The Best Gaming TV Right Now!

What Makes A Great Gaming Tv?

LG's G1 is a monster of a TV, it is 77-inch and is perfect for your Ps5 your Series X, or even your gaming PC. So we'll dive into the G1 specifically in just a second but what actually makes a great gaming tv, what should you be looking for? Well, there are five things you want: 4k at 120 hertz, HDMI 2.1, support for variable refresh rates whether it's through the HDMI, g-sync, or freesync, also low latency modes (ALLM), and finally low response times and low input lag.

I'll explain what all that means but really most mid to high-end 2022 TVs should have most of those now. Last year's flagships will have those features but obviously, because they're a year old they'll be a little bit discounted so that's worth looking at. But a good rule of thumb is if the Tv has at least one HDMI 2.1 port then it's probably got all the other features as well and you're all set.

4K vs 8K Tv?

But what about 8k?  That technically will be more future-proof and these next-gen consoles do support it, unless you have money to burn 8k it's still a bit of a waste of time for gaming at least because you will see some upscaling in picture quality for Tv and movies but not with games. So really unless you're hooking up your gaming pc with a 3080 ti or a 3090 and then playing games on medium or low with dlss if it supports it's just a bit of a waste of time. I would put your money into either getting a bigger tv or one with a fancy OLED or q-led panel, that will make a much bigger difference. You just don't really need 8k right now maybe in three or four years.

LG G1

But let's get back to the G1. There's quite a lot to play now, especially with all the next-gen updates for games like the brand new ff7 remake which just looks so good on this. Now the benefit of this G series, the G1 over the more popular C series like the C1 is twofold actually. Firstly we have this zero gap wall mount, it's part of their gallery design which means you can wall mount the tv and it's flush against the wall which looks great. More importantly though exclusive to this and their super expensive zed series is the OLED Evo panel which is between 10 and 20 brighter across the whole screen versus the C1 or last year's TVs and as you know the biggest limiting factor to OLED TVs still is the brightness at least compared to the qled competition so I'll take all the extra knits I possibly can.

OLED-QLED?

However with a peak of a little under 700 nits as I say this still doesn't come close to the two, three, or even four thousand nits you can get on some of the super high-end q-led competition. There's been this ongoing debate of which is better, it comes down to how bright is your room. If you have a really bright room you can't control the lighting then go with a Qled which is brighter in the case of Samsung TVs, you get a much better anti-reflective coating so that gives you a better experience. But if you can have a proper movie or game night in darker settings then go for an OLED because you just can't compete with that near-infinite contrast, those deep inky colors, and of course, that lack of blooming compared to traditional led or even mini led TVs.

LG G1 vs C1 price?

But let's talk about money and for this 77-inch G1, you're looking at paying about 800 pounds more over the C1 with a 500-pound difference at 65 inches. The G1 is 2999 pounds (750,000pkr) while the C1 is 2499 pounds (620000 pkr) But crucially in terms of gaming besides the slight improvement to brightness which is occasionally noticeable but you should probably just save the cash and go with the C1 because both have pretty much instant 2.3 millisecond response times, even beating Samsung's latest mini led neoq LEDs by a few milliseconds so we get minimal motion blur and inputs feel instantaneous. However whichever Tv you're using, whichever brand you have a game mode make sure you're using it because this turns off a lot of the background Tv processing and gives you the fastest response times.

Response Times

But then we have VRR or variable refresh rates and this is where things get a little bit more complicated. But again you don't really need to worry about it all happening behind the scenes, it'll automatically be turned on. Although some TVs do have these game optimizer menus where you can check vrr, essentially allows the tv to adjust its refresh rate in real-time to the frame rate that's being output by your console. Pc gamers are pretty familiar with this and it helps to reduce screen tearing and smooth out your frame rate. Unfortunately, right now the ps5 doesn't support any kind of variable refresh but it is expected to in the future. The Xbox works with freesync and if you're pc gaming on this then you can take advantage of either freesync or g-sync. Lots of fancy tech working mostly behind the scenes just to give you a smoother and better gaming experience.

Speakers & Soundbars

But when it comes to thinking about what the best gaming Tv is we actually have to go beyond the Tv itself because just as important or at least almost as important as a great picture is great sound. So we would highly suggest you pair your new gaming Tv with a proper speaker system or a soundbar because going from the built-in speakers of the G1 to a Sonos arc and then adding a couple of sl1 surrounds and eventually a sub, just gives you that extra oomph of firing a gun or blowing something up in games that even the best TVs just can't match. 

How Much?

So now you are thinking that this all sounds great but not everyone has a spare four and a half grand or so to drop in an LG G1 77-inch and you are absolutely right. This is completely excessive and well beyond the budgets of 99.9% of us. So everyone's budget and setup are different, but our top buys right now for a properly future-proof all-singing, all-dancing gaming Tv would be the 48-inch LG C1 which costs about 1300 pounds (330000 pkr) or so right now, still not exactly cheap but we're all about the best gaming TVs. Although do look at last year's models or even wait until November and black Friday because new TV prices come down significantly.                                         

But it's all relative and a basic 4k hdr Tv is more than good enough for most of us. But if you are a keen gamer and have some pretty deep pockets then something like LG C1, G1, Sony Z90J,  Samsung's qr94a or similar are all incredible gaming TVs. 

I would also love to hear what tv you're using right now and also if you're thinking about upgrading this year what models are you considering let me know in the comments thank you so much. See ya!