LG B6 OLED Review

The B series exists to put a real OLED under a number people will say out loud, and the B6 does that job the way the B4 and B5 did before it. Blacks are absolute because there is no backlight to leak, nothing blooms around the subtitles, the far end of the sofa sees the same picture as the middle, and all four HDMI ports take 120Hz with variable refresh, which is more than the entry sets from Samsung and Sony give you at this money.

What LG withholds is brightness and processing. The panel is a generation behind the ones in the C6 and G6 above it, so HDR highlights are visibly softer and a room with the curtains open will beat it. The processor is a tier down too, and that shows in upscaling: a cable channel or an old DVD carries more noise here than on the C6, and fast pans hold together slightly less well.

None of that is new and none of it is really the problem. The problem is arithmetic. At $1,599 for the 65 inch this launches close enough to a C5 that has had a year of discounts that the older, brighter, better processed television is the one to carry home, and LG surely knows it. Give the B6 six months of markdowns and the recommendation flips back to it. At list price it is the right idea at the wrong moment.