LG's Huge 88-inch 8K OLED TV Starts Rolling Out For Those With $ 42,000

If you've been waiting for your chance to buy LG's giant, new 88-inch 8K OLED TV, we've got it: You should have been pre-ordered. Back then, the world's first 8K OLED TV would only have you back $ 34,000. But now that the TV is on the cusp of its international release in the U.S. and several other countries, you're going to get another $ 8,000 to get your hands on one. We'd argue that it's going to be a hit on happiness, but LG has definitely taken a stab at it: The LG Signature Z9 88-inch Class 8K Smart OLED TV with A.I. ThinQ will be priced at $ 42,000, according to Engadget.

The Z9 is not just the first 8K OLED TV – it's also the biggest OLED TV so far, at 88-inches. That's a mere 11 inches larger than the 4K, 77-inch C8 series, and yet the C8 currently sells for just $ 5,500, which is a stark reminder of how difficult (and thus expensive) it is to produce more widely OLED panels. Of course, it will not be long until the Z9's stratospheric price tag begins to fall to earth. We've already spotted one retailer that lists the Z9 for just $ 30,000.

LG wil soon have its first real OLED competitor. Samsung has announced that it is going to be used in the OLED game – which it had abandoned in its quantum dot QLED technology – it will also be bringing some of those tiny dots to the OLED table, possibly improving on what is already the best display technology you can currently buy.

Quantum dots will make it cheaper or easier to create massive-scale OLED displays, so it's the sheer size of the Z9 that has you in awe, we suspect microLED TV will soon be the king of the hill for big screens. With its approach based on many smaller panels, it can achieve the kind of scale and cost-effectiveness that can be achieved with traditional OLED or even LED TVs. That's not for lack of trying – ahead of this year's 2019 IFA electronics show, Sharp shown off the largest LED TV in the world.

Interestingly, LG is using the launch of the Z9 as an opportunity to take a closer look at the other 8K TVs that will likely start to flood the market in the next 12 to 18 months. LG wants you to know that all 8K TVs are alike and that you should be paying close attention to the fine print. LG has worked with the International Committee for Display Metrology (ICDM) to ensure its 8K TVs meet this standard minimum organization, which describes how TV resolution is perceived by the human eye. Their key measurement unit for this standard is Contrast Modulation (CM). The higher the CM percentage, the better, but the minimum is 25% for images and 50% for text.

"An 8K TV with a CM value that is lower than these required thresholds does not deliver real 8K, even though the TV may in fact have the sufficient number (7,680 x 4,320) of pixels," LG claims. Needless to say, both the 8K OLED Z9, and LG's new Nanocell 8K TV, both of which exceed these thresholds by a lot, with CM values ​​in the 90% range for both measurements.

So far, Z9 OLED TV, but you can keep an eye on LG's product page, which will be updated.

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