The new TVs that caught our eye at CES 2023
Anyone charged with covering TVs has a rude awakening to the new year as CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) kicks off in Las Vegas before many people have taken their Christmas tree down.
We don't mind though. There's always a load of exciting TV announcements from the big hitters, including LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony. And while the big reveals are usually on high-end TVs, it's a good indication of what to expect in the year ahead.
There were no resolution jumps (no sign of 16K displays yet, thankfully) or new HDR formats. Instead, the advances were more bespoke as manufacturers focused on their own ranges and the proprietary tech.
The best TV deals – the January sales are still happening, and there are plenty of TV discounts to take advantage of
LG Wireless OLED TV
LG arguably had the most dramatic reveal: a wireless TV. Sort of wireless anyway. The display of the LG OLED M still has a power cord, but the video and audio are beamed wirelessly from a separate box.
Samsung has something similar. Its high-end Neo QLEDs have a box with all the HDMI and USB inputs that connects to the TV by one thin wire. They are similar to LG's new OLED then – they all have one wire – but on Samsung's Neo QLED models that wire handles power, video and audio, so none of the signals are wireless.
LG's achievement is a clever one, particularly when you consider the separate box is sending 4K video up to 120 frames per second to the display from up to 30 feet away. It may only seem like a small change compared to Samsung's all-in-one cable, but having no wired connection between the screen and the box doing all the processing means you can keep all your devices (Blu-ray players, games consoles, PVRs and so on) well out of sight. The only wire you'll need to hide is the power cord. You can do this with Samsung's separate connection box, but the further away you put it, the more wire you'll have trailing.
Soundbars can be connected to LG's transmitter, too, so again you'll only need to hide the power cord.
There is a question over how well this wireless transmission will work at home though – something we'll test when we get a model into our labs. Anyone with wi-fi knows it doesn't take much to cause commotion on a wireless network, and it would be frustrating if the transmitter and screen can't maintain a stable connection when they're in a home full of other wireless signals.
This impressive new tech is currently only available on a 97-inch OLED and we dread to think how much it will cost.
We don't yet know what the OLED M will cost, but it's likely to be hugely expensive. Our guess is somewhere between £15,000 and £20,000 – so not the sort of TV you pop down to Currys and pick up.
LG G3 OLED
LG also revealed an update to its flagship, conventional OLED range.
The G3 is the latest in the gallery design series. These thin TVs come with a wall mount and are designed to sit flush to the wall, with no visible gap. They can display works of art when you're not watching them to complete the art gallery illusion.
LG emphasised the brightness of the G3. This has long been a downside with OLEDs compared with backlit TVs, since the organic cells creating the picture can only handle so much light before burning out and leaving an unsightly ghost-like image on the screen. LG reckons the new filter and processor on the G3 will help it be 70% brighter than its predecessor.
It's an impressive figure that will help light parts of the picture stand out, particularly in HDR mode.
The G3 will launch in spring with 55, 65 and 77-inch options. Based on previous generations, we'd expect prices to start at around £2,500, but this will drop sharply over the course of the year.
Looking to buy an LG TV right now? See all our LG TV reviews to find out which is best.
What size TV should I buy? Find the perfect size TV for you and then see which models we recommend
Samsung Micro LED TV gets smaller
You'd expect a Micro LED TV to be, well, micro-sized already, but Samsung's flashy backlit TV technology has been prohibitively huge since its 146-inch debut a few years ago.
This year, you'll be able to buy a 50-inch one, with sizes going up from there capping at 140 inches. Whether this makes the Micro LED anywhere near the price of a typical TV is another matter, because they are far from typical.
Micro LED TVs are modular, meaning you can clip new panels onto your TV to increase the size or change the shape. This used to require expert installation, but Samsung says its simplified the process enough that people can do it themselves at home.
This has more application in business use, but it's easy to imagine someone moving house to somewhere with a larger or smaller living room wanting to adjust the size of their TV to better suit its new home.
Samsung sticks with OLEDs
For years Samsung stubbornly stayed away from OLED technology – that was the remit of other brands and Samsung had QLED technology to compete.
That changed in 2022, with Samsung announcing a handful of QDOLED TVs. They didn't have backlights, but added quantum dots (usually found in QLED TVs) to boost colour vibrancy and brightness.
Our lab tests showed that the technology worked: the QDOLEDs were excellent. Samsung might be dropping the 'QD' part of the name this year, but the new OLED models still have quantum dots inside.
Alongside 55 and 65-inch versions, for the first time there will also be a 77-inch model, which is sure to excite the 14 people in the UK who need this size of TV.
Turning SDR into HDR
Perhaps the most exciting announcement from Samsung was its Auto HDR Remastering.
In the UK, HDR is still mostly limited to streaming services, particularly ones requiring a subscription, but Samsung has a plan and some tech to change that.
HDR (high dynamic range) boosts contrast to make dark parts of the picture look richer and deeper, while lighter parts should look brighter. It increases the range between the brightest and darkest point to emphasise the contrast, and it can look incredible when a manufacturer implements it well.
SDR content (standard dynamic range) has none of these bells and whistles, but Samsung's TVs will be able to upscale SDR content to HDR. It should be similar to how TVs sharpen low resolution content to make it closer to HD or 4K.
Samsung vs LG TVs: which is best. See which of these giant brands come out on top in our tests
Panasonic OLED ups the brightness
Panasonic may not sell its TVs in the US, but it still shows off its new models there – cruel really.
The MZ2000 is its top-end TV for 2023 and it has a microscopic lens array to improve brightness. These lenses focus light towards the viewer, and Panasonic says the result is up to 1,500 nits of brightness.
In our lab tests, very few TVs manage close to this level of brightness, so it's impressive in its own right even before you consider this is an OLED TV, a display type not known for its brightness.
It will have up-firing speakers, too, to take full advantage of Dolby Atmos technology for three-dimensional sound (where audio appears to come from above and around you rather than in a straight path from the TV).
The MZ2000 will be available in 55, 65 and 77-inch screen sizes.
You can see how its predecessor did in our Panasonic TX-55LZ2000B review.
Displace, the battery-powered TV
It wouldn't be CES without a curveball or two, and the Displace TV certainly fits that bill.
It's not for the faint of heart though, because it sticks to a wall or window using suction (we're hoping they're the kind that helped Tom Cruise scale the Burj Khalifa in Mission Impossible).
That's not the end of the Displace's tricks though. While LG's OLED M has wireless sound and video, it still has a power cord. The Displace ditches a power cord in favour of a battery – actually, make that four batteries. According to the manufacturer the rechargeable batteries will last a month if you watch TV six hours a day. The HDMI and USB inputs are housed in a separate box, just like the OLED M.
You'll want to keep those batteries topped up, since they also power the suction – if they all die, so could your TV when it falls off the wall.
But wait, there's more. Or less, really, since the TV doesn't come with a remote. You control it with gestures and voice instead, but there is a smartphone app if you prefer something more traditional (you will almost certainly prefer something more traditional).
The final trick up the Displace's sleeve is its ability to connect four or 16 of them together to make one goliath Frankenstein TV with increased resolution. They aren't cheap though, with each TV costing $1,999 (around £1,645).
It could be a sign of what's to come or just a flash in the pan. With Displace expecting to ship in December 2023, we don't have long to wait to find out.
What about Sony?
Sony was at CES, but it didn't bring any TVs. It's long been a stalwart of the show with a range of stunning panels at the heart of its conference, but it wasn't to be this year.
We'll have to wait a little longer to see what surprises Sony has in store for 2023.
To find out how its current range performs, browse all our Sony TV reviews.