The Amazon Prime Day sales are the perfect opportunity to score a big discount on one of the best OLED TVs. If you’re checking out Amazon Prime Day TV deals and comparing prices on the various models, you might be wondering exactly which OLED TV to buy.
Having reviewed many OLED TVs over the years, I feel uniquely qualified to help, especially when comparing two popular models: the LG C3 and LG C4.
Both OLED TVs are getting discounts for Prime Day. In the US, the 65-inch LG C3 is $1,396 (was $1,499) and the 65-inch LG C4 is $1,796 (was $2,699), while in the UK, the 65-inch LG C3 is £1,349 (was $1,549) and the 65-inch LG C4 is £2,289 (was £2,699).
The C3 is clearly the cheaper option – not surprising given that it’s a 2023 model and the C4 is new for 2024. So, you will save money by buying LG’s 2023 mid-range OLED, but will the savings be worth it? Read on to find out.
Today’s best LG C3 OLED TV deals (US)
Today’s best LG C3 OLED TV deals (UK)
The new LG C4 offers a few key features not found on the LG C3. The main one is a new Alpha 9 AI Gen7 processor with improved 4K picture upscaling and a Brightness Booster feature. In my C4 testing, this feature worked as advertised. It provided a modest yet notable brightness increase over the C3, boosting peak brightness past the 1,000 nits threshold that earlier OLED TVs, the C3 included, struggled to achieve.
The LG C4 also features a new Dolby Vision Filmmaker Mode that provides a director-approved picture out-of-the-box when watching movies and TV shows with Dolby Vision HDR. LG OLED TVs for 2024 are the first to feature this mode, eliminating the motion smoothing that Dolby Vision modes on TVs typically add to the picture. Disabling it requires a visit to the setup menu.
LG TVs, including the C3 OLED, rank among the best gaming TVs with four HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K 120Hz support, VRR, and ALLM. The C4 ups the ante by adding Nvidia-certified 144Hz support for PC gaming. It also gets a sound quality boost over the LG C3, with the ability to mix sound to virtual 9.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos over its 2.2-channel built-in speakers (the C3, in contrast, topped off at 7.1.2 channels).
Do these enhancements add up to a win for the LG C4 over the LG C3 OLED? Having lived with both TVs for a time, I appreciated the C4’s brightness increase, which made highlights in movies and TV shows with HDR better pop off the screen, giving the picture a more 3D-like quality. That said, the C3 is also a great TV, and looking back at my review, I found its “brightness to be perfectly adequate even for daytime viewing, and with lights dimmed, the picture had notably punchy contrast.”
That’s not bad for a 65-inch OLED TV selling for $1,796 / £1,349, but if I were to choose between the two, I’d opt for the slightly more expensive C4 with its enhanced brightness and other picture and sound-improving features.