Transparent display prototypes have been appearing on the CES show floor for years. They are sure to wow and showcase the unique capabilities of OLED panels. But LG seems to have decided it’s time to launch a truly, truly transparent TV that people can actually buy this year. on an undisclosed date. This must be a huge sum of money.
The company announced the OLED Signature T (you can guess what the T stands for) at CES 2024. What LG showed off to the press in Las Vegas wasn’t exactly the “final version.” The 77-inch display won’t change at all, but the company hasn’t decided yet whether it will be bundled with all the side furniture you see in these photos or whether the items will be sold separately.
Behind the OLED T’s transparent panel is a contrasting film that can be raised with the press of a button on the remote, making the TV look like any regular OLED or reduce If you want to see what’s behind the screen. The TV features a custom widget that only takes up the lower portion of the screen, an idea that LG seems to have inherited from its rollable TVs. It runs a customized webOS interface optimized for a unique display. It’s certainly less cluttered and busy than the version on LG’s regular TVs.
LG does a lot of demos in its CES kit, and sometimes the TV’s transparency mode gives off a sense of depth that really confuses my brain, like in this photo below.
But there’s a downside: When the contrast filter is on, the OLED T isn’t technically on par with LG’s best conventional OLEDs, like the G series. It lacks the microlens array technology that makes this series much brighter.I’m an unabashed monitor junkie, so if I owned this thing I imagine it would constantly strike me as a worse TV than the G4, or, if you wanted the more premium LG Wireless M series, it Do Including mutual legal assistance. The price of this TV is destined to be much higher than these two TVs.
You’re making an objective sacrifice for the transparency trick, so it’s worth considering how quickly the novelty of this TV might wear off. For some, maybe never. except me? I can’t help but feel like I’ll be out of it all in a few days.
The fundamental question is: Who is OLED Signature T suitable for? I asked the company’s representatives why LG thought now was the right time to launch a commercially available transparent TV. The answer I got was that some consumers are looking for something truly new and different. This has always been the driving goal of LG Signature OLED. The company also makes a damn suitcase TV – a review will be coming soon, I promise – so it’s willing to go against the grain if it creates some buzz.
As for other specs, the OLED T comes with down-firing speakers below the display. Like the M Series, it receives all video and audio from LG’s Zero Connect Box, which can be placed up to 30 feet away as long as it maintains line of sight to the TV. This is where you plug in your streaming boxes and gaming consoles.
LG plans to launch the Signature OLED T this year, but has not yet committed to a specific time frame. The price is anyone’s guess. The final retail price of this rollable OLED is $100,000. Last year’s more affordable 77-inch wireless OLED cost as much as $4,999.99. Transparency will undoubtedly add thousands of dollars. But finally, at least we’re seeing another long-running CES gimmick making its way into a real product — even if this transparent novelty doesn’t solve any real problems in the TV world.
Photography: Chris Welch/The Verge
