Review: LG OLED65G36LA (G3-serie) OLED TV

LG OLED65G36LA – Design

The design is completely identical to that of the G2 series. We are certainly not sorry about that. The G3 has the appearance of a high-end TV and, like its predecessors, aims for wall mounting. The metal frame is no more than a fine line at the front, from the side it is 12mm wide. The rest of the device is 24mm deep, with a completely flat back.

As in previous years, the wall mounting bracket is included. This allows you to hang the device closely on the wall. The bracket can also fold forward a dozen centimeters, so that you can also turn the device to the left or right.

LG can also supply you with a central swivel base if you want to place the TV on a TV cabinet. That is an optional accessory. The screen then leans back a few degrees and it is 6cm above the furniture, which is just high enough if you want to place a soundbar.

LG OLED65G36LA – Ease of use and smart TV

LG continues to tinker with WebOS, it wants to keep the smart TV environment responsive and compact. To achieve that, you can scroll down just one click from the Home Screen. This way the interface has to load less content. On the second page you will find trending series and recommendations, which you cannot change.

The most important change, however, can be found on the Home Screen itself. At the bottom you will still find a customizable list of apps, but just above that you will find the new feature, namely Quick Cards. These are, as it were, folders where LG groups a number of functions and apps. For example, in the music Quick Card you will find the Bluetooth connection, an icon for the media player and of course all music apps. LG also shows recommendations here.

Although there is a huge portion of the Home Screen reserved for advertising, currently occupied by LG Channels Free TV, we find this new adjustment excellent. Not only is WebOS 23 now even smoother, with the Quick Cards you can also easily find your way to specific applications and functions. For example, there is a Quick Card for your most recent source, Home Office applications, Games, Music, the Home Hub (for all IoT devices), and Sports. You can’t create your own Quick Card, but you can of course simply pin your favorite apps to the Home screen, in the list of apps.

The Quick Menu is now even clearer and slightly more extensive. You can personalize it so that the features you use most are quickly available.

Remote control

The remote control is unchanged except for one detail. The Google Assistant button is now used to launch LG Channels. Since there is still a button for voice commands and one for Alexa, that’s not a problem.

Thanks to its slightly rounded shape, the Magic Remote fits comfortably in your hand. Its most important feature remains the pointing function with which you control the cursor on the screen. The numeric pad doubles as programmable keys to launch apps or TV channels with one click. That is very handy. Shortcuts for Netflix, Prime Video, Disney + and Rakuten TV can be found at the bottom of the remote. The keystroke is clean but still requires a little too much pressure.

Functions

The G3 has a single TV tuner for digital TV (DVB-T2/C/S2) and CI+ slot. Watching and recording another channel at the same time is not possible. It is a pity that this top model does not have a double tuner. There is support for Apple Airplay 2 and Google Cast for YouTube and Netflix. The media player supports major formats, subtitles and HDR. Only Xvid he refuses. Since this year, LG supports DTS again. It plays the soundtracks itself and can pass them on to an AV receiver via eARC.

Among the functions, the extensive list of options for home office stands out, in addition to Google services, there is also support for Microsoft 365 and remote use of a PC. Sports Alert is still available (via the Quick Card) and those who want to use their TV as decoration when it is off can use Always Ready. Via Multi View you can view two sources, either side by side or as a picture-in-picture. You start it via the Quick Menu, and the interface conveniently guides you in your choices. There are many options available, but you cannot combine everything. For example, live TV cannot be combined with an HDMI input.

LG OLED65G36LA – Image processing

The Alpha9 Gen6 processor does not add any noticeable improvements. The small improvements in the AI ​​Super Resolution upscaling algorithm ensure very good noise reduction, and the upscaling shows excellent results, although they do not seem to differ much from the good performance of the 2022 version. The processor did go wrong during one of our deinterlacing tests, where we clearly saw a comb effect. Fortunately, it did not show up in other tests.

Heavily compressed video that has obvious blocking also does a good job of cleaning up the processor. We recommend keeping both noise reduction settings at the lowest setting. Color bands that you sometimes see in soft transitions disappear without problems if you activate ‘Smooth Gradation’. The lowest setting is sufficient, except in extreme cases such as dark, heavily compressed images. The middle position is then a better choice, in the highest position we saw too much detail disappear.

An OLED screen has very good motion sharpness, which is no different on this G3, only the finest detail remains somewhat vague in moving images. Since last year, the Black Frame Insertion technique (what is BFI ) is limited to 60 Hz. It gives some extra detail, but the flicker is very annoying, so leave ‘OLED Motion’ off. TruMotion can make panning images in movies very smooth, without overly visible image defects. Only in very fast movements there are sometimes some problems. We recommend the ‘Cinematographic Motion’ setting for the purists, while ‘Natural’ is a good compromise for those who want smoother pan images.

Main settings

LG OLED65G36LA – Picture quality

The big innovation in the G3 series is of course the new OLED panel. That’s an evolution of last year’s EX panel. LG calls the new technique “Brightness Booster Max”, and it is a combination of hardware and software (more detail on the Brightness Booster Max ). But the most important thing is the hardware. After all, the panel was given an extra layer of microlenses that direct the light out that would otherwise remain trapped in the panel due to reflection. This results in a significant improvement in peak brightness and efficiency.

The panel has very good uniformity in dark screens. In clear images we very closely saw two vertical lines that can be visible as ‘Dirty Screen Effect’. However, they were so vague that they did not interfere with viewing pleasure.

The Filmmaker Mode of the OLED65G36LA delivers the best results as usual. LG’s calibration is remarkably good, the gray scale is a bit too warm in the bright tones, but that is not clearly reflected in the colors. In fact, the color reproduction is exceptionally good, also for skin tones.

The color range of 95% DCI-P3 and 70% Rec.2020 is a typical result for OLED models. There is no progress in that area, but the combination with the higher peak brightness provides a very clear improvement in the color volume. Select the Filmmaker Mode for a beautiful picture. The calibration is, just like in SDR, exceptionally good, especially in terms of color reproduction. We do notice that the G3 hides a little bit of black detail. It looks neatly at the HDR10 metadata and shows a lot of white detail.

LG OLED65G36LA – Conclusion

Unseen high peak brightness, incidentally without higher consumption, and all the other advantages that the G2 already offered, make the LG OLED65G36LA the best OLED TV on the market at the moment. The disadvantages we see are limited. For example, you have to put extra money on the table if you want the TV base instead of the supplied wall bracket. Dynamic Tonemapping went wrong a little too often, a pity, but we don’t take it very seriously, even without this feature the image is impressive.

On the other hand, there is no shortage of good qualities. This G3 series OLED TV combines all the classic advantages of OLED, such as contrast, motion sharpness and rich colors with an unprecedented high peak brightness for OLED. The step forward is really huge. The new panel also delivers an even better viewing angle and anti-glare properties. The Apha9 processor ensures excellent performance and beautifully brings both older footage and the most recent HDR streaming content to the screen. Gamers really get everything they ask for, and the audio configuration does a great job. Finally, LG has given WebOS 23 some nice improvements that further improve the ease of use.

We conclude with two remarks. First, you pay a hefty price for this G3. LG dares to drop prices significantly later in the year. Moreover, there are also some competitors. Samsung and Sony are launching new QD-OLED models and Philips and Panasonic are using the new WOLED panel that this G3 also uses. So let’s wait and see what those models will deliver, but for now this is the best OLED TV.