LG Electronics has announced its 2022 TV lineup, with the company’s new OLED Evo displays finding their way down from its premium G-series TVs to the second-tier C-series models.
The company introduced its brighter OLED Evo panels last year, boosting the brightness of its OLED displays through the use of deuterium, which is an organic materials with a long lifespan that’s able to withstand higher voltages.
The OLED Evo displays were restricted to LG’s flagship G1 series TVs in 2021, but this years LG G2 and C2 models will both benefit from the technology, meaning buyers will be able to get better panels at a more accessible price point.
Still, the LG G2 remains the company’s top TV in terms of overall picture performance, thanks to the addition of heat dissipation technology that the South Korean company says will help boost both its peak and average brightness.
The LG OLED Evo TVs will also come in more size options, with a super-sized 97-inch model added for the first time as well as a new 83-inch model. Last year, the only 83-inch OLED TV LG sold was the 8K resolution Z1. Also new this year is LG’s 42-inch C2, its smallest OLED model so far. However, both that model and the slightly bigger 48-inch version come with a standard OLED panel as opposed to OLED Evo.
Fans of LG’s G and C series OLED TVs may also appreciate a notably smaller bezel, which has been trimmed down from 10.2 mm to a razor-thin 6mm in this year’s models. The TVs will also be 47% lighter than last year’s equivalents, thanks to LG’s use of a new composite fibre material.
What isn’t yet clear is which of the TVs will benefit from LG Display’s new OLED EX technology that was unveiled earlier this week. As the company explained previously, OLED EX relies on deuterium and new algorithms to boost brightness by up to 30% - you can read how it works here.
LG has also made impressive gains in its gaming credentials, uncapping the bandwidth on its HDMI 2.1 ports to run at 48Gbps. Its 2020 and 2021 models were all capped at 40Gbps. There’s also an updated Game Optimiser menu that provides simpler access to the most critical gaming settings as well as the five game genre presets, which include a fifth one especially for sports games. In addition, LG said all of its OLED TVs have a new Dark Room mode that helps to reduce eye fatigue when playing games in low light, which is achieved by reducing the brightness while maintaining contrast.
The LG G2 and C2 TVs will both be powered by the latest, fifth generation of the company’s Alpha 9 processor, which gains improvements to picture and sound technology. LG said it allows for more efficient AI upscaling and has a new Dynamic Tone Mapping Pro Algorithm that can subdivide the screen into more discreet areas. There’s also a new Dynamic Vivid Mode in the Object Background Enhancement that better differentiates between the background and the foreground, analysing them separately to create the feeling of more depth, the company explained. On the sound side, the new chipset boosts AI Sound Pro virtual upmixing to 7.1.2 channels.
Moving on, LG said this year’s TVs will run the updated webOS 2.2, with more refinements to its personalised recommendations. In addition, users can now six separate profiles with their own recommendations and preferred apps, which may come in handy for large households.
Other new features include an ambient mode that displays things such as a clock, the weather, personal photos, light displays or art when the TV is not being used.
Besides its OLED TVs, LG also announced a refresh of its QNED TVs. It hasn’t released full details of its QNED lineup yet, but it said some of the models will be Mini-LEDs, which means more precise dimming, while the more affordable models will be regular LCD displays. What we do know is the 86-inch 8K QNED99 will sit at the very top of that range, with the new Alpha 9 Gen 5 processor and 2,400 independent dimming zones paired with an advanced dimming algorithm. One step down is the QNED90, armed with precision Pro Mini-LED technology, while the QNED 85 will feature precision dimming.
LG said the Z2, G2, C2 OLED models and the QNED 99 and QNED 90 TVs will all come with far-field microphones, meaning they can respond to voice commands when in standby, without any need to find the remote control.
