LG Signature 88-inch OLED 8K TV
THE GEN.1 VERSION OF THE ULTIMATE TV.
THE SPEED TO market of 8K TV technology has surprised many people. Already, some manufacturers have released their secondgeneration products, prices have plummeted and this has all occurred before any mainstream content has even landed on these shores. But, among all the early models and quasi-experimental first-efforts, it’s LG’s 8K OLED that everyone has been waiting for.
OLED is the TV technology that everyone wants and for good reason. The contrast is essentially perfect, the colours are the most vibrant and the myth of low brightness has been well-and-truly busted. LG even inadvertently underlined the latter by holding this model’s launch in a glass house at Sydney’s famous Circular Quay: in the middle of a bright Aussie day there was no hiding from the TV cameras, but there was absolutely no need to.
Yet many people will still be wondering what the point of 8K actually is? The stock answer from all the manufacturers has been consistent: it’s about addressing pixel density on very large screens. If that claim is hard to fathom, simply look at the picture on a 4K 42-inch TV and then look at it on a 4K 75-inch TV: it’s much sharper.
Now that 75-inch TVs are common and models over 80-inches are proliferating, 4K was (hard to believe as it is) starting to look a bit fuzzy and low-res. Indeed, the 33-million pixels (which create a native 7,680 x 4,320 resolution) sported by this beast is four times the amount of a 4K screen.
There’s also the recognition that the lack of 8K video content means most people will be watching 4K TV and movies on their large 8K screens. This means that upscaling has to be processed better than ever: if you simply conjure-up four pixels where there was previously
one, straight lines become jagged quickly. As such, image quality has taken a step forward across the board.
However, with large screens comes larger problems. Of the 8K TVs we’ve already seen, image aberrations derived from using cheap panels (like the fly-screen effect) become more noticeable. Backlighting is a bigger issue and even when Sony tried to address this with its monstrous, $26,000 Z9G, the banks of rear-lit LED arrays generated so much heat that the entire chassis became an elaborate, aluminiummilled heatsink that tipped the scales at 72KG – and yet it still produced halo-effect lighting blooms. Now the king has arrived and, in many respects, it makes Sony’s beast look tame.
Our first impression was simply, “Wow!” It’s everything we hoped it would be. Or at least the screen is, because our second reaction bolted-on the addendum that it was also what we feared it might be: a great screen bolted-on to a big, thick “speaker” base just like some of its less-popular forebears. This instantly impacts upon its wall-mountability, which is something the target market will certainly care about. It’s not just a forced-on speaker cabinet though; many of the screen’s electronics are also housed within which leaves the screen as thin as you’d expect from a giant OLED. Nonetheless, the fact that the mandatory stand boosts the screen’s weight from 42KG to a staggering 104KG speaks for itself.
If you live in Japan you’ll be able to watch the forthcoming Olympics in 8K using the HLG broadcast format (which is the same Foxtel uses for its satellite-based 4K transmission) having previously enjoyed the Rugby World Cup. However, there’s no plan for Australian 8K broadcast content yet and no media that can support it on the horizon. That leaves Streaming Video On Demand, but you’ll need extremely good internet (minimum bitrate starts at 50Mb/s and stretches past 300Mb/s) and Australia’s infrastructure won’t easily cope with that.
However, LG has addressed the problem of content thoughtfully. The screen is compatible with both Freesync and Nvidia’s G-Sync technology, which means the screen’s refresh rate can adjust dynamically when playing video games. This keeps motion smooth and reduces graphical tearing aberrations on screen (it also automatically goes into a low-latency mode when gaming to avoid image lag). Why is this important? Because 8K-compatible video game consoles are expected to hit the market in 2020 and, in addition to providing transformative gaming, they’ll provide a potential contentdelivery platform – albeit one that still largely depends on internet speeds.
So, with this all said, how does the screen perform? The short answer is perfectly. While native 8K content is only available in custommade showreels that represent technology showcases rather than real-world content, that doesn’t stop it from being jaw-droppingly stunning. Panning in all directions is silkysmooth, contrast is perfect, colours are bright and vibrant but now detail is so impressive that you can see people moving around in hotel-room windows while flying through cityscapes.
Upscaled 4K is noticeably sharper than on similarly-sized 4K screens as the increased pixel density and improved upscaling comes into play. The latter is handled by LG’s Alpha 9 Gen 2 Intelligent Processor which combines 6 step up-scaling and noise reduction. Quality is further enhanced by Dolby Vision and HDR10 contrast enhancements but we’d have liked to see HDR10+ at this price.
As for the sound, it’s suitably amazing with superb bass, treble and clarity. This is provided by three-directional audio across eight 80W of speakers that comprise of four tweeters, two mid-range speakers and two woofers. However, that won’t appease the people buying it who want to stick it on a wall and integrate it with a home-cinema-quality audio system.
Other features include Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple AirPlay and even Apple HomeKit support. Meanwhile the ribbon-based WebOS which operates via the wand remote is still one of the best featured and most intuitive on the market. Connectivity is the standard fare with two USB 2.0 ports although one of the HDMI ports has 8K-compatible modifications.
At $59,999 it’s farcically expensive and the free installation represents a minimal expectation rather than value-add. But it’s out now and represents a milestone in TV technology and the early-adopter premium will tumble very quickly. This is what the future of TV looks like but it’s here right now.