UPDATE [05/05/2022]: When it was originally announced at the start of the year, the LG 97-inch OLED – the largest OLED TV ever made – had no price tag. Given LG has finally managed to find a way to supersize an OLED and work around its notoriously finicky size restrictions, we were expecting a price of around $80,000 as listed below in the original article. Turns out we were overestimating the cost massively.
This week, LG has confirmed its 2022 smart TV line-up, which includes the 97-inch G2 OLED that will retail in Australia for “just” $47,999. It’s still a bit punchy, even for the most aspirational of consumers, but at least it’s under half of the original theoretical RRP. The massive TV will begin shipping in Australia in October 2022.
The LG G2 OLED line-up will also come in various other sizes, including 83-inches ($15,599), 77-inches ($11,399), 65-inches ($6,359) and 55-inches ($4,799). All four of those smaller sizes will begin shipping in Australia by the end of this month.
Original Article – LG’s New 97-Incher Is The Largest OLED TV Screen Ever Made
As CES 2022 shifts into gear, we’re expecting to see quite a few new and exciting devices roll onto the announcement table. We’ve already seen Kohler finally confirm the availability of their luscious aromatherapy-inspired smart bath as a bit of a left-field entrant, but now it’s time for something a bit more mainstream. That’d be the new TV line-up from LG, headlined by a monstrous 97-inch OLED TV – the largest screen of its kind.
Sure, 97-inches isn’t much in a world where Samsung’s The Wall measures up at 292-inches, and LG already has a beastly 325-inch DVLED to its name. And Samsung has already managed to offer sub-100 inch TVs with its QLED technology. But the big difference here is that the LG 97-inch OLED is the largest OLED screen ever made, managing to finesse a type of screen that is largely known for being quite restrictive in terms of what sizes are possible.
If you need a quick refresher, know that OLED is a fundamentally different technology from your standard LCD – which is what Samsung’s QLED is based on. LCD relies on a backlight and the pixels are transmissive, so they aren’t able to offer anywhere near the same level of flexibility and contrast as an OLED. With an OLED, pixels can individually emit their own light. Because of this individuality of the pixels, they can more efficiently control colour and contrast.
LED is generally better for brightness, but nothing comes close to OLED when you’re after those deep, inky blacks that just make colours pop for a more immersive experience. As far as TV technology, OLED is still considered the acronym to beat.
In 2019, the biggest OLED that LG managed to produce was the 88-inch, although that was also 8K resolution. The LG 97-inch OLED is “only” 4K but represents a meaningful step for the company nonetheless. LG’s designers have become so nifty at producing these panels that they’ve also been able to introduce the smallest OLED ever made at 42-inches.
The 97-inch OLED and the 42-inch OLED are part of LG’s newly announced G2 series, which should begin shipping later this year and includes TV sizes that also include the more standard sizes from 55-inches to 83-inches. Distinguishing features uniformed across all G2 TVs are a 20% gain on brightness, which should fix OLED’s biggest drawback and a thinner body that makes each unit more suitable for wall-mounting.
LG OLED’s have also become known as some of the best gaming TVs you can buy, so it’s easy to imagine this 97-inch will be a top-seller amongst PS5 and Xbox Series X owners. Like all other TVs in the G2 series, it will feature top-line input features like HDMI 2.1 standards, variable refresh rates, and 120Hz for smoother viewing. LG has also been getting quite good at tweaking onboard audio performance for those that haven’t yet purchased some of the best soundbars on the market, so we’re expecting a swift uptick in that department as well.
LG has not yet announced pricing for any of its 2022 TVs. Seeing as the 88-inch 8K model retailed for around $70,000 on launch, we’re expecting the LG 97-inch OLED to start from around $80,000, even if it’s only 4K.
