Having already announced its upcoming soundbar lineup, LG now turns to its 2024 QNED flavor of televisions. And while we don’t yet know pricing or availability in the U.S. — that’ll come later — we do know the active ingredient behind the sets that continue to combine quantum dots with NanoCell technology in a space that sits just below LG’s OLED TVs.
And as you suspect by now, that active ingredient is AI.
That all starts with the α8 processor (pronounced “Alpha Eight”). LG says it has a 1.3x increase in AI performance over what it’s replacing, a 2.3x enhancement in graphics performance, and a raw processing speed that is 1.6x faster. So what does that mean to you, the human whose eyeballs are trained on the screen? Hopefully nothing. Hopefully, you don’t notice anything except that the picture is brighter. The motion is smoother. And the colors are as vibrant as ever in a QNED panel. That all comes down to the processor that’s powering all the things.
And that’s not even the really cool stuff. LG says the new AI processing doesn’t just look at a scene in its entirety — it can tell the difference between faces, objects, and backgrounds within a scene, thus “enriching the texture and fine details to present images with unparalleled realism.” It does all that with “Dynamic Tone Mapping Pro,” to analyze different sections in real time. But you’re still in the loop, too, with “Personalized Picture Wizard,” so you can customize things how you want to watch them. (Presumably, the option to not do any of this will also be available.)
“The LG 2024 LG QNED TV lineup takes the viewing experience to a whole new level with an advanced processor that enables outstanding audio-visual experiences across various screen sizes while also providing a personalized user experience tailored to each individual’s unique lifestyle and preferences,” Baik Seon-pill, head of the LG Home Entertainment Company’s Product Planning Division, said in a press release announcing the new lineup. “We remain committed to delivering an unparalleled customer experience, drawing upon our decade-long expertise with webOS.”
And that’s just on the visual side of things. The AI enhancements extend to audio, too. “AI Sound Pro” is a thing, virtually creating a 9.1.2 surround sound experience from the TVs’ built-in speakers. And if you’re rocking an LG soundbar system, WOW Orchestra will leverage the TV’s built-in speakers for what LG calls “a mesmerizing 3D sound experience.”
It’s all a return to form for LG, which was more quiet on the QNED front in 2023. But 2024 will see a total of seven QNED options across four ranges (the QNED99T at 8K and with an upgraded Alpha 9 process0r, the 4K QNED90T with mini-LED, the QNED85T LCD,a nd the low-end QNED80T), at sizes of 43, 50, 55, 65, 75, 86, and a whopping 98 inches, which LG says “will fully immerse viewers with its magnitude.”
That magnitude means the screen real estate, though. Thin is once again in, with 29mm profiles the norm in at least a couple of the models. And wall mounting remains an option across the board.
On the software side of things, LG has taken a page out of the smartphone playbook (never mind that LG no longer makes phones) and is offering five years of updates. And that’s not just for new TVs — it’ll apply to the QNED Mini LED 8K models released in 2022, as well. (That’s the QNED99 and QNED95 series TVs.)
Again, more details are to come. And we’ll get our first real look at the new QNED fare at CES 2024.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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