing is once again best avoided here), the LG is punchy, energetic and very bassy. Olivia Dean’s Nice To Each Other has plenty of drive and momentum, and the low end is pretty tuneful and rhythmic, if slightly overplayed. The system is certainly engaging, at least on a surface level.

But, disappointingly predictably, vocals lack warmth, texture and dynamic subtlety, sounding slightly raspy and inorganic. The Sonos delivers significantly greater clarity, expressive nuance and overall realism, drawing you closer to the performance. The LG, on the other hand, feels as though it’s putting a veil between you and the singer.

Also, while not bright, the Sound Suite’s treble is rather sibilant and insistent, drawing the ear in a faintly annoying way and distracting from the more important elements of a track. This issue manifests with pretty much everything we play: it’s in the steel strings of the acoustic guitar in Agape by Bear’s End, the hi-hat in Progress by Public Service Broadcasting, and the synthetic snaps and maracas in Waterbreathing by Che-Yung.

If you’re wondering to what extent the soundbar is dictating the system’s sonic character, it’s worth noting that the M7 speakers have very similar traits. Using one of them in isolation reveals the same punchy but somewhat aggressive and cold approach to sound.

This familial resemblance is what allows the Sound Suite system as a whole to reproduce those surround and Atmos effects so effectively, but it also reinforces the system’s slightly hard-edged presentation and makes the M7 a rather synthetic speaker in its own right. The Sonos Era 300 is a much more accomplished and musical standalone performer.

Verdict

LG’s Sound Suite is an ambitious and genuinely innovative attempt to take on Sonos at the top of the premium soundbar system tree.

Dolby Atmos FlexConnect isn’t a gimmick – it’s an impressively effective technology that (in LG’s hands at least) delivers convincing height, scale and spatial precision even when speaker placement isn’t ideal.

And, at its best, Sound Suite is thrilling, producing a large, room-filling presentation with dramatic overhead effects and deep, powerful bass.

But while LG has nailed spectacle, it’s fallen short on subtlety. The overall balance tends towards the cold and slightly aggressive, with bass that can dominate and dialogue that lacks warmth, richness and expressive nuance.

If scale and flexibility are your priorities, Sound Suite impresses. For all-round sonic sophistication, though, it’s a fair way behind the best in class.

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Features 4
• Build 4

MORE:

Read our review of the LG Sound Suite H7

Also consider the Sonos Arc Ultra

Read our Samsung HW-Q990F review

Best soundbars: options for every need, recommended by our experts

Last week, I spent the day looking at several of LG’s new 2026 TVs alongside members of the company’s product development team. During that day, one phrase kept popping up: “OLED is still king”.

It’s not a great surprise to hear this from LG. While it was coming from members of LG Electronics rather than the panel-producing LG Display division, the fact remains that the LG organisation as a whole is more heavily invested in OLED technology than any of its rivals.

So, while LG is launching an RGB Mini LED TV this year (somewhat disingenuously under the name ‘Micro RGB’), there’s a sense that the company is responding to market pressure rather than leading with conviction. LG is positioning this MRGB set below its flagship OLED models – and possibly even below the C6, though that will only become clear once pricing is confirmed.

According to LG’s Maarten-Joost Möller, the brand’s MRGB TV is “for people who want to have a huge TV with a lot of brightness”.

“It's specifically a big TV,” he continues, and the one to buy “if [someone doesn’t] want to spend the money on an OLED, because a 90-inch OLED, or even a 75-inch [OLED], sometimes is exceedingly expensive for some people.”

To emphasise the point that this is a pure play for brightness and vibrancy (the MRGB95 can hit a claimed peak brightness of 4000 nits and can reproduce almost 100 per cent of the BT.2020 colour space), LG would demonstrate its RGB Mini LED set only in its Vivid mode during the event.

But while LG clearly has a vested interest in defending OLED in the face of the “OLED killer” claims being made by many of its rivals, I actually rather agree with its “OLED is still king” sentiment.

Now, I haven’t yet seen all of the new RGB Mini LED TVs coming this year, and I’m yet to see TCL’s rival Super Quantum Dot sets in the flesh. But nothing that I have seen over the past 12 months – including some very advanced prototypes – has convinced me that OLED is even particularly close to being toppled as the premium TV tech of choice.

Yes, many of these TVs can go brighter than most OLEDs. And thanks to new RGB LED architectures, they can often reproduce a wider colour volume. But, ultimately, they are all still backlit TVs, and in my view, that immediately puts them on the back foot compared with the self-emissive pixels of OLED.

However advanced Mini LED becomes, it is still fundamentally managing a backlight. Having smaller LEDs increases contrast. Having more dimming zones reduces blooming. Improved optical layers enhance viewing angles. But it’s all mitigation.

OLED, by contrast, doesn’t need to manage light – it simply produces it at a pixel level.

Each pixel is lit individually, so it’s like having 8.3 million dimming zones with perfect, bloom-free contrast, and viewing angles that are more or less flawless. There’s no haloing to suppress, no light bleed to tame, no backlight algorithm trying to guess what should be dark.

Watch a dimly lit corridor scene in Alien: Romulus and the difference becomes clear. The inky blacks of deep space, the pinpricks of harsh industrial lighting, the subtle gradations in shadow – with OLED, those elements coexist naturally. With even the best backlit sets, you are often aware, however faintly, of the system working behind the scenes to keep blooming and grey haze at bay.

These qualities, to me, are far more valuable than another thousand nits of peak brightness. They make for a more immersively cinematic experience, where you’re entirely focused on the film rather than the technical gymnastics your TV is performing to mask the drawbacks of its panel technology.

That’s not to say OLED is perfect. Peak brightness still trails the most extreme Mini LED sets, and very large panels remain expensive. If you want a 100-inch screen with stunning brightness for less than the price of a new car, RGB Mini LED currently can’t be beaten.

But for overall balance – contrast precision, viewing angles, black depth, and cinematic authenticity – OLED still leads.

There’s still every chance that one of this year’s RGB or SQD Mini LED TVs will surprise me and genuinely challenge OLED’s dominance. I hope that happens – competition drives progress, and better picture quality is good for everyone. I’m just struggling to picture it.

OLED will be beaten one day – perhaps by real Micro LED if it ever becomes affordable. But that day isn't today – and I don’t yet see it on the horizon.

For now, at least, I’m inclined to agree with LG.

OLED is still king.

MORE:

Here are the best TVs you can buy right now

Check out our LG G6 hands-on and LG C6 hands-on

We’ll lay our cards on the table here; LG’s home audio products have never really captured the same spot in our hearts where its stellar OLED TVs reside.

Previous models that have found their way into our AV testing room from the last three or so years have all occupied the three or four-star space, unable to topple the likes of Sonos, Sony, Samsung and Sennheiser.

LG, clearly tired of playing second fiddle to the above brands, decided to make 2026 its year, with a huge home audio comeback in the form of the new Sound Suite range; which includes a new Dolby Atmos soundbar, two pairs of wi-fi speakers (which double as surrounds) and a wireless subwoofer – all of which are compatible with Dolby Atmos FlexConnect.

That all being said, we’re here today to focus on the headliner in this new range: the Sound Suite H7 Dolby Atmos soundbar.

It’s the latest competitor to take the Sonos Arc Ultra head-on, and with huge sonic promises from LG itself, a premium build and the fact that it’s the first FlexConnect-enabled device to enter our AV testing room, it’s also building a lot of excitement here at What Hi-Fi? HQ.

So does LG’s Sound Suite sound sweet? Or does it leave a sour taste in our mouths?

Price

Officially retailing for £900 / $1000 (around AU$1700, Australia availability is TBC), the Sound Suite H7 is placed squarely in flagship Dolby Atmos soundbar territory.

It’s tackling Award-winning industry heavyweights head-on, including the Sonos Arc Ultra and Samsung HW-Q990F. While all of these ’bars officially launched at higher prices than the Sound Suite H7, they are now subject to almost constant discounts that price them on par with the LG H7.

For those with more generous budgets, the Sony Theatre Bar 9 looms large with its five-star cinematic sound, while the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus is another alternative for those with more cash to splash.

There are also other components of the system to consider if you plan on fleshing this soundbar out with surround speakers and a subwoofer, but we’re testing this soundbar as it comes with none of the other Sound Suite options attached.

Build

If there’s one aspect of the Sound Suite H7 that we can’t fault, it’s the build and design. It’s crafted from aluminium and clad in a dark grey acoustic fabric which leaves it looking smart, functional and understated, while still justifying its premium asking price.

It is, however, quite a substantial soundbar, measuring in at 6.3 x 120 x 14.3cm (hwd) and weighing 7.7kg. You’ll need a suitably wide media unit to support it, although LG does include wall-mounting brackets in the box for those who wish to suspend it below their wall-mounted TV.

Along the top edge of the soundbar, you’ll find a handful of bold, clicky buttons for changing the volume and input, as well as a customisable “heart” button which can be linked to instantly play music from LG Radio+ or your Spotify library.

You can, of course, stick to the included remote, which feels nicely made and features all of the required buttons we’d want and expect, or use the companion app.

These buttons are joined by a small yet very useful OLED display on the front edge, which lights up to clearly show us the selected input, sound mode and current sound format, as well as a tasteful LED bar that lights up in a pleasing range of colours depending on what the soundbar is doing. Our favourite is the groovy shade of purple that glows during the soundbar’s automatic calibration process.

The H7 may not have the smooth curves of the Arc Ultra, or the sharp lines of the Samsung HW-Q990F, but its quietly luxurious looks and high-quality build ensure that it scores top marks in this department.

Features

And this sentiment continues when it comes to available features, too. The H7 justifies its considerable price tag through the inclusion of countless wireless connectivity options, sound features and speaker technologies – and that starts with the surprisingly overkill processor inside.

LG has imbued this soundbar with the powerful Alpha 11 AI Processor Gen 3 processor; the very same chipset that powers its new flagship OLED TV, the G6.

As the name suggests, it serves as the foundation for a wide range of AI-backed features on this soundbar, including an AI-supported Room Calibration Pro system and a couple of AI sound modes, which we’ll get onto shortly.

This processor is also responsible for supporting Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, and while we’re on the subject, we have to give the H7 kudos for being the first FlexConnect-enabled soundbar on the market. Considering that LG has worked closely with Dolby to develop this FlexConnect-enabled system, it should come as no surprise that DTS:X is not supported.

Using the LG ThinQ app (which is considerably more organised, reliable, and smoother to use than LG’s old soundbar app), users can pair other Sound Suite speakers to the soundbar in various configurations to create up to a 13.1.7 channel system.

This can include up to two pairs of Sound Suite wireless speakers – either two pairs of M5 speakers, two pairs of M7 speakers, or a mix of both – and a W7 subwoofer (an update is coming soon to support dual subwoofers). And you don’t have to worry if you don’t have an LG TV, as this soundbar enables FlexConnect regardless of the TV it's connected to. Nor do you need to worry much about positioning, as the draw of FlexConnect is its ability to calibrate and tune the sound to accommodate less-than-ideal speaker placements.

You can read more about how FlexConnect works in our LG Sound Suite system review.

Extensive software support is a bonus, but the Sound Suite H7 is no slouch in the hardware department either. It’s equipped with eight full-range drivers from Danish audio brand Peerless, alongside four built-in woofers and eight passive radiators for low-range frequencies, all of which are arranged in a 5.1.3 configuration.

Three of the full-range drivers are lined-up across the front of the ’bar, with a side-firing driver situated at either end for horizontal sound dispersion. There are also three upward-firing drivers, which are joined by the four dedicated woofers along the top edge of the soundbar. These are supported by the front and rear facing passive radiators, which sit below the woofers.

Speaker levels can be adjusted through the LG ThinQ app manually; however, LG’s Room Calibration Pro system takes much of the hard work out of determining these. In practice, calibrating the ‘bar takes merely seconds and is as easy as pressing a button in the ThinQ app and waiting for the calibration tone to sweep through your listening space.

It’s completed via the on-board microphones, which can be physically disabled via a switch on the rear of the soundbar for the privacy-conscious among us. It’s worth noting that, despite this soundbar featuring an onboard microphone, it doesn’t seem to be compatible with any of the available voice assistants.

Enthusiasts can dig into a wider array of fine-tuning settings, including the ability to adjust bass, treble and midrange frequencies, as well as a custom EQ which feeds into the sound mode settings. There are also dynamic range control and night listening settings to be found within the app.

Speaking of which, LG offers five different sound modes (which it calls Sound Effects) in total: Standard, AI Sound Pro+, Base Boost, Clear Voice Pro+ and Custom EQ – all of which are fairly self-explanatory.

The interesting additional sound setting is AI Upscale, which (as the name suggests) upmixes any signal (including stereo) into 9.1.6 spatial sound. This setting can be layered over the other modes, though it’s worth noting that it is automatically switched on and cannot be disabled when using the AI Sound Pro+ setting.

For those with an LG TV already in their living room or home cinema, WOW Orchestra is on board, which allows the TV’s built-in speakers to work alongside the soundbar.

Another AI feature that LG seems to be quite proud of is Sound Follow, which lets the soundbar analyse not only the room, but your position within it, meaning it can direct the sound towards you regardless of your seating position.

LG says that this feature relies on Dolby Atmos FlexConnect and “requires a minimum of two M5 speakers or one M7 speaker to be connected”, so we’ll have to investigate this feature further in our review of the Immersive Suite 7 Pro.

Interfacing between the H7 and a TV is entirely handled by HDMI eARC – there is no optical socket, which is understandable (yet worth noting) for a soundbar with this great a focus placed on Dolby Atmos.

Sadly, there are also no additional HDMI passthrough sockets, which feels like a missed opportunity considering LG has prided itself on featuring four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets on its TVs for quite some time.

Wireless connectivity is, thankfully, better thanks to the inclusion of wi-fi, Bluetooth 5.4, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Apple AirPlay 2. LG also states that this soundbar can be connected to some of its TVs wirelessly via Bluetooth, though we’d recommend avoiding this as it will impact sound quality compared to a wired connection.

Sound

While the soundbar has made a strong first impression with its premium design and extensive feature set, it becomes quickly apparent that when it comes to sound quality (the most important factor), LG hasn’t hit the mark.

We pair the H7 with the Award-winning C5 OLED TV and our trusty Oppo UDP-203 Blu-ray player for our testing, and we’ve retrieved the Product of the Year-winning Sonos Arc Ultra as a frame of reference. We’ve also selected Civil War, Thunderbolts, Blade Runner 2049 and Unbroken from our library of reference discs to test this soundbar’s capabilities.

We’ll start with the positives, as, despite what the star rating may suggest, there are many to note. First and foremost, the H7 produces an incredibly detailed sound, especially when it comes to environmental and background effects.

Ambient sounds throughout Officer K’s apartment in Blade Runner 2049, such as creaking cupboard doors and clinking glasses, are realised with impressive fidelity, and dialogue in all of the films that we test is clear in our preferred Standard mode setting.

The H7 also handles bass like an absolute champion. While there isn’t oodles of tonal variation, it does dig deep and low in Blade Runner 2049’s notoriously tricky chapter two sequence. This is genuinely impressive bass depth and weight from a single soundbar unit.

And that bass is well controlled; the thumping helicopter blades in Civil War’s Charlottesville military base scene are delivered with punch and agility in equal measures to create a well-defined and rhythmic sound.

Lastly, the way that this soundbar handles Dolby Atmos effects is worthy of a shoutout. The H7 does a great job of spreading ambient and environmental sound outwards and upwards, which is especially apparent in a scene from Civil War in which Lee consoles Jessie in a forested area.

The sound of wind rustling through leaves, a bird chirping above, and even a distant helicopter flyby all sound superbly atmospheric and do a good job of drawing us into the scene as a result.

Overall, we can’t deny how detailed, spacious and punchy the H7 sounds. The issue lies in how the soundbar conveys some of these positives, and when it introduces its hard-to-ignore sonic deficiencies, those positive aspects become overshadowed and, in some cases, end up working against the soundbar.

Characteristically, the H7 is a very brash, shouty and unrelenting soundbar, and truthfully we feel this comes from a place of overexcitement rather than anything else. Even with the volume turned to the middle point or below, the H7 can’t help but yell everything, including softly spoken lines of dialogue.

This robs literal explosive moments, such as a missile hitting a building in Civil War, of impact, as the soundbar has nowhere to go dynamically. This leads to limp-sounding dynamic shifts, which contribute to this soundbar’s often uninteresting sound.

This extends to dialogue, too. While we don’t have an issue with vocal clarity, the H7’s handling of voices overall is, unfortunately, very poor. It’s lacking in key areas such as tonality and low-level dynamics, which leaves the usually witty Yelena from Marvel’s Thunderbolts and the dryly sarcastic Phil from Unbroken sounding flat, uninteresting and unnatural.

Unnatural is the word we’ll stick with, actually, as the H7 seems incapable of producing natural vocals in any of its sound modes. Switching on the AI Surround Pro+, which also enabled the AI Upmix feature by default, highlights this, as the processing leaves dialogue with a boxy, muffled and detached effect.

We also try the AI Upmix feature with the Standard sound setting, but it introduces an unpleasant synthetic vocal effect, which leads us to believe that these AI modes are better left switched off.

Even with those modes switched off, the H7 is laden with heavy amounts of sibilance, which is unfortunately mostly revealed with dialogue. Paired with a noticeable amount of strain (evident in quiet and loud instances alike), the H7 can often sound bright and fatiguing.

All of this becomes much more outwardly apparent when we introduce the Sonos Arc Ultra into the mix. While the LG takes the win in the bass department, the Arc Ultra’s rounded, rich and authentic sound is the clear winner in every other department.

It quickly reveals that the H7 has been pushing background effects too hard in an effort to create a more “spatial” effect, and the difference in dialogue is night and day. While detail isn’t being pushed as hard, it's definitely there on the Sonos, and we appreciate its more textured and tonally varied sound, which digs up far more pleasant sonic subtleties compared to the LG.

The Arc Ultra’s broad, rounded and rich cinematic sound is the equivalent of a big scoop of soothing ice cream after chomping down on a particularly fiery chicken wing – that’s to say it’s a welcome relief.

Switching to music, and it's a very similar story. The LG’s over-excited nature is once again revealed, as The Marias’ Heavy – a soft, harmonic track – is presented in a manner far too forthright for our liking.

While those strong detail levels and good bass depths persist, they manifest in an overbearing nature, with random bumps of bass and shouty lyrics taking the track over.

We find that it’s also not a high achiever when it comes to organisation and timing either. Bad Bunny’s NUEVAYoL feels frantic and cluttered, with Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio’s lyrics strangely struggling to cut through the overcrowded backing track.

The Sonos is clearly the superior ’bar when it comes to music too, with a much more natural and considered sound with better organisation skills and cohesion.

Verdict

We had genuinely high hopes when unboxing the LG Sound Suite H7. After a string of LG soundbars ranging from “good but not great” to “sonic misfires”, we had our fingers tightly crossed that the H7 would break the spell. Unfortunately, it ended up in the "sonic misfire" category.

It’s got the looks and the smarts, but the Sound Suite H7 unfortunately doesn’t have the sound to match, which is why we’ll continue to rely on the excellent Sonos Arc Ultra for our Dolby Atmos soundbar needs.

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Features 4
• Build 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sonos Arc Ultra

Also consider the Samsung HW-Q990F

Read our Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 review

Best soundbars: options for every need, recommended by our experts

There has been a revelation in the ongoing decline of physical media – and, as someone who treasures their 4K Blu-ray library, it was the update I’ve been waiting for.

A recent report from the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) confirmed that after an extensive period of decline, 4K Blu-ray sales returned to growth in the United States, with a 12 per cent rise in 2025 compared with 2024.

While physical media sales fell overall, this was only by 9.3 per cent. That's undoubtedly still a drop, but it’s much less severe than expected; and it could well be a sign that optical media is coming back into fashion.

With streaming fatigue setting in from the abundance of available services, all of which offer various tiers that lock features behind pay walls and slowly increasing subscription costs overall, the renewed uptake of physical media seems to be a natural step.

Furthermore, more people are striving to get the best picture and sound performance out of their TVs, projectors, soundbars and surround sound speaker systems – and 4K Blu-ray is the best way to accomplish this.

There is, however, one slight issue, and it's one I've drawn attention to before. It’s undeniably great to see sales figures rise for 4K Blu-rays; but what will people play them on?

There are very few manufacturers still producing dedicated 4K Blu-ray players. Sony and Panasonic are the only remaining brands in the mainstream space, while Magnetar is one of the only options for enthusiasts who don’t want to scour eBay and pay above the odds for a discontinued Oppo or Pioneer player.

We’re willing to bet that most people are feeding their UHD Blu-rays into a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. They are the most readily available and current 4K Blu-ray players on the market – and, of course, they have the dual-purpose appeal of also being game consoles.

Unfortunately, from our testing, we have found that these consoles don't perform to the same level as a dedicated Blu-ray player – though they certainly aren’t bad options.

All the entries on our best 4K Blu-ray players list launched in either 2018 or 2019, apart from the Sony UBP-X700, which had an incremental update last year to remove the streaming features. There has been no official word from Panasonic on whether it will update its 4K players any time soon.

Pair that with prices that have actually increased rather than decreased since launch (Panasonic's entire range has gone up in price since our initial reviews), and I can see why 4K Blu-rays haven't been the most compelling option for consumers in recent years.

I've done my bit to promote the format to anyone who will listen, but these manufacturers also need to show their commitment to ensure the format continues this reported growth.

While we’re at it, I’d be thrilled to see the likes of Samsung and LG return to the optical disc player market. They pulled out years ago despite offering some seriously impressive disc players.

The likelihood of this happening is, of course, quite slim, but I shall continue my campaign for new players regardless.

MORE:

Read our full Panasonic DP-UB820EB review

As well as our Sony UBP-X700 review

And check out our picks for the best streaming devices

Sometimes less is more.

That’s certainly the case with the recent crop of cheap soundbars we have tested – and there’s one specific feature I don’t mind missing out on when I’m setting up a budget bar.

The tension of unboxing a soundbar, waiting to find out whether the app I need to test said ’bar will be usable or not, is usually unbearable.

I am, of course, in a unique position. As someone who has unboxed and set up countless soundbars, I have more applications taking up my iPhone’s storage than the average Joe.

Sonos, Sony, Samsung, LG, Sennheiser; each has its own application, and that's just to name a few.

They all vary greatly in quality, too. Samsung’s SmartThings app is intuitive, responsive, and mostly optional if you don’t plan on streaming music to your HW-Q990F from your phone. The LG Soundbar app, on the other hand, has been a bit of a buggy mess when we have used it in the past.

That app tended to crash mid-way through the setup process, forcing me to unpair the soundbar from my phone and restart the process completely when I reviewed the LG USE6S back in 2023.

Admittedly that was almost three years ago, so things may have changed; however, the LG Soundbar app currently sports an embarrassing two stars on the Apple App Store, so I'm not willing to bet it has made much progress.

Thankfully, it’s an issue that hasn’t presented itself with the last few soundbars I have looked at. None of them has an app to speak of. This is because they sit towards the more affordable end of the soundbar spectrum; and the most effective way to keep costs down, from what we've seen, is to make a soundbar “dumb”.

Cheap soundbars can teach the flagships a lesson...

Take the four-star Creative Stage Pro, which surprised us with its potent sonic performance despite its minuscule price. While we like its crisp dialogue and punchy bass, arguably its biggest draw is that it just works, and once you plug it in, you don't really need to think about it ever again.

It's a similar story for the Sony HT-SF150, which remains our reference cheap soundbar despite being more than six years old now. Its plug and play nature made it a quick and easy comparison tool to assess the Creative Stage Pro’s performance.

Stepping up in terms of price and complexity, I also helped to test the Sony Bravia Theatre System 6 (review coming soon), which also lacks wi-fi compatibility.

That soundbar does support the Sony Bravia Connect app, but it works over a Bluetooth connection and is simply an alternative way to access settings and features that can also be found on the supplied remote control.

Having an app that works with the soundbar, but isn't necessary to operate or get the best out of it, really is a best-case scenario in my opinion. In fact, it led me to a realisation.

I would take an optional or simple soundbar app over a badly optimised one that happens to be full of features any day of the week. The frustration of an app crashing mid setup can really sour the excitement of testing a new soundbar; I would rather sidestep the process completely if it’s going to be more hassle than it’s worth.

I understand that this philosophy really applies only to budget soundbars, as pricier models need a calibration system, or a way to connect external components such as wireless subwoofers and surround speakers. But that definitely leads me to wish that the flagship soundbars in question had better apps.

If I’m going to be forced to use a soundbar app, can these multi-billion-pound corporations at least make sure it’s a good one?

Maybe that’s too much to ask. So for now I’ll revel in the straightforward, plug-and-play simplicity of the budget soundbars that we’re currently testing.

MORE:

Read our full Sonos Arc Ultra review

Check out our picks for the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

As well as the best budget soundbars

2026 will be the year of the RGB Mini LED TV. Thanks to wanton obfuscation from TV manufacturers, though, that won’t necessarily be very clear.

RGB Mini LED is the next evolution of Mini LED, which, you’re probably aware, takes traditional LED backlighting and replaces the chunky, old-fashioned LEDs with vastly smaller ones.

Because the LEDs are so much smaller, loads more of them can be crammed into a backlighting system, resulting in better light control and, therefore, better contrast.

On standard Mini LED TVs, the LEDs are generally blue, and their light is passed through filters to create different colours. The difference with RGB Mini LEDs is, as you’ve probably guessed, that the LEDs themselves are red, green and blue.

When done correctly, the main advantages of RGB Mini LED technology are purer colours and extra brightness (which in turn creates even greater contrast).

Is RGB Mini LED an OLED-beater? It’s too early to tell, as most brands are launching their first sets that use the technology this year. I’m inclined to think it’s going to work better in the mid-range bracket, with OLED’s perfect blacks and pixel-level contrast control keeping it on top; but that’s beside the point for now.

The actual point is that RGB Mini LED technology is exciting stuff. So why are several brands avoiding using the real term for it and instead trying to make you think you’re getting something even more advanced?

I’ve sort of answered my own question there, haven’t I?

What’s in a name?

Look, I’ve got no real issue with TV brands using fancy names for what is ultimately quite boring terminology. But what I don’t like is when brands try to pretend a TV is something it’s not.

So, for example, Samsung’s original launch of ‘QLED’ TVs way back in 2017 really got my goat.

Why? Because the ‘QLED’ name had already been applied to a future panel technology involving self-emissive Quantum Dots – in other words, a true rival to self-emissive OLED technology. Here, though, Samsung was applying the name to backlit TVs with a Quantum Dot layer, almost certainly in order to place it on the same pedestal as OLED in potential buyers’ minds.

Samsung’s use of the term ‘Neo QLED’ to describe its Mini LED TVs, though, was fine in my book. Once the use (misuse, in my mind) of QLED was established, adding a word such as ‘Neo’ to denote the next technological evolution was just funky branding.

But why am I bringing this all up now? Because two brands are launching their RGB Mini LED TVs using the word ‘Micro’ rather than ‘Mini’.

RGB Mini LED and Micro LED are not the same thing

You see, Micro LED TVs already exist. They are currently ridiculously expensive, but they are available to buy right now. Samsung, LG and Hisense all currently produce genuine Micro LED TVs.

What makes a Micro LED TV ‘genuine’? It’s when the pixels are self-emissive, as they are with OLED and the aforementioned ‘true’ QLED.

Genuine Micro LED is generally seen as the eventual successor to OLED. All of that lovely pixel-by-pixel contrast control combined with greater brightness, purer colours and no risk of burn-in or degradation over time. I have seen it in action several times over the years, and I’m very much a believer.

But Samsung and LG – yes, two of the very same manufacturers that produce true Micro LED TVs – now also have other, less ‘true’ (at least in my opinion) Micro TVs on their books.

LG’s first RGB Mini LED TV is the MRGB95, which the brand is referring to as a ‘Micro RGB Evo TV’. Samsung, meanwhile, has its R95H ‘Micro RGB TV’.

To be absolutely clear, these are not TVs with self-emissive, Micro LED-derived pixels. These are backlit TVs that use very small RGB LEDs. You know, like RGB Mini LED TVs.

The argument appears to be, at least in LG’s case, that because the LEDs these TVs use are smaller than those in Mini LED models, the ‘Micro’ element is fair game.

I’d argue that there are lots of words for ‘very small’, and choosing ‘micro’ sure looks like an effort to blur the lines between these backlit RGB LED TVs and real Micro LED TVs.

It’s certainly the case that this has already caused a fair amount of confusion among us tech journos, so what possible chance does the average punter have? I posit that it's very little.

Interestingly, Hisense is very specifically sticking with the ‘RGB Mini LED’ name for its TVs in this arena, because it feels using the word ‘micro’ would be disingenuous.

On the other hand, it is adding the word ‘Evo’, which must be infuriating to LG – but that’s all good fun, if you ask me.

MORE:

Don't want to wait? Here are the best TVs you can buy right now

LG announced it is bringing a highly anticipated Dolby Atmos feature to its upcoming OLED and Mini LED TVs at CES 2026. However, a new update confirms that several older sets will also be getting the feature.

Native Dolby Atmos FlexConnect support is coming to LG’s 2026 premium TV lineup, including the W6, G6, C6, CS6, B6, B6E OLEDs, as well as the MRGB95, MRGB9M and MRGB85 RGB Mini LED TVs when they launch later this year.

This means you'll be able to connect the M5 or M7 wireless speakers directly to the TV for seamless, flexible audio output.

But, if you already have an LG G5 or C5 OLED TV and want Dolby Atmos FlexConnect without upgrading, then you're in luck.

The AV giant has announced that the 2025 models mentioned above will support the wireless immersive audio feature with a forthcoming update. An exact date as to when the update will arrive has not yet been provided.

There are a couple of catches to be mindful of here. The first is that even though other FlexConnect speakers are on the market, namely the TCL Z100, only LG's speakers will be supported, meaning you'll have to opt for the M5 or M7 if you want wireless surround sound on your LG TV.

As we've recently reported, the LG Sound Suite speaker prices are towards the premium end of the scale, with the M7 directly competing with Sonos' Era 300 Dolby Atmos speaker.

Secondly, LG hasn't confirmed if FlexConnect is coming to the M5 wireless OLED TV. This would be an odd omission, as a wireless sound system seems like a perfect match for a TV whose primary intention is to cut cords.

Supplying the mid-range model with a new feature and skipping the flagship TV from the 2025 range would also be a strange move from LG, so we've reached out for confirmation.

We had a brief hands-on demo of LG's FlexConnect-enabled Sound Suite system at CES 2026, and found it made a very strong first impression. Configuring the speakers seemed simple, and the surround sound effect from a quartet of M7 speakers was impressive indeed.

We will, of course, need to test the new speaker range in our home cinema testing room before we pass any final verdict.

MORE:

What is Dolby Atmos FlexConnect?

Read our LG G6 hands-on review

Check out our picks for the best surround sound speakers

There’s been quite a lot of excitement around these parts for LG’s new Sound Suite system, which is one of the first outings for Dolby Atmos FlexConnect technology.

That excitement was tempered slightly last week, though, when pricing appeared on LG.com that revealed that all of the Sound Suite components would be at least as expensive in the UK as offerings from Sonos.

Well, props to LG for taking our concerns on board, because the brand has gone ahead and reduced the launch prices of most of the Sound Suite components.

Here’s the new pricing:

• H7 soundbar: £1000 £900
• W7 subwoofer: £700 £600
• M7 wireless speaker: £450 £400
• M5 wireless speaker: £200 £250

As you can see, the one component that hasn’t gone down in price is the compact M5 speaker, which is actually now £50 more expensive than the original price that appeared on LG's website.

That’s a bit of a shame, of course, but if that’s the compromise that has had to be made in order to drop the prices of everything else, I’m broadly on board.

The most important thing is that the H7 soundbar will now launch for £100 less than first planned – and £100 less than the imperious Sonos Arc Ultra with which it will inevitably do battle.

The W7 subwoofer is now £200 cheaper than the Sonos Sub 4, too, and the M7 speaker is £50 cheaper than the Sonos Era 300.

This new pricing also means that if someone wanted to build a system with the soundbar, subwoofer and two M7 speakers, they would be looking at a total outlay of £2300, which is less than even the discounted price Sonos is currently charging for its equivalent Ultimate Immersive Set with Arc Ultra.

Of course, LG’s Sound Suite is still going to have to sound great to justify its still-premium pricing, but it’s clearly gunning for Sonos, and this round of pre-launch reductions is a tasty shot across its rival’s bow.

The next step, of course, is for us to submit all of the Sound Suite components to our rigorous testing process, which will involve direct comparisons with their Sonos equivalents as well as other rivals.

We expect that testing will take place very soon, with our full review following shortly after.

MORE:

Check out the best Dolby Atmos soundbars and best surround sound systems you can buy right now

Here's everything you need to know about Dolby Atmos FlexConnect

With this year’s CES dominated by high-end RGB Mini LED, Super QLED, and ever-brighter OLED TVs, one super-important TV-related story didn’t get the traction I think it deserved.

That story is that 2026 could be the year that genuinely affordable OLED TVs become available.

The reason very few people seemed to clock this story might be because it wasn’t attached to a specific TV model, but instead came from LG Display, the manufacturer that produces all of the W-OLED panels currently used in TVs.

As What Hi-Fi? Staff Writer Lewis Empson discovered when he met the company at the show, LG Display has developed a new OLED SE panel that should drastically reduce OLED TV prices while actually improving the performance in at least one crucial area.

As LG Display explained to Lewis, the majority of the cost saving has been made by removing the pricey polariser.

Without this, new OLED SE TVs (the SE stands for ‘Special Edition’) will likely be more reflective than current OLED models, but they should also be brighter than current budget sets, hitting something in the region of 1000 nits rather than the 600-700 nits of models such as the LG B5.

None of that is new news, though. What is new is that, according to FlatpanelsHD, LG Display will begin the mass production of these OLED SE panels in February – that’s next month!

LG Display has no control over which models the TV makers use its panels for, but it did tell Lewis at CES that it expects LG Electronics to feature this panel technology in future iterations of the B-series.

It now seems highly likely that those future iterations will include this year’s LG B6. And that might also help explain why the B6 was missing from LG Electronics’ stand at CES – the panels just weren’t ready in time.

If the B6 does indeed get the new OLED SE panel, it could be a substantial upgrade over the preceding B5 – and significantly cheaper, too.

That last point would be particularly helpful. The price gap between LG’s C- and B-series OLEDs hasn’t been big enough in recent years, and the world is crying out for genuinely affordable OLED TVs.

Perhaps this is the year we finally get them.

MORE:

Check out our LG C6 hands-on and LG G6 hands-on

Can't wait? Check out our review of the budget-oriented Philips OLED760

Here are all of the best TVs you can buy right now

There is one element that is the bane of every home cinema: wires.

For those with a full surround setup – TV or projector and screen, AV receiver, Blu-ray player, games console and surround speakers – that's an awful lot of cables to manage. Especially if anything has to be moved – please spare a thought for the What Hi-Fi? home cinema testing team.

There have been a variety of responses to this from the home cinema industry – Samsung's rather convenient One Connect Box, for example. But a few companies have pushed what would, surely, be the ultimate solution: a wireless home cinema. One quick caveat: such a system is unlikely to be completely wireless – you have to get power to those products somehow.

Following the announcement of LG's 2026 TV lineup, it looks like the fully wireless home cinema could be becoming more common. LG has had wireless TVs in its lineup for some time as part of the M-series; but the fact that the Korean electronics giant has put the technology in the rebooted W6 Wallpaper TV suggests a vote of confidence in this trend.

This goes hand in hand with the unveiling of the LG Sound Suite, Dolby Atmos FlexConnect speakers that can deliver Dolby Atmos sound wirelessly from a variety of different positions. Together, the two promise a convenience that we home cinema fans are not usually accustomed to.

So could 2026 finally be the year that fuss-free wireless cinemas finally become a living room staple? Let's take a look...

The history of wireless home cinemas

The history of the wireless TV goes back to 2023, when CES saw the arrival of not one, but two wireless TV sets.

One was the LG M3 OLED TV, which is not technically wireless, but has all its connections and ports in a separate Zero Connect box, which then wirelessly transmits content to the TV. It does still require a wired power cable, however, and has been the formula behind LG's wireless offerings going forward.

The other is more of a curiosity – US startup Displace unveiled the “world's first truly wireless TV” at CES, with no ports and rechargeable batteries for power. It certainly lived up to the name, though it has remained a cult choice rather than a mass-market offering (the gesture controls probably didn't help). The active-loop vacuum technology used to stick to walls certainly looks innovative, however.

Wireless speakers have been around much longer. The Samsung HW-F750, the first wireless soundbar, launched in 2013, with full surround-sound systems arriving shortly after. Now Bluetooth is common even among budget audio systems, though the quality of these offerings can still vary greatly.

Wireless home cinema: where are we now?

LG has committed to its ‘wireless’ M-series with new models every year, with specifications that largely matched the flagship G-series.

In our hands-on LG M5 review last year, we found the wireless technology to have no perceptible impact on picture and sound quality – even gamers can breathe a sigh of relief that input lag is only 1.3ms behind the wired G6.

The big change this year is, of course, the LG W6, which brings the wireless Zero Connect technology to a 9mm display. But the all-important Zero Connect box has shrunk and is now small enough to fit in a drawer – and refresh rates have now caught up to the 4k/165Hz of LG's G-series.

With the W6 set to match the flagship G6 in performance, including the second-generation Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel, wireless TV very much seems to be on a level playing field compared with its wired counterpart (if you count the Zero Connect box as wireless, that is).

So what's stopping wireless TVs from fully catching on, then?

Well, there's the price, for starters. The LG M5 launched at an eye-watering £3799, but can now be found as low as £2599. That’s certainly within the realms of consumer television prices, but it’s still a premium prospect above flagship OLEDs.

There is also a lack of choice. There’s Displace's curious offering, of course, but LG is still currently the only major television manufacturer offering a wireless option. This means consumers are limited to LG – no matter how impressive their wireless TVs are – and suggests that the demand simply is not there yet for other manufacturers to join in.

Wireless audio, on the other hand, seems to be in a much healthier shape. For some time, wireless audio systems fell into two distinct camps: premium or terrible. This all changed last year, however, when we reviewed the Hisense AX512H. Despite its budget origins at £249 (dropping as low as £189 on Black Friday), the Dolby Atmos system blew our socks off with room-filling, Award-winning sound, essentially heralding a new era of good, affordable wireless sound. With Dolby Atmos FlexConnect also on the horizon, exciting possibilities unbound by positioning or wires are on the horizon.

So is the fully wireless home cinema finally heading for the mainstream? It's certainly possible to get a wireless TV and audio component that's on par with the best out there, and mostly wire-free.

But as long as the price remains steep and choice remains limited, it's certainly set to remain a niche interest, even if the W6 is dazzling. Whether the TV will – or should – catch up with audio and go fully wire-free remains to be seen, but LG certainly thinks there's a future there.

MORE:

Check out our stories on the LG C6 and G6

Plus the brand's first RGB Mini LED model (the MRGB95)

Here are all of the best TVs you can buy right now

I’ve already gone on the record to say that I’ve got high hopes for LG’s fancy new Sound Suite system.

LG clearly has high hopes, too, judging from the pricing we’ve just received.

Sound Suite consists of four products – an H7 soundbar, W7 subwoofer, and the M7 and M5 wireless speakers – that can be mixed and matched, so you can build a system to suit your requirements and room.

It’s also one of the first systems to feature Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, which is designed to produce convincing Dolby Atmos sound regardless of the placement of the individual components.

So, you can buy the H7 soundbar on its own, or with the W7 sub and/or a pair of either of the speakers. In that way, it’s rather like a Sonos Arc Ultra, which can be bought and used solo, or partnered with one of Sonos’s subwoofers and/or its Era speakers.

But with Sound Suite, if you have one of LG’s latest and greatest TVs, that can act as the FlexConnect hub and be partnered directly with the sub and/or speakers – no soundbar required.

In total, LG says that there are 27 potential Sound Suite configurations, and that it’s possible to build a 13.1.7-channel system if you so wish.

You will need very deep pockets if you want to go that far, though, because LG has given Sound Suite some very premium pricing in the UK and US (Australian pricing is TBC).

That pricing is as follows:

• H7 soundbar: £1000 / $1000
• W7 subwoofer: £700 / $600
• M7 wireless speaker: £450 / $400
• M5 wireless speaker: £200 / $250

So, the H7 soundbar is priced the same as the awesome, What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra in the UK (though it is cheaper in the US). That’s a bold move indeed, especially considering LG’s less-than-stellar (albeit improving) recent record in soundbar audio quality.

If you want to build a full system that features the H7 soundbar, W7 sub, and a pair of M7 surrounds, you’re looking at an all-in price of £2600 / $2000.

That’s even more than you would currently pay for Sonos’s top-of-the-range Ultimate Immersive Set with Arc Ultra in the UK (£2426), though admittedly less than the cost of the system in the US ($2806).

Bear in mind that the Sonos system includes a pair of the five-star Era 300 speakers as well as the Award-winning Arc Ultra and flagship Sub 4, and you can see that LG has picked a fight with the toughest kid in school with its Sound Suite pricing.

That’s a real statement of intent, and I think it’s great for Sonos to have a new, ambitious rival. But can LG really overthrow the incumbent?

We will be comparing the two systems side by side as part of our Sound Suite review – stay tuned for that in the coming weeks.

MORE:

LG Sound Suite looks like a great mash-up of Sonos and Sony, but I have one slight concern

Here are the best soundbars and best surround sound systems you can buy right now

LG has launched a new subscription service that will let home cinema fans rent some of its hardware, including select models of its OLED TVs, for a monthly fee.

The South Korean tech giant has announced a subscription service in partnership with Raylo, offering “lower monthly prices and the flexibility to upgrade as new technology comes to market.”

That essentially means you can rent certain LG TVs or soundbars on a month-by-month basis.

Karl Gilbert, CEO of Raylo, says: “Electronics brands are increasingly moving beyond one-time sales and toward subscription-first models”. It’s worth noting that the service, named LG Flex, will only be available for customers in the UK.

So far, there are only a handful of OLED TVs available through the subscription, including the 42- and 48-inch LG C5 models, as well as the 55-inch B4.

When we had both of these C5 sets in our test room, they achieved five-star ratings for their bright picture and excellent app support.

It’s a little disappointing to see that the only C5s included are on the smaller end of the spectrum, skipping out the larger models available in 55, 65, 77 and 83 inches. So, if you want to go bigger, the only option is a 55-inch B4 from 2024, which is getting a little long in the tooth.

The 42-inch C5 is available for £28 a month, while the 48-inch C5 and C5 comes in at £33 per month. Additionally, the B4 will set you back £26.

There are also a few soundbars available, namely the LG US80TR and US70TR models, but we haven't reviewed either of these bars. Those come in at £15 and £25 a month, respectively.

While being able to rent a TV or soundbar could be a good solution for not being able to afford the upfront cost or simply not wanting to commit to a product for years, it's worth thinking carefully about whether this would work for you.

Take the 42-inch C5, which can currently be found for £899 at Amazon. If you paid the LG Flex price for a year, then you would have spend just over £337. But take the time period a little further to three years, then you would have paid over £1349.

That means the subscription is only cost-effective if you know you will not need the product for a long period of time. Still, it's worth considering if you are looking to keep costs down in the short-term.

MORE:

Here's our review of the 42-inch LG C5

Check out the best OLED TVs

OLED vs QLED: what is the best TV technology?

There was only one thing I could possibly write about for this week’s edition of Adventures In AV.

The proposal of a Sony and TCL joint venture that will take control of the former’s home entertainment business (which produces its TVs, soundbars and more) has shaken the industry.

I’ll be honest, it’s shaken me. I didn’t see the news coming, and as someone who grew up in a Sony household and is a big fan of the brand’s OLEDs in particular (I currently live with an A95L), I’m deeply concerned about what it means for the future.

To be clear, I’m not blinkered towards Sony. There have been plenty of Sony products, including TVs, that have disappointed me, and I’ve been involved in plenty of less-than-positive Sony reviews over my 18 years of testing.

Besides, we review as a team (it’s the What Hi-Fi? ‘how we test’ mantra), so any personal subconscious biases are counteracted as part of our testing process.

But, at its best, Sony can be unbeatable when it comes to TVs, and I think we need Sony to continue to be Sony – but will that be allowed as part of this joint venture?

The Sony difference

Sony takes its time. These days, most of its TVs have a two-year lifecycle, while every other brand replaces its entire range every year.

That extra time allows for more careful and considered tuning and development, and it results in greater quality jumps between generations.

And where its rivals battle it out to produce TVs with the largest, most impressive-sounding numbers, Sony generally (there are exceptions, such as the Bravia 9) rises above such showboating and focuses on squeezing the most out of its hardware in the name of delivering cinematic authenticity.

I’m not saying that’s always the right course, but it’s important that we have a brand that takes this approach when all of the others (with the exception of Panasonic) are obsessed with fighting a numbers war.

TCL is, of course, one of those brands that is obsessed with numbers. Each year, it tries to outdo the likes of Hisense and Samsung by packing its new TVs with the most dimming zones and the highest brightness – and it often comes out on top.

My concern is that this approach could be applied to Sony – TCL is going to have the controlling, 51 per cent stake of this proposed joint venture, after all – and we could end up with yet another brand focused on tech specs at the expense of patient, careful development.

There is, though, a way this could all work out…

The optimistic vision

If it feels as though I’m doing TCL down, that’s not my intention. I’ve been incredibly impressed by the Chinese brand’s TVs over the last couple of years, with 2025’s range proving incredibly consistent and awesome value for money.

TCL is great at what it does, which is produce TVs with specs and picture quality well beyond their price points.

And this is precisely the area in which Sony is weakest. It rarely launches budget-oriented TVs these days (it's been selling the same 32-inch model since way back in 2021, for heaven’s sake), and when it does, they’re rarely, if ever, the best in class – the recently reviewed Bravia 3 is a case in point.

So, what I’m proposing is that the TCL and Sony brands continue to target the areas of the market they’re already most invested in.

In fact, I’d like to see them both double down – TCL could stop edging closer to the super-premium end of things and solidify its position as champion of the mid-range and budget sectors, and Sony could stop producing budget-oriented models that are more or less destined to fail, at least in performance terms, and concentrate entirely on premium and flagship models.

So, what’s the point of the joint venture?

But if TCL and Sony ‘stay in their lanes’ as I’m proposing, what’s the flipping point of the joint venture? I’ve got thoughts on that, too.

Without stepping on Sony’s toes, TCL could bring its Japanese partner’s processing and tuning nous into its TVs, potentially resulting in an irresistible blend of mid-range-demolishing specs and super-authentic calibration.

Sony, meanwhile, could benefit from TCL’s greater scale and resources, allowing it to produce more models without entirely compromising its conservative approach. Being shorn of the responsibility to produce more affordable models could help here, too.

I’m not saying we necessarily need Sony to replace every model every year, but it would be nice if it had the capacity to extend its OLED range into more affordable and smaller models. For the love of all that is holy, it could at least finally put 2022’s A90K out of its misery and replace it with a model to take on LG’s latest C series.

Let’s not forget that TCL is currently building a huge new factory that will produce OLED panels using a new, more efficient, inkjet manufacturing process. It’s intended for the likes of laptops and phones in the first instance, but surely TV panels are on the agenda, too.

Imagine if Sony could get first dibs on new, more affordable OLED technology as part of this joint venture. It could usher in a new dawn of Sony OLED TVs that no longer rely on the panel-manufacturing arms of LG and Samsung.

But will any of this happen? As should be abundantly clear by now, I just don’t know – and neither, it seems, do my contacts at Sony or TCL. Besides, let’s face it, any further official statement at this point is only going to put a positive spin on things, whether that's justified or not.

The proof will, as ever, be in the pudding, and we’ll be waiting a long time for that, as even if the joint venture is ratified, it’s not expected to commence operations until April next year.

In the meantime, I reserve the right to be very nervous about the future of Sony TVs – but also aware that there is a way it could all work out for the best.

MORE:

Here's our full news story on the Sony and TCL joint venture

And here are the opinions of several of our team members and readers on the matter

These are the best TVs you can buy right now

When the new LG C6 OLED TV was announced earlier this year, there were signs of elation – which were soon mixed with disappointment.

After many years of waiting, LG has finally granted our wish and bestowed its mid-range C-series with Primary RGB Tandem OLED, the colour and brightness boosting panel technology previously only found on the flagship G5.

We quickly spotted one big issue with the LG C6 however: only the 77- and 83-inch LG C6H models are receiving the new Primary RGB Tandem panel tech.

This proved to be a theme across the LG 2026 TV lineup as a whole. Any notable new and exciting innovations, whether this is RGB Mini LED, ultra-thin Wallpaper TVs, or the C6H, are limited to sizes of 75 inches and above. The main exception is The Gallery TV, which is an intriguing proposition, but not a serious contender for anyone who prioritises picture quality.

Even the 65-inch offerings, a size that still impresses several house guests outside the home cinema bubble, have been left out to dry.

Those of us with smaller rooms are left with the B6, G6 or regular C6. These look like great TVs in their own right – the G6, in particular, boasts a second-generation Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel – but these are really incremental upgrades as opposed to the more generational leaps above.

While it's hardly new for TV manufacturers to reserve their newest and most exciting tech for the most expensive models, this can't help but feel like a missed opportunity.

A YouGov poll found that the most desired screen size in the UK is between 44- and 55-inches, with 66% of British households owning a TV less than 50 inches. So that's an awful lot of people missing out on a number of new and exciting developments in LG's lineup, who will instead have to choose from smaller upgrades in the B6, C6 and G6 lines.

There are also several home cinema and AV enthusiasts – myself included – who simply do not have the space for one of these supersize TVs, even if we wanted to. With the property ladder increasingly harder to get onto, more and more people will be fitting TVs into a single room rather than a spacious living room.

There's an embedded age-old assumption that TV innovation has to go hand in hand with size. And while there are undoubtedly technical considerations in some instances, there are several of us who would be perfectly happy to shell out a bit more to try out the latest TV tech on a mid-size TV.

To me, someone who was a fan of LG's offerings this year and was genuinely excited to see the South Korean company mix up their TV line-up, it seems a shame that so many of these models are dependent on your wall space.

Inevitably, this technology will eventually trickle down to the smaller sizes. So will the whole C7 range get a uniform panel upgrade next year? Fingers crossed...

MORE:

Check out our full LG C5 55-inch review

As well as our LG G6 hands-on review

Here are our picks for the best OLED TVs