LG’s new OLED TVs – Bigger, more pixels and HDMI 2.1
If CES in Las Vegas were a competition, the 2019 edition would clearly have been won by LG. Exactly one year after we saw a prototype of a rollable television, the Korean brand showed a production version of a TV, the R9, which could well herald the beginning of a revolution. No price has been announced yet, but you can safely assume that this first model will be almost priceless. Fortunately, history teaches us that new techniques become more and more affordable over time and so the common man / woman will enjoy a TV that disappears from sight after use.
In addition to the revolutionary rollable R9, LG showed a number of very interesting, other evolutionary OLED models, of which the 88″ Z9 is the most striking, because it is not only the largest OLED TV ever, but also the first to display 8k and therefore a has a resolution of 7680 × 4320 pixels. This can be called an impressive achievement. Especially when you consider that LG’s OLED panels use four sub-pixels per pixel, resulting in a total of almost 133 million individual OLEDs, all of which must work. In any case, we could not detect defective pixels.
The Z9 seems to be on the same silver-colored ‘TV cabinet’ as the roll-up R9, but where the R9 can also be placed on another piece of furniture, the Z9 has incorporated electronics. The speakers and connections have also found a place in the rectangular base.
It is the first time in years that a new size OLED TV is on sale, because in recent times only sizes 55, 65 and 77 “were available. Good news for people who would like to have a 77” OLED TV , but still find them too expensive. Because that is no longer the largest size, it will probably drop in price.
At first glance, the new W9 ‘Wallpaper’ OLED TV seems to have hardly changed compared to last year. LG told us that the screen can now be mounted even flatter against the wall through improvements to the suspension system, which works with magnets. The design of the soundbar under the screen, which also houses the connections and electronics, also seems to have been renewed, but we could not detect any significant changes.
The design of the E9 has become clearly tighter compared to the E8. With the old model, a foot protruded at the front, which detracted a bit from the otherwise almost flat front. This year, by tilting the TV back a little bit and attaching a foot with a heavy counterweight to the back, the front was able to stay nice and flat. The forward-facing speakers under the screen have remained, which makes the e-series sound so pleasant.
The C9 has also been given a sleeker appearance compared to the existing C8. LG has also placed a counterweight on the back of this model, which made it possible to adjust the foot design. The speakers are still mounted downwards in the housing, with the slanted foot bouncing the sound forward. Because the angle to the screen has increased this year, the sound is now directed a bit more upwards instead of forwards. Unfortunately, we have not been able to listen to whether this has a major effect on the sound quality. It seems that the 77″ version of the C9 has the same curved foot as the C8.
LG also announced a new B9 at CES. This model was not shown on the stand and is not coming to the Benelux for the time being. The C9 is therefore LG’s entry-level OLED television model. The new models, with the exception of the B9, all have the second generation of LG’s α9 image processing chip on board. This means, among other things, that HDMI 2.1 is fully supported.
The TVs therefore have four HDMI ports with a bandwidth of 48Gbit/s, so that 4K HDR images can be delivered at 120fps. All other HDMI 2.1 features are also supported. For example, there is an enhanced audio return channel , with which modern audio formats, such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, can be sent back to a connected audio system. There is also support for variable refresh rate , the variant of AMD’s FreeSync that is now included in the HDMI standard.
To improve sharpness during movement, the new models now have an improved black frame insertion that makes the individual images appear shorter. This reduces motion blur when your eyes follow a moving object on the screen. On the existing models, this option produces a clear flashing image, but because the frame rate has doubled, this is no longer the case. The ratio between the normal images and the black images can also be adjusted, so that the image can be sharper or brighter as desired.
There is support for HDR in the HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision and Technicolor HDR formats. We have not yet seen the latter format applied. We would have preferred LG to have added hdr10+ to the supported hdr formats. For the time being, Panasonic is the only brand with a TV that supports both HDR10 + and Dolby Vision.
WebOS has again been chosen as the operating system, which will be included in version 4.5 this year. Besides a few cosmetic adjustments, the biggest innovation is that the voice assistants from both Google and Amazon can now be used. We do not yet know when the new models will be available and prices have not yet been announced.