We’ve been pretty big fans of the super vivid colours that the organic LED technology “OLED” has been able to push out, but if you’ve wanted one, you’ve had the choice of curved or nothing.
LG’s Full HD model? Curved. The recently released 4K variation? Curved.
It’s not that curves are bad, it’s just more that you shouldn’t be forced to have a curve, and since the curvature of a television can change the experience depending on how many are watching what’s on screen and where they’re sitting, the option of flat as well as curved is always most welcome.
Fortunately, LG is set to deliver more in its OLED range, with two flat models joining the curved variations in stores this week.
“We’ve been asked by many consumers when a flat screen OLED TV will be available from LG in Australia,” said Grant Vandenberg, Marketing Manager for LG Home Electronics in Australia.
“Now, with the EF950T, it’s here,” he said, adding that “we’re giving people the choice: flat screen or curved screen OLED TV.”
From mid-February, anyone keen on OLED technology will now find the option of either a 55 or 65 inch OLED with either a flat display or one with a slight curve.
The new flatter models are just that — flat versions of the curved 4K OLED TVs — and as such they have a various similar model number and pretty much identical specs and pricing.
We say “pretty much” because one feature has changed, with the new flat TVs supporting “HDR” or “high dynamic range” video, providing a greater level of colours depth for videos supporting the technology, such as the Ultra HD Blu-ray titles set to arrive later this year.
This is something the curved LG OLED TVs didn’t arrive with, though a representative for LG did tell GadgetGuy that an update has been made available online to deliver the feature to curved 4K OLED TVs from LG.
That essentially brings the two variations of OLED TV in line with each other, because beyond the HDR, the flat and curved LG 4K OLED TVs line up quite well against each other, with features shared including webOS 2.0 for TV smarts and a 6-step Ultra HD upscaling system to bring low-res content up to the pixel count 4K Ultra HD delivers.
Even the pricing is more or less spot on, with the 55 inch flat 4K OLED (55EF950T) matching the price of its 55 inch curved 4K OLED counterpart (55EG960T), both set to $5499. If you need something bigger, the 65 inch variants of each will both cost $8999.
“Australian consumers have shown a real appetite for OLED TV technology and we estimate there’s going to be high demand for this new EF950T series in particular,” said Vandenberg.
If the $5K minimum price is too rich or you don’t see yourself needing 4K, you’ll still find LG’s 55 inch Full HD curved OLED around for a recommended retail price of $3999, with all of LG’s variants in stores across Australia.
