GAMING GEM

Serious gamers will be well served by this serious rig

THE SYSTEM

OLED TV LG OLED 42C3 ₹1,05,990

GAMES CONSOLE SONY PS5 ₹54,990

GAMES CONSOLE XBOX SERIES X ₹55,990

SOUNDBAR SONOS BEAM (GEN 2) ₹56,999

TOTAL PRICE ₹2,73,960

We don’t imagine there are too many of you out there who will be buying a TV system exclusively to indulge your passion for NHL 23 or the latest incarnation of Assassin’s Creed; for most buyers, a good gaming system needs to shine with TV and movies too.

Nevertheless, there are one or two key strengths that a good gaming system simply must possess – which is why we have chosen this particular quartet to kick off our selection of top AV systems.

While LG has recently made much of its G3 range – the world’s first MLA OLED screen – the C3 has quietly bagged our 2023 Award for the Best 40-43in TV, not least because it is terrific value for money. Its retail price alone should turn heads, but recent discounts have made it a real prize.

Crucial for a gaming-friendly screen, the LG has four HDMI 2.1 sockets, all rated to the full bandwidth of 48Gbps, and all capable of handling the 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM signals that are output by its console partners here, the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Plenty of tellies can handle these gaming features, but most can do so via only two HDMI sockets, one of which often has to fulfil eARC output duties.

The real headline here, though, is that LG’s TVs are currently the only ones around that offer Dolby Vision gaming up to 4K/120Hz, and the C3 includes a particularly good execution of HGiG, an agreed industry standard for the implementation of HDR in gaming. This essentially makes it easy to get good tone mapping in many modern games.