LG

A brief history

LG traces its origin to Lak-Hui Chemical Industrial, founded in 1947 in Seoul, with GoldStar Electronics added in 1958 to produce Korea's first radios and later televisions. The two arms merged and rebranded as LG (Lucky-Goldstar) in 1995, the same year LG entered the global flat-panel market. LG Display spun off as a separate subsidiary in 2004 and pioneered large-format white-OLED (WOLED) television manufacturing in 2013, becoming the only mass producer of large OLED TV panels for nearly a decade. LG Electronics, the consumer arm, exited the smartphone business in 2021 to refocus on televisions, home appliances, vehicle components, and B2B displays. Today LG ships the leading premium-OLED television lineup, the UltraGear gaming monitor brand, the gram ultraportable laptop line, and a broad home-appliance catalog.

What LG is known for

LG's defining strength is display technology. LG Display's WOLED panels still power most non-Samsung OLED televisions in the market, including models from Sony, Panasonic, Philips, and Hisense — meaning LG's panel engineering effectively sets the ceiling of an entire industry segment. LG's own televisions (C-series, G-series, M-series with wireless connection box) pair these panels with the Alpha-series image processor and webOS, which we rate as one of the better smart-TV platforms on response time and ad-free clarity.

In monitors, the UltraGear line covers the high-refresh-rate gaming bracket end to end, from 27" 1440p 240 Hz IPS panels to 32" and 39" 4K WOLED 240 Hz models. The gram laptop range is one of the lightest 14" and 16" ultraportable lines on the market, hitting under 1.0 kg at the 14" tier. LG's home appliances — washers, dryers, refrigerators, air conditioners — are sold globally and lead several efficiency benchmarks. The Tone Free earbud line and XBOOM speakers extend the audio play, though they sit behind Sony, Bose, and Sennheiser in our scoring.

Where LG excels on vsMars

LG TVs are the brand to beat in the TVs category; the C-series and G-series consistently take top positions in best TVs on picture quality and motion-handling subscores. UltraGear monitors anchor the gaming portion of our monitors listing and feature heavily in best monitors, particularly for 1440p-240Hz and 4K-OLED comparisons. The gram laptops appear in laptops on the ultraportable axis, competing directly with MacBook Air and ASUS Zenbook S on weight-per-screen-size.

Trade-offs to know

LG WOLED panels remain susceptible to permanent burn-in with prolonged static content, and brightness — while improved on G-series MLA generations — still trails Samsung QD-OLED and high-end mini-LED at full-screen highlights. webOS is good but ad placements on the home row have grown more aggressive each generation. On monitors, UltraGear OLED panels carry the same burn-in caveat, and HDR sustained brightness on the 32" 4K models is below Mini-LED competitors. LG gram laptops trade build rigidity for weight — the chassis flexes more than equivalently priced ThinkPads or MacBook Airs, and keyboard travel is shallow. Customer support quality is uneven outside Korea and the US, with several markets reporting long parts-availability gaps. Finally, LG's exit from smartphones in 2021 means there is no mobile-side ecosystem play comparable to Samsung or Apple, narrowing how cleanly LG hardware integrates across a household.