9.5 Design
Curved No
The design of the C7P is great, and stands out in any room. It has a similar style to the LG OLEDs of 2016, but with a different stand and some minor aesthetic improvements. Unlike the 2016 models, there are no curved options available in 2017. The top third of the screen is extremely thin, even compared to the relatively thin LG B6.
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Design
The stand is quite different from the 2016 OLED models, with a brushed metallic finish. It supports the TV well and feels sturdy, but is also small enough to fit on most tables.
Footprint of the 55" TV stand: 8.7" x 22.7"
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Design
Wall Mount VESA 300x200
The rear of the TV is similar to the B6. There is a removable cable management hook for guiding cables, but it isn't as good as the cable management on some other TVs such as the X930E. The controls are located on the rear of the TV similar to the E6. If wall-mounted, some of the inputs may be difficult to access.
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Design
Borders 0.43" (1.1 cm)
The borders of the TV are very thin, and look great.
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Design
Max Thickness 1.97" (5.0 cm)
The top of the TV is exceptionally thin when viewed at an angle, even compared to the 2016 OLEDs such as the B6. The max thickness measurement is taken at the thicker body of the TV, but it is still very thin. The cable management hook can be removed to sit flush against a wall.
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Design
Maximum Temperature
Average Temperature
The C7 only gets a little warm, and the heat is fairly even across the display because each pixel in an OLED produces its own light.
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9.0 Design
The build quality is great. The TV feels solid, although the top of the screen does feel a bit thin which can make it a bit more difficult to move.
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10 Picture Quality
Native Contrast
Contrast with local dimming
The LG C7 has a perfect contrast ratio, and like other LG OLED TVs, is a great performer when set in a dark room.
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LEARN ABOUT CONTRAST
10 Picture Quality
Local Dimming
Backlight
Since there is no need for local dimming on OLED TVs, this video is for reference only.
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LEARN ABOUT LOCAL DIMMING
7.9 Picture Quality
SDR Real Scene Peak Brightness
SDR Peak 2% Window
SDR Peak 10% Window
SDR Peak 25% Window
SDR Peak 50% Window
SDR Peak 100% Window
SDR Sustained 2% Window
SDR Sustained 10% Window
SDR Sustained 25% Window
SDR Sustained 50% Window
SDR Sustained 100% Window
SDR ABL
Good SDR peak brightness, a little brighter than the LG B6 and C6. The TV remains at a consistent ~380 cd/m2 for all content except extremely large and bright images like our 100% white window, which unfortunately dims quite significantly due to the TV's Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL). This means that almost all scenes in SDR content will have a good brightness, but extremely bright scenes may dim.
The TV dims over time when showing a static image, but this won't happen during video. A plot of SDR peak brightness over time can be found here.
Update 04/24/2017: ABL is less of an issue if the OLED light setting is set to 35 or less, where the fluctuations between scenes will only drop by 20 cd/m2 or less.
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LEARN ABOUT SDR PEAK BRIGHTNESS
7.7 Picture Quality
HDR Real Scene Peak Brightness
HDR Peak 2% Window
HDR Peak 10% Window
HDR Peak 25% Window
HDR Peak 50% Window
HDR Peak 100% Window
HDR Sustained 2% Window
HDR Sustained 10% Window
HDR Sustained 25% Window
HDR Sustained 50% Window
HDR Sustained 100% Window
HDR ABL
Good HDR peak brightness, a little brighter than the LG B6 and C6. Although the TV gets very dim when showing a pure white window due to its Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL), it is very bright when showing our real scene test, so most HDR content will be very bright. However the TV is unable to reach 1000 cd/m2 on small highlights like our 2% window, so small highlights in HDR content won't get as bright as intended.
The TV dims over time when showing a static image, but this won't happen during video. A plot of HDR peak brightness over time can be found here using the Cinema picture mode, and here using the Vivid picture mode. The TV is brighter when in Vivid mode, but colors aren't as accurate.
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LEARN ABOUT HDR PEAK BRIGHTNESS
8.5 Picture Quality
50% Std. Dev.
50% DSE
5% Std. Dev.
5% DSE
The overall gray uniformity of the C7 is good. There are some faint vertical lines visible when you look very closely and the right side is a bit warmer than the rest of the screen but it does not show when watching normal content. There is very little dirty screen effect which is good, especially when watching sport.
The 5% gray uniformity is also good, and when looking at our test picture, nothing really stands out. When viewed in a dark room, some vertical lines are visible, and it seems a bit worse than on the 2016 LG B6. Note that those vertical lines are mostly visible when a uniform dark image is displayed and it very hard to notice with regular content like movies or TV shows.
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LEARN ABOUT GRAY UNIFORMITY
8.1 Picture Quality
Color Shift
Brightness
Black Level
Great viewing angle. The true blacks of this OLED TV ensure that blacks never appear washed out even at an extreme angle, and the TV also remains very bright at all angles. Its weak point is its colors on an angle which do shift, however this should only be noticeable for people sitting at a significant angle to the TV.
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LEARN ABOUT VIEWING ANGLE
10 Picture Quality
Native Std. Dev.
Std. Dev. w/ L.D.
The C7 has flawless black uniformity when displaying a black image. This is due to the fact that the pixels are totally turned off and emit no light when displaying a true black. No clouding whatsoever occurs and this provides one of the best experiences that a TV can provide, especially when watching movies in a dark room.
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LEARN ABOUT BLACK UNIFORMITY
9.4 Picture Quality
Screen Finish
Total Reflections
Indirect Reflections
The C7 is excellent at handling reflections. The purple tint present on most high-end TVs is still visible, but much less so than the 2016 OLEDs. The reflections are fine even for a bright room.
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LEARN ABOUT REFLECTIONS
6.7 Picture Quality
Picture Mode
White Balance dE
Color dE
Gamma
Color Temperature
Out of the box the color accuracy of C7 is a bit off and this may be noticeable to enthusiasts. The white balance dE is over 4, which is pretty high and the image is warmer than our target of 6500K. The color dE is also high and only the yellow and green track the target closely. The gamma also doesn't track our 2.2 target.
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LEARN ABOUT PRE CALIBRATION
9.5 Picture Quality
Picture Mode
White Balance dE
Color dE
Gamma
Color Temperature
Calibration on the LG C7 is done pretty easily and the white balance is particularly responsive and precise. The color space management is a bit less responsive than the white balance, but that is almost always the case for LG TVs. Even if it is a bit less responsive, the total color dE was brought down significantly to a reasonable 1.22. In the end, the gamma was spot on our desired value of 2.2.
You can see our recommended settings here.
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LEARN ABOUT POST CALIBRATION
8.0 Picture Quality
Upscaling of low quality content is good. Some halo artifacts can be seen along lines but details are preserved.
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8.0 Picture Quality
720p content such as cable is upscaled well. Some moire can be seen in the image from the camera focus.
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9.0 Picture Quality
1080p content such as Blu-rays are upscaled well. Details look good and the image is sharp.
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10 Picture Quality
Native 4k content looks good on the C7. No issues can be seen.
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8.4 Picture Quality
Wide Color Gamut
DCI P3 xy
DCI P3 uv
Rec 2020 xy
Rec 2020 uv
Outstanding color gamut, similar to the B6 and C6 from last year. The TV can accurately show nearly any color in the P3 color space, even deep greens that many other TVs struggle with. The Rec 2020 color space is also well covered. Colors in HDR content will be well reproduced.
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LEARN ABOUT COLOR GAMUT
7.2 Picture Quality
Normalized DCI P3 Coverage ITP
10,000 cd/m² DCI P3 Coverage ITP
Normalized Rec 2020 Coverage ITP
10,000 cd/m² Rec 2020 Coverage ITP
Decent color volume. This OLED TV is able to show its wide color gamut for dark and moderately bright colors, but it is unable to show extremely bright colors at their proper brightness. This should only be a problem for extremely bright highlights in HDR content.
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LEARN ABOUT COLOR VOLUME
8.0 Picture Quality
Color Depth
Red (Std. Dev.)
Green (Std. Dev.)
Blue (Std. Dev.)
Gray (Std. Dev.)
The LG C7P can display our test image smoothly without any banding typically seen on 8-bit panels. Light shades of color are displayed without problems, however small imperfections can be noticed in the darker shades of color and the dark part of the greyscale. Overall though the gradient performance is good, and these small flaws should not be a problem when watching standard content.
Update 2017-11-07: Note that when the TV is set to 'PC' mode, via the input menu, the banding is much more visible, and this for all picture modes.
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7.3 Picture Quality
IR after 0 min recovery
IR after 2 min recovery
IR after 4 min recovery
IR after 6 min recovery
IR after 8 min recovery
IR after 10 min recovery
The C7P OLED TV is prone to image retention just like previous models. Fortunately, the image retention is less strong than what we have measured on 2016 LG OLED TVs.
If you find out that your TV has some image retention after playing video games over a long time for example, there is a function in the 'Picture settings' page, under 'OLED Panel Settings' named 'Pixel Refresher' that will 'recalibrate' the screen to get rid of any imprinted images that may still be visible. This procedure lasts around one hour and the TV needs to be shut off for it to work. This can usually take care of any image retention.
Another feature is also available on the same settings page named 'Screen Shift' that will 'move' the screen slightly (you can't really notice it) to make the image retention less problematic. For our test, this feature was turned on but there is still some image retention.
Note that there is a variation in temporary image retention between units.
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LEARN ABOUT TEMPORARY IMAGE RETENTION
1.0 Picture Quality
Permanent Burn-In Risk
OLED panels such as the C7 do have the possibility of experiencing burn in. You can see our investigation into this here.
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LEARN ABOUT PERMANENT BURN-IN RISK
Picture Quality
Type OLED
Sub-Type
Due to the RGBW pixel structure, not all of the sub-pixels on at the same time. When displaying a purple image more of the sub-pixels can be seen.
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10 Motion
80% Response Time
100% Response Time
Like other OLED TVs, the C7 has an almost perfect response time. This results in almost no visible blur following moving objects. Unfortunately this means that low frame rate content may appear to stutter as there is no motion blur to smooth between the frames.
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LEARN ABOUT RESPONSE TIME
10 Motion
Flicker-Free
PWM Dimming Frequency
The C7 doesn't flicker to dim and instead shows each image for each frame. This makes motion appear slightly more smooth, but does result in some persistence blur (visible in the motion blur image).
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LEARN ABOUT FLICKER-FREE
0 Motion
Optional BFI
Min Flicker for 60 fps
60 Hz for 60 fps
120 Hz for 120 fps
Min Flicker for 60 fps in Game Mode
The C7's OLED panel doesn't flicker, and has no optional flicker setting like the Sony A1E does; this means that flicker can't be added to make motion look clearer.
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LEARN ABOUT BLACK FRAME INSERTION (BFI)
10 Motion
Motion Interpolation (30 fps)
Motion Interpolation (60 fps)
The C7P has a 120 Hz panel and is able to interpolate lower frame rate content to 120 fps, which significantly improves motion. Unfortunately the interpolation is not as good as on some other TVs: the motion stuttered at times during normal content, especially cartoons, and artifacts would appear in rare cases.
To enable motion interpolation (also called the soap opera effect) set 'TruMotion' to 'User'. For a 30fps source increase 'De-Judder' and for a 60fps source increase 'De-Blur'.
Update 11/13/2017: The motion interpolation performance has been clarified in the text.
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LEARN ABOUT MOTION INTERPOLATION
4.4 Motion
Frame Hold Time @ 24 fps
Frame Hold Time @ 60 fps
The C7 experiences stutter, which is especially noticeable with low frame rate content. This is a result of the almost instant response time, so there is very little blur to smooth movement between frames.
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LEARN ABOUT STUTTER
10 Motion
Judder-Free 24p
Judder-Free 24p via 60p
Judder-Free 24p via 60i
Judder-Free 24p via Native Apps
The LG C7P is judder free when movies are played via 24p sources like DVDs, Blu-ray players, and native streaming apps. To be able to display 24p content without judder, the 'TruMotion' option must be set to 'User' and both the 'De-Judder' and 'De-Blur' sliders set to zero (when set to 0, no soap opera effect will be added).
When it come to movies playing via a 60p/60i source like cable boxes, the C7 was able to remove judder completely just by turning on the 'Real cinema' option.
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LEARN ABOUT 24P JUDDER
0 Motion
Native Refresh Rate
Variable Refresh Rate
4k VRR Maximum
4k VRR Minimum
1080p VRR Maximum
1080p VRR Minimum
VRR Supported Connectors
The LG C7 OLED has a native 120Hz panel like other 2017 OLED TVs, but doesn't support any variable refresh rate features.
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LEARN ABOUT VARIABLE REFRESH RATE
9.1 Inputs
1080p @ 60Hz
1080p @ 60Hz + HDR
1080p @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode
1080p @ 120Hz
4k @ 60Hz
4k @ 60Hz + HDR
4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4
4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4 + 8 bit HDR
4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode
4k With Interpolation
4k @ 120 Hz
4k with Variable Refresh Rate
1080p with Variable Refresh Rate
Very low input lag. When in game mode the input lag is a solid 21 ms regardless of input resolution. This should be good enough for all but the most competitive gamers. This input lag is lower than any of LG's 2016 OLEDs like the B6, and is competitive with some of the best TVs from last year like the KS8000.
Update 04/24/2017: Turning on PC mode on any of the picture modes will result in input lag of about 21ms. 1080p outside game mode has been corrected after being re-tested.
Update 08/14/2017: webOS update 3.6 fixed the PC mode HDR issue, so 4:4:4 color can now be properly displayed in HDR content. The 4:4:4 + HDR input lag has been measured as ~21 for both 4k and 1080p, which is no different from the other low input lag measurements.
Update 09/20/2017: Tested 1080p @ 120 Hz input lag using our new input lag tool. It's nearly identical to the 1080p @ 60 Hz input lag, which is very unusual. The first on screen reaction input lag of 1080p @ 120 Hz on this TV is 4 ms higher than for 1080p @ 60 Hz, which counteracts the benefits of the 8 ms faster scannout of 120 Hz, producing an average input lag that is equal to the 60 Hz input lag. This may be by design, to keep the audio sync consistent between both refresh rates. Either way, ~20 ms input lag is very good for a TV, and should please most gamers.
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LEARN ABOUT INPUT LAG
8.3 Inputs
Resolution 4k
1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4
1080p @ 120Hz
1440p @ 60Hz
4k @ 30Hz @ 4:4:4
4k @ 60Hz
4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4
4k @ 120Hz
All the common input resolutions are supported. For the TV to properly display 4:4:4 color, the HDMI input in use must have its icon changed to 'PC'. To play 4k @ 60 Hz @ 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 color, 'HDMI ULTRA HD Deep Color' in the general settings must be enabled for the input being used.
Update 05/31/2017: 1080p @ 120 Hz + HDR does not work properly. Its brightness appears to be following the SDR gamma curve rather than the HDR PQ curve, making everything look off and too bright.
Update 08/14/2017: webOS update 3.6 fixed the PC mode HDR issue, so 4:4:4 color can now be properly displayed in HDR content.
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Inputs
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Inputs
Unlike the 2016 OLEDs, the C7P doesn't have a component input.
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Inputs
HDMI 4
USB 3
Digital Optical Audio Out 1
Analog Audio Out 3.5mm 0
Analog Audio Out RCA 0
Component In 0
Composite In 1
Tuner (Cable/Ant) 1
Ethernet 1
DisplayPort 0
IR In 0
SD/SDHC 0
Unlike the 2016 OLEDs, the C7 doesn't have a component input.
Since it doesn't have an analog audio out, to connect a pair of headphones, you will have to either use bluetooth or headphones with a digital optical audio input like the Turtle Beach Elite 800.
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Inputs
HDR10
Dolby Vision
HLG
3D
5.1 Passthrough ARC Dolby Digital
5.1 Passthrough ARC DTS
5.1 Passthrough Optical Dolby Digital
5.1 Passthrough Optical DTS
HDMI 2.0 Full Bandwidth
HDMI 2.1 Full Bandwidth
ARC
USB 3.0
HDCP 2.2 Yes (HDMI 1,2,3,4)
CEC Yes
MHL No
Variable Analog Audio Out No
Wi-Fi Support Yes (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz)
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6.8 Sound Quality
Low-Frequency Extension
Std. Dev. @ 70
Std. Dev. @ 80
Std. Dev. @ Max
Max
Dynamic Range Compression
Passable frequency response performance. The C7 follows somewhat of a flat shape which is desired. A lot of compression occurs at max volume, but most people will not bring it up that high.
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LEARN ABOUT FREQUENCY RESPONSE
6.9 Sound Quality
Weighted THD @ 80
Weighted THD @ Max
IMD @ 80
IMD @ Max
Decent distortion performance. Remains relatively low at standard levels and the amount scales linearly with raising the volume.
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LEARN ABOUT DISTORTION
8.5 Smart Features
Smart OS WebOS
Version 3.5
Ease of Use
Smoothness
Time Taken to Select YouTube
Time Taken to Change Backlight
Advanced Options
The webOS interface is split into three sections: settings, inputs and apps. Each has its own button on the remote, a quick menu containing common items, and a full menu with advanced options. This makes the interface easy to use and fast to navigate, but the split nature may confuse some first time users.
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0 Smart Features
Ads
Opt-out
Suggested Content in Home
Opt-out of Suggested Content
The TV did not display ads during our testing, but there was a personalized advertising section of the user agreement so the TV may have ads in some regions.
Update 05/25/2017: Ads were found in voice search results, like the UJ7700's search ads shown here. It can be assumed that there are also ads in the LG Content Store like on other 2017 webOS TVs.
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LEARN ABOUT AD-FREE
8.0 Smart Features
App Selection
App Smoothness
Cast Capable
USB Drive Playback
USB Drive HDR Playback
HDR in Netflix
HDR in Amazon Video
HDR in YouTube
The C7 comes loaded with all the popular apps like Netflix, Amazon Video and YouTube. Many more apps can be downloaded from the LG Content Store.
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9.0 Smart Features
Size
Voice Control
CEC Menu Control
Other Smart Features
The C7's remote is great, and it's mostly unchanged from last year's smart remote. It has a lot of advanced features that make the TV easier to use. When the remote is pointed at the TV a cursor follows its movement, which allows the user to point at and select menu options directly. The cursor is very sensitive to movement and takes some getting used to, but it really helps when navigating the TV. The remote also has a microphone for voice commands, which works well.
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7.0 Smart Features
Acts as the Remote
Directly Launches Apps and Inputs
Inputs Text in YouTube
Inputs Text in Netflix
Streams Device Files
Controls TV Settings
Voice Control
The webOS remote app has some useful features like streaming files off the device running the app, but is missing some others like text entry.
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Smart Features
There is a simple joystick for navigating the TV without the remote. It's located on the back of the TV like the E6 and unlike the B6 and C6.
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Smart Features
- Manual
- Batteries
- Remote
- Composite adapter
Unlike the 2016 models, the C7 doesn't include a component adapter as it doesn't have a component input.
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Smart Features
Power Consumption 89 W
Power Consumption (Max) 159 W
Firmware 03.51.20
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