LG C5 (OLED42C5) review

The 42-inch LG C5 is the smallest option in the Korean tech heavyweight’s current line of OLED TVs.

That automatically gives it a unique place in the market as most TV makers are forsaking people short on space this year, with Sony, Philips and more all shunning 42-inch sizes in favour of a “bigger is better” approach.

Add to that LG’s strong track record in the small OLED TV space, with numerous previous 42-inch LG C-series models going on to win What Hi-Fi? Awards over the past few years, and you can see why it quickly becomes one of this year’s most interesting options.

But, with changes to its specifications being fairly minimal, can the smallest C5 make lightning strike again? Here’s what we found after thoroughly putting it through its paces in our viewing rooms.

Price

The LG C5 42-inch launched with the same £1400 / $1399 / AU$2199 starting price as the outgoing LG C4 42-inch. But prices have gradually dropped and you will generally find it floating at around £1099 / $1399 / AU$1695 at most stores right now.

That puts it directly in line with the 42-inch versions of the Samsung S90F and Panasonic Z90B.

If you’re after something a little (or a lot) bigger, you can also pick up the LG C5 in 48-, 55-, 65-, 77- and 83-inch sizes. Pricing goes up in line with the TV’s screen size, capping at £5999 / $5399 / AU$7999 for the largest 83-inch option.

Design

Like all the C5 TVs we’ve tested this year, LG hasn’t reinvented the wheel designing the 42-inch model. So much so, that one of our reviewers mistook it for last year’s C4 when he first saw it.

So, it’s a fairly light and slim unit, with feet rather than the pedestal you’ll find on the larger C5 options. These are easy to set up, as all you have to do is clip them into the easily identifiable slots on the TV’s back and screw in the four included screws. Even one person can do it in a matter of minutes.

The only downside is that the feet only have one height option, which is fairly low. Even a soundbar on the small side, such as the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), will block a bit of the display when placed directly in front of it.

The remote is also identical to all other C5 models, which is another minor annoyance. In some regions, the TV comes with a new, more streamlined remote, but in the UK you still get the undeniably clunky Magic Remote, which has been around since the LG C1.

The plastic unit is a little clunky by today’s standards and, despite our constant letters to Santa, doesn’t have a backlight or even USB charging, let alone solar charging.

The only minor perk is that it has basic motion controls that let you interact with the screen using a cursor, though even this has been known to annoy some owners (and reviewers).

Features

LG’s C-series OLED TVs have a strong track record for offering near-flawless feature sets, which is one of the main reasons why, for the third year in a row, the firm has not made any significant changes to this year’s model.

The panel tech remains basic WOLED, which isn’t a surprise as LG is keeping its top-end Primary RGB Tandem OLED tech for the flagship LG G5. Last year’s flagship panel tech, Micro Lens Array, has also been sent to the big AV farm in the sky, rather than trickled down to this year’s step-down models.

There’s also still no heatsink, which is a slight annoyance as the Panasonic Z90B includes one. This would, in theory, let LG push the panel harder without risking overheating and damage.

But, it’s forgivable as the C5 still comes with a few promised improvements to peak brightness and the ilk – though LG’s been careful not to put a specific nit count, or percentage boost, out in the wild.

This is apparently due to the inclusion of LG’s latest Brightness Booster Engine tech, which we’ve seen on the larger C5s we tested earlier this year. The tech does what it says on the tin, and when paired with the clever processing provided by the TV’s new LG Alpha 9 Gen 8 chipset, it boosts peak brightness more efficiently.

The chipset also leverages LG’s new and improved AI processing to offer movie fans better upscaling (an area where it has been falling behind Samsung recently), as well as better audio and more accurate HDR tone mapping.

As an added incentive, LG also claims it will help the set retain colour volume even during demanding low light scenes – an area in which the LG C5 48-inch and older LG C4 42-inch in particular struggle.

Outside of this, the TV’s specifications are pretty flawless. Like all LG OLEDs this year, HDR support includes HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG. HDR10+ remains absent, but this is no surprise and is barely disappointing.

As expected, the 42-inch C5 features four full-speed HDMI 2.1 sockets, all of which can run games at up to 4K/144Hz with VRR. ALLM, meanwhile, automatically switches the TV to its low-latency mode when a game is detected.

One of the HDMI 2.1 inputs, as is the norm, doubles as the TV’s eARC port for people wishing to connect a Dolby Atmos soundbar.

The generous number of HDMI 2.1 inputs means even the most demanding of gamers with an Xbox Series X, PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 will be able to have all their boxes connected at once and not have to worry about troublesome cable swapping.

LG’s WebOS 25 software runs the show and is identical to the version seen on larger C5 models. This means the UX is fairly easy to navigate, featuring rows of shortcut icons for apps and LG’s own marketplace.

Streaming app support is excellent and includes Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer and ITVX. There’s also a lot of nice gaming support, with a new Xbox app and GeForce Now offering convenient ways to stream games from the cloud.

Picture

Powering up the LG C5 42-inch connected to our ever faithful Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, running our 4K Blu-ray of Dune: Part 2, we’re met with a sense of deja vu, with the picture telling a very similar story to that of the 48-inch model.

In its default settings, the picture looks a little too artificial for our liking. The sunscorched desert holds a wonderful lustre, with every grain of sand sparkling and looking nicely sharp and three-dimensional, but the contrast isn’t right; the sky is too bright and missing some light detail.

Highlights on the Fremen fighters are pushed too hard, making them look as though they have a stage spotlight on them.

Working through the settings, things quickly improve. After some fiddling, we settle on Filmmaker Mode, with the lowest Cinematic Movement option on, sharpening and judder reduction off and dynamic tone mapping on for the best results.

Once done, the picture looks fantastic, with the Fremen and Harkonnen fighters looking wonderfully sharp and three-dimensional. The TV’s slightly warm colours and solid peak brightness levels create a truly immersive experience despite the screen’s small size.

With the lowest Cinematic Movement setting on, the clashing desert fighters' movements feel weighty and the set deals with the demanding rapid movements of the buzzing Ornithopter wings with zero issue. We never notice artefacts or ghost frames sneaking in as the scene plays.

Our positive experience continues as we transition to our Civil War 4K Blu-ray. The open segment of the test scene, where a character wakes up sunburned in the middle of an impromptu military camp, showcases what the C5 42-inch is capable of.

Skin tones in particular look fantastic, holding a pleasing warmth without ever looking overbaked – to the point that the S90F we’re testing it against looks noticeably too red.

As the film transitions to a night-time battle, the TV leaves a positive early impression, with the streets looking suitably sharp and stray tracer bullets and explosions offering higher peaks than we’d expect from a basic WOLED.

But as it shifts to focus on the characters, we notice a key issue we’ve seen on past LG OLEDs in recent years. Specifically, that colour volume is noticeably drained.

Skin tones suddenly take on a greenish, pale hue in low light, making them look flat and noticeably less realistic than the image on the S90F, which retains its warmth and colour volume and offers clearly better dark detail.

The issue is exacerbated when we switch to our Alien: Romulus test disc. The distant space background oozes menace, but as the isolated spacecraft slowly emerges from the darkness, it looks too soft, with key details not being as defined and sharp as they should.

This adds up to make the set a fantastic performer in most instances, but far from the final word with its handling of incredibly dark scenes.

The 42-inch C5 largely makes up for this with its decent performance in our standard upscaling test. Popping our SDR copy of True Grit into the Oppo player, the C5 deals with the incredibly difficult movie’s dim opening admirably.

There’s a pleasing warmth to the lanterns glowing in the otherwise pitch black scene, and falling snow retains its fluffy quality, never appearing oversharpened or being plagued by annoying artefacts.

Transitioning to a bright town scene, the film retains its intentional spaghetti western grain and looks nicely authentic, leading to an immersive viewing experience.

Sound

Audio is an area in which LG’s OLEDs have struggled recently, with many of the sets we’ve reviewed this year offering, at best, middling sound quality compared to their rivals. This remains the case with the 42-inch LG C5.

The unit comes with a 2.0-channel, 20W sound system. As is usually the case with smaller TVs, this is the weakest sound system of any LG C5 this year. The larger 48-inch LG C5 has a 2.2-channel 40W speaker system, by comparison.

Like the other C5 TVs we’ve tested, LG's made a lot of noise (see what we did there) about the TV’s AI processing powers and how they help improve the set’s audio quality.

These include things such as a specific mode designed to further separate dialogue from background noise in movies as well as a dedicated AI audio mode, which claims to optimise the sound to the viewer’s tastes. The latter requires you to go through a point-and-click setup process, picking options that “describe your preferences”.

As before, we actually get the best results ignoring the AI mode, which tries a little too hard to separate mid and upper frequencies, at times pushing the speakers to sibilance.

But even then, moving to its AI-free, out-of-the-box standard mode, the audio is slightly flat.

Playing Civil War, the audio sounds a little compressed, with any rise in volume resulting in lost detail. The rumbling low end of explosions lacks the intended oomph required to get you on the edge of your seat.

We get the best results when we switch to the TV’s Cinema mode. Here, tonal balance improves. Voices become clearer and there’s some separation between the rumbling engine noises of the on-screen tanks and screaming gunfire overhead. There’s even some limited directionality to the tracer rounds flying from left to right on screen.

All-in-all, the audio is good enough for basic TV viewing in this setting. But it still fails to truly immerse us in the movie for a couple of reasons.

First, despite being better, the speakers aren’t powerful enough to properly project the characters’ voices, with demanding explosions and louder low-end background noises tending to completely drown out the dialogue.

Second, the speakers have a slightly flabby low end. This is particularly noticeable with our standard Blade Runner 2049 test disc. As well as being too weak to do justice to the bone-shaking synth soundtrack, the low-end thumps lack precision and fail to deliver the film’s intended oppressive, menacing tone.

Verdict

The 42-inch LG C5 is the best small OLED TV we’ve tested this year. Like its predecessors, it offers a near-flawless feature set and solid, sharp, immersive picture quality, neatly packaged in a small room-friendly frame.

The only minor issue remains its audio, which, while fine for casual viewing, isn’t powerful or precise enough for immersive movie watching. Plan for a soundbar in your budget, if you don’t already have one.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 3
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Panasonic Z90B 48-inch

Also consider the Samsung S90F 48-inch

Read our LG C4 42-inch review

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