LG's 2021 TVs are coming soon, including updates to its massively popular OLED TVs, and the great news is that they look set for significantly lower prices than the 2020 models cost at launch, based on the news from South Korea.
A report from Korea JoongAng Daily (via TechRadar) reports that the new sets are selling for about 20% less than their predecessors at launch, which is music to our ears in a year where Mini-LED TVs are going to asking some hard question of the best OLED TVs when it comes to HDR performance.
In some ways, this isn't surprising – the 2020 models got a similar kind of price cut compared to 2019's sets, and LG has only been investing in easier and cheaper OLED production, and now we're all reaping the rewards.
The LG C1 is the 2021 successor to the phenomenal LG CX, and a 20% discount from last year's 55-inch model would give it a launch price of around £1,500/$1,600. For reference, the 55-inch LG CX is currently selling for around £1,300/$1,500 after a series of discounts, so the price of the new model could be incredibly affordable for a premium-level set.
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Even more interesting for the videophiles among us is the LG G1, which replaces the LG GX from last year, but is also the first TV to debut LG's new 'OLED Evo' panel, which promises higher peak brightness, meaning better HDR performance. A 20% launch price drop here would mean a starting price of around £1,800/$2,000 for the 55-inch model.
That's still premium, for sure, but compared to the £2,699/$2,999 price of the 55-inch Sony A90J (which promises a similarly bright OLED panel), it's astoundingly good value.
This also makes us more excited for the LG B1 and LG A1 budget OLED TVs – it now seems certain that the first LG TVs to join the ranks of the best TVs under £1000 and best TVs under $1000 are coming.
However, we shouldn't be counting our pixels before they're fabricated. Prices often don't convert directly from country to country, because of factoring in taxes and other costs of selling that vary. Prices for new models that will be available for at least a year also sometimes factor in uncertainty in a country's currency value if that country were, for example, having issues with a local trading bloc.
But we're still hopeful that this will mean more affordable LG OLED sets here. LG makes some of the best TVs in the world, and the best gaming TVs, so maybe this means they get into more people's homes.
