The OLED TV I want to buy in 2025 is last year’s LG C4 – here’s why
The launch of the LG C5 has got me excited, but not because I want to buy it. Don’t get me wrong, it looks like it’ll be an amazing TV. But its arrival means that for a little while at least, I should be able to get the LG C4 for a lot less money. And that’s a big deal for me because while I love really great TVs, I don’t have the budget for the absolute latest and greatest.
Here’s why I think the LG C4 is going to be the 2025 TV for me.
4 reasons to love the LG C4
There are four key reasons why I want the C4. The first and most obvious reason is that I want an OLED, and when it comes to OLEDs my esteemed colleagues reckon that the LG C4 is the best OLED TV for most people.
Why OLED? Because as much as I love the ridiculous brightness of my current TV, a Samsung QN94A mini-LED, i’m more drawn to the darkness. And as good as Samsung’s Neo QLED displays are, they just don’t go as dark as OLEDs do, especially these early models. I’ve found it really noticeable in shows such as The Penguin and Silo, where a lot of the scenes are set in dark environments that really test the TV’s contrast.
The second reason is that as much as I love the darkness, I still want to see things on screen. And that’s another key area where the C4 delivers. As we noted in our LG C4 review, its Brightness Booster really works; it’s significantly better than the LG C3 was, and while the LG C5 will be brighter still – we expect that it’ll be about 20% brighter than the C4 for HDR peaks, based on what we know of the Philips OLED810 that all-but certainly uses the same panel – the C4 should still be bright enough while giving me that better contrast.
The third reason is because I’m a gamer, with both Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. There’s only one HDMI 2.1 on my current TV, compared to four on the C4 – and my current TV lacks the game-friendly features that gained the LG C4 the full five stars for its gaming performance. (And while more TVs will get four HDMI 2.1 ports this year, it might not be the TVs you’d expect.)
And the fourth is the price, which I hope is about to drop… further.
How low could the LG C4 go?
I don’t generally buy things new. When I buy a car it’s a used one; my guitars are almost all pre-loved; and when I buy hardware it’s usually refurbished, end of line or open-box.
As with many technologies, the absolute worst time to buy a TV is when it’s just gone on sale. I’m in the UK, and my Samsung had a launch price of £2,099 in 2021. I bought mine refurbished the following year for under £1,000.
We don’t know the US or UK pricing for the LG C5 just yet, but the European prices have been announced and they’re the same as last year – so it’s possible that the LG C5 will have the same price as the C4 did. For the size I want, 65 inches, that would be £2,700.
The same-sized LG C4 doesn’t cost anywhere near that much now: mainstream retailers have the model I want for around £1,439 in the UK, – and it could go lower. On Black Friday 2024 the price of the LG C4 dropped by $1,300 in the US to $1,394, and in the UK its lowest ever Amazon price, via a third party seller, was £1,254.
I’m betting the LG C4 price will have some more big price drops once the LG C5 is shipping. Last year the best deals weren’t on the C4, because it was the current model. They were on the previous year’s LG C3, which was down to £1,199 in the UK and $1,196 in the US.
At that price, the LG C4 would be an absolute steal.
The great OLED TV gamble
There’s one possible problem with my cunning plan, and that’s supply.
There are two key reasons for big price drops on big-ticket items: promotions that hope to sacrifice a bit of profit margin in order to sell tons more TVs; and retailers keen to shift stock to make way for new models. And both of those depend on there being a lot of the old model to shift.
If LG has been careful with its supplies of the C4, if it’s been careful to avoid over-manufacturing or over-supply, then super-cheap deals on this specific TV might not be as widely available this year as I’m hoping – or if they are, they might not be available for long, or available later in the year for the likes of Black Friday 2025.
We’ll find out soon enough because in the world of tech, the big sales events start to appear as soon as spring has sprung – so if we’re going to see some deep discounting on the C4, we should see some of it very soon. I really hope we do, and if you’re looking for a high-end TV for a great price, I think you should look out for C4 deals too.
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The launch of the LG C5 has got me excited, but not because I want to buy it. Don’t get me wrong, it looks like it’ll be an amazing TV. But its arrival means that for a little while at least, I should be able to get the LG C4…
