CES kicks off the way we largely expected it would, with TV news front and centre via LG. What’s new in OLED in 2023?
It’s the beginning of the year, and you know what that means: the world’s big consumer technology show CES is back on, and with it all the TV news you can poke a remote at. Or even several.
If you’ve been waiting until the beginning of this year to line up for a new TV, the news may well be good, particularly if you’re eyeing OLED, and want to see what’s new in that world, because there are new things, indeed.
One of the first TV makers to show off gear at CES this year, LG is talking up three ranges, covering its latest “evo” offering, which is to say this is the premium range of OLED models for the year.
You can probably expect a few less expensive models later on, as well, but LG’s focus on the high-end will be on the C3, G3, and Z3 TVs, models that will sport improvements to OLED’s brightness, plus some AI-assisted technology to improve upscaling, tone mapping, deliver better brightness, and even bolster sound, supporting as much as 9.1.2 virtual spatial audio in the psychoacoustic way.
That’s all coming courtesy of the LG Alpha a9 processor Gen6, a chip that’ll arrive on all three 2023 OLED TVs — C3, G3, and Z3 — which will use a degree of AI for picture and sound, though they’re not the only changes.
The new panels are also brighter, with the G3 OLED Evo delivering a light control system that uses algorithms to boost brightness on a pixel-by-pixel basis, improving the light output from the self-emitting organic pixels overall. Called “LG Brightness Booster Max”, it’s one of those technologies that’ll sit in the background and just up the output.
LG hasn’t said whether it’ll appear on the Z3 — our guess is yes, since the “Z” series is almost always the high-end — but all three will see revisions to webOS, with more customisation and personalisation to the Home Screen, even if like in other years the interface probably won’t come to older TVs.
We’ll check with LG as to whether the 2022 models before them will see the update, but like all things CES, you can largely expect a little bit of a question mark over this, and indeed prices, with no word yet on Australian pricing or availability.
