LG OLED C6 (WOLED) vs Philips PQS9011 / PQS9001 (The One 2026)

The HDR performance of the LG C6 is really very good. LG Display’s new WOLED panel has mainly brought a significant increase in brightness. In our unit we measured around 1500 nits and, importantly, the TV can show similar values in many normal movie scenes as well. That gives HDR real punch. Bright highlights, lamps and sunlight can be genuinely intense, and most HDR movies simply look very impressive. Of course it’s still an OLED, so brightness falls in scenes with a lot of white. The fifth scene from the movie The Meg illustrates this well, where the C6 reached around 600 to 700 nits. That’s still a very good result, but it also shows the new panel hasn’t shed all the limitations typical of OLEDs.

Colours

When it comes to colours, it’s also hard to raise major objections. The C6 covers about 99% of the DCI-P3 gamut and roughly 75% of BT.2020. In practice colours are very saturated and, importantly, stable regardless of the scene. That’s worth emphasising, because not every TV behaves the same in this respect. In some RGB Mini LED models colour saturation can depend more strongly on image brightness. A wider colour gamut today is mainly offered by QD-OLED TVs and new SQD models with a new generation of quantum dots. However, the C6 still performs very strongly here and is able to produce suitably saturated colours in most movie scenes.

The Philips PQS9000 is a moderately bright TV — in our HDR scenes it reached roughly 450 to just over 500 nits. That’s enough to notice a difference compared with SDR. Sun reflections, lamps or flares have a bit more punch than on basic TVs, whose brightness often tops out around 300 nits. It’s not, however, a level where bright elements look especially striking. The biggest limitation remains contrast. Without local dimming, brightening a bright object also lifts the black level around it. So there’s no clear separation between strong highlights and a dark background, and it’s that kind of pairing that really shows what HDR can do. The PQS9000 offers more than the cheapest models, but despite decent brightness the effect remains fairly basic.

Colours

Philips deserves praise for the colours. Although the manufacturer markets this model as QLED, it actually uses a PFS phosphor instead of quantum dots. The solution itself doesn’t prevent good results. On test patterns and in measurements of film scenes we recorded about 94% DCI-P3 coverage and 75% BT.2020. For this class of TV that’s really good. In practice this means the vast majority of colours used in HDR films and series will have appropriate saturation. Lush greens or intense reds aren’t a problem and add appeal to the picture. Limitations are easier to notice in some games and rarer content that use the most saturated shades of the wide BT.2020 gamut. In those situations, displays with wider colour coverage, such as SQD or RGB LED, can show more. At its price point the PQS9000 has nothing to be ashamed of.

Right out of the box the LG C6 is quite well set up, especially if you choose the Filmmaker mode. In SDR material the white balance is decent, although as brightness increases there is a slight lack of red. The image becomes a bit cooler, but not enough for it to be very noticeable during normal viewing. More is happening in the brightness characteristic. Gamma is a little low and instead of holding at 2.4, for a large part of the range it sits closer to 2.1–2.2. In practice the C6 slightly brightens midtones. Shadows are therefore more readable, but the image loses some depth compared with how it should look in a darkened room.

In HDR the situation is a bit more interesting. The start of the greyscale looks very good, but from about 20–30% brightness the white balance starts to drift increasingly. As brightness rises there is more red and a noticeable lack of blue. In the brightest sections the difference is already significant and also affects the reproduction of some colours. The EOTF curve itself is followed quite well through most of the range. The C6 only tends to slightly brighten the image, which we also saw in our film comparisons. The largest deviation appears around the brightest parts, where the TV starts adapting the signal to the panel's capabilities.

The factory Filmmaker setting in HDR is therefore not perfect, but overall performs well. The biggest area for improvement is the white balance, especially at high brightness.

The factory picture settings for Movie mode on the PQS9000 unfortunately need tweaking. In SDR the biggest problem is an excess of red in the white balance, which makes whites, greys and skin tones too warm, in places even slightly pink. Gamma runs below the reference across most of the range. The TV therefore brightens midtones and highlights, making the image look flatter than it should.

In HDR the white balance itself performs significantly better. Apart from minor deviations the components sit close together, so there isn’t the same obvious tint as in SDR. The EOTF curve, however, shows a slight brightening of parts of the image, and the biggest issue appears when measuring the wide colour gamut. Many shades deviate substantially from the target, with errors reaching ΔE 8–9. The good gamut coverage we praised earlier therefore doesn’t mean the TV hits specific colours accurately. It can display a wide range of colours, but out of the box it doesn’t use that range very precisely.

LG TVs have long responded very well to calibration, and the C6 is no exception. After adjustments we managed to set the white balance practically perfectly, and most colour errors fell below 3, often down to around 2. In practice this means very accurate colour reproduction in both SDR and HDR. An interesting detail only appeared with the HDR brightness response. On a classic EOTF chart everything looks almost perfect and at first glance it would be hard to find fault. Only when we measured the TV’s behaviour using filters based on real film scenes did it become clear that the C6 has a slight tendency to artificially boost image brightness.

It’s not a huge difference and many viewers may even see it as a positive, because HDR looks a bit more striking as a result. From the point of view of fidelity to the source material, however, it’s not ideal — some scenes are simply a touch brighter than the filmmaker intended. Interestingly, this is rather unusual for LG. In previous generations the brand’s TVs typically held very closely to the reference picture curve after calibration. The C6 is still very close to the standard, but that subtle brightness 'boost' can indeed be noticed in films and TV series.

Calibration brought a big improvement, especially with SDR content. We managed to even out the white balance and remove the earlier colour cast, and the Color Checker measurements now look very good. Colours are much closer to what they should be on screen, so with regular TV or SDR movies we can be happy with the result. Unfortunately HDR spoils that a bit. On the one hand it's limited by the panel itself, because calibration won't improve contrast or replace local dimming. On the other hand there are colour errors we couldn't correct because the CMS settings, i.e. colour management, were greyed out and inactive. That loses Philips points with us. The white balance can be fine-tuned, but without access to wide gamut controls you can't as effectively sort out colours in HDR. It's a shame, because the SDR results show the potential is there, but we weren't allowed to fully make use of it everywhere.

Here the LG C6 has taken a really big step forward. The TV uses the same processor found in the flagship G6, and in terms of image processing the two models are very close. That's a big plus, because in this area LG's processor this year performs excellently. The "Smooth Gradation" function works particularly well. With heavily compressed material it can effectively hide ugly tonal banding and artefacts that often appear, for example, in lower-quality streaming. It's best to leave it on the "Low" setting. Then the improvement is clear, and the TV doesn't yet start blurring fine detail. Higher levels smooth the image more aggressively, but can already remove some of the natural texture of objects on screen. Upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution content is properly sharpened, edges look clean, and the processor quite effectively reconstructs fine details. In that respect the C6 is really close to LG's best TVs and the differences compared with the G6 are small.

Digital image processing on the Philips PQS9000 performs well, although we have a few reservations. The "Distortion Reduction" function helps smooth tonal transitions in lower-quality sources, but it works rather unevenly. It can improve one part of the picture, only to, moments later and still within the same scene, lose its way and show banding between shades again. On the plus side, it doesn't strip away film grain or fine noise, so the image retains its texture. We found the "Medium" setting worked best and that's the one we recommend.

The upscaling to 4K itself is adequate, though the image is very soft. Edges are heavily smoothed, which may leave some viewers wanting more clarity. In that case, it's worth slightly increasing the sharpness in the TV menu, as this will help emphasise edges more. Don't overdo the sharpness slider, though, or you'll get artificial halos instead of an improvement.

The LG C6 features a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz, which is great news especially for gamers using a powerful PC. For movies, sport and consoles we’ll of course be limited to 120 Hz at most, but even then it’s hard to fault the motion clarity. As you’d expect from an OLED, the panel’s response time is near-instant. Moving objects therefore don’t leave the characteristic smearing you still see on LCD TVs. This is especially noticeable in sport and fast-paced games, where the picture remains very clean even during dynamic movement.

For movies and TV, LG has also included a motion smoothing system called TruMotion. In the user settings you’ll find two separate sliders. De-Judder is primarily for low-frame-rate material, namely movies and TV series at 24 fps. You can use it to slightly reduce the characteristic judder or increase it if you prefer a much smoother picture. De-Blur, on the other hand, is useful for higher-frame-rate content, mainly sports broadcasts and 50/60 fps TV.

In terms of motion handling the Philips PQS9000 performs exceptionally well for an LCD TV. It's not just about the 144 Hz refresh rate, but above all how quickly the panel itself responds. At 120 Hz you can hardly see the typical trailing smears behind moving objects. What's particularly pleasing is that this also applies to darker backgrounds, where many VA panels clearly struggle. Here motion remains clear, and in this respect Philips has pleasantly surprised us.

The "Motion Styles" feature is used to adjust how motion is displayed. It includes two sliders: "Smoothness" and "Blur Reduction", allowing you to tailor the effect to the material you're watching and your personal preferences. Our suggested settings are shown in the photo. Treat them as a starting point and see which level of smoothing suits you best.

LG has long focused heavily on gamers, and the C6 essentially lacks nothing important. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz from consoles, and when connected to a PC it can even run at 165 Hz. On top of that there’s VRR from 40 to 165 Hz, ALLM and a properly functioning HGiG. Another big plus is support for Dolby Vision in games, so the Xbox Series X can use that format without giving up game mode. The package is rounded out by the Game Bar, which lets you quickly check key signal parameters and change settings without leaving your game. In terms of features alone, the C6 is one of those TVs it’s really hard to fault. Whether you play on PlayStation, Xbox or PC, practically everything you could expect from a modern gaming TV is available here.

Features for gamers

In terms of gaming features the Philips PQS9000 has a lot to offer. Four HDMI 2.1 ports let you connect multiple devices without having to choose which one gets the full capabilities. Consoles can use 120 Hz at Full HD, 1440p and 4K, and a PC can also run 144 Hz at 4K or 240 Hz if you drop to Full HD. There's also VRR, which matches the refresh rate to the frame rate and prevents screen tearing. Its range runs from 48 to 240 Hz, with the upper limit applying to Full HD mode.

It also includes ALLM, so the TV switches itself into game mode, and a properly working HGiG, which is handy when setting HDR on the console. There's a Game Bar for quick access to settings and signal information. The list even includes Dolby Vision gaming, but it's hard to enjoy because of very high input lag. Apart from that caveat, the feature set is really solid.