First look at LG's G6 OLED and 'micro RGB'

LG's G6 – the successor to last year's G5 – is brighter and more refined, with markedly reduced banding. The company's first 'micro RGB' is a mixed bag. Here is FlatpanelsHD's first look.

We will publish a full review of LG G6 later, but during LG's UK launch event in London last week, we had a chance to see LG's new flagship OLED TV for 2026 side by side with last year's LG G5, Samsung S95F (QD-OLED) and Sony Bravia 8 II (QD-OLED).

What we saw was promising, but before we get to that, let us briefly cover some of the technical changes underpinning the improvements in picture quality.


12-bit internal processing
Powering the LG G6, as well as C6H and W6, is the Alpha 11 Gen 3 processor, as announced in January. According to LG, Alpha 11 Gen 3 features a 50% faster CPU, a 70% faster GPU and a 5.6x faster NPU compared to Alpha 9 Gen 8 used in the more affordable models.

 In London, LG went into more detail about Alpha 11 Gen 3, confirming that it is its first chip produced on a 6nm manufacturing process, delivering improved performance and energy efficiency for reduced heat generation.

The biggest change, however, appears to be the processor's new 12-bit internal color processing and 13-bit luminance processing, as opposed to 10-bit in the past. While the OLED panel itself remains 10-bit, the higher internal bit-depth processing helps reduce banding and posterization, which was a complaint with last year's LG G5. Read the next section to see the effect.

Alpha 11 Gen 3 also features 'Dual AI Super Resolution' upscaling and 'Dynamic Tone Mapping Ultra' to boost HDR brightness and contrast, for those who prefer picture enhancement, by dividing the picture into 48 segments for analysis.

LG added that its Alpha 11 chip series – not only Gen 3 – enables support for Dolby Atmos FlexConnect wireless audio, which we also saw and heard in action. More on that in a later first look article.


LG G6 first look
LG G6 gets brighter once again, which was clear in a side-by-side comparison with last year's G5. G6 delivered brighter highlights with slightly better definition. It is not a drastic change over G5 but it is a significant step up from the "old" 1000-nit OLED panel. LG cited "over 2500 nits" in a 10% window for G6, which we will have to confirm later on a review sample.

LG also highlighted that G6 is brighter full-screen, at 400 nits versus around 350 nits on last year's G5. Again, we will verify this independently, but G6 did appear brighter with winter and snowy demo content. As a result, G6 also offers a slightly larger color volume.


The most notable improvement, however, appeared to be the impact of the 12/13-bit internal processing mentioned earlier. In the side-by-side demos, LG G6 showed significantly less banding and posterization in dark scenes than LG G5, and also less than Samsung S95F and Sony Bravia 8 II QD-OLED TVs. It looked more or less like a solved problem.

It is difficult to capture in a photo, but you should be able to see the results below. Both LG G5 and G6 had 'Smooth Gradation' turned off to demonstrate that the improvement is inherent to the panel and processing, meaning it should apply universally across content types, including movies/series and gaming. We will examine this more closely once we get a review sample.


LG confirmed that the 48, 55, 65, 77 and 83-inch versions of G6 all use the second-generation Tandem WOLED panel, although the 48-inch will remain dimmer than the larger sizes due to pixel aperture and less space for a heatsink. The 97-inch continues to use a conventional OLED panel.

The company also said that it has tweaked the Dolby Vision Standard and Vivid picture modes on its 2026 models and on 2025 models via firmware. They are now brighter overall to more closely match the corresponding HDR10 modes. Dolby Vision Filmmaker Mode (previously Dark) remains calibrated to reference levels.

LG W6 delivers the same picture quality as G6. We did not get a chance to see the 2026 C6 or B6 (with the new OLED SE panel).

Another improvement worth highlighting is that the 2026 Tandem WOLED panel has a new screen coating, which significantly reduces light reflections while still maintaining true blacks and the glossy look, as seen in the video below.


webOS 26 and audio
LG's main focus at the event was G6's improved picture quality, but the company also noted that while the speaker hardware in G6 is identical to G5, the tuning has been adjusted to deliver more balanced audio with better-sounding bass. We preferred this new tuning.

Dolby audio formats are supported up to Dolby Atmos, but DTS remains unsupported in 2026.

webOS 26 looks largely the same but features a simplified menu structure, including a new quick menu with fast access to inputs (as there is no dedicated input button on the new remote) and other settings. webOS 26 appeared slightly faster overall, although in our view it could benefit from even more simplification and more powerful hardware.


New features include a customizable 'My Page' – separate from the webOS homescreen – with widgets such as a clock, calendar and content suggestions. LG is also introducing a 'Continue Watching' row (via a software update scheduled for April) on the webOS homescreen and My Page, although only Prime Video will be supported initially. 

There is an AI-generated music feature to pair with screensavers as well as a new 'Customize' button on the remote with separate functions for short and long presses – very nice. Some new AI search features have also been added. LG Xboom buds can now connect automatically to a 2026 LG TV. For smart home control, Matter is supported, but Thread and Zigbee connectivity will require a separate USB dongle launching later.


LG's first 'micro RGB'
We also saw LG's first LCD TV with RGB LED backlighting, marketed as 'micro RGB'. We confirmed that MRGB95B uses a VA LCD panel. LG said it has "over 1000" dimming zones, adding that the larger sizes actually approach 2000 zones, although we were not able to verify this on the spot.

Compared to one of LG's 2025 "QNED" LCD TVs, MRGB95B looked noticeably brighter with more saturated primary and secondary colors, thanks to its "up to 4000 nits" peak brightness and wider Rec.2020 color gamut. Overall, however, it still looked very much like an LCD TV, with limited black depth and contrast, the typical LCD "haze", narrow viewing angles and other inherent LCD limitations, even with the extremely colorful demo content. We suspect that dark or high-contrast content will expose these limitations to most viewers, as the primary driver of HDR picture quality on LCD TVs remains the number of dimming zones.

LG's first attempt at RGB LED LCD does not come close to matching its own OLED TVs in reference picture quality. In our view, LG's OLED C-series delivers significantly better picture quality, arguably even the B-series. On the other hand LCD TVs with RGB LED deliver very high fullscreen brightness and very saturated colors, if you switch into Vivid mode or just want a TV with plenty of surplus brightness for a bright viewing environment.