Looking for a quick precis on what Korean tech giant LG is showing off this year at CES? Here’s your easy go-to guide.
Plenty Of Ultra HD And OLED TVs
Quantum dots are the Next Big Thing in TV tech; Sony showed them off last year in a range of TRILUMINOS BRAVIA TVs, but this year it’s LG’s turn. LG calls the tech Wide Colour LED, appearing on its new Ultra HD TVs, and it refers to a more energy- and light-efficient backlighting system and redesigned pixel colour arrangement that uses blue light and improved filters to massively improve on a regular LED-backlit LCD’s colour gamut. It’s a subtle improvement compared to flashy new Smart TV systems or designs, but it’s a hugely useful one for everyday use.
Not content with just showing off regular ol’ UHD, though, LG is demonstrating a bunch of new and improved Ultra HD OLED TVs, including a 77-inch flexible screen, and a new Art Slim range that promises both improved design and re-jigged sound courtesy of the company’s partnership with Harman/Kardon. All the new TVs on show have LG’s refined webOS 2.0 Smart TV interface, which for my money is currently the best built-in media navigation on any TV you can buy.
A 21:9, FreeSync Gaming Monitor
The 21:9 ultra-wide aspect ratio — that’s the super-widescreen aspect that most cinematic movies are at your local cinema — is enjoying a resurgence at the moment, and it’s being driven by its potential for immersive gaming. LG’s new 34UM67 is a 34-inch flatscreen panel with said aspect ratio, but it also has a nifty refresh rate trick up its sleeve. As its panel and screen size go, though, I really liked the curved 34UC97 when I gave it a test drive, so fingers crossed the UM67 has plenty of the same positive qualities.
The 34UM67’s gaming nous comes from an infinitely and automatically adjustable refresh rate tweak called FreeSync. AMD’s FreeSync is a pretty cool piece of technology — it’s a non-proprietary, built-in widget that allows a monitor sporting the tech to perfectly and seamlessly adjust its display refresh rate to match the output of the PC connected to it. That is, no more screen tearing during fast-paced gaming, and it has the advantage over Nvidia’s G-SYNC of working over a wide range of resolutions and refresh rates, so it’s more versatile. FreeSync looks to be taking off around the tech world — Samsung has a bunch of supported monitors at CES too.
No Aussie info for the LG 34UM67’s release just yet: “Pricing and availability of featured models are yet to be determined for Australia.”
The Curvy, Crisp G Flex2 Smartphone
The nifty new G Flex2 makes the laudable step of cutting a few tenths of an inch of screen size from its predecessor’s chassis — it’s now a 5.5-inch 1920x1080pixel display, both smaller and more pixel-dense than the original G Flex.
A brand new, top of the line Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 powers the G Flex32, running a 64-bit iteration of the equally new Android 5.0 Lollipop OS. It also has the same self-healing rear panel, which can resist and recover from minor scratches (although take a knife to it and the damage will remain, of course). No word on an Australian launch, though, as hampered the first G Flex a little — although you’ll definitely be able to buy it in Korea.
Bonus: High-Tech Washers, Fridges… Cupboards
LG is also showing off a 963-litre door-in-door “mega capacity” fridge, a washing machine with a separate compartment for white clothes, and a nifty super-cupboard — NFC enabled, of course — that steams and “gently shakes” your clothes to clean and dry them with no washer and dryer required. Home appliances are getting really high tech these days, huh?