New independent report gives digital signage integrators, CMS providers and end users workload-by-workload data for choosing between LG's two webOS 9.0 tiers and deciding when an external media player is still needed.

SAN FRANCISCO — September 25, 2026. signageOS, the infrastructure layer for digital signage, today published its LG webOS 9.0 performance report, developed in cooperation with Screenfeed. LG's performance-tier UP5Q series passed all 60 Test Scenarios, the first device across all SoC platforms tested in the benchmark's seven-year history to pass every one. It is also the first webOS model to deliver gapless UHD playback in both landscape and portrait orientations, using H.265-encoded video.

UP5Q showed no performance degradation between Full HD and UHD operating modes. It also passed all three real-world HTML5 workloads from Screenfeed, a provider of ready-made and custom digital signage content and signageOS's benchmark partner since 2023. The workloads included news, sports and weather applications, ranging up to a scenario featuring dozens of simultaneously animated elements.

With webOS 9.0, LG introduces two distinct hardware tiers within the same operating system generation, and the report shows where the line between them falls. The mainstream UH5Q series passed 54 of 60 Test Scenarios, a score of 90%. Five of its six unmet scenarios occurred in UHD workloads, and it passed every Full HD video scenario — including multi-playlist playback, mixed content, streaming and synchronized video walls. Its remaining miss came in the most demanding Screenfeed HTML5 workload. UP5Q, built on a more capable SoC, handles the UHD, browser-intensive HTML5 and complex mixed-content workloads where UH5Q reaches its limits.

The report is built to be read against a specific deployment. Results are broken out across 15 Test Groups, so an integrator planning a Full HD menu board network, a synchronized video wall or a UHD lobby display can check the scenarios that match that content rather than relying on an overall score. The report also benchmarks both tiers against a Windows 11 PC used as an external media player reference.

"Every SoC generation we benchmark closes gaps the previous one couldn't," said Lukas Danek, CPO and co-founder of signageOS. "webOS 4.0 struggled with simultaneous playlists, webOS 6.0 solved that but not UHD, and now UP5Q has closed that gap too. The takeaway for buyers is that SoC displays are no longer catching up to mainstream signage needs. They've moved past them, and the question has become how much headroom you want for what's next."

The results cap seven years of progress in the signageOS benchmark series, which has evaluated SoC platforms from multiple manufacturers and grown to 60 Test Scenarios since 2019. 

Every scenario ran on physical devices and was recorded in high-resolution slow-motion video for frame-level review. signageOS produced the report independently and received no compensation for it. The full report is available at www.signageos.io/industry-insights/research.

About signageOS

signageOS provides the infrastructure layer that connects digital signage software to 50+ hardware platforms and operating systems. Working with 100+ partners worldwide, its hardware-agnostic platform delivers unified device management through cross-platform APIs, helping enterprises, CMS providers, hardware manufacturers and integrators manage and scale their screen networks. Trusted by global brands and technology partners, signageOS unifies large-scale signage operations while enabling flexible, future-ready networks. Through the signageOS Research Center, the company has published independent SoC benchmarks since 2019, evaluating SoC platforms from multiple manufacturers against real-world digital signage workloads. 

About Screenfeed

Screenfeed has been solving content needs in the digital signage industry since 2008. They are experts in delivering ready-made and custom data-driven content. This includes news, weather, traffic updates, financial data, infotainment, and concise video clips, reaching over 175,000 public digital screens globally. Screenfeed has also developed a no-code solution for building HTML5 content apps that display a company’s own information from calendars, databases, spreadsheets, APIs, and more. Acknowledged on the Inc. 5000 list for five consecutive years, Screenfeed stands as the leading content service provider for the digital signage industry.

Media contact

signageOS Media Relations
James Hart, Head of Marketing
james.hart@signageos.io
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