LG 65 Inch Class OLED evo C4: Is the Brightness Jump Actually Worth It?

LG 65 Inch Class OLED evo C4: Is the Brightness Jump Actually Worth It?

You're standing in a big-box retailer, staring at a wall of glowing rectangles. They all look great. But then you see the price tag on the LG 65 inch class OLED evo C4 and you wonder if that extra thousand bucks actually buys you a better movie night or just a fancier receipt. Honestly? It depends on how much you hate glare.

The C4 isn't just a minor spec bump. For years, the "C" series was the middle child of the LG lineup—reliable, loved, but always living in the shadow of the more expensive "G" series Gallery models. With the 2024/2025 cycle, things got weird. LG started pushing the "evo" branding harder, promising brightness levels that shouldn't be physically possible for a thin sheet of organic light-emitting diodes.

The Alpha 9 Gen 7 Brain

Most people focus on the glass. They're wrong. The real magic of the LG 65 inch class OLED evo C4 is the silicon tucked behind the panel. The Alpha 9 AI Processor Gen 7 is basically a tiny supercomputer dedicated to making sure skin tones don't look like plastic and that fast-moving footballs don't leave a ghost trail across your screen.

It handles "AI Super Upscaling." That sounds like marketing fluff, but if you've ever tried to watch a grainy 1080p stream of an old show on a 4K screen, you know it usually looks like hot garbage. The C4 uses spatial analysis to figure out what's noise and what's detail. It cleans up the mess without making everyone look like they’ve had too much Botox.

Why 144Hz Matters (Even If You Don't Game)

For a long time, 120Hz was the gold standard. It matched the output of the PS5 and Xbox Series X perfectly. But the LG 65 inch class OLED evo C4 pushed the ceiling to 144Hz.

If you're a PC gamer with an RTX 4090, this is your holy grail. It’s buttery. It’s instantaneous. Even if you just use it as a massive productivity monitor, the lack of input lag is startling. But there’s a secret benefit for non-gamers too: motion handling. Because the panel can refresh so fast, the "soap opera effect" (that weirdly smooth motion that makes movies look like daytime dramas) is easier to tune out. You get the cinematic 24fps look without the stuttering during panning shots that plagued older OLEDs.

The Brightness Battle: C4 vs. The World

Let's talk about the "evo" part. Early OLEDs were dim. If you had a window in your living room, you were basically looking at a very expensive black mirror during the day.

The C4 uses a redesigned Light Boosting Algorithm. It isn't just about cranking the backlight. Since OLEDs don't have a backlight, they have to manage heat. Pushing pixels too hard leads to burn-in. LG's engineers found a way to redirect energy to the brightest parts of the image—think a sun reflection on a car hood—without frying the panel. In real-world testing, like those performed by RTINGS or HDTVTest’s Vincent Teoh, the peak brightness on the C4 comfortably clears the 1,000-nit hurdle in HDR. That’s enough to make you squint in a dark room.

Small Details That Kill the Vibe

No TV is perfect. The C4 still uses a W-OLED (White OLED) structure rather than the QD-OLED (Quantum Dot) tech found in the high-end Samsungs or Sonys. What does that mean for you? Color volume.

At extreme brightness levels, colors on the LG 65 inch class OLED evo C4 can look slightly washed out compared to a QD-OLED. A vibrant red might lean a tiny bit toward pink when it’s blasted at full intensity. Most people won't notice. You’d need the two TVs side-by-side to see it. But if you’re a color purist who spends your weekends calibrating monitors, it’s a trade-off you should know about.

Also, webOS 24. LG's operating system is... busy. It’s fast, sure. But it’s loaded with "recommendations" that are basically just ads for streaming services you don't subscribe to. You can turn them off, but it takes a bit of menu diving.

Green Tech and Longevity

LG has been under a lot of pressure to prove these TVs last. They’ve added a "Brightness-Uniformity" check that runs in the background while the TV is off. It compensates for pixel wear. This makes the LG 65 inch class OLED evo C4 a much safer bet for longevity than the OLEDs of five years ago.

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Environmentally, the C4 is lighter than previous generations. They’re using a composite fiber material for the back housing instead of heavy plastics and metals. It makes the 65-inch model surprisingly easy to wall mount. You don't need a three-person crew to lift it anymore.

Gaming Performance: The "Cheat Code"

If you buy this TV, you have to try the Game Optimizer menu. It’s basically a dashboard that lets you see your actual frame rate and toggle VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) on the fly. It supports NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium.

There's a specific "Dark Room Mode" inside the gaming settings. It prevents eye strain by adjusting the black levels without crushing the detail. It’s the kind of niche feature that shows LG is actually listening to their users instead of just guessing what they want.

Sound Quality: Don't Trust the Box

The box says "9.1.2 Virtual Surround Sound."

Don't believe it.

The speakers are fine for the news or a sitcom, but they are physically too small to produce real bass. The down-firing setup tries to bounce sound off your TV stand to create a soundstage. It works okay, but if you’re spending this much on a LG 65 inch class OLED evo C4, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t pair it with a dedicated soundbar or a 5.1 system. Use the eARC port. That's what it's there for.

The Competition

Sony’s A80 series usually has slightly better "out of the box" color accuracy for movies. Samsung’s S90 series is often brighter because of the Quantum Dots. But the LG C4 is the "Goldilocks" TV. It does everything at a 9/10 level. It’s better for gaming than the Sony, and it has much better Dolby Vision support than the Samsung (which famously refuses to support the format).

Making the Decision

Buying a LG 65 inch class OLED evo C4 isn't about getting the absolute cheapest 65-inch TV. It's about buying into a mature technology. The C-series is the most refined OLED line on the planet.

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If you’re coming from an old LED TV, the "perfect blacks" will genuinely shock you. When the screen goes black in a movie, the room actually goes dark. There’s no glowing grey haze. That’s the real reason people buy these.

Practical Next Steps for New Owners:

  1. Disable "Energy Saving Step": LG ships these with energy-saving modes turned on to meet regulations. It kills the brightness. Go into Settings > General > Energy Saving and turn it off immediately to see what the "evo" panel can actually do.
  2. Check Your Cables: To hit 4K at 144Hz or even 120Hz, your old HDMI cables from 2018 won't cut it. You need Ultra High Speed (HDMI 2.1) certified cables.
  3. Update the Firmware: LG releases frequent patches for the Alpha 9 processor that specifically improve how the TV handles HDR tone mapping. Do this before your first big movie night.
  4. Use Filmmaker Mode: Stop using "Vivid." It makes people look like Oompa Loompas. Filmmaker Mode turns off all the unnecessary processing and shows the movie exactly how the director intended.