Xiaomi S Mini 2025 vs LG OLED C6 (WOLED)

Since the Xiaomi S MiniLED boasts an impressive number of 308 dimming zones, it is time to test how it performs in HDR tests. Starting with luminance, or the ability to display bright scenes, the television achieved nearly 1000 nits of brightness – a result that can be considered outstanding in this class. Do these figures, however, translate to real experiences in film scenes? In the case of less demanding shots, such as those from the film The Meg, the television indeed showed excellent results, reaching up to 900 nits. Such values are impressive and can truly convey the power of HDR effects.

Unfortunately, much like with contrast, it wasn't without issues. When smaller, brighter elements appear on the screen – as in the challenging scenes from Sicario 2 – the aggressive operation of the dimming zones spoils the entire effect. Brightness in these moments drops to just 100 nits. This is definitely too little to capture the full magic of HDR. Instead of a dynamic and detailed image, the viewer receives a muted, almost flat impression, which takes away all the enjoyment from the viewing experience.

In summary, if we are looking for a television with high brightness for watching films during the day, the Xiaomi S MiniLED will easily fulfill that task. However, its inability to precisely manage the dimming zones means that watching films in the evening, especially in demanding HDR scenes, can be more frustrating than satisfying.

The HDR performance of the LG C6 is really very good. LG Display's new WOLED panel has primarily brought a considerable increase in brightness. In our unit we measured around 1,500 nits and, importantly, the TV can deliver similar values in many typical film scenes. That gives the HDR the necessary impact. Bright highlights, lamps and sunlight can be really intense, and most HDR films simply look very impressive. Of course it's still an OLED, so brightness falls in scenes with a lot of white. This is well illustrated by the fifth scene in the film The Meg, where the C6 reached around 600 to 700 nits. That's still a very good result, but it also shows that the new panel hasn't shed all the limitations typical of OLEDs.

Colours

When it comes to colours, there is also little to complain about. The C6 covers about 99% of the DCI-P3 gamut and roughly 75% of BT.2020. In practice the colours are very saturated and, importantly, stable across different scenes. This is 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 palette is nowadays offered mainly 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 film scenes.

Xiaomi, like many manufacturers, offers a wide range of picture modes. On the S MiniLED, we can find both IMAX Enhanced and Filmmaker. Our tests were conducted in Filmmaker mode, which theoretically aims to reflect a reference image, but the reality turned out to be somewhat different.

Let's start with the test of SDR content. Here, the television had quite a few issues, especially with white balance. The clearly visible dominance of red made the image look too warm, with all colours taking on a reddish hue. This was particularly noticeable in a comparative scene from the film Star Wars. The brightness characteristics (gamma) also left much to be desired – instead of a smooth transition, we had a real "rollercoaster," with a visible excessive brightening of the screen.

In 4K content, the situation improved significantly. The white balance, although still not perfect, was much more balanced, with a slight dominance of red and blue, but without excessive impact on the overall perception. The EOTF curve (responsible for brightness in HDR) showed some brightening in the brightest parts of the image, which was noticeable, for example, in the test scene from the film Pan that we described earlier. These brightening effects may disturb the precision of the image, but in 4K, the overall effect was much more acceptable than in SDR.

Although Xiaomi S MiniLED can pleasantly surprise with 4K content, its factory settings in SDR require solid adjustments, especially regarding white balance and brightness. This is definitely a television that would benefit from calibration.

Right out of the box the LG C6 is pretty well set up, especially if you choose Filmmaker mode. In SDR material the white balance is decent, although as brightness increases it starts to lack a bit of red. The picture becomes a little cooler as a result, but it’s not such a big difference that it stands out during normal viewing. More happens in the brightness response itself. Gamma is a bit low and instead of holding at 2.4 it sits closer to 2.1–2.2 over much of the range. 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 dark room. In HDR the situation is a bit more interesting. The start of the grayscale looks very good, but from about 20–30% brightness the white balance starts to drift more and more. As brightness rises there’s more red and a noticeable lack of blue. In the brightest highlights the difference is already significant and also affects reproduction of some colors. The EOTF curve itself is handled fairly well over most of the range. The C6 only has a tendency to slightly brighten the image, which we also saw during our film comparisons. The largest deviation appears around the brightest highlights, where the TV begins to adapt the signal to the panel’s capabilities. So the out-of-the-box Filmmaker mode in HDR isn’t perfect, but overall it performs well. The biggest room for improvement is the white balance, especially at high brightness.

Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 is a television that gains a completely new life after calibration. The results are truly outstanding and show how much potential is in this model.

In SDR mode, the white balance is nearly perfectly aligned. The errors are so minimal that in many cases they can be considered negligible. This is confirmed by the results of the Colour Checker palette, where the errors did not exceed a value of 2 ΔE – this is really a rare result. Gamma also performs very well, although at the beginning of the graph there are slight brightenings in the darkest elements. However, this is a minor exception that does not significantly affect the perception of the image.

In 4K HDR materials, the calibration also brought visible improvements, particularly in the white balance. The image looks natural and cohesive. However, the characteristic of brightness remains a problem. EOTF analysis in film materials shows that the television tends to over-brighten or under-darken the smallest elements on the screen. This is a result of limitations in the dimming algorithms we discussed earlier with HDR and contrast testing. Unfortunately, this is a technical characteristic of this model that cannot be completely eliminated.

Despite this minor flaw, the calibration allowed for maximising the capabilities of this television. The image now looks phenomenal, and its quality impresses in every type of material. Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 shows that with the right settings, it can compete with more expensive models.

LG TVs have been very receptive to calibration for years and the C6 is no exception. After adjustment the white balance was set almost perfectly, and most colour errors dropped to values below 3, often even around 2. In practice this means very accurate colour reproduction, both in SDR and HDR. An interesting quirk only appeared with the luminance response in HDR. On a standard EOTF chart everything looks almost ideal and at first glance it would be hard to criticise. Only when we measured the TV's behaviour with filters based on actual film scenes did it become clear that the C6 has a slight tendency to artificially boost image brightness.

This is not a huge difference and many people may even view it positively, because HDR consequently looks a little more striking. From the perspective of fidelity to the source material this is not ideal, however, as 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 stuck very closely to the reference picture characteristic after calibration. With the C6 we are still very close to the standard, but this subtle brightness boost is indeed noticeable in films and TV series.

When it comes to tonal transitions in lower quality materials, such as YouTube or television, the Xiaomi S MiniLED is equipped with a feature called "Colour Contour Removal." At the "low" setting, it performs quite well, although its effectiveness can be inconsistent. Sometimes it seems as though the television is struggling to smoothen, which creates a certain dissonance. On the positive side, we did not notice any visible side effects, although due to the instability of this feature, one could suspect that unexpected issues may arise in certain situations.

Image scaling also performs moderately. There is some slight jaggedness, particularly on thin elements like branches, and subtitles can appear slightly jagged. While this may not be very bothersome, a more discerning eye will certainly pick up on these shortcomings. Overall, most users should be satisfied with the quality of scaling and smoothing, but the television will not satisfy those who expect perfection in every frame of the image.

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

Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 is equipped with a panel featuring a refresh rate of 4K@120Hz (1080p@240Hz), which provides sufficient smoothness for both watching dynamic sports broadcasts and playing the latest games. This level of refresh rate makes the image appear fluid, even in the most intense scenes. Additionally, the television offers a “Motion Smoothing” feature that allows you to adjust the way the image is displayed in films. You can choose a more frame-like effect, typical of the cinematic experience, or a smoother one, reminiscent of the so-called “theatrical effect.” This way, every user can tailor the settings to their preferences and enjoy smooth images in their favourite content.

LG C6 received a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz, which is great news above all for gamers using a powerful PC. In films, sport or on consoles we will of course make use of up to 120 Hz, but even then it is hard to fault the motion clarity. As befits an OLED, the panel's response time is almost instantaneous. Moving objects therefore do not leave the characteristic smearing or trails that we can still see on LCD televisions. This is especially noticeable in sport and fast-paced games, where the picture remains very clean even during dynamic movement.

For films and television LG has also prepared the TruMotion motion smoothing system. In the user settings you will find two separate sliders. De-Judder primarily addresses low frame-rate content, that is mainly films and TV series at 24 fps. You can use it to slightly reduce the characteristic judder or set a higher value if you want a very smooth image. De-Blur is useful for higher frame-rate material, chiefly sports broadcasts and 50/60 fps television.

Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 is a television that has a lot to offer gamers. With two HDMI ports boasting 48 Gbps bandwidth, we can easily connect modern consoles or PCs, utilising their full potential. Additionally, the ALLM feature automatically switches the TV to low-latency mode – something we will appreciate during dynamic games without annoying lags. Regardless of what we connect, it functions smoothly, and the television handles various resolutions exceptionally well. There is also the GameBar, which may not look as impressive as the "bars" from the competition, but makes up for it with practicality. It is a simple settings panel that allows us to quickly change the most important options or check statistics – an ideal solution when time is of the essence.

However, we must admit that operating the television itself – or rather finding the gaming features within it – posed a significant challenge for us. We approached the testing of the Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 several times to locate all the necessary options. The hidden menu allowed us to discover the "GameBoost" feature, which enables switching the television to 240 Hz mode, activating VRR, and allows for enabling picture in HGIG mode.

In summary, the Xiaomi S MiniLED 2025 is a television that definitely deserves praise in the gaming hardware category. Its rich set of features – 240 Hz mode, VRR, HGIG, and "GameBoost" – provides an exceptional gaming experience. Unfortunately, the intuitiveness of the menu itself leaves much to be desired and may pose a challenge for the average user.

LG has long focused heavily on gamers, and the C6 really lacks nothing important. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz from consoles, and when connected to a PC it can run at up to 165 Hz. There is also VRR from 40 to 165 Hz, ALLM and a properly working HGiG. A big plus is support for Dolby Vision in games, so the Xbox Series X can use that format without giving up Game Mode. It's rounded off by a Game Bar, from which you can quickly check key signal parameters and change settings without leaving the game. In terms of features, the C6 is therefore one of those TVs that is really hard to fault. Whether you're gaming on a PlayStation, an Xbox or a PC, practically everything you could expect from a modern gaming TV is available here.