is a senior reviewer covering TVs and audio. He has over 20 years experience in AV, and has previously been on staff at Digital Trends and Reviewed.
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CES serves a few different purposes — to give us the sense of what’s to come during the year, to introduce strange devices, and for companies to show off the newest technology. While there wasn’t as much of the first as I had hoped, there sure was a lot of the latter. TV manufacturers delivered enormous displays with additional subpixels, intriguing advancements on existing technologies, and the return of a stylish and slim favorite.
LG’s Wallpaper TV made a return at CES. Photo by John Higgins / The Verge
First launched back in 2017, LG’s Wallpaper TV redefined what a slim TV could be. After a few years away, the Wallpaper TV has returned with the W6. This new model is only 9 millimeters thick, has carved linear patterns around its perimeter for reinforced rigidity that looks stylish, and hangs flush against the wall. The TV uses the wireless Zero Connect Box 2.0, so you don’t have a bunch of cables from your sources to the TV (there is a thin power cable at the bottom left of the TV, though). The box is 35 percent smaller than its previous iteration and supports 4K signals up to 165Hz on all its HDMI ports, making it the first TV capable of that.
The W6 uses LG’s Primary RGB Tandem 2.0 panel and Hyper Radiant Color Technology. It should have a 20 percent increase in brightness over the G5, which I measured at over 2,400 nits. The W6 also has 12-bit color depth processing, which gives it more headroom when receiving the 10-bit signal sent from sources, causing fewer artifacts.
The TCL X11L introduces new quantum dots and an updated color filter. Photo by John Higgins / The Verge
The main TV focus of the show for TCL was on its X11L SQD-Mini LED (so much so, that there weren’t any details revealed about its other TV lines). The TV uses blue LEDs — and not the RGB LEDs that most manufacturers were showing at CES — and TCL says it’s capable of an incredible 10,000 nits of brightness, has up to 20,000 dimming zones, and covers 100 percent of the BT.2020 color gamut.
This is because of two advancements TCL has made. The X11L is the only TV that uses reformulated quantum dots and an improved color filter developed by TCL CSOT (the company’s panel manufacturing division). Color on the TV looks spectacular, and thanks to all those dimming zones (and some great processing), the TV has excellent blooming control. This new innovation doesn’t come cheap, as the smallest size of 75 inches starts at $6,999.99, but it’s still a big step for mini LED.
The Samsung R95H was an imposing greeter at First Look. Photo by John Higgins / The Verge
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