CES 2022: LG Fails to Excite with Its New TVs

The Koreans stay on the same predictable path, may find it hard to compete during a World Cup year

LG brought a lot of new televisions to CES this year, including its smallest and largest OLED TVs yet. What this will mean in the face of direct competition with fresh, impressive QD-OLED TV models from Samsung or Sony remains to be seen. (Image: LG)

It used to be that everyone was eager to learn about LG’s latest and greatest TV sets at the beginning of each year, during CES — but this has not been the case since 2018 and, truth be told, it’s saddening to see that 2022 did not break that streak of predictable product showings. This is no coincidence: just as OLED technology itself has not been able to meaningfully advance during the last three years, so the manufacturer that provides the vast majority of OLED panels to the global market has struggled to innovate. No wonder, then, that the Koreans — as it was already leaked about six weeks ago — chose to play it safe for another year, offering 2022 TV models not much different to the ones released in 2021 (or even 2020 in some respects).

So: as it was already widely anticipated, the A1, B1, C1, G1 and Z1 lines of 2021 LG OLED TVs are succeeded by the A2, B2, C2, G2 and Z2 lines (the last being the only one of 8K resolution among those). Differences? Not many: the C2 will feature the OLED “Evo” tech (exclusive to the G1 last year) and it will come in two new sizes of 42 and 83 inches. The G2 will get the “Evo” tech along with a “brightness booster” (most probably a heatsink)…