We have seen the future of TV and it is skinny. Very, very skinny. Like, smartphone skinny. LG South Africa today launched their 2016 range of 4K OLED TVs in South Africa, at a small event held at the company’s Johannesburg factory.
And while there are some sets that look to be updates of 2015’s TV’s – which they are – LG had another set of screens on show. Or rather, a few of them. The absolute highlights were the picture-on-glass series, the LG E6, which will be landing in the South African market around June this year, and the flagship G6 OLED which will arrive around September.
The E6 and the G6 are both HDR-capable TVs, which makes them ideal candidates for Netflix’s new feature rollout. They are, of course, SUHD screens to boot but it’s the thickness of the screen, or rather the lack of it, which caught our attention. That would be because the screen has been placed on a sheet of glass, giving the E6 a thickness of 5.3mm and the G6 a thickness of 4.3mm on the screen area. The base of each set houses all of the components, including Harman Kardon speakers, and doubles as a wall mount while the screens themselves are thinner than a smartphone.
Already available in the South African market is the EG960 (above), an update on the 2015 curved model with LG’s webOS 3.0, an updated Magic Remote that we’re not sure we like just yet – but it can take over from your DStv remote, which is nifty, a new mobile app, and a handful of other software features. Expect a more detailed rundown once we’ve properly had our hands on one. There’s baked-in Netflix for all of LG’s 2016 lineup and a range of other apps too, as usual.
Also coming are LG’s UH950, UH850 and UH770 TVs, all of which are Super UHD panels. They’re lacking the Perfect Black and Infinite Contrast features the company is touting for their OLED screens (which really do look incredible in practise) but they’re impressive bits of hardware in their own right. The SUHD trio will be arriving in South Africa some time between May and June this year.
Pricing for the lot has yet to be finalised but expect to pay in the region of R120,000 for LG’s flagship G6 set. Everything else will be priced lower down the bank-breaking ladder.
