LG OLED G5 vs Panasonic W95B

LG G5 with the new Tandem OLED panel brings the biggest change specifically in terms of the brightness of the television. And it’s quite impressive. This is truly an astronomically bright OLED. In every tested scene – whether it’s point lights or full-screen whites from the movie The Meg – the brightness on the G5 exceeded 2000 nits. Just a year ago, such values on an OLED were simply unimaginable. And here we are – the G5 comes close, and at times even surpasses the best Mini-LEDs on the market. A new feature of the Tandem OLED panel is the expanded color gamut coverage – and here the LG G5 performs almost perfectly. DCI-P3 achieves a full 100%, while BT.2020 maintains around 83%. These are some of the highest values currently available on the market – it’s hard to find any other television that comes close to such results, unless we are talking about the best displays with QD-OLED panels. The G5 has nearly reference-quality HDR – both in terms of brightness and color saturation. This is an OLED that can truly shine – and not just figuratively.

The Panasonic W95B is truly a bright screen, capable of achieving peak luminance levels of around 1400 nits. In brighter, well-lit movie scenes, this value translates into spectacular HDR effects that can leave a big impression. However, knowing our test setup, you probably see that in very demanding shots – such as the distant moon or helicopter lights in a scene from Sicario 2 – the TV does not impress. In such situations, brightness drops to around 200 nits, making the HDR effect much less visible. This happens because Panasonic prioritizes maintaining deep black levels without lighting up the background – for many users, this shouldn't be a cause for concern. However, it's important to remember that in these moments, the image starts to resemble SDR content. The coverage of the color palette also deserves praise, as it reaches about 93% of the DCI-P3 color space thanks to the use of the PFS filter (also known from QLED technology). As a result, most movies look very good in terms of saturation and colors, maintaining a cinematic quality of the image.

Our test unit LG G5 struggled with some issues in the factory Filmmaker mode. And while the image might have seemed fine to most people, we knew that this TV was capable of much more. This mode had a clear excess blue tint in the white balance, resulting in a strong cooling of the image – particularly in HDR modes, where there was also a lack of red. The picture seemed cold, and its sharpness was artificially boosted and unnatural. Another significant issue was the brightness characteristic. In SDR content, the situation wasn't the worst, aside from a slight dimming of the entire image. However, it performed much worse in HDR materials – due to improper brightness management, the smallest details could completely disappear from the image, and larger, bright elements appeared overexposed and lacking gradation. Luckily, the G5 supports calibration using 3D LUT (a tool for professionals to calibrate colors), so we decided to take advantage of its professional background and see what it was really capable of. Because while it wasn't terrible even before calibration, the potential of this TV definitely deserved more.

In Filmmaker mode, the Panasonic W95B offers an image with quite accurate color reproduction, although it is not without minor imperfections. The white balance slightly leans towards red, which can cause a subtle warming of the image, and the gamma curve is slightly elevated, making the screen appear somewhat brightened. It’s good that the manufacturer has included this mode – even in its factory configuration, it provides a fairly natural look for movies. However, knowing how susceptible Panasonic televisions are to calibration, we decided to check how much the image could improve after professional tuning.

After completing the calibration process using professional tools, we can confidently state that the LG G5 offers nearly reference-quality image. Most of the errors related to white balance and the ColorChecker test are below the value of 2, which is a phenomenal result, practically imperceptible to the human eye. And while one could still criticize that in HDR films the television tends to slightly dim the smallest elements of the image, in practice, this does not negatively affect the overall impression. Hats off to LG, because once again they provide the user with enormous possibilities for adjusting their display – and this, combined with very good parameters of the panel itself, results in an image that is truly hard to surpass.

After professional calibration, the Panasonic W95B shows what it is really capable of. Color errors have mostly dropped below 2–3, making them practically invisible to the human eye. The excess red in the white balance has also been corrected, which has eliminated the slight pink tint, and details in dark areas no longer get lost due to overly strong dimming in the gamma. Improvements are also noticeable in HDR content – color saturation is now more stable and does not veer towards blue as clearly as before. It is truly a great television for watching movies and series in the highest possible quality. Although we know that Mini LED screens are not always perfectly suited for this, the W95B is an excellent example that with proper refinement, an OLED-like effect can be achieved.

Upscaling and digital image processing in the LG G5 perform very well. The television handles lower quality content exceptionally, especially when the "Smooth Gradation" feature is set to a low level. In this mode, it effectively removes unwanted artifacts and issues with visible tonal transitions. It may also slightly smooth out some desired details, such as the subtle texture of clothing or skin, but importantly – it does not remove film grain, so it’s hard to say there’s a serious compromise here. It’s one of those options that’s definitely worth enabling.

The G5 also does well with upscaling, which is improving the quality of older materials. The test image with the model looked really solid – slight edging was visible, but that’s an effect that can’t be completely avoided. Additionally, there were no issues with overscan, which – contrary to appearances – is not obvious, even in 2025.

In terms of image processing, the Panasonic W95B performs excellently. The proprietary processor responsible for digital image processing effectively upscales lower-resolution content to 4K, preserving a great amount of detail and a natural appearance of contours. The final effect is impressive – the upscaling is at a truly high level, and Full HD content can look surprisingly good. The way the television smooths tonal transitions in low-quality materials is also worth noting. The algorithm does not operate as aggressively as in some competing models, but as a result, it does not cause loss of detail or blurring of film grain.

The motion fluidity on the LG G5 is simply phenomenal. The TV is equipped with a 165 Hz refresh rate panel, and this combined with the instantaneous response time of the OLED matrix delivers incredible results. The picture doesn’t stutter or smear like on classic LCD TVs. Like most LG models, the G5 features a motion smoother, which can be useful when watching movies – of course, we're talking about the TruMotion mode. With the “De-Blur” and “De-Judder” sliders, we can adjust the smoothness of older material according to our preferences, whether we want to preserve the characteristic film stutter or move towards a more fluid, television-like effect.

The 144 Hz panel used in the Panasonic W95B offers excellent smoothness, although in practice, considering how television content looks or the values to which next-generation consoles are limited, it's worth looking at its behavior when refreshing at 120 Hz. In this mode, the TV performs wonderfully – despite it being a VA panel, which is not known for the fastest pixel response times, motion blur here is minimal and difficult to detect with the naked eye.

Features for gamers? Perfect. That should be enough for you to know what level we are dealing with here. G5 is a television designed with gamers in mind, so we find literally everything one can expect from a gaming screen. There is Game Bar, support for high resolutions with high refresh rates – that is, 4K at 120 Hz, and even more, because the panel has a refresh rate of 165 Hz (which PC gamers will benefit from). The television supports variable refresh rates (VRR), automatic low latency mode (ALLM), and correctly supports HDR in games thanks to HGiG. All of this adds up to one of the best sets of gaming features available on the market. Well done, LG.

Aside from the previously mentioned drawback related to the VRR mode, in which local dimming does not work, the Panasonic W95B is a true gaming monster. The television offers practically everything gamers can expect – except for four HDMI 2.1 ports, as there are only two available. On board, we find an auto low latency mode (ALLM), properly implemented HDR modes for gamers, including HGiG, as well as support for Dolby Vision in games. This is complemented by an interestingly designed Game Bar, presented in the form of circles. While it may not be the most visually appealing, it serves its purpose – allowing a quick glance at key game parameters and adjusting settings without entering the system menu.