If there's one thing CES is known for, aside from ankle blisters for the attendees, it's huge televisions. Every year all the big manufacturers unveil their biggest and most bleeding-edge panels for onlookers to gawk at, at this year was no exception. Though OLED displays ruled the roost there was a decent mix of next-gen display technology on the show floor this year, and of course most of them were unbelievably massive (and expensive). Let's take a look at some of the most mouth-watering panels.
The Wall by Samsung
What else would you call a 146” panel? The Wall is made by Samsung and features MicroLED technology. The company says it’s modular in the sense that you can break pieces off if it’s too big for your living room, allowing it to “transform into any size,” though it’s not clear what you’d do with the extra pieces, or how that all works. Still, 146” is an incredibly huge display, and if there’s one thing we know about CES it’s all about who can show off the biggest display. This one makes 85” panels seem cozy.
LG Flexible OLED Display
It seems like we’ve been hearing and seeing demos of this technology for years, and LG seems close to coming to market finally as it brought a 65” version to the show that is pretty amazing. The entire display is stored in a box (see above), and can be unfurled for your viewing pleasure, then it disappears back into its box to keep your living room looking nice and clean. Or, as shown above, just the top can be displayed if you want to check the weather or view other widgets (we're assuming this is customizable). The 65” version runs at 4k resolution, but it’s unclear when it’ll be for sale, or how much it will cost.
LG 8K OLED
The flexible display wasn’t the only trick LG had in its bag at CES, as it was also showing off a stunning 88” 8K OLED panel as well. As of press time it’s both the largest and highest resolution OLED panel ever created, as it offers four times the pixels of a 4k panel if you can believe that. Since most of us are still considering an upgrade to 4k at some point, this is pure future tech indeed. The panel is a major upgrade over its previous huge OLED panel, which was 77” and ran at 4k resolution.
Sony 85” X900F
Though the hot panels are the show this year were mostly OLED, Sony was showing off a gorgeous 85” LCD with a full-array local dimming LED backlight just to prove there’s still some life left in LCDs. Plus, it’ll be much more affordable than an OLED version, even if it’s blacks aren’t quite as inky. The X900F offers Dolby Vision HDR support, and like most TVs at the show pricing and availability weren’t included in the spec sheet.
Sony Bravia A8F OLED
Sony’s 65” A8F TV stands out amongst the sea of 4K OLED panels at the show thanks to its Acoustic Surface technology, which means the panel itself is the sound system. This allows it to ditch the unsightly sound bar typically slung across the bottom of the TV, giving it a smaller and much cleaner footprint. We even heard a demo of the sound coming from the surface of the TV, and it was much better than we anticipated. No doubt the built-in subwoofer built into the back of the TV helps quite a bit too.
LG 77” OLED Wallpaper
We included the 65" version of this TV in our write up of high-end 4K TVs, and the company is now offering a 77” version, and it’s absolutely amazing. It's so thin you just hang it on your wall, then connect it to the control box below with a ribbon cable. It supports Dolby Atmos, HDR, and Dolby Vision, so it has pretty much all of the bells and whistles. The 77" version is available now, and all you need is $15k to bring one home.
TCL C-Series Roku Smart TV
This year TCL proved you can generate some decent buzz by introducing an awesome TV that doesn't cost an arm and leg. At the show the company rolled out its new C-series Roku TVs, which are quite affordable as the 55" is $699, the 65" is $1,199, and 75" is just $1,999. That's not cheap obviously, but it's CES-cheap, that's for sure. These TVs all come with built-in Roku, so you have access to a ton of streaming options. They also support Dolby Vision HDR, voice search via Roku remote, and wide color gamut. If this list has left you feeling financially, er, inadequate, hopefully this leaves you with a sense of possibility.