The Debate between OLED and QLED: Has LG Finally Found the Perfect Balance?

The question of whether to opt for OLED or QLED has always been a contentious one, with many consumers struggling to make up their minds. The main issue is determining whether you'll be watching movies in a darker room or sports games in a brighter environment. However, it seems that LG has now found a solution to this problem with the release of its latest G3 TV.

Measuring the G3's peak HDR brightness at 1500 nits, it's clear that this TV is capable of producing significantly more light than previous models. This is nearly twice as bright as my old G1, which topped out at around 800 nits. Moreover, even last year's G2 was only able to reach about 900 nits when pushed to its limits. However, the new MLA (Micro Lens Array) technology used in the G3 takes this to a whole new level.

The MLA uses tiny micro lenses, approximately 5,000 of them per pixel, which are strategically placed around the screen. These tiny lenses help redirect light that would otherwise be lost by reflections inside the TV, making it much more efficient and allowing for higher brightness levels. This technology also improves viewing angles, giving users a wider range of options when watching their favorite shows or movies.

One of the most significant advantages of the G3 is its incredible color accuracy, even out of the box. The usual picture profiles make a return, with options such as Expert Bright, Cinema HDR, and Dummy Vision available for those who want to fine-tune their viewing experience. These settings can be adjusted using LG's AI Picture Pro mode, which uses auto genre selection to determine the most suitable picture profile based on the content being watched.

Motion smoothing is another feature that has been the subject of much debate among movie purists. While some may prefer to keep this feature turned off, I find it to be a useful tool in reducing the occasional strobing effect that can occur during slow pans. However, I also appreciate its cinematic movement option, which provides just enough smoothing to make fast-paced content feel more responsive without introducing that infamous soap opera effect.

In addition to these advanced features, the G3 also boasts a range of convenient settings that are perfect for everyday use. For example, I like to turn off the advertisement and home screen options, as they can sometimes be distracting or slow down the UI. However, the TV's UI has become faster and more responsive over time, making it a joy to navigate.

One area where the G3 excels is in its gaming capabilities. The TV supports 4K at 120Hz with variable refresh rates, including both G-Sync and FreeSync Premium. This makes for seamless gameplay, even on the most demanding titles. Moreover, LG's unique Gamer Centric menu provides users with a wealth of information about their frame rate, VRR usage, and available picture profiles.

While the G3 is undoubtedly an exceptional TV, there are some downsides to consider. The biggest issue is the price, which is very expensive indeed. Unfortunately, this means that it doesn't share the same MLA technology as smaller G3 models. Additionally, larger screens may not benefit from the same level of brightness and performance.

Finally, while the built-in speakers on the G3 are decent, they're by no means exceptional. This won't be a problem for most users, however, as the TV is designed to work seamlessly with soundbars and other external speaker systems.

If you're considering purchasing an LG G3, I would recommend waiting for prices to drop slightly and for reviews of Samsung's QD-OLED TVs to become available. While these TVs are not direct competitors in terms of MLA technology, they do offer impressive brightness levels and other advanced features that may appeal to some consumers. However, if you're willing to spend the money, I have no doubt that you'll be thoroughly impressed with the G3's performance.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhave a look at this it's the brand new LG G3 OLED and this is quite possibly the best TV in the entire world right now to the point I actually bought this myself this is not a sponsored video this is not even a review sample that is a very tasty pepper right there I paid 5 000 pounds for this guy for the 77 inch model but actually the key upgrade this year with the G3 is the ml8 which makes this OLED so much brighter than anything else before it's going to give those cutie oleds a run for their money in terms of brightness but also we get those beautiful Rich Inky blacks also being the gallery design it's still wall mounted you can buy a stand separately we've also got a new anti-reflective coating which I actually didn't see for a minute first because I forgot to take the plastic off but once I removed that it was incredible and well you can probably see there's a bit of light reflection over there with the windows normally in a medium dark room it looks like you're looking into the abyss on like a matte black panel a crazy expensive but also crazy awesome TV and I've also paired it with a couple of new Sonos era 300 speakers with my Sonos Arc to try and give me the ultimate home theater experience the thing is though I already had a great TV I've been using the LG G1 for the past two years and absolutely loved it and even though this is a bit of an excessive upgrade okay a lot the G3 is the first TV I've actually been excited to buy in quite a while aside from maybe the new Sony and Samsung QD oleds which I can't wait to test and compare it to although sadly LG's own C Series which has always been the better value option unfortunately misses out on this year's big upgrades now to give you some context last year's G2 was a fairly mining refinement of the G1 the bezels were slimmed down to about half his eyes it was a touch brighter the ports had a high bandwidth and the new processor was a little bit faster but that was about it now the G3 here maintains those Sleek bezels and a similar oval design but firstly they've beefed up the wall mount with four rather than two holes to drop it into although it doesn't seem to make much of a difference to how wobbly this can be if you start playing around with it more importantly though we have this new anti-reflective coating we get the latest Alpha 9 Gen 6 processor the micro lens array or MLA Tech used to boost the brightness is quite funny actually if you put your hand up to the screen especially on a really bright area you really can feel the heat coming off it round the back we still have four HDMI 2.1s all with full fat 48 gigabits per second bandwidth and we still have this little Valley to Route all your cables down one slight frustration I have with this TV is the cable management because you can see here I've makeshifted today bit of a Heidi thing it's just a piece of wood to hide these cables because I've not come up with a really good solution if you're not going to drill a couple holes into the back of your wall down and then out again which I don't really want to do the issue is all your HDMI cables come down this side right the ports are here they can be fed down and they come out there but the power comes out from the center compare that to maybe the Samsung TVs with a one connect box here not so great so the G3 is legitimately a big upgrade even year on year versus last year's G2 but the downside is it's more expensive right now this 77 inch version of the G3 is about 5 000 pounds whereas last year's G2 launched at 4500 and in fact you can bag yourself this size G2 for around 3500 right now which is definitely worth considering but either way your best bet with any TV is to wait like six months around November you'll probably find this on sale for like a good thousand pounds less or maybe go for the cheaper 65 inch model that seems a bit more sensible but let's park the question of value and trying to rationalize why you need this and let's just talk about how Bloody good it is because For the First Time an OLED TV can probably go toe-to-toe with the brightest coolers that we've seen because the question of do you go OLED or qled has always been are you watching movies in a darker room or Sports and games in a bright room but now it seems we kind of have the best of both worlds I measure the g3's peak HDR brightness at 1500 nits and that's even achievable in cinema mode not just the Vivid mode that you'd rarely use that's nearly twice as bright as my old G1 which topped out at around 800 nits and even last year's G2 when you pushed that to about 900 but now we have MLA which uses tiny tiny micro lenses around 5000 of them per pixel so on the 77 inch model is like 42 billion of them and these help redirect the light that would normally be lost by Reflections inside the TV making it much more efficient so they can push up the brightness and it even improves the viewing angles the G3 is also incredibly color accurate even out of the box the usual picture profiles make a return and I tend to stick with expert bright for most of my day-to-day use and then it'll also switch me to cinema HDR or dummy Vision or filmmaker or game Optimizer if it detects the relevant content the auto genre selection and AI picture Pro mode settings will make a return and I'm quite happy to leave these on but if you don't want any of that going in the background you can turn all that off if you prefer now motion smoothing is very controversial and movie purists will of course just have this turned off but for me I quite like this cinematic movement option as it just gives you that little bit of smoothing and also helps to reduce the occasional strobing effect that you might see on a slow pan but without that horrible soap opera effect there's also a couple of advertisement and home screen settings that I like to turn off I do find the UI a touch faster than my G1 but it's not night and day I forget exactly which update it was but webos became a lot more streamlined they're more responsive sometime last year and you haven't got like a dozen rows of content it's trying to populate which takes forever to load but we do also get a whole bunch of apps and LG channels that you're probably never going to use although you can customize the home screen and then only show the apps that you actually want we do also now get what are essentially folders for different features like gaming music Sports and then inside you'll see all the relevant apps and modes it's a nice idea and it's better than just browsing their app store to find Spotify or G4S now I can't say I find myself using these folders very often but it's a good place to start I must admit I do also quite like the art gallery and together with the better anti-reflective coating which we have on the G3 it brings it a touch closer to something like the Samsung frame gaming is also absolutely glorious on this TV up to 4K 120 variable refresh g-sync freesync premium and even uniquely Dolby Vision at full 4K 120 not that there's any game that supports that right now but you know it's there for one day and then we also have LG's very purple gamer Centric menu which tells you your frame rate what vrr is being used and also you've got a handful of picture profiles and options to play around with I'm telling you Star Wars Jedi Survivor looks absolutely incredible on this so it's a great TV for well pretty much everything really but there are downsides and the biggest issue is the price it is very very expensive and it is a real Shane of C3 doesn't share the same MLA Tech and the higher brightness and also the fact that anything bigger than the 77 also doesn't have the same high brightness the built-in speakers are pretty lackluster although with this car setup chances are you're gonna have a sound bar or a speaker system anyway what I would say though is if you are tempted to pull the trigger on a G3 firstly I would recommend waiting a few months to see if the prices drop a little bit and also wait for the reviews of the Samsung and Sony QD oleds they're very good TVs as well and there is more to it like Samsung obviously doesn't support W Vision which is a bit of a deal breaker for me but definitely check out those comparisons what I do know for a fact though is that if you do buy one of these you are not going to be disappointed but what do you think could you be tempted to upgrade and also let me know what TV you're using right now in the comments below if you want to see more from me then a like And subscribe would be amazing and I'll catch you next time right here on the tech chathave a look at this it's the brand new LG G3 OLED and this is quite possibly the best TV in the entire world right now to the point I actually bought this myself this is not a sponsored video this is not even a review sample that is a very tasty pepper right there I paid 5 000 pounds for this guy for the 77 inch model but actually the key upgrade this year with the G3 is the ml8 which makes this OLED so much brighter than anything else before it's going to give those cutie oleds a run for their money in terms of brightness but also we get those beautiful Rich Inky blacks also being the gallery design it's still wall mounted you can buy a stand separately we've also got a new anti-reflective coating which I actually didn't see for a minute first because I forgot to take the plastic off but once I removed that it was incredible and well you can probably see there's a bit of light reflection over there with the windows normally in a medium dark room it looks like you're looking into the abyss on like a matte black panel a crazy expensive but also crazy awesome TV and I've also paired it with a couple of new Sonos era 300 speakers with my Sonos Arc to try and give me the ultimate home theater experience the thing is though I already had a great TV I've been using the LG G1 for the past two years and absolutely loved it and even though this is a bit of an excessive upgrade okay a lot the G3 is the first TV I've actually been excited to buy in quite a while aside from maybe the new Sony and Samsung QD oleds which I can't wait to test and compare it to although sadly LG's own C Series which has always been the better value option unfortunately misses out on this year's big upgrades now to give you some context last year's G2 was a fairly mining refinement of the G1 the bezels were slimmed down to about half his eyes it was a touch brighter the ports had a high bandwidth and the new processor was a little bit faster but that was about it now the G3 here maintains those Sleek bezels and a similar oval design but firstly they've beefed up the wall mount with four rather than two holes to drop it into although it doesn't seem to make much of a difference to how wobbly this can be if you start playing around with it more importantly though we have this new anti-reflective coating we get the latest Alpha 9 Gen 6 processor the micro lens array or MLA Tech used to boost the brightness is quite funny actually if you put your hand up to the screen especially on a really bright area you really can feel the heat coming off it round the back we still have four HDMI 2.1s all with full fat 48 gigabits per second bandwidth and we still have this little Valley to Route all your cables down one slight frustration I have with this TV is the cable management because you can see here I've makeshifted today bit of a Heidi thing it's just a piece of wood to hide these cables because I've not come up with a really good solution if you're not going to drill a couple holes into the back of your wall down and then out again which I don't really want to do the issue is all your HDMI cables come down this side right the ports are here they can be fed down and they come out there but the power comes out from the center compare that to maybe the Samsung TVs with a one connect box here not so great so the G3 is legitimately a big upgrade even year on year versus last year's G2 but the downside is it's more expensive right now this 77 inch version of the G3 is about 5 000 pounds whereas last year's G2 launched at 4500 and in fact you can bag yourself this size G2 for around 3500 right now which is definitely worth considering but either way your best bet with any TV is to wait like six months around November you'll probably find this on sale for like a good thousand pounds less or maybe go for the cheaper 65 inch model that seems a bit more sensible but let's park the question of value and trying to rationalize why you need this and let's just talk about how Bloody good it is because For the First Time an OLED TV can probably go toe-to-toe with the brightest coolers that we've seen because the question of do you go OLED or qled has always been are you watching movies in a darker room or Sports and games in a bright room but now it seems we kind of have the best of both worlds I measure the g3's peak HDR brightness at 1500 nits and that's even achievable in cinema mode not just the Vivid mode that you'd rarely use that's nearly twice as bright as my old G1 which topped out at around 800 nits and even last year's G2 when you pushed that to about 900 but now we have MLA which uses tiny tiny micro lenses around 5000 of them per pixel so on the 77 inch model is like 42 billion of them and these help redirect the light that would normally be lost by Reflections inside the TV making it much more efficient so they can push up the brightness and it even improves the viewing angles the G3 is also incredibly color accurate even out of the box the usual picture profiles make a return and I tend to stick with expert bright for most of my day-to-day use and then it'll also switch me to cinema HDR or dummy Vision or filmmaker or game Optimizer if it detects the relevant content the auto genre selection and AI picture Pro mode settings will make a return and I'm quite happy to leave these on but if you don't want any of that going in the background you can turn all that off if you prefer now motion smoothing is very controversial and movie purists will of course just have this turned off but for me I quite like this cinematic movement option as it just gives you that little bit of smoothing and also helps to reduce the occasional strobing effect that you might see on a slow pan but without that horrible soap opera effect there's also a couple of advertisement and home screen settings that I like to turn off I do find the UI a touch faster than my G1 but it's not night and day I forget exactly which update it was but webos became a lot more streamlined they're more responsive sometime last year and you haven't got like a dozen rows of content it's trying to populate which takes forever to load but we do also get a whole bunch of apps and LG channels that you're probably never going to use although you can customize the home screen and then only show the apps that you actually want we do also now get what are essentially folders for different features like gaming music Sports and then inside you'll see all the relevant apps and modes it's a nice idea and it's better than just browsing their app store to find Spotify or G4S now I can't say I find myself using these folders very often but it's a good place to start I must admit I do also quite like the art gallery and together with the better anti-reflective coating which we have on the G3 it brings it a touch closer to something like the Samsung frame gaming is also absolutely glorious on this TV up to 4K 120 variable refresh g-sync freesync premium and even uniquely Dolby Vision at full 4K 120 not that there's any game that supports that right now but you know it's there for one day and then we also have LG's very purple gamer Centric menu which tells you your frame rate what vrr is being used and also you've got a handful of picture profiles and options to play around with I'm telling you Star Wars Jedi Survivor looks absolutely incredible on this so it's a great TV for well pretty much everything really but there are downsides and the biggest issue is the price it is very very expensive and it is a real Shane of C3 doesn't share the same MLA Tech and the higher brightness and also the fact that anything bigger than the 77 also doesn't have the same high brightness the built-in speakers are pretty lackluster although with this car setup chances are you're gonna have a sound bar or a speaker system anyway what I would say though is if you are tempted to pull the trigger on a G3 firstly I would recommend waiting a few months to see if the prices drop a little bit and also wait for the reviews of the Samsung and Sony QD oleds they're very good TVs as well and there is more to it like Samsung obviously doesn't support W Vision which is a bit of a deal breaker for me but definitely check out those comparisons what I do know for a fact though is that if you do buy one of these you are not going to be disappointed but what do you think could you be tempted to upgrade and also let me know what TV you're using right now in the comments below if you want to see more from me then a like And subscribe would be amazing and I'll catch you next time right here on the tech chat\n"