LG wows CES in Vegas with 97-inch OLED TV

LG Electronics unveiled the biggest organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV in the world, a bid to cement its No. 1 position in the premium television market and keep rival Samsung Electronics in check.

LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan speaks during a press conference Wednesday ahead of the CES 2023 trade show in Las Vegas. [LG ELECTRONICS]

LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan speaks during a press conference Wednesday ahead of the CES 2023 trade show in Las Vegas. [LG ELECTRONICS]

LAS VEGAS — LG Electronics unveiled the biggest organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV in the world, a bid to cement its No. 1 position in the premium television market and keep rival Samsung Electronics in check.

The introduction was made by LG CEO Cho Joo-wan Wednesday at a press conference in Las Vegas a day before CES 2023 officially opened. The electronics maker rolled out a 97-inch OLED M TV, the largest OLED TV ever with supposedly the highest picture quality.

The TV boasts a resolution of about 4,000 pixels, better known as 4K, and a refresh rate of up to 120 hertz. Those are the best specs for any OLED TV so far.

“In 2013, LG Electronics introduced an OLED TV that no one else had ever tried, and changed the consumer TV viewing experience in a totally different way,” said Cho.

“We’ve been through many challenges over the last three years, but were able to overcome them as we had this solid belief that the answer always comes from customers,” Cho said. “The beginning and end of every innovation come from customers, and we will make the world smile through our innovations.” LG’s OLED TVs have received Innovation Awards at CES shows every year since 2013.

LG Electronics rolled out a 97-inch OLED M TV Wednesday ahead of the CES 2023 in Las Vegas, the largest size in the world. [LG ELECTRONICS]

The LG OLED M TV comes with a Zero Connect Box, which allows people to connect other devices to the TV wirelessly. The box has to be placed within 10 meters of the TV.

It can transfer large amounts of data about three times faster than earlier such devices and offers Dolby Vision visual technology and Dolby Atmos sound.

The device automatically changes transmission direction when it detects an obstacle between it and the TV, including humans.

The introduction of the TV came a day after Samsung Electronics unveiled a 77-inch OLED TV ahead of the CES. That television comes with a QD-OLED Display, which deploys a blue OLED layer as a light source and a color filter consisting of quantum dots to enhance luminance.

The battle to build better OLED TVs has intensified between Samsung and LG in recent years. Chinese competitors like BOE and Xiaomi threaten to dominate the liquid crystal display (LCD) TV market, the technology that preceded OLEDs.

Samsung, the world's largest TV maker, has been behind rival LG Electronics in the OLED TV segment. LG controls over 60 percent of the world's OLED TV sales.

LG Electronics will also show off 83-inch and 77-inch OLED TVs during the CES trade show this year. The show runs from Jan. 5 to 8 in Las Vegas.

Cho added that the company is in talks with various companies around the world to continue innovating.

“We’ve been increasing our investment in core technologies like artificial intelligence and 6G, and also been expanding our portfolio to various sectors such as EV charging and digital health,” Cho said. “No company can do everything by itself, so we’ve been actively looking for cooperation opportunities with various companies.”

In late 2020, LG Electronics started LG Nova, a Silicon Valley-based innovation center, to partner with start-ups to build new businesses.

LG Display Senior Vice President Lee Hyeon-woo, left, introduces the company's third-generation OLED TV panel on Wednesday in Las Vegas, with a day left for the CES 2023 to officially kick off. [LG DISPLAY]

LG Display also introduced its latest OLED TV panel Wednesday, which the panel maker described as the brightest ever.

The third-generation OLED TV panel is 60 percent brighter than previous OLED models and has a 30 percent wider viewing angle.

The latest panel has 2,100 nits of brightness compared to 1,300 nits in previous models. One nit is a unit of measurement for brightness equivalent to one candlepower per square meter.

LG Display plans to adopt its third-generation OLED technology in its premium TVs this year.

BY SARAH CHEA, SHIN HA-NEE [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]