LG’s 97-inch G2 OLED hands-on
No doubt, the LG 97-inch G2 OLED is crazy-town expensive for a TV, but considering what it does? It’s actually a bargain.
Look, I’m not here trying to convince anyone reading this article that anyone needs a $25,000 TV — that’s LG’s job. This is really about me helping to make sense of a world that’s really hard to understand for anyone who isn’t really wealthy. This is me justifying a somewhat extravagant luxury for a demographic of onlookers who might love to own a 97-inch OLED TV, but who have zero shot of doing so until such a thing doesn’t cost as much as a compact car.
Also, let’s just be honest, talking about outrageously expensive AV gear is just super fun for me. So, you know, thanks for the indulgence. Here we go.
No projector can touch it
I reckon that statement may trigger some AV geeks out there. Yes, my brethren, I know that Sony’s GTZ380 projector can go toe to toe with the LG G2 OLED in terms of HDR brightness, but that projector starts at $90,000, and that’s before the cost of a screen, installation, and sound system.
Sure, we could step down to Sony’s half-as-bright-but-still-very-impressive VPL XW7000ES projector which, at $27K, gets us a little closer to the G2’s asking price, but we still need a screen, installation, and sound.
My point is that a high-performance 97-inch TV is not only going to beat the pants off of any comparably priced projector/screen setup in terms of performance, but it’s going to be easier to use and more reliable. Very little is built into a projector — certainly no streaming apps, or casting capabilities. And while TV speakers generally aren’t awesome, projectors come with none at all.
Image used with permission by copyright holder
By all accounts, the 97-inch LG G2 OLED is one of the best ways to get a truly high-performance, big-screen experience at home with a minimum of hassle, and I think that’s worth paying for.
It’s not ridiculously expensive
As far as first-ever, groundbreaking TVs go, the 97-inch LG G2 isn’t priced that high. Consider what the first consumer 4K TV cost when it was introduced 10 years ago. Sony’s 84-inch Bravia XBR-84X900 LED TV, also introduced at CEDIA Expo, ran $25,000 at the time. That’s 13 inches less of inferior TV technology for $25,000 — and that’s 2012 dollars. Adjusted for (recently insane) inflation, that’s roughly equivalent to $32,250 in 2022.
Image used with permission by copyright holder
It’s not just batsh*t-crazy outrageous, either
Were someone to proclaim that a $25,000 97-inch TV was obscene, I would feel the need to help them adjust their perception by pointing out that LG’s rollable OLED TV, the OLED R, is a mere 65-inches in screen size and costs a whopping $100,000.
I’m sorry, what were you just saying about the $25,000 TV? Oh, that you’d like to have four of them? Good call.
Sounds like a bargain to me.
