LG has announced the price and release date (well, release window, really) for its 2023 OLED TV range, including the LG C3 and LG G3. You can find all the prices just below, but the important things to know are that the LG C3 and LG G3 will available to pre-order from LG directly on March 6, 2023, and will be released in late March.
The more affordable LG B3 will be available in April – and there’s no cheap LG A3 model this year for US buyers (though it will be available elsewhere in the world), and that’s a shame for reasons we’ll explain in a moment. But here’s what you really want – the big price list:
There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is for people thinking of buying the smaller sizes of the LG C3, because these are cheaper than the LG C2 was when it launched last year, which bodes well for these models being well-priced throughout the year, especially when they get price drops after summer (if previous years are anything to go by).
The 42-inch and 48-inch LG C3 models are both $100 cheaper than the equivalent launch price of the LG C2, while the 83-inch model is $200 cheaper. The other models are the same as the C2’s launch price, which is actually pretty good during this time of inflation, so we’ve no complaint about that.
The disappointment, however, comes from the other models: the 55-inch LG B3 is $200 more expensive than the LG B2 was at launch at the same size, and the 65-inch model is $400 more expensive.
That makes all models of LG B3 just $100 or $200 cheaper than the LG C3 at the equivalent size, and I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t go for the LG C3’s brighter screen, better processing, and better connectivity at that price difference.
With no super-cheap LG A3 model this year in the US, the average price of buying an LG OLED has been pulled sharply upwards in 2023, and that’s a colossal shame – we thought the LG A2 was a great-value TV for movie lovers on a budget. We had hoped that the price of the LG B2 might drop to fill the gap left by the lack of A3, but we could not have been more wrong.
G3 goes even more premium
The LG G3 gets the steepest price rise of all compared to the launch of last year’s LG G2. The 55-inch and 65-inch models are $300 more, while the 77-inch is $500 more. The 83-inch model actually stays the same price as last year.
The above makes sense when you know that LG has employed new tech in the 55, 65, and 77-inch G3 models this year, making them 70% brighter than what you’d get from the LG B3. We’ve seen them in person, and the difference is staggering. It really has to be because LG’s higher prices put the G3 right in line with what we know about the Samsung S95C QD-OLED TV so far, and in our initial hands-on Samsung S95C review, that turned out to be the brightest OLED we’ve ever tested. The battle is on for visual supremacy at the high-end, price be damned.
We’re glad to see the smaller TVs come down in price, and LG C3 has done well overall to avoid a price hike. We’ll see if it’s enough to help it keep its place at the top of our best TVs list. But the price rise for the LG B3 is a huge disappointment when combined with the lack of any cheap OLED TVs in the US market this year.
Some of Europe will get the A3, and the Philips OLED708 – both aimed at being the most affordable OLED option around. Those in the US will just have to rely on the mini-LED skills from the likes of the Hisense U8H and TCL 6-Series Roku TV (2022), instead.
