If, like me, you spend far too much time trying to figure out which TV panel technology is currently "the best" you'll know it's a bit like asking, "How long is a piece of string?"

Not so long ago OLED was widely regarded as best kind of TV panel money could buy... assuming you were watching it in a dark room. For the uninitiated (and to be honest, I don't know how initiated any of us are) the primary difference between OLED and conventional LED screens is LED panels are backlit, while each individual OLED pixel turns itself on or off completely. This is a difference LG has been dining out on for years, the implication being nothing shows true black like an OLED TV.

This was technically true, as you can't achieve maximum contrast or total darkness if the whole screen has a backlight on behind it all the time.

However, the more you power up that backlight, the brighter the screen gets and until fairly recently, if you were doing most of your TV viewing during the day, in a room with windows, OLED screens simply couldn't compete with the power of natural light.

Well that's all changed. And LG is a big part of that change.

Whatever I'm about to tell you about the 2025 evo AI G5, rest assured LG's top-of-the-line 4K OLED TV looks incredible, day or night, dark or light.

LG calls this technology Brightness Booster Ultimate and it combines a totally redesigned panel with the power of the latest processor to make the G5 LG's brightest television yet.

And what I love about that is it meant I hardly had to tweak it at all; it looked fabulous pretty much straight out of the box. Obviously, LG claims this is due to AI... because isn't everything these days? The cool thing about the AI built into webOS (the LG user interface) is it makes customising both picture and sound to your preferences so easy. Just run the AI Picture Wizard and you'll be presented with a series of images from which you choose the one or two you like best. The wizard then applies these preferences to your content and personally, I literally set it then forgot it.

From that point on, everything I watched, from any source or streaming service, looked wonderful. Intense colours, without being over-the-top. Precise contrast with no shadows or other weird artefacts. And above all else, bright. So bright. All day. All night.

Sound-wise, I'm going to be completely honest here; You don't want to buy this TV unless you already have a decent soundbar or some other kind of home-theatre system. LG promises a an AI-guided sound preference setup here too but heard through the G5's built-in speakers everything seemed tinny and artificial (intelligent or otherwise) and certainly any significant bass response was conspicuous by its absence.

Thankfully, LG supplied me with the S95TR 9.1.5 home cinema soundbar; 810W of glorious 3D Dolby Atmos power, spread across the soundbar, 10kg subwoofer and two rear speakers. 

This surround sound system is almost as smart as the TV itself, using AI to scan your room, identifying exactly where your speakers are and allowing for any volume differences and delays. It's belly-rumblingly good listening, the upward firing speakers often blasting out sound effects so convincing they have my dog looking around the room to see where they're coming from.

Thanks to LG's WOWCAST protocols, the sub and surround speakers connect wirelessly and both G5 TV and S95TR sound system are WOW Orchestra enabled, so you can combine the G5's built-in speakers into the system for an even more convincing, three-dimensional soundscape.

Back to webOS for a minute... I have mixed feelings about this operating system. Like many others, webOS has fallen into the modern trap of trying to provide too many features I'm pretty sure nobody asked for.

There's a customisable row of installed apps in the middle of the home screen. That's fine. But why do I need the row of PC-like category folders above it? After a couple of weeks I still don't really understand what they're for, even after clicking on them. Likewise, the endless scroll of viewing recommendations below the row of apps aren't very helpful when many of them link to services I don't currently subscribe to. That smells like advertising to me - and I think we're all agreed we don't want advertising on our $8,000+ TVs thanks.

In saying all that, the UI is easy enough to navigate and the settings menu is only a shortcut button away.

Which brings me, lastly and leastly, to the remote. Which I hate. I'm sorry, but there's no other way to say it. And I'm not the only one. Google "Hate LG TV remote" and you'll soon find out why. For some ungodly reason - again, I can't believe anyone could have actually asked for this - LG has given its remotes the power of a laser pointer, almost as if it expects its TVs to be used solely for PowerPoint presentations in corporate boardrooms.

What am I talking about?

Every time you turn the G5 on, or return to the home screen, or bump the mouse-like jog wheel in the middle of the direction pad, a "magic" pointer cursor appears on screen you can control by waving the remote in the direction you want. Except, it's far too frustrating to get it to go where it needs to be and virtually impossible to both steer AND press, which is what you need to do to make a selection.

Hey LG, there's a reason why other manufacturers haven't decided to copy this floating cursor party trick; it sucks. At least give us the option to disable it permanently. Sadly, no. This unwelcome "floater" disappears once you start using the direction buttons but then reappears once you're back on the home screen.

Look, I don't want my whinge session about the remote to put you off this otherwise stellar piece of TV tech. Take its gaming abilities for example... The G5 has a stunning 165Hz refresh rate and with a pixel response time of 0.1ms there's effectively no lag whatsoever. While playing, a push of the settings shortcut button brings up a gaming toolbar that allows you to make specific tweaks to give you whatever edge you're looking for.

Better still, LG now offers the Xbox cloud gaming app, which allows anyone with a Game Pass Ultimate subscription and a bluetooth controller to stream hundreds of A-rated titles without any kind of console at all.

This is undoubtedly one of the finest TV panels I've ever seen. The burgeoning powers of AI have been utilised superbly when it comes to customising the perfect picture settings just for you. Unfortunately, the overall experience of using the G5 is marred by an unnecessarily overcrowded operating system and the worst remote control I've ever encountered. Great telly though.

Click here for more information on the LG G5.

Click here for more information and pricing on the LG S95TR.