LG OLED G4 vs TCL C8K

LG G4 guarantees an incredibly vibrant HDR effect, placing the television firmly at the top of the rankings. The highest model in the manufacturer's 2024 portfolio, equipped with the second generation of microlens technology (MLA), has achieved a maximum brightness level of 1474 nits in real scenes. The only area where the product of the Korean manufacturer may fall short compared to LCD televisions with Mini LED backlighting is during a full-screen scene featuring a lot of white. If we were to disregard the latter scene, the average result would be even higher. It's also worth mentioning scenes with very fine details, where each one shone at full intensity, which is not as evident in non-OLED televisions. The combination of such brightness and wide coverage of the DCI-P3 color space ensures that HDR materials are more engaging than ever before.

TCL C8K is a really bright television. In synthetic conditions – that is, during tests with brightness charts – it was able to achieve even 3500 nits peak brightness in movie mode. That's an impressive result and brings the C8K close to the market leaders, at least when it comes to panel brightness. More importantly – these aren't just numbers on paper. In films with a lot of bright scenes, such as Life of Pi or The Meg, the brightness clearly exceeds 1000 nits, providing a true sense of HDR effect. The picture in those moments looks very dynamic, colors are saturated thanks to excellent coverage of the color palette, and the lights are – spot on and intense. Exactly how it should be.

However, this doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. Just like in contrast tests, here too, in more demanding scenes, compromises appear. In sequences with very fine light elements – such as stars in the night sky or reflections in dark rooms – the local dimming algorithm can… get confused. Instead of bringing those details up, the television sometimes decides to dim them significantly – down to around 300 nits – to maintain deep blacks. On one hand, this is quite a sensible approach (better deep black than a grey/navy blue screen), but on the other – there may be moments when certain elements of the picture become difficult to see or even disappear into darkness.

TEST UPDATE (20/08/2025): The brightness control algorithm in this model is quite problematic – attempting to calibrate the picture so that it doesn’t drastically overexpose the brightest scenes results in unnatural shifts: improvement in one part of the image results in deterioration in another. The television may achieve slightly higher readings in brightness measurements, but in practice, this comes with a heavily overexposed image that looks very unnatural!

For the record, we provide brightness values without this adjustment:

1. 1463 nits

2. 640 nits

3. 1368 nits

4. 468 nits

5. 1025 nits

The best factory mode in terms of colour reproduction was "Filmmaker". This is the one we used during our tests. Let's check how its characteristics looked before the calibration process. Taking a closer look at the white balance first, we can notice a significant dominance of red and green colour. As a result, the image had a warm yellow tint. This is the kind of characteristic we usually observe in "Cinema", "Filmmaker", or similarly named modes. The effect of such a colour balance was clearly visible in both SDR and HDR content, which, after switching from "Standard" mode, was distinctly yellowed. Now let's move on to two graphs that are responsible for brightness characteristics, and consequently, image contrast. The first one (Gamma), representing materials with a standard colour palette, performed decently. For most of the time, the midtones and bright whites were represented very accurately, however, it noticeably lost the darkest details which blended into a black patch. On the other hand, HDR materials, represented by the EOTF curve graph, exhibited a significant drop in contrast due to a strong boost in brightness. There was also an issue with the colours themselves as seen on the "ColorChecker" graph since they were noticeably undersaturated.

In the C8K, a new picture mode has appeared: Filmmaker Mode. This is something we've known for years from televisions of other brands – a mode designed to deliver the director's vision as faithfully as possible, without unnecessary image enhancements. Unfortunately, at TCL, it seems to still be in the "to be refined" stage. Right from the first glance, the screen appears too warm – the image veers into reds, which may not appeal to everyone. The white balance was markedly skewed – the screen looked distinctly warm, and the red colour dominated almost every scene. There was a lack of blue, which led to an unpleasant yellowing and distortion of the image. But that’s not all. Regardless of whether we were watching regular TV, YouTube, or HDR films – the television had a clear tendency to excessively brighten the image. In tests of gamma curves and EOTF, the lines strayed instead of adhering to the standard, resulting in an overly bright and less contrasting image. Additionally, in colour reproduction tests, significant deviations were noticeable – on the colour wheel, some points were actually "drifting away." It must be said plainly: Filmmaker Mode in the C8K, in its current form, is not very cinematic.

The manufacturer has been implementing extensive support for the calibration process in their LG televisions for many years. Therefore, we used 2- and 20-point grey scale adjustments along with an advanced CMS (Color Management System) and got to work. As you can see, thanks to the procedure carried out, each of the parameters has significantly improved. The use of tools has resulted in extremely beneficial effects, which include: studio colour reproduction, recovery of details in dark areas of the image, appropriate brightness characteristics, and proper colour saturation. Thus, we have maximised our approach to the reference image, or the one that the film director saw on the preview monitor. It is worth noting that the LG G4 televisions are the only ones that allow for even deeper intervention in image quality due to the capability to calibrate with 3D LUT matrices. However, this solution is recommended only for post-production or graphic studios.

After professional calibration, the TCL C8K has made a huge leap forward. In SDR content, the white balance has been almost perfectly set – the screen has finally stopped being too warm and has taken on a neutral character. The gamma curve, which is responsible for how brightness is represented, now looks very good – the image is more coherent and realistic. In HDR content, we also improved the white balance – within the limits of what the television itself allows. Unfortunately, the C8K still interprets brightness management a bit "in its own way." When we look at the EOTF chart in films, it’s clear that the television brightens entire scenes more than it should. Before calibration, this effect was quite bothersome – now the situation is much better, although it still falls a bit short of perfection. This, however, is a limitation of the device itself, which – despite our efforts – does not allow us to fully tame its nature.

The tested television did not perform well with content rich in tonal transitions, resulting in a strong posterisation effect. However, there is a partial remedy for this ailment. The manufacturer has equipped the LG G4 with a smoothing system called "Gentle Gradation," which we can apply at three levels: Low, Medium, and High. Each of these options guarantees quite high smoothing effectiveness on bright colours, though low on darker ones. We recommend primarily using the first one due to the fact that the other two interfere with directorial intentions, removing film grain.

When watching lower-quality content, the efficiency of the television during upscaling is extremely important. The image from the tested television is sharp and clear. However, attention should be paid to the jagged edges of fine details and minor issues around characters, such as the creation of a halo effect, which occurs due to the sharpening imposed by the LG G4 even when the slider is set to the lowest value, which is 0. It is worth noting that this is a change in relation to the LG G3, which did not impose such strong image sharpening, even when the appropriate slider was set to position 0.

How does the TCL C8K handle lower quality materials? One could say: fairly well, though without much enthusiasm. The television offers a tonal transition enhancement feature designed to smooth out unwanted gradients. In practice, there's a slight improvement visible, but it's not at a level that eliminates all imperfections. The feature subtly softens harsh transitions, but it doesn't work miracles. Film grain isn't completely suppressed, and subtle banding on grey backgrounds can still be noticeable. But maybe that's for the best? – at least the image doesn't lose its texture or depth, as is often the case with televisions that overdo digital processing. When it comes to upscaling, which is enhancing picture quality from lower resolutions, the C8K performs quite well. The image is sharp, and details – though sometimes a bit softened – remain discernible. However, it's not on par with the best picture processors from the competition. On the plus side, there's no issues with overscan, which is the artificial cropping of the image that can still surprise in some models from other brands.

The maximum refresh rate that we can set on the LG G4 is 144 Hz. Naturally, this is only possible by connecting the LG G4 to a very powerful PC. Otherwise, we will be operating at a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, which is recommended if we primarily want to watch sports or content with high motion dynamics. For those who require high fluidity of image, the manufacturer has implemented a multi-level motion smoother called "TrueMotion". It has been divided into two separate sliders that adjust the sharpness of moving images (De-Blur) and judder (De-Judder). Both sliders can be set in the range from 0 to 10, with each increment affecting the degree of smoothing, so everyone can find their sweet spot.

The LG OLED G4 panel features an average response time of 0.78 ms (which directly results from our measurements), allowing for an incredibly clear image, unattainable by LCD televisions, which have response times of even several milliseconds. This is clearly visible in the "UFO Test" images, showing the absence of any trailing blur behind the object. Furthermore, the LG OLED G4 test showed that the television offers the ability to precisely adjust motion smoothing functionality, allowing users to choose the ideal level of image interpolation. We particularly appreciated this during fast-paced action in video games, where the LG G4 performed exceptionally well, minimising any blurriness. Thanks to OLED technology, this model eliminates so-called ghosting, ensuring that the image remains sharp even in the most dynamic sports or movie scenes.

If you're planning a weekend with the Champions League or a marathon of F1 racing – the TCL C8K won't let you down. The television is equipped with a 144 Hz panel, so it should inherently handle fast motion well. And indeed – it performs very well. The fluidity of motion is at a very good level here, and the "Motion Clarity" feature with two sliders (blur reduction and flicker reduction) allows you to easily adjust the effect to your own preferences. Want to slightly smooth things out – no worries. Prefer a cinematic look – no problem.

The LG G4 television supports all features that make up the HDMI 2.1 standard. During testing, each feature activated without any issues, which allows us to consider the television as designed for gaming. Its performance will certainly be appreciated by both console users and those connecting the LG G4 to a computer. It’s also worth mentioning the proper implementation of the HGIG (HDR Gaming Interest Group) mode, which ensures that games mastered to brightness levels beyond the maximum luminance of the LG G4 will correctly map tones, keeping the game image true to the original.

A nice touch is the presence of a special GameBar that we can bring up at any moment to check game parameters, but most importantly, to change them quickly. More importantly, turning on VRR technology does not degrade contrast, which is often a problem in televisions with local dimming or Mini LED backlighting. Of course, this is thanks to the OLED panel itself, characterised by pixel self-emissiveness. As a journalistic note, we will only mention a slight grey flicker, which, however, is somewhat normal when VRR is enabled.

In summary, the LG G4, like practically all OLED televisions, is an ideal product for all kinds of gaming and online competitions. With full HDMI 2.1 ports with a complete bandwidth of 48 Gbit, features such as VRR, ALLM, G-Sync, FreeSync, or HDR Dolby Vision gameplay will bring a lot of joy.

TCL C8K offers practically everything we could expect from a screen for gamers. It has variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic game mode (ALLM), Dolby Vision in games, and a well-functioning implementation of HGiG, which helps preserve the creators' intent in HDR titles. The TV also supports 120 Hz in lower resolutions without any problems, and it can even display a staggering 288 Hz in Full HD – a figure that will surely appeal to fans of dynamic shooters and sports games on PC.

On board, we also find the GameBar – a graphical interface that somewhat resembles an elongated Nintendo Switch console. Thanks to this, we gain quick access to information about the current game mode, frame count, HDR format, and other little details that really make life easier for the gamer. We obviously couldn’t resist and ran a couple of races in Forza Horizon on the C8K – and we must admit, it looked and worked really well.

However, there is a slight drawback – in such a fast and clearly gaming-oriented device, it's a bit unfortunate that the manufacturer opted for the implementation of only two HDMI 2.1 ports. For some users, who use several next-gen consoles and, for example, a soundbar with eARC, this could be a limitation that’s hard to overcome.