LG’s 2019 TV lineup consists of Alexa, HDMI 2.1, and an 88-inch 8K OLED

Upfront of the beginning of the large CES tech present this weekend, LG has introduced its flagship TV lineup for 2019.

Main LG’s vary this 12 months are its first 8K TVs, the 88-inch Z9 OLED and 75-inch SM99 LCD, which boast 4 occasions the decision of present 4K shows, or sixteen occasions that of full HD. Your entire flagship lineup additionally natively helps Alexa at launch along with Google Assistant, they usually’re the primary TVs introduced with assist for the most recent HDMI normal, model 2.1, and excessive body price (HFR) for higher rendering of sports activities, documentaries, and motion movies.

Whereas final 12 months you would solely management LG’s TVs with Alexa utilizing an exterior sensible speaker, this 12 months’s fashions will can help you entry the voice assistant utilizing an Amazon Prime Video button positioned immediately on the TV’s distant. So whether or not you’ve bought a sensible house that’s primarily based round Alexa or Google Assistant, your LG TV ought to have the ability to act as a hub to manage it.

HDMI 2.1 TECHNOLOGY, BUT NO CONTENT JUST YET

In whole, LG has introduced six completely different TV ranges. 4 of them, the Z9, W9, E9 and C9, are OLEDs, whereas the SM9X and SM8X are LCDs. The entire OLED fashions and the one 8K LCD might be powered by the second technology of LG’s Alpha 9 processing chip, which is supplied with AI that LG guarantees will alter the set’s brightness and audio primarily based on the TV’s content material and surroundings.

LG’s 8K TVs aren’t the primary to market (that award goes to Samsung’s 85-inch Q900R), however they're the primary that assist HDMI 2.1 out of the field. That’s essential, as a result of utilizing the previous HDMI 2.zero normal limits 8K alerts to simply 30fps whereas model 2.1 will increase this to a most of 60. Samsung’s 85-inch 8K Q900R TV is predicted to ultimately be upgraded to assist the usual, but it surely wasn’t accessible on the TV’s launch.

Nonetheless, even LG’s 4K units will profit from HDMI 2.1. 4K content material will profit from assist for prime body charges of as much as 120fps, which ends up in smoother movement, much less blur, and extra element total. This might be significantly helpful when watching fast-moving sports activities and different content material the place monitoring movement is extra essential than cinematic high quality. In the meantime eARC means extra audio information might be transmitted, and auto low latency mode ought to scale back enter lag and make video games really feel extra responsive. Lastly, variable refresh price will supply related performance to what we’ve seen with G-sync and Freesync on the PC, eliminating display tearing when a recreation can’t keep a steady framerate.

LG’s OLED lineup for 2019. From left to right, the W9, E9, C9 and Z9. Image: LG

You may need to attend a short while to utilize a few of this performance although. Exterior of assessments in Japan, the provision of 8K content material remains to be very restricted, and it’s an analogous story for prime body price 120fps movies. Most content material these days remains to be 30fps or beneath, with even 60fps content material being the exception relatively than the rule. 8K and 120fps video is prone to turn out to be extra extensively accessible now that hardware that may play it's launching, but it surely’s doubtless that it'll endure from this chicken-and-egg drawback for a little bit longer.

Not talked about as we speak is any replace on the rollable OLED TV idea that LG confirmed off final 12 months. The TV, which can reportedly turn out to be an precise product in 2019, was first proven at CES 2018 alongside an early prototype of its 8K TV. With the 8K TV now set to come back to market, its rollable sibling certainly can’t be too far behind.

LG is but to element how a lot its flagship lineup of TVs will value or after they’ll be accessible, however we don’t anticipate them to come back low cost. For context, the 77-inch mannequin of the corporate’s flagship W7 OLED value $14,999.99 when it was first launched final 12 months, whereas Samsung’s personal 8K began on the identical value.