As hi-res gets higher, we reveal who’s launching what
more to LG, Samsung, Sony and The 8K state of play, according
Never content to sit and enjoy the fruits of its labours, the consumer tech industry is always looking ahead to The Next Big Thing. And for plenty of TV manufacturers, that’s 8K TV.
There are 7680 x 4320 pixels in an 8K resolution. That’s four times as many as 4K Ultra HD, and 16 times the number of Full HD. In short, that’s a huge leap in terms of resolution and, potentially, picture quality.
LG and Samsung first showed 8K displays at the 2015 CES, while Sharp made a wild claim about its 85in 8K TV going into production. Since then, the industry has focused on making the 4K ecosystem a reality and CES 2018 brought the 8K brigade out in force once more.
LG: 88in 8K OLED
LG got the ball rolling before we even set foot in Las Vegas, announcing a mammoth 88in 8K OLED display. This isn’t just the largest OLED screen produced so far, it’s also the first 8K OLED screen (rather than LCD).
No word on pricing or if it’s actually going into production, nor on when or if a range will be revealed – but it did wow us with a vivid demo.
Samsung: 8K AI QLED
Samsung went one further at CES 2018, announcing that its new 8K AI QLED TVS will be on sale by the end of this year. That’s QLED, not OLED of course – Samsung continues to champion the quantum-dot display technology.
The 8K QLEDS will have an intelligent upscaling algorithm (the ‘AI’ in the branding) that can upscale any source to 8K while improving detail and depth, as well as cleverly learning and storing the best processing tools to use depending on the content type. While we saw only a limited 8K animation on display, it looked spectacularly detailed – as did the upscaled Full HD and 4K pictures.
The international launches will start with Korea and the US during the second half of this year. No word on pricing or screen sizes yet.
Sony: 85in 8K HDR LCD
Sony dazzled us with prototypes of its next-gen picture processor – the X1 Ultimate – powering another prototype: an 85in 8K HDR LCD display.
Not only is the new chip capable of handling and enhancing 8K resolution, the 8K display it’s attached to is also capable of outputting a mindboggling 10,000 nits – maximum peak brightness that current HDR standards such as Dolby Vision HDR allow for (compared with HDR10’S 1000-nit top limit).
With 8K footage of wildlife, landscapes and the game Gran Turismo Sport on show, it looked glorious, breathtakingly natural and realistic – but we’re more likely to see X1 Ultimate-powered 4K sets before 8K gets a whiff of production.
Sharp: 8K LCD TVS
Along with a “multi-visual” 85in LCD 8K display and 27in 8K display module, Sharp’s 70in 8K LC70X500 TV caught our attention. Sharp says this ‘AQUOS 8K’ LCD screen with HDR10 and HLG will be the first consumer-ready 8K TV to go on sale this year – for $73,000.
Considering nearly all the 8K screens we saw at CES 2018 were prototypes, rather than fully fledged TVS, this is one we’ll be keeping our eyes on this year. It’s set to hit stores in March 2018 in Japan and China, while Europe will have to settle for an 8K monitor, the LV70X500E.