The future of premium TVs is almost upon us, with reports from South Korea saying that Samsung Display has finally begun production of its long-awaited 89-inch Micro LED TV.
MicroLED is often touted as the future of the TV industry because it delivers the same kind of high brightness seen in LCD TVs, together with the deep blacks, per-pixel lighting and high contrast of OLED TVs. It’s not susceptible to burn-in either, meaning it truly delivers the best of both worlds.
It’s a glorious new display technology but Samsung Display and others have had trouble bringing it to the masses. The problems are two-fold - it’s incredibly expensive on the one hand, and on the other hand it’s also extremely difficult to manufacture the displays in living room-friendly sizes. Samsung’s first consumer MicroLED TV that launched in 2021, for example, was 110-inches, and it hasn’t released a smaller version yet.
There have been rumours that Samsung was trying to bring smaller MicroLED TVs to market, including a 76-inch model. However, that plan was reportedly shelved as Samsung Display apparently has come up against some big obstacles while trying to miniaturise the technology.
The good news is that progress is apparently now being made, and if the report from The Elec is correct, we could well see an 89-inch MicroLED TV launched at CES 2023. The same report also said Samsung has decided against launching bigger 101-inch and 110-inch MicroLED TVs, at least for now.
Given that Samsung hasn’t confirmed the story, there’s no word on the proposed price tag for its 89-inch MicroLED TV. Suffice to say though, it’s unlikely to be something that many people can afford. Various unconfirmed stories suggest a price of around $80,000, which seems to make sense given that Samsung’s existing 110-inch MicroLED TV costs $155,000. For $80,000, you could alternatively purchase a Mercedes CLS, so even if you do have that kind of cash lying around you may want to consider your options.
That said, Samsung's MicroLED TV should at least be more affordable than the newly announced LG MAGNIT 4K MicroLED TV, which weighs in at 136-inches and comes with a staggering $300,000 price tag.
Samsung may well find a small, niche audience for an 89-inch MicroLED TV, if only because very large displays are apparently all the rage these days. LG Electronics recently launched its biggest-ever, 97-inch OLED TV, while Samsung has a 98-inch Neo QLED TV on sale right now. Others, such as TCL, are also offering some exceptionally large TVs.
