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Credit: Reviewed.com / Tim Renzi
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LG C2 vs Sony A80K: Which midrange OLED reigns supreme?

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Credit: Reviewed.com / Tim Renzi

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Editor's Choice Product image of LG OLED55C2PUA
Our pick

LG OLED55C2PUA

Check Price at Amazon

The LG C2 OLED is one of the best TVs we've ever seen. It's spectacular for movies and games, especially if you don't have a bright living space. Read More

Pros

  • World-class picture quality
  • A top-tier gaming TV
  • Wafer-thin design

Cons

  • Not as bright as top-shelf QLED TVs
  • Slight off-angle color shift
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Product image of Sony XR-55A80K
Still great

Sony XR-55A80K

Currently
Unavailable

The Sony A80K delivers the excellent contrast and color we’ve come to expect from OLED TVs, but its competitors get brighter and offer more robust gaming support. Read More

Pros

  • Excellent color and contrast
  • Elegant design

Cons

  • Not as bright as other OLEDs
  • Only two HDMI 2.1 ports

  • LG C2

  • Sony A80K

  • And the winner is…

  • Our pick LG C2
  • Still great Sony A80K
  • And the winner is…
Michael Desjardin
Written by Michael Desjardin, Senior Staff Writer who's reviewed and compared over 100 TVs.

May 8, 2023

The LG C2 and the Sony A80K occupy a similar place in their respective lineups. They’re not each brand’s highest-performing OLED TVs this year, but they feature many of the same perks, such as excellent contrast and color. If you’re shopping for an OLED and don’t want to splash out on a top-of-the-line TV, these are a couple of the best options available.

Despite their second-tier status, the A80K and the C2 are impressive TVs that offer a ton of upside for gamers, cinephiles, and casual viewers alike. As luck would have it, both of these TVs are significantly marked down at the time of publishing. If you’re having a hard time choosing, we’re here to help; we’ve spent hours testing both. Here’s what you need to know.

The LG C2 OLED TV displaying 4K/HDR content in a living room setting
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser

The LG C2 combines the unbelievable performance of an OLED with an array of exciting features.

Our pick
LG C2
  • Screen sizes: 42”, 48”, 55”, 65”, 77”, 83”
  • HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG
  • Smart platform: LG webOS

The C2 is the successor to our favorite TV of 2021, the LG C1. This new version makes incremental but meaningful improvements to an already-great LG display, and replaced its predecessor as our favorite TV, bar none.

Like all OLED displays, the C2 can adjust its brightness on each individual pixel, even turning pixels off. This allows for perfect black levels and unbelievable contrast, which the C2 builds on with incredibly bright highlights. It also features LG’s OLED evo display technology that improves brightness—in the 700- to 800-nit range for HDR—and color volume for 97% coverage of DCI-P3.

Cinephiles and A/V enthusiasts will appreciate the C2’s Dolby Vision support. Meanwhile gamers can enjoy the 4 full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1, inputs that support 4K gaming at 120 hertz (Hz), and both Auto Low Latency (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), with AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync. LG’s Game Optimizer settings menu lets you toggle VRR options, see frame rate information, and easily tweak the TV’s picture while gaming.

It’s not a perfect TV. For one, we wish LG hadn’t dropped support for DTS audio. Plus, their webOS smart program is slow, flooded with sponsored content and frustrating to use. We recommend grabbing a streaming device instead of streaming on the TV itself.

The LG C2 is the newest addition to a long line of winning OLED TVs from LG. It’s pricier than most TVs, but the price is justified by its world-class performance and features.

Read our full LG C2 review.

Pros

  • World-class picture quality

  • A top-tier gaming TV

  • Wafer-thin design

Cons

  • Not as bright as top-shelf QLED TVs

  • Slight off-angle color shift

$1,098.95 from Amazon


$1,799.99 from Target

The TV displaying an Egyptian sphinx.
Credit: Reviewed / Tim Renzi

The A80K delivers stunning contrast thanks to its OLED panel.

Still great
Sony A80K
  • Screen sizes: 55", 65", 77"
  • HDR support: Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG
  • Smart platform: Google TV

The A80K is the most affordable Sony OLED TV of the year. It boasts the signature perfect black levels and incredible contrast of OLED TVs, especially in the dark. It demonstrates the trademark OLED viewing angles, offering excellent contrast and color saturation wherever you’re sitting in the room. Its incredible color palette covers 99% of the HDR color gamut (DCI-P3). Finally, the “Custom” setting is great for getting an accurate out-of-the-box picture.

Unfortunately, comparisons to other OLED TVs in this price bracket are a little unflattering. It isn’t as bright as the competition, topping out at 700 nits of brightness on small, concentrated highlights. Compare that to the 800 nits of the LG C2, or the Samsung S95B’s 1,000. Brightness is already a weakness in the OLED space, and the A80K struggles more than it should.

It’s also not as gaming-friendly as the rest of its price bracket. It does feature HDMI 2.1 and its attendant benefits (ALLM, VRR, and 4K gaming at 120Hz), but only on two of the four inputs. And one of those inputs is the dedicated eARC port. Compare that to the C2 and the S95B, which offer those features on every input.

Still, the A80K feature’s Sony’s incredible picture processing, coupled with a solid Google TV platform and an elegant design. As long as you don’t need incredible brightness (and don’t mind skipping some bells and whistles), it’ll serve you well.

Read our full Sony A80K review.

Pros

  • Excellent color and contrast

  • Elegant design

Cons

  • Not as bright as other OLEDs

  • Only two HDMI 2.1 ports

And the winner is…

The Sony A80K displaying an Egyptian sphinx.
Credit: Reviewed / Tim Renzi

Despite the C2 being better for most people, there's plenty to love about the Sony A80K.

While both of these TVs are impressive in their own right, the LG C2 is the better pick for most people. It’s an especially strong winner for gamers, as its four HDMI 2.1 inputs offer more flexibility for those with more than one connected HDMI 2.1-capable device. And although the A80K upscales sub-4K content a bit better than the C2, the C2’s added brightness really makes its picture pop—especially in HDR.

That said, if you’re a casual gamer at best and want your next TV’s built-in smart platform to serve as your daily driver, I’d recommend the Sony A80K. Google TV is faster and easier to navigate than LG’s webOS.

Regardless of which of the two you land on, there’s no time like the present; these two OLEDs are seeing some serious discounts right now.

Buy the LG C2 at Amazon

Buy the Sony A80K at Amazon

Meet the tester

Michael Desjardin

Michael Desjardin

Senior Staff Writer

@Reviewed

Michael Desjardin graduated from Emerson College after having studied media production and screenwriting. He specializes in tech for Reviewed, but also loves film criticism, weird ambient music, cooking, and food in general.

See all of Michael Desjardin's reviews

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