Luxury TV maker Loewe has announced its first-ever OLED TV featuring LG Displays’ latest Micro Lens Array technology, but that’s not the only reason to get excited. For the Loewe Stellar OLED TV also happens to be encased in stone, and it runs Samsung’s Tizen operating system.
What’s more, the OLED panel itself may well feature some enhancements as Loewe is now reported to be manufacturing the OLED displays at its facility in Kronach, Germany. As revealed earlier this month, the company has opted to purchase open-cell WRGB OLED panels from LG Display as opposed to the finished articles, a move that gives it more room to customize things such as the heatsink and power supply and optimize its performance.
The Loewe Stellar OLED TV, recipient of an IF Design Award, was first seen by the German language website 4KFilm , which said it’s the company’s first model that will feature a customized OLED panel. It added that the panel in question is LG Display’s most advanced version, featuring second-generation MLA technology that uses micro lenses to direct more light to the front of the screen, which means higher brightness and lower power consumption.
What isn’t clear is the exact nature of the modifications Loewe has carried out, so it remains to be seen how different the picture will be from standard OLED models with MLA 2.0 technology, such as LG Electronics’ G4 and C4 OLED models.
Stylish Syno-Stone
In terms of style, we can clearly see the modifications Loewe has been working on. It’s far more stylish than any other MLA-based OLED TV you’ll be able to buy, with an aluminium frame and a back plate made of “syno-stone”, a unique stone material that was first seen on the Loewe Iconic series of OLED TVs.
Loewe said users will be able to choose from various colours of stone to better match the TV with the interior of their home, as part of the company’s longstanding personalized luxury design ethos.
The Loewe Stellar OLED TV comes with a swivel-type stand as standard, but users can also choose wall brackets or motorized and unmotorized floor stands.
Powered by Tizen OS
The user experience should be immediately familiar to anyone who has owned a Samsung TV before, thanks to Loewe’s decision to adopt Tizen OS inside the Stellar OLED TV. With this move, the company becomes the first major TV brand to utilize Samsung’s operating system since the company decided to license it to other TV makers way back in 2019.
The decision is a big win for Samsung, as it has struggled to match the success of rival LG Electronics, whose webOS operating system is used by hundreds of different TV brands under license, including some fairly notable ones such as JVC, Konka, Toshiba and others. In contrast, Samsung’s Tizen has seen rather limited adoption by just a handful of relatively unknown TV brands.
With the Tizen OS powering the Loewe Stellar OLED TV, users will have access to all of the major TV streaming apps, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+, but there may be some slight differences between the experience on Loewe’s TV and Samsung’s models.
The downside of using Tizen OS is that Loewe’s Stellar OLED will not support the Dolby Vision HDR format, or at least, not yet. That’s because Samsung has taken a disliking to the format and instead prefers HDR10+ and regular HDR, hence its platform is incompatible. However, a spokesperson for Loewe told 4KFilme that Dolby Vision support might be added via a firmware update at some point in future. The use of the word “might” suggests the company’s decision will ultimately be based on user feedback, and how much demand there is for it.
What else?
Besides Tizen OS for streaming, Loewe said the Stellar OLED features a triple tuner for receiving traditional broadcasts, plus an integrated 1 terabyte hard drive. It comes with four HDMI 2.1 ports, which makes it an excellent choice for gamers, with support for 4K at 120Hz, Variable Refresh Rates and Auto Low-Latency Mode.
In terms of audio, users should be able to squeeze some beefy sounds out of the integrated 80-watt soundbar that comes with the TV. In addition, there’s a “Magic Light” LED system that illuminates the top and bottom half of the TVs back and floor or swivel stand, but it probably won’t be quite as good as Philips’ iconic Ambilight technology, as it cannot adapt the colours dynamically to follow what’s happening on-screen.
As always with Loewe’s products, users can expect to pay a fairly hefty price to get their hands on the Loewe Stellar OLED TV. The good news is that there’s plenty of options, with Loewe saying it will launch 42-inch, 48-inch, 55-inch, 65-inch, 77-inch and 83-inch variants this year. The smaller models, starting will be priced at 3,300 euros, 3,800 euros, 4,300 euros and 6,000 euros, respectively, with the cost of the larger 77-inch and 83-inch versions to be announced later.
For those who want something even more ostentatious, Loewe said it’s planning to launch a 97-inch Stellar OLED too, though it won’t arrive until next year.
*Images via 4KFilme
