LG Electronics has preempted its own CES 2023 presentation scheduled for Wednesday, announcing its full lineup of OLED TVs for the new year. As expected, the company will launch new A3, B3, C3, G3 and Z3 models to succeed last year’s A2, B2, C2, G2 and Z2.
The most exciting upgrade will make its way to the higher end models, with the LG G3 OLED TV (pictured) likely to offer a massive upgrade in terms of brightness. According to LG, the G3 will be an incredible 70% brighter than “traditional” OLED TVs such as the B3 and A3, thanks to the inclusion of its new Brightness Booster Max technology. The 8K resolution LG Z3 TV will also benefit from the same technology, while the LG C3 will come with regular “Brightness Booster” tech instead, so it should also receive a somewhat less noticeable. brightness boost.
LG didn’t provide any comparison of the G3’s brightness versus last year’s G2 model, but Forbes’ John Archer and FlatPanels HD both suggest that it could achieve a peak brightness of 2,000 nits in Vivid picture mode. They also offer a more conservative number of 1,500 nits brightness for other viewing modes, which would be a massive improvement on the 1,000 nits maximum brightness that the G2 can achieve.
Although LG hasn’t said anything yet, those reports suggest Brightness Booster Max is based on a technology known as Micro Lens Array, which uses a layer of tiny lenses built into the display to better focus the light from the OLED Pixels, ensuring that more light is directed at the viewer.
We’ll have to wait until we receive a review sample TV to check the technology for ourselves, and it’s not clear if there will be any downsides to having higher brightness. Hopefully, it will prove to be a net benefit, as lower brightness has always been one of the downsides of OLED compared to LCD technology.
LG also said the new G3, C3 and Z3 models will be the first to sport its Alpha9 Gen6 AI processor, which enables an improved AI Picture Pro engine that offers better upscaling for greater clarity. The chipset also leverages image processing technology that’s able to better recognize faces and objects, and refine them for more lifelike HDR quality. Dynamic Tone Mapping has also been improved to bring greater depth and detail to onscreen images by adjusting the brightness and colour in a greater number of image blocks than previously.
Elsewhere, LG said its AI Sound Pro technology has increased the number of supported virtual channels from 7.1.2 to 9.1.2. Dolby Atmos is supported, as always, and the TVs are compatible with LG’s latest soundbars, which feature WOW Orchestra tech to integrate the TV’s built-in speakers seamlessly with its own channels.
LG’s full OLED lineup for 2023 will also support HDMI Organisation for Quick Media Switching VRR, or QMS-VRR. This is said to eliminate the short-term black screen that appears when switching between content sources with different refresh rates, but only when using a certified source device.
LG hasn’t announced any new panel sizes, so that means the B3 will be available in 55, 65 and 77-inch options, while the C3 will come in 42, 48, 55, 65, 77 and 83-inch options. The G3 will be available in 55, 65, 77, 83 and 97-inch versions, and the Europe-only A3 will be offered in 48, 55, 65 and 77-inch sizes. As for the 8K resolution Z3, there are only two options of 77 and 88-inches.
