LG C5 48-inch OLED TV — (Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

As the resident deals writer of What Hi-Fi?, there’s one question that haunts me more than any other… when is the best time to buy an OLED?

Black Friday? Prime Day? Just after the next model comes out?

Now, those are all valid answers – they are all times we have seen price crashes on various OLED TVs. But which one is actually the cheapest? Obviously TVs become cheaper the longer they are out – but where’s the sweet spot before the TV gets discontinued or just becomes woefully outdated?

LG C5: a price history

A LG C5 55-inch OLED TV placed on a wooden TV stand — (Image credit: What Hi-Fi? / Netflix, Drive To Survive)

For convenience’s sake, let’s start with one size: the 55-inch LG C5, which is the largest model we reviewed and one of the more popular sizes. We reviewed the 55-inch LG C5 on 12 April 2025 at its launch price of £1900 / $1999 / AU$3299.

It didn’t take long for some serious discounts to arrive. On 21 May 2025, barely two months after release, we reported that the 55-inch C5 was down to £1520 at Richer Sounds. That’s a £380 (20 per cent) saving already – and that highlighted price didn’t even include a cashback offer that was running at the time.

55-inch LG C5 Price History

Price (£)

Date

The next big price decrease we spotted came on 6th October 2025, when we reported that the C5 was now £1199 at Richer Sounds. The C5 had been out for more than six months at this point, so a big price decrease was not unexpected; with another six months to go until the inevitable release of the C6, the C5 was now reduced by £700 (37 per cent). But all eyes were now turning towards Black Friday...

Curiously, while we did see a good price of £1069 on Black Friday, the 55-inch C5 was actually a tad cheaper a few weeks earlier on 6th November, when we spotted it at £1050.

The C5 saved its best discount for Cyber Monday, however, when it broke through the £1000 barrier and crashed to £965 – a good 49 per cent off.

Here we see the price of the C5 start to stabilise just under the £1000 mark. Even the arrival of the LG C6 in spring 2026 didn’t result in any significant further discounts.

The next round of new lowest prices came around yet another sales event: the run-up to the FIFA World Cup 2026. This was a period when retailers were dropping new lowest prices on TVs left, right and centre. The LG C5 was not left on the bench – it hit rock bottom on 5th June 2026, officially reaching half price with a £949 price tag, once again at Richer Sounds.

By the time Amazon Prime Day rolled along in June 2026, the World Cup was in full swing and new TV discounts had started to die down a bit. The LG C5 was one of the star products of that sales event, with prices dropping back down to £977, but that wasn’t quite a new low for the 55-inch model.

And now? As of July 2026, the best price we found for the 55-inch LG C5 was £969 at Richer Sounds and Sevenoaks thanks to a £30 voucher code. That’s a fine price for an Award-winning OLED TV, but it’s still a few whiskers off the lowest ever price.

It’s also worth noting that it was often specialist retailers who were offering new lows on the 55-inch C5 – not always Amazon, as some might assume.

How do the other sizes compare?

LG C5 42-inch OLED TV — (Image credit: What Hi-Fi? / Prime Video, Stanley Tucci Searching For Italy)

After an exhaustive look at the 55-inch model, it’s only fitting that we have a quick look at other screen sizes to ensure we weren’t dealing with an outlier. Take a look at the graph below and you will see that all models roughly follow a similar trend: a rather steep drop in the first few months, before levelling out a bit after Black Friday, after which we start seeing more incremental drops.

LG C5 Price History

Price (£)

Date

Price Data
Timestamp (date)	LG C5 42-inch (£)	LG C5 48-inch (£)	LG C5 55-inch (£)	LG C5 65-inch (£)
0	1400	N/A	N/A	N/A
1	N/A	N/A	N/A	2700
2	N/A	N/A	1900	N/A
3	N/A	N/A	1520	N/A
5	N/A	N/A	N/A	2100
6	N/A	N/A	1699	N/A
7	N/A	1500	N/A	N/A
8	N/A	999	N/A	N/A
9	N/A	N/A	1199	N/A
10	949	N/A	N/A	N/A
11	N/A	N/A	1199	N/A
12	949	N/A	N/A	N/A
13	N/A	N/A	1199	N/A
14	N/A	1049	N/A	N/A
15	949	N/A	N/A	N/A
16	N/A	N/A	N/A	1699
17	N/A	N/A	1050	N/A
18	849	N/A	N/A	N/A
19	N/A	949	N/A	N/A
20	N/A	N/A	N/A	1499
21	849	N/A	N/A	N/A
22	N/A	N/A	N/A	1499
23	N/A	N/A	1099	N/A
24	849	N/A	N/A	N/A
25	N/A	949	N/A	N/A
26	N/A	N/A	1069	N/A
27	N/A	N/A	N/A	1399
28	799	N/A	N/A	N/A
29	N/A	N/A	N/A	1299
30	N/A	N/A	989	N/A
31	N/A	849	N/A	N/A
32	740	N/A	N/A	N/A
33	N/A	N/A	955	N/A
34	N/A	N/A	N/A	1231
35	727	N/A	N/A	N/A
36	N/A	N/A	965	N/A
37	740	N/A	N/A	N/A
38	N/A	849	N/A	N/A
39	N/A	N/A	N/A	1279
40	N/A	N/A	N/A	1399
41	719	N/A	N/A	N/A
42	N/A	N/A	999	N/A
43	N/A	N/A	N/A	1249
44	N/A	849	N/A	N/A
45	699	N/A	N/A	N/A
46	N/A	807	N/A	N/A
47	699	N/A	N/A	N/A
48	N/A	849	N/A	N/A
49	N/A	781	N/A	N/A
50	656	N/A	N/A	N/A
51	N/A	749	N/A	N/A
52	N/A	N/A	949	N/A
53	N/A	N/A	989	N/A
54	649	N/A	N/A	N/A
55	N/A	759	N/A	N/A
56	N/A	N/A	N/A	1299
57	N/A	N/A	977	N/A
58	623	N/A	N/A	N/A
59	N/A	725	N/A	N/A
60	611	N/A	N/A	N/A
61	N/A	N/A	969	N/A
62	N/A	N/A	993	N/A
63	N/A	N/A	969	N/A
64	749	N/A	N/A	N/A
65	N/A	849	N/A	N/A
66	N/A	N/A	N/A	1399

Interestingly, the prices of the 42-inch and 48-inch models come very close to each other, with both crossing the £1000 barrier at similar times in late September 2025.

All models reached new lows during the Black Friday sales, even if the drops weren’t particularly dramatic from the pre-sale prices. Still, it was the 65-inch model that saw the best discount, with a whopping 54 per cent reduction from its launch price.

In terms of their lowest ever price, the two smaller models both reached this during Prime Day 2026. The 55-inch C5’s came a few weeks earlier during the World Cup sales, while the 65-inch version was a lone exception with a rock-bottom price on Black Friday thanks to a Hughes discount code.

The LG C6: history repeating itself?

LG C6 OLED TV — (Image credit: What Hi-Fi? / Amazon Prime Video, The Grand Tour)

So is the new LG C6 repeating the same trend? We have reviewed only the 65-inch model so far, but we’ve crunched the numbers to find out.

We have compared the prices of the LG C5 and C6 after launch in their respective years below. It’s worth noting that the LG C6 launched at a cheaper price than the preceding C5 – the 65-inch C6 came in at £2500 compared with £2700 for the corresponding C5.

LG C5 & C6 Post-launch Price History

Price (£)

Date

As we can see, the LG C6 started at a lower price and also dropped faster thanks to the World Cup sales. However, the price drops have slowed somewhat, which has allowed the LG C5 to overtake during the same time period. We’ll have to see if the C6 can reclaim the value crown over the course of this year…

When is the best time to buy an LG C-series OLED?

So when was the best time to buy the LG C5?

If you’re after the lowest-ever price, three of the four sizes we looked at hit this milestone during June 2026, which happened to coincide with the World Cup and Prime Day sales. So it seems as though a summer sale around 15 months after release is the cheapest time to buy. For the best LG C6 price, then, you’re probably looking at Prime Day 2027.

That, though, is a rather long time to wait – and it’s near the end of the TV’s life cycle, of course, when newer, more advanced models will have taken the shine away somewhat.

Our advice? Looking at the data, the sweet spot between price and time may well be during the Black Friday sales, as long suspected. While three of the C5 models went lower after Black Friday, this was only by up to nine per cent (£124) maximum – so six months is a rather long time to wait for a rather incremental drop.

When you buy a new TV is, of course, a rather personal decision that depends on several factors. But if you’re deciding based on price alone, now you know when to look for a bargain.

MORE:

Check out our list of the best TVs

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Daniel Furn is a staff writer at What Hi-Fi? focused on all things deal-related. He studied Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield before working as a freelance journalist covering film, TV, gaming, and consumer tech. Outside of work, he can be found travelling far-flung corners of the globe, playing badminton, and watching the latest streaming sensation (in 4K HDR, of course).

Timestamp (date)	LG C5 65-inch (£)	LG C6 65-inch (£)
1	2700	N/A
2	N/A	2500
3	N/A	2166
4	N/A	2079
5	2100	N/A
6	N/A	2099
7	N/A	2034
8	N/A	1889
9	1699	N/A