The LG B5 was one of my favorite OLED TVs in 2025. It delivered detailed, contrast-rich picture quality and came with a full suite of gaming features that made it one of the best gaming TVs on the market. Its launch prices may have been too close to its more premium sibling the LG C5, but as 2025 went on, the B5’s prices dropped and it became an excellent value option and arguably the star of Black Friday.
Naturally then, its successor, the LG B6, has some big shoes to fill. In the lead up to the B6’s release, it’s been shrouded in mystery. We were given tons of details about the LG G6 and LG C6, both of which earned five stars in my respective reviews of them, and are on course to be two of 2026’s best OLED TVs — but we heard next to nothing about the LG B6.
We speculated that it might be using the new OLED SE panel, a cheaper, but brighter OLED panel from LG Displays that the brand said could hit up to 1,000 nits. We saw the new OLED SE panel in action with Panasonic’s new OLED, the Z86C, and the brightness was definitely there.
Now, the B6 has actually arrived in our testing lab and I had to put it alongside its predecessor to see how they compared… and it turned out far weirder and more complicated than I ever expected.
A boost in brightness… sort of
The LG B-series has been producing the same level of brightness measurements for years, despite LG's step-up C-series and G-series counterparts hitting new heights.
That seems to have changed for the B6, in one area at least. The B6 had a measured peak HDR brightness of 895 nits in Cinema Home and 835 nits in Filmmaker Mode. This is a very healthy jump over the B5’s 668 nits peak HDR brightness (measured in Cinema mode).
There were shifts in fullscreen brightness too, in both SDR and HDR. The B6 was roughly 20 nits brighter in Cinema Home compared to the B5 in both SDR and HDR — it's not a lot, but anything is welcome.
How did this translate into real-world viewing? In some scenes, peak areas were visibly brighter on the B6. When John speaks to the hotel desk clerk in Dark City, the desk lamp demonstrated the brighter highlights of the B6, as it looked more impactful and created stronger perceived contrast.
The B5 still delivered strong contrast with arguably deeper black tones, but the B6 had the brightness advantage to more impactful contrast overall.
I then switched over to the desert scenes from Lawrence of Arabia. As Lawrence and his guide fetch some water from a well, the white sands surrounding them had more impact on the B6. While they still had solid brightness on the B5, the B6’s boosted peak brightness levels were on show.
However, as the scene went on, I noted that the white sands within the scene had a greener tint to them in some shots. In other shots, the green tint would appear in the B5, but overall it was more obvious on the B6.
Green tint is sometimes an issue with WOLED panels, and has been discussed at length online — especially with LG’s OLEDs. I wrote about it during my LG C6 and LG C5 comparison, where I was happy to see that the C6 had eliminated this, making the C5 look more green. I decided to see if it was obvious on other content.
Green tint
I switched the type of scene completely and opted for The Batman, in order to see if the green tint was obvious in darker scenes: boy, was it.
In the subway fight scene, as Batman stands over his defeated foes, the green tint was very obvious on the B6. The light reflected from the left side of the screen (from the subway exit) took on a green tone, whereas on the B5 it was much closer to the accurate tones I'd expect.
The same was true in later scenes, as the green tint was noticeable against brown tones of brick walls of an aerial shot of Gotham and as Batman walks down a dimly-lit corridor.
I decided to try out some scenes with lots of pure white, namely scenes of snow from the Spears & Munsil UHD Benchmark Blu-ray, viewed in HDR10 and mastered at 1,000 nits.
I was surprised to see that the B5’s white tones were more vibrant and punchy throughout, delivering higher perceived brightness over the newer B6, despite what the measurements above said. While I can't confirm the physics of it, I suspect that the green tint on the B6 was having an effect on the perceived 'pop' of the white tones.
Colors
It was time to try out some colorful scenes. In some shots from the Spears & Munsil footage, such as an orange butterfly, the B6 demonstrated richer, deeper colors compared to the B5. Another shot of a cliffside with the sun rising over it showed the B6 had a more accurate color profile and that nice extra hit of brightness.
Putting on the Wizard and I scene from Wicked, both TVs delivered strong vibrant colors that looked accurate. The pink flowers over Elphaba’s head popped on both screens nicely, while the green of Elphaba’s skin also looked accurate on both TVs.
The yellow stone of the walls and pillars appeared brighter on the B6 and took on a darker tone on the B5. Looking closer, the B5 actually bordered on having that green tint, but it wasn’t as obvious.
This was true of other scenes throughout Wicked, with both the B6 and B5 doing a great job with Glinda’s pink room and dresses throughout, as well as faithfully reproducing the rich emerald green and gold of the train as it arrives into Emerald City. At times, the B5 would show flashes of a green tint; at other times, the B6 would.
One additional wrinkle I found is that the B6's measured HDR color gamut coverage in both BT.2020 and DCI-P3 color spaces has dropped compared to the B5. It registered 72.5% of BT.2020 and 97.4% of DCI-P3, where the B5 measured 74.85% and 99.5% respectively.
While the latter DCI-P3 result of the B6 is still above the 95% threshold we really want to see, it was still odd to see it drop and may be related to the colors seeming inconsistent at times.
Check out the full measurements for the B6, B5 and C6 below. A quick note: I used Movie mode for the B5's HDR brightness when I tested it last year, but I stick with Filmmaker Mode for the B6 and C6.
A new appreciation
Overall, I find this comparison frustrating, but enlightening. Viewed in isolation, these are two very good TVs, but it’s hard to ignore any issues I’ve spotted once I’ve seen the two side-by-side.
The green tint on the B6 unit I have was worrying, and while it's possible that I was unlucky and got a panel especially prone to it, that would have implications for the uniformity of quality in the panels, so that would be its own issue to discuss. I contacted LG about what I was seeing, and the company declined to comment without a representative being able to see the screens in person.
While it's not confirmed if the B6 uses the newer OLED SE panel, the brightness increase makes me think it's likely. Maybe it's teething problems with a new panel, but I can't be sure.
If I had to recommend a TV between the two, I’d opt for the B5. Not only was it the more consistent of the two overall, but it’s also a heck of a lot cheaper. A 65-inch B5 costs $999 / £1,199 / AU$2,199, whereas the recently launched 65-inch B6 costs $1,999 / £2,399 / AU$2,495.
It’s worth noting there is a better value B6E model available in the UK that costs £1,799, and LG told me that the only real difference is aesthetic and a lack of HDR Precision Master Pro and Precision Sound Pro features, neither of which I like to use anyway based on my testing so far.
But really, my main takeaway is a renewed appreciation for just how good the LG C6 is. Not only does it have a new processor, which seems to have fixed the green tint issue, but it’s a lot brighter with better detail and contrast, earning every one of its five stars.
While it is pricier, with a 65-inch model costing $2,699 / £2,599 / AU$3,995, it’s worth the investment in my opinion, thanks to its upgrades — especially in the UK, where the difference is so minimal.
As stock of last year’s LG OLEDs seems to be dwindling quickly in several retailers, I suspect the C6 will become the big-ticket LG OLED of 2026, and right now I think I'll be strongly recommending that OLED buyers spend the extra to upgrade to it.
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