LG, makers of some of the best OLED TVs on the market, is set to launch a new line of 2025 OLEDs. In fact, the brand recently unveiled pricing for LG C5 and G5 OLED TVs, the mid-range and high-end entries in this lineup.
It’s understandable that the spotlight would settle on the C Series and G Series OLEDs, what with their celebrated, award-winning pedigree.
But there’s another LG OLED that might end up being one of the most popular models of the year: the LG B5. It's the follow-up to the LG B4 (seen above), one of the best budget TVs of 2024.
Why am I so bullish on LG’s entry-level OLED? It comes down to a few reasons: past performance, new upgrades and ample gaming features at a competitive price.
The LG B5 is building on the success of the LG B4
Last year, the B5’s predecessor — the LG B4 (pictured above) — proved to be a smart pick for people shopping for impressive picture quality on a budget.
As we noted in our LG B4 review, the B4 isn’t as bright as higher-end OLED TVs like the LG G4 OLED or Samsung S95D, but the advantages of OLED display technology (along with LG’s engineering) benefit the B4 in some key ways.
For one thing, the B4’s self-lit pixels and perfect black levels elevate the picture beyond what the numbers might suggest on paper. We clocked the B4’s peak highlight brightness at around 600 to 700 nits in HDR. That’s not nearly as bright as what we measured on a mid-range Mini-LED TV like the TCL QM7, but the deep contrast of an OLED display adds to the B4’s perceived contrast.
The B4 arrived with some of the most accurate out-of-the-box colors we measured in 2024.
In addition, the B4 arrived with some of the most accurate out-of-the-box colors we measured in 2024. In LG’s Filmmaker mode, the B4 produced a Delta-E of just under 1. This figure describes color error, and a Delta-E of 3 is considered to be the threshold of perceptibility for most people.
Simply put, the B4 hits its targets right out of the box — no calibration necessary.
The B4’s excellent contrast and finely-tuned picture made it easy for me to recommend it to folks shopping for an impressive TV at a manageable price. I suppose it’s always possible that the soon-to-be-released LG B5 takes a step down in performance, but historically, that hasn’t been the case with LG OLEDs.
The B5 is getting some nifty upgrades
While most of the fanciest new features are reserved for higher-end models (which you can read more about in my LG G5 OLED hands-on review), the B5 is nevertheless getting some upgrades.
It starts with LG’s second-generation alpha 8 AI Processor. It’s not the fastest chipset LG is tapping this year, but I’ve seen it in action and I’ve liked what I’ve seen.
And while this may seem like a minor cosmetic, I’m happy to report that the B5 will be shipping with the newest version of LG’s remote control, which will replace the LG Magic Remote. I’ve still got my quibbles with it (namely that it lacks a dedicated input button, isn’t backlit and still leans on motion-activated controls), but it’s slimmer than the previous version, and I dig that.
Lastly, thanks to a recently introduced program called webOS Re:New, the B5 is guaranteed to receive major updates to its built-in smart software for five years. This program isn’t exclusive to 2025 models, but by jumping into it now, B5 owners will be locking down several years of software- and performance-related enhancements.
The B5 is bursting with gaming features
My favorite aspect of last-year’s B4 (and what I suspect will be my favorite aspect of the B5) is the laundry list of gaming features.
The B5 is confirmed to arrive with four HDMI 2.1 inputs, all capable of showcasing 4K games at 120Hz.
The B5 is confirmed to arrive with four HDMI 2.1 inputs, all capable of showcasing 4K games at 120Hz. It doesn’t support 4K gaming at 144Hz (like the LG C5) or 4K gaming at 165Hz (like the LG G5), but if you consider that even the most powerful console on the market today — the PlayStation 5 Pro — is capped at 4K/120Hz, it doesn’t take long to see the B5 as the powerful gaming machine that it is.
The B5’s full suite of HDMI 2.1-compatible inputs is just one gamer-friendly feature. You're also getting Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility.
In addition, unlike Samsung's entry-level OLED TVs, the B5 comes with Dolby Vision support, which means it'll support the Dolby Vision-enabled Xbox titles you might already have in your collection.
LG B5: outlook
LG hasn't announced pricing and availability for the B5 OLED just yet, and we won't know for certain how it performs until we test a unit ourselves.
Nevertheless, we can take some hints from the B4. Last year, LG launched the B4 at $1,699 for a 55-inch model and $2,199 for a 65-inch set.
If LG launched the B5 at the same price points relative to last year (as they did with the C5 and G5 OLEDs), the B5 would also go on sale at $1,699 for a 55-inch model.
This puts the B5 at $300 less than its C5 and G5 counterparts at the 55- and 65-inch size point. That's a pretty significant chunk of change, and could be the deciding factor for someone looking to save money on an LG OLED.
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