LG W-Series OLED TVs: Amazing Monitors At Astounding Prices
LG remains the only major manufacturer to produce 4K OLED TVs (Sony is introducing them this year but is buying the display panels from LG, so that doesn’t really count). And even though companies like Samsung insist that new “quantum dot” technology will eventually allow their 4K HDR models to surpass the incredible video quality of OLED, LG’s 4K monitors remain the gold standard for high-definition TV.The manufacturer’s OLED models debuted in 2013 and each successive model has been a leap forward. Last year’s G-Series, particularly the G6 “Picture on Glass” OLED TV, was hailed as groundbreaking.
LG W-Series OLED TVs
After a brief fling with curved TVs, high-end consumer preferences have shifted back to thin, wall-mounted monitors. You need a better word than “thin,” though, to describe the LG W-Series OLEDs. Their thickness isn’t measured in inches, it’s measured in millimeters: 2.57mm, to be exact – which is 0.1 inches. That’s right, W-Series OLED TVs are one-tenth of an inch deep; your iPhone is more twice as thick. That incredible measurement explains the decision to call these monitors the W-series. The “W” stands for “wallpaper.”It would stand to reason that a screen that’s so thin would be lighter than any other large flat-screen monitor on the market. The larger W-series 77-inch TV weighs only 27 pounds, and the smaller 65-inch model comes in at a mere 17 pounds. You won’t need a friend to help you lift a W-series OLED; in fact, you could have your younger kids do it for you.
That brings us to the one real drawback (other than price) of the W-series. The TVs are so thin that they can only be hung directly on a flat wall. They can’t be mounted on wall brackets or stands, since the monitor would be impossible to keep steady when attached to a mount. Of course, you’re probably not going to be doing a lot of tilting and swiveling with any 77-inch screen, so chances are that the “negative” isn’t a real drawback at all.
You might be wondering how you plug a bunch of home theater cables into a 0.1-inch screen hanging directly on the wall. The answer is simple: you don’t.
LG OLED TV Hardware and Performance
All connections for a W-Series OLED are made on a separate hardware/soundbar that comes with the TV. It sits below the screen on a separate piece of furniture (which is not included) and connects to the monitor via a single proprietary cable. The soundbar supports Dolby Atmos surround-sound and has four HDMI ports, three USB ports and one optical port, plus two small, retracting speakers on either end. If your existing sound system is better than LG’s integral system, the audio function on the hardware bar can be disabled.We won’t spend a lot of time evaluating the monitor’s performance here, because it’s already well-known that you can’t beat an OLED display with any other technology currently available. The colors, brightness and contrast are unmatchable, even better than on LG’s 2016 OLED models, and these TVs fully support Active HDR while offering simulated HDR for non-4K content. They’re also built to support upcoming Advanced HDR and HLG technologies that are on the way.
The 65-inch LG OLED Series-W is available for just under $8,000, with the 77-inch model currently being sold for just under $20,000. It’s hard for most people to visualize spending that much for a television – but the Series-W is far from being “just” a television. It’s legitimately a work of scientific art.
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