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What Hi-Fi?
What Hi-Fi?
Technology
Tom Parsons

LG says the new G4 OLED TV will be "measurably better" than the G3

LG G4 wall mounted in a living room with a soundbar and subwoofer.

LG's 2024 OLED TV range has been revealed, and you could be forgiven for feeling a fairly strong sense of déjà vu. It's not that there aren't upgrades this year, because there are, including new and beefed-up processors (which themselves unleash new picture-processing features), 4K/144Hz gaming, a usefully tweaked operating system and a very appealing new entry-level B-series model. But the TVs all look the same as their 2023 equivalents and, processors aside, seemingly feature roughly the same hardware.

LG doesn't generally like to reveal full performance figures for its new models but, according to David Seperson, Director of Product Planning and Marketing, further performance upgrades are there.

He wouldn't be drawn on whether there are any upgrades to the panel hardware for the new G4, stating that that's a matter for LG Display (the panel-producing arm of LG, which is distinct from the TV-producing LG Electronics), but he did say that the G4's performance is "measurably better" than that of the G3 and that we "shouldn't assume that it's exactly the same".

He could in theory be referring to the new 'Peak Highlighter' feature of the Alpha 11 processor, which boosts the brightness of small highlights, but the fact that this answer came off the back of a question about panel hardware suggests otherwise.

As ever, it's the actual performance that matters, and whether "measurably better" translates to clearly, perceptually better remains to be seen, but I'm hopeful that the G4 is more of an upgrade than is immediately apparent.

On paper, the C4 is even more similar to its predecessor than the G4 is to the G3, but Seperson again suggests that somewhat hidden upgrades are there. According to him, "All of the C4s will get brighter this year than they were last year".

There's further good news for smaller OLED TV buyers:

"In past years, we've always said that the 42 and the 48 couldn't get as bright. Well, that's sort of true – the larger sizes do get a little bit brighter – but we're very happy with the brightness of the 42 and 48".

That is, of course, fairly cryptic stuff, but I'm taking it to mean that the 42- and 48-inch versions of the C4 will be almost as bright as their larger siblings, and that will be very exciting news indeed for those who prefer a smaller TV – especially those very keen OLED gamers.

Of course, we're very much still in the preview stage of the 2024 TV cycle, but we're expecting to get hands-on time with several new models, including the M4, G4 and C4, at CES next week. And we will of course be putting all of these new models through our comprehensive and comparative testing process just as soon as full production samples are available.

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