LG has thrown a curved ball into the Australian TV market by announcing a 55-inch TV with a revolutionary curved OLED display and Star Wars actor Ewan MacGregor as its range's ambassador.
Based on its price in South Korea, where it is in pre-order stage, the new high OLED 1080p high definition screen could sell for about $13,500. LG’s general manager of marketing Lambros Skropidis said an Australian price was yet to be set.
Nor has a firm date for its Australian release been confirmed – only a hope that it will be available later this year.
At a harbour-side launch held at Sydney’s Darling Point today, McGregor described the curved OLED as "f.. ing unbelievable".
"It’s like a cinema experience at home when you’re not at the cinema,” he told journalists.
OLED, or organic light-emitting diode displays, have an electroluminescent layer which produces light in response to current. OLED TVs offer brilliant colours and darker blacks but have proved a headache for manufacturers, with high failure rates in productions making them less economical to build.
The TV is curved 15 degrees at each end. LG says it lets users enjoy a screen experience reminiscent of what they’d see in the cinema.
Mr Skropidis said the curved ergonomic design offered improved peripheral vision and also improved the 3D viewing experience, as edges of the screen were marginally closer to viewers.
The TV is 4.3 millimeters at its thinnest point and weighs 17 kilograms. Its curved design means it cannot be wall mounted, LG said today.
The set also features thin transparent film speakers in the crystal clear stand.
LG also announced it would sell 55-inch and 65-inch ultra-high definition TVs in Australia. The two will be available in August for $6999 and $8,999 respectively.
LG already is selling a huge 84-inch UHD TV locally for $15,999. Mr Skropidis said sales were good with more than 10 UHD TV sets being sold weekly nationally.
The UHD TVs include an upscaler that improves lower resolution content for the ultra-high definition screen, which is four times the resolution of standard 1080p HD.
LG also has refreshed its smart TV range with new LED/LCD offerings ranging in price from $279 to $4899. Only 50 and 60-inch Plasma sets would be on sale this year.
The South Korean manufacturer also has tweaked its smart TV software, but mostly it’s last year’s format.
Users can now select channels by drawing station numbers on the screen using LGs “magic remote”, and the top-of-range set includes a dual-tuner. There's 1.6 to 5 Gigabytes of inbuilt storage for recording programs on the fly, which equates to HD quality viewing of around 40 minutes for the premium set and 10 minutes for others.
Up to 2 Terabytes of storage can be added by connecting an external hard drive. A mirror-cast feature lets users stream media wirelessly to the TV.
LG has formed partnerships with Disney Interactive, EA Games, Activision and Unity to supply games content, while Deezer and Spotify will make 20 million songs available through their music services.
