You can get the 42-inch LG C5 for a ludicrously low price with this Cyber Monday hack

(Image credit: What Hi-Fi? / Prime Video, Stanley Tucci Searching For Italy)

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Black Friday is now firmly in the rearview mirror, but Cyber Monday is dead ahead, and most of the best TV deals are still available.

In fact, I just found a sneaky way to get my favourite small OLED – the 42-inch LG C5 – for just £727 at AO.com.

Getting this price means signing up for an AO.com membership, which costs £40, but I've accounted for that in the £727 price I've quoted.

How it works is you sign up for the membership for £40, then you can buy the TV for just £687 – and get free delivery thrown in.

A small amount of effort then, but well worth it for the best 42-inch TV that money can buy.

The LG C5 is clearly the best 42-inch TV currently available – and yes, I say that as someone who’s tested many.

The hallmark OLED magic is all here: pixel-level contrast, truly inky blacks, and that pixel-level contrast control that never fails to draw you into a film or game.

With a little tweaking – we recommend Filmmaker Mode with judder reduction off and tone mapping on – the picture is beautifully balanced. Rich but natural skin tones, bright highlights when called for, and none of that over-the-top HDR exaggeration.

Scenes pop with impressive depth, colours feel cinematic rather than overcooked, and even fast action stays entirely smooth, with no ghosting or blur.

On the smart TV front, the C5 gets close to top marks. The latest webOS has too many adverts, but it also houses a full complement of properly nativised streaming apps, including Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Apple TV+, and even BBC iPlayer, ITVX and many more besides.

But where the C5 really shines, at least for me, is gaming. All four HDMI 2.1 ports support 4K/120Hz gaming (4K/144Hz if you have a powerful enough PC), with VRR, ALLM and Dolby Vision Game Mode support.

That low input lag and high refresh rate make it so responsive that many people buy the LG C5 as a large gaming monitor rather than a traditional TV, and I'm all for that.

No TV is perfect, and the 42-inch C5 has some small flaws.

Colour volume takes a slight hit in very dark scenes; there are moments when low-light content feels a bit flatter than I’d like; and the built-in speakers are pretty weak.

But the picture is still excellent overall, and no TV sounds great, so these flaws are easy to accept – particularly at this price. Do try to add a soundbar to improve the audio, though.

In short, the C5 isn’t flawless, but it comes as close as any 42-inch OLED has to date. For me, it’s hands-down the best compact premium TV you can buy: cinematic when you watch movies, super-responsive when you play games, and compact enough for a second room or smaller lounge.

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Tom Parsons has been writing about TV, AV and hi-fi products (not to mention plenty of other 'gadgets' and even cars) for over 15 years. He began his career as What Hi-Fi?'s Staff Writer and is now the TV and AV Editor. In between, he worked as Reviews Editor and then Deputy Editor at Stuff, and over the years has had his work featured in publications such as T3, The Telegraph and Louder. He's also appeared on BBC News, BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4 and Sky Swipe. In his spare time Tom is a runner and gamer.

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