8K OLED TVs officially become a thing this week as LG starts taking orders in South Korea for arguably the most advanced consumer TV set ever created. The 88Z9 has an 88-inch OLED panel with 8K Ultra HD resolution (7680 x 4320) — that’s four times more pixels than 4K. The OLED panel itself is the largest that LG has ever shipped in a TV.
Barely any 8K content exists in the world right now, of course, and that’s not likely to change soon. LG is addressing this by leaning on its second-generation Alpha 9 8K processor that uses deep learning algorithms to help upscale images to a higher resolution. LG says the TV will also use deep learning to generate virtual 5.1 surround sound with support for Dolby Atmos.
We’ll have to see how well those technologies justify the unsurprisingly astronomical pricing. LG TV’s retail price is 50 million won (~$42,000), but preorders taken in June will have a reduced price of 40 million won (~$34,000) and come with a free air purifier. So that sounds like a bargain. The set will go on sale in North America and Europe in the third quarter of this year.
