LG’s New 48-inch OLED Has a Problem
For those of you who were hoping to land a better entry-level price into LG’s OLED TVs will surely be disappointed.
For those of you who were hoping to land a better entry-level price into LG’s OLED TVs will surely be disappointed.
LG’s soon-to-be-released 48-inch OLED TV is currently slated to sell for around $1,800 – not a cheap option by any means. This could be seen as a misstep for the Korean tech company, as there are surely many who have been left on the sidelines in recent years because of the high price points of OLED TVs. If the new offering boasted a sub-$1,000 price tag, it could have indeed pushed those on-the-fence consumers to purchase one.
Called the CX OLED, this is LG’s first foray into the 48-inch size for its highly successful OLED lineups. The other sizes for the CX Series will be coming in future months – April might see the 65-inch model and May for the 77-inch monster.
Previously, the cheapest LG OLED TV available has been the B Series, such as the LG B9 OLED. The 55-inch model comes in at $1,300, the 65 inch $1,900 and the 77-inch behemoth $4,200.
The higher price point that LG settled on for the 48-incher may have to do with the extra costs that are inevitably needed to create new production lines for the smaller offering. Or LG may have wanted to see how the market will react to such a smaller OLED TV. If the demand is robust, LG will likely think that it made the right decision. Only time will tell.
You as the consumer, though, have the choice to purchase this product. As it will be a brand-new offering, the price tag will naturally be high, and as months pass and other models enter the lineup, the price will sink. We have all seen this before. If you really want to land that hot deal, just wait for Black Friday.
Despite the frustrations over the price, the 48-inch TV will indeed come with all the usual perks of LG’s OLED offerings – fantastic picture quality, accurate colors, deepest blacks and inimitable uniformity and contrast levels. Both the B9 and C9 series have also shown that wide-angle viewing is second to none.
In past reviews, the B9 matched up pretty well to its more expensive brethren, the C9 Series. There is no reason to think that the CX Series won’t be able to compete with the B9.
It’s not there yet, but the price for the CX will eventually head lower. For now, just enjoy the boost in the TV-watching experience that the CX Series will provide – just on a smaller scale.
Ethen Kim Lieser is a Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek and Arirang TV.