LG C6 (OLED65C6) review

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.

While pricing for the UK and Australia is yet to be confirmed, our understanding is that it will follow suit, and that if the C6 is more expensive than the C5, it won’t be by much.

This is the assumption under which we’ve assessed the C6, and we will update this review once pricing has been confirmed.

It’s worth noting, of course, that while launch pricing might be the same for the C6 as it was for the C5, that still makes the new model look currently 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

MORE:

Read our review of the LG C5

Read our hands on impressions of the LG G6

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