LG continues to update its line of OLED TVs. In past years, we managed to get acquainted with both the flagship LG OLED TV W8 (Wallpaper TV) and the most affordable model at that time B9 . This time we got a review of a model that can be positioned as a mid-budget (by OLED standards, of course) – CX, or more precisely, the 65-inch LG OLED65CX6LA .
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LG OLED65CX6LA design
A distinctive feature of OLED TVs is their completely unique thickness, and this model is no exception: over the entire screen area, the body is only 4 mm thick, so in profile from a distance it seems as if you are looking at a thick sheet of paper.
The electronics box adds another 4 cm to the bottom, and it also houses a VESA-compatible mount (200×300) for mounting the TV on the wall.
Around the protective glass that covers the screen, there is a very thin, only a couple of millimeters thick, metal frame. After turning on, a small indent around the screen becomes noticeable, so that in the end the image ends up in a very modest frame about 1 cm wide.
There is a TV not on the legs traditional in recent times, but on a relatively small, but very weighty base. A wide decorative plate is attached to it in front, which visually increases its size plus increases stability. For neat cable routing, you can use a special recess on the back side in the center of the case, which is covered with a decorative cover.
All connectors are concentrated in two blocks, one oriented sideways, the other back. To connect external signal sources, there are 4 HDMI 2.1 inputs (supporting [email protected] Hz signal in HDR and with color subsampling 4:4:4). One of the HDMI ports supports ARC / eARC, which allows you to output multi-channel audio from streaming services to external speakers.
The TV can be connected to the home network either via cable (Ethernet connector) or via Wi-Fi (802.11.ac standard is supported). 3 USB ports are designed to connect external drives and other peripherals. There is also a slot for a conditional access module that decodes paid channels, and two audio outputs.
Remote control
The TV comes with a traditional LG Magic Remote, which we saw in previous models. It is relatively small, ergonomically shaped, fits well in the hand. In the center of the four-way joystick is not a button, but a scroll wheel (which also works by pressing) – with its help it is convenient to work with the proprietary webOS operating system.
The remote control is gyroscopic, so you can navigate through the menu using the arrows around the wheel, or simply direct the remote control to the desired item, thus controlling the “mouse” cursor. In addition, LG Magic Remote supports voice input.
Platform, functionality LG OLED65CX6LA
The LG OLED TV CX model is available in Ukraine in several diagonals – 55, 65 and 77 inches, the second option came to our review (also this year, for the first time in this line, the smallest diagonal is presented – 48 ″, its appearance in Ukraine is possible in the near future). The CX can be described as a mid-budget model that sits between the flagship WX and the budget BX, offering a reasonable balance of price and features.
The TV is powered by the 3rd generation α9 processor – it differs from last year’s α9 4K gen 2, in particular, with a 30% increase in performance, optimization of AI functions, better algorithms for noise reduction, face recognition and text processing, as well as the ability to adjust the image and sound according to the room where the TV is located. 
Also for the CX model, support for the AMD FreeSync adaptive frequency mode and compatibility with the similar format from NVIDIA – G-Sync are announced, which will be appreciated by users who need a TV, including for games. Here we note that in game mode, it boasts a very low input lag – about 13 ms. All this, together with the improved implementation of HDR mode in games, makes the LG OLED TV CX not only the basis for a spectacular home theater, but also an excellent gaming display, including for next-generation consoles.
Traditionally for LG TVs, a proprietary webOS shell is used as Smart TV. It has a very simple and user-friendly interface with quick access to everything you need. The main screen is called by the Home button on the remote control, after which the main menu is displayed over the current image with a ribbon of the most popular functions (calling TV channels, installed applications, switching to the last video source, etc.).
WebOS is a multitasking OS, so running applications continue to idle when switching to another task. Like last year’s lineup, the new TVs use ThinQ’s proprietary artificial intelligence system with support for Google Assistant and Alexa, which is used to better recognize voice commands (launching applications, switching between channels, changing the volume), as well as for search queries.
In 2020, webOS received an update to version 5.0 – visually, however, its interface practically does not differ from webOS 4.5, which we saw in last year’s line, the changes are mostly cosmetic – for example, you can now add your own items to the settings side menu, and advertising the banner in the lower left corner is disabled in the settings.
The main differences are in the content: for example, cooperation with Apple brought the Apple TV client and support for HomeKit and AirPlay 2 as part of the smart home control platform to new TVs; in addition, foreign users also get access to Disney+ (which is not officially represented in Ukraine). Also new is Sports Alert, which allows you to keep track of the activity of your favorite sports teams.
In addition to the remote control, you can also control the TV using a smartphone – by installing the LG ThinQ application on it (it can also be used to control the entire smart home) or LG TV Plus, which, among other things, can send content from a smartphone to the TV screen.
sound
The LG OLED TV CX has a 2.2 speaker system with a total power of 40 W (20 W each for satellites and woofers) – in this regard, there are no special differences from the previous year’s model, C9. Acoustics supports Dolby Atmos virtual surround sound technology, which allows you to simulate surround sound on the built-in speakers. Thanks to this, the LG OLED65CX6LA speakers sound good, the sound is rich, with good detail and quite “bass”.
Image quality
The LG OLED65CX6LA uses a proprietary 10-bit OLED panel with a refresh rate of 120Hz, a resolution of 3840×2160 pixels and a diagonal of 65″.
In reviews of previous models of LG OLED TVs, we have repeatedly noted how impressive deep black color is – the pixels on this panel glow by themselves , and in the absence of additional backlighting, it looks completely black even in complete darkness, without the slightest hint of parasitic a dark gray glow that is observed in any, even the highest quality, LCD TV with LED backlighting.
Another difference from traditional LCDs that immediately catches the eye is the maximum viewing angles. Even when viewed from the side, when the entire screen shrinks to a narrow strip, the brightness and color saturation remain almost the same as when you are right in front of the screen.
As many as nine video modes are available for SDR content. “Bright” and “Sport” give a very bright and contrasting picture, it will be appropriate in the case of sports TV shows and for content with a faded image, but for a movie show it is better to stop at one of the corresponding modes, which are also enough here. “Cinema” offers fairly typical settings for this purpose, which make the image slightly muted in brightness, warmer than the “standard” modes and with a gamma curve just below the standard value of 2.2, which gives very good detail in both the bright areas of the frame , as well as in the shadows.
Also for cinephiles are two “expert” modes certified by the ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) – for a dark room and a room with bright background lighting. They are not critically different from their own “Cinema” mode (except in the “dark” version of ISF, which is quite logical, the brightness is additionally reduced for more comfortable viewing in complete darkness), and in general, any of these three modes can be used with settings for default, without long and tedious tweaks.
New to this year’s LG OLED TV lineup is the Filmmaker Mode, which aims to present the film as the creator intended, turning off all post-processing algorithms and showing the video at its original frame rate, color reproduction, and original aspect ratio. This mode was proposed by the UHD Alliance consortium and has been supported by a number of TV manufacturers, including LG. In theory, its activation is also possible in automatic mode, but for this the video must contain special metadata – which, of course, requires the support of the undertaking from content producers. In the meantime, you “have to” manage by manually activating it in the TV settings.
The ISF Expert – Vivid Illumination mode offers a full color gamut that almost completely covers the DCI-P3 space; in other movie modes, coverage is limited to sRGB space, resulting in calm, natural colors. In addition, in the “ISF Expert – dark room” mode, the gamma is somewhat underestimated, this visually makes the image a little less saturated and contrast, which will be appropriate when watching a movie in complete darkness.
To simulate the HDR effect on normal SDR content, there is an HDR Effect mode – it makes the picture brighter and more saturated, while treating the image more carefully than the Vivid mode, so if you choose between these two for faded content, we would advise using first.
As far as true HDR goes, the LG OLED65CX6LA supports all major standards: HDR10, Dolby Vision and Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG). The number of video modes in this case is slightly less: “Bright”, “Standard”, “Cinema”, “Home theater” and Filmmaker Mode.
The HDR effect is most pronounced in the first two, but there it is too exaggerated. We would recommend using one of the three modes specifically designed for movie viewing: in them the picture is slightly less bright and saturated, but with more accurate color reproduction and “softer”.
