LG just announced the prices on this year's 4K HDR OLED televisions, and the cheapest one will set you back $4,000---a crazy amount of money, to be sure. But considering a plain old 1080p OLED TV cost $15,000 just three years ago, it's an encouraging sign that very best TVs are slowly approaching affordability.
And make no mistake: 4K HDR OLED TVs might just be the very best televisions. A quick refresher on those acronyms helps explain why.
4K refers to the sets’ diamond-sharp screen resolutions, of course. HDR (high dynamic range) uses a wider color gamut---and usually brighter backlights---to create more lifelike images. It's beautiful, but you need content encoded for it and a TV designed for it, both of which are currently in short supply. OLED stands for "organic light-emitting diode," and it's widely considered the best display tech available. That's because it offers the finest pixel-by-pixel contrast and the deepest blacks you'll see without visiting space.
All of which is to say a 4K HDR OLED TV will blow your mind, and charge you heavily for the privilege.
So when you decode that alphabet soup, LG's prices seem sort of reasonable. Its sets are also versatile: All the models support both Dolby Vision and HDR10 formats, which is a rarity when it comes to playing HDR video, and an important assurance of future-proofing in case one format disappears. The entry-level OLED B6 line includes a 55-inch model for $4,000 and a 65-incher for $6,000. Want a curved screen? No sweat. Tell the dude at your local big-box store you want an OLED C6 model. They cost the same.
As nice as those models are, the step-up models are stunners. The E6 lineup has a slim "picture on glass" design that's thinner than shaved deli meat. You're looking at $5,000 for the 55-inch model and $7,000 for the 65-incher. They feature a built-in 40-watt 2.2 channel speaker along the bottom, which doubles as a stand.
The Signature OLED G6 flagship is the real head-turner and wallet-burner. At $8,000, the 65-inch G6 costs slightly less than that other kind of G6, but it’s still expensive for a TV. It has a 60W 4.2-channel Harmon/Kardon soundbar stand you can tilt up and down. There’s also a 75-incher on the way, but pricing hasn’t been announced yet. It’ll be... a lot.
Which again, all of these are. But other than the G6, they're only slightly more expensive than the top-tier LCD televisions. Samsung’s KS9500 4K HDR set costs $3,700 for the 65-incher. Sony’s 65-inch X930D is priced at $3,000. And Vizio, still the champion of bang-for-the-buck, has a 65-inch 4K HDR LCD panel priced at $2,000.
While OLED TVs produce inkwell blacks and beautiful contrast, those lower-priced LCD sets have an advantage when it comes to HDR. They use high-powered LED backlighting to boost the brightness and the color gamut of the picture. That means brighter fireballs, more-realistic spectral highlights, and more-nuanced gradations between colors. Until HDR content is mainstream, however, OLED will remain the display technology to beat.
