All about Technology: LG's 65-inch Ultra HD 4K OLED TV is more affordable, but still expensive

Saturday 2 August 2014

LG's 65-inch Ultra HD 4K OLED TV is more affordable, but still expensive

Even though 4K content isn't yet readily available in Australia - not even through services like Fetch TV or Foxtel - 4K Ultra HD televisions released to date have had another Achilles heel: They're all made from LED LCD panels.

But LG is coming to rescue OLED lovers with a TV set that's still too doggone expensive for most of us.

HD Guru managed to get the lowdown this week on pricing and availability for the LG 65EC9700, a 65-inch Ultra HD 4K television set the Korean manufacturer first unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year.

Featuring an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel that marks a first for Ultra HD TVs, the big-screen wonder wowed CES 2014 attendees with plasma-style viewing angles and richer black levels than existing LED LCD panels.

Unfortunately, the improved picture quality comes at a relatively steep price, with a leaked pricing matrix revealing a retail price of US$8,999 (about AU$9684), which should get knocked down to a street price somewhere in the neighborhood of US$6,999 (about AU$7532).

You know you want it

Featuring a curved screen not unlike Samsung's latest UN65HU9000 set, LG apparently plans to begin shipping the 65EC9700 by the end of September, and expects the OLED display to offer a lifespan similar to plasma models, which are currently on their way out.

At the low end, that would work out to roughly 50,000 hours or more than 28 years, based on AC Nielsen survey data that reveals Americans watch an average of 34 hours per week watching television.

The LG 65EC9700 also promises to come loaded with goodies, ranging from Smart TV streaming to a Tru-Ultra HD Engine for higher quality up conversions and Passive 3D, complete with the glasses necessary to view such content.

If impressively large 4K OLED screens are your kind of thing, you'll have the next two months to scrounge for enough dough to actually buy LG's latest wonder, which offers four times the resolution (3840 x 2160) of regular 1080p HDTVs.