LG OLED77C5PUA.AUSZ

The 77-inch LG C5 is a solid OLED with killer gaming features like four HDMI 2.1 ports and a 144Hz refresh rate. Our testing shows picture quality is surprisingly average compared to the latest competition, and HDR brightness still trails QD-OLEDs. Pricing is a rollercoaster from $1,930 to over $65,000, so shop carefully. It's a great buy at the low end for gamers, but cinephiles and bright-room viewers have better options.

The C5's picture is, in typical OLED fashion, gorgeous when you're watching it in a controlled environment. Those self-lit pixels mean you get true black right next to bright highlights without any of the blooming you'd see on a traditional LED TV. The new Alpha 9 Gen8 processor does a nice job cleaning up messy streaming content, and motion handling is smooth without veering into soap opera territory if you don't want it to. But the brightness boost, while real, isn't a revolution. It's enough to fight off glare in a moderately lit room, but a bright Saturday afternoon with the blinds open will still wash it out a bit.

Gaming is where this TV really flexes. A 0.1ms response time is as fast as it gets, and the 144Hz refresh rate support for PC gaming puts it in a pretty exclusive club. All four HDMI ports are the full 48Gbps spec, so you don't have to choose between your soundbar and your console for the good port. That said, our gaming score lands in the 19th percentile, which is surprisingly low. This tells us that while the core specs are great, other TVs in our database are doing more with features like higher peak HDR brightness in game mode or better input lag at 60Hz. It's a fantastic gaming TV, but it's not the best one we've tested this year.

The elephant in the room is the Sony BRAVIA XR A95L. Sony's QD-OLED panel gets significantly brighter and our data puts its picture quality well above the C5. If you're a cinephile who wants the absolute best image and doesn't mind paying for it, the Sony is the one to beat. The trade-off is that Sony's gaming features aren't quite as comprehensive as LG's, and you'll usually pay a hefty premium. The Samsung QN990FF is another interesting alternative. It's an 8K Neo QLED, so you're trading perfect blacks for insane peak brightness and sharpness. For a bright room, the Samsung is arguably the better pick, though you'll miss out on Dolby Vision.

On the budget side, the TCL QM7K and Hisense U8 series are coming in hot. These Mini-LED TVs are getting scary good at black levels while pumping out way more brightness than the C5. Our database shows them outperforming the LG in several key areas, especially HDR impact. You lose the perfect per-pixel control of OLED, but for most people in a normal living room, the difference is shrinking fast. The Roku Pro Series is the wildcard here, offering a dead-simple smart platform and good enough picture quality for a lot less cash, but it's not in the same conversation for gaming or movie accuracy.

Pricing on this 77-inch C5 is all over the map, and I mean that literally. We're seeing a spread from $1,930 all the way up to an eye-watering $65,399 across different vendors. That's not a typo. Someone out there is trying to sell this TV for the price of a luxury SUV. The low end, around two grand, is actually a pretty solid deal for a 77-inch OLED from a top-tier brand. At that price, you're getting a lot of screen for your dollar. But if you're anywhere near the middle or high end of that range, you're getting fleeced. Shop around aggressively and don't be afraid to walk away from a bad price.

Compared to the competition, the value proposition gets tricky. A high-end Mini-LED set from TCL or Hisense will get you way more brightness and often better overall picture scores for less money. The Sony A95L with its QD-OLED panel is more expensive but our data shows it's in a completely different league for picture quality. The C5's value hinges entirely on you finding it at the low end of that price spread. If you pay more than $2,500 for this, you're leaving money on the table that could have gone toward a better-performing set.

LG has been cranking out OLEDs for over a decade now, and the C-series has always been the sweet spot for most people. The 77-inch C5 is the latest iteration, and it's packing the new Alpha 9 AI Processor Gen8 along with a brightness booster that LG claims makes it more livable in a sun-drenched room. If you've been holding out for a big-screen OLED that doesn't demand you live in a cave, this is the one that's supposed to change that. It's also loaded for gaming with a 144Hz refresh rate and four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports, which is basically a love letter to anyone with a PS5, Xbox Series X, and a gaming PC all hooked up at once.

But here's where things get a little weird. Our database puts this TV's picture quality in the 37th percentile among all the sets we track. That's not a typo. For a flagship OLED from LG, that's a head-scratcher. It seems like the competition has caught up in a big way, and while the C5 is a solid TV in a vacuum, the numbers suggest it's not the undisputed king of the hill anymore. The processing is smart, the blacks are still perfect, and the gaming chops are legit, but you're not getting the absolute best panel LG knows how to make.

This set is for the person who wants a massive, name-brand OLED with all the gaming bells and whistles and doesn't want to overthink it. It's for the living room that gets some daylight but not a wall of windows. It's for the movie lover who trusts the Dolby Vision and FILMMAKER MODE badges. But if you're a spec-chaser who needs to be at the top of the charts, you might want to keep reading before you click buy.

If your TV room is drenched in sunlight, skip this. The brightness just isn't competitive with a good Mini-LED set, and you'll be fighting glare more than enjoying those perfect blacks. Look at the Samsung QN990FF or the Hisense U8 series instead. They'll give you a much more watchable picture in a bright space without the OLED price tag.

Also, if you're a hardcore videophile who wants the absolute best picture quality available right now, the C5 isn't it. Our data shows it's middle-of-the-pack, and the Sony A95L with its QD-OLED panel is a noticeable step up in color volume and HDR punch. The C5 is a fantastic TV for normal humans, but if you're the type who notices every bit of shadow detail and near-black gradation, spend the extra cash on the Sony.

If you're a gamer with multiple consoles and a PC, and you can find this 77-inch C5 for around two grand, it's a no-brainer. The four HDMI 2.1 ports and 144Hz support make it one of the most hassle-free gaming TVs you can buy. You plug everything in, it all just works at full spec, and you get that instant OLED response time. For a dedicated theater room with light control, it's also a lovely experience, especially with Dolby Vision content. The infinite contrast never gets old.

But if you're putting this in a bright family room where the TV is on all day with news tickers and sports, I'd steer you toward a high-end Mini-LED instead. The brightness just isn't there to fight a sunny room, and the risk of burn-in, while lower than ever, is still a consideration for constant static elements. And if you're a picture quality purist who scrutinizes every frame, the Sony A95L is worth the extra money. The C5 is a great TV that finds itself in a weird spot where it's not quite the value king or the performance king anymore.