Skip to main content

LG’s $3500 OLED TV is the answer to plasma lovers’ prayers

LG just altered the TV landscape. Today, the company announced that one of its 55-inch OLED televisions is now available for pre-order in the U.S. for $3500, offering videophiles an affordable alternative to the now-discontinued plasma television. LG says Best Buy will be the first to sell the new curved OLED set starting August 24, and is accepting pre-orders now at BestBuy.com.

Related: Why the world is shunning OLED TVs — and LG is embracing them.

Recommended Videos

While $3500 might seem like a pretty steep price for a 55-inch TV, consider this: LG’s one and only OLED TV model last year, the 55EA9800, was introduced at $11,000 before dropping it to $8000 shortly thereafter. That makes $3500 an enticingly low price of entry, especially considering that OLED TVs provide picture quality that is without rival. To add a little more perspective, Panasonic’s top 55-inch plasma model, the P55VT60, cost $2300 when it was first introduced.

The announcement comes at a convenient time for TV enthusiasts, as the best plasma televisions are now all but impossible to come by. The end of the plasma TV’s reign of supremacy began in October 2013, when Panasonic announced that it was to cease plasma production. More recently, Samsung, Panasonic’s chief competitor in the plasma TV space, followed suit, and has now discontinued its own plasma TV line. This left a void that OLED TVs promised to fill. Until now, pricing was prohibitive.

Related: OLED vs. Plasma, which is better?

It’s important to note that the 55EC9300, though technically LG’s “entry level” OLED TV with a max resolution of 1080p (not 4K), is still a premium product. The set is only available with a curved screen, and it comes with LG”s excellent webOS operating/smart TV platform. If you want a flat OLED TV, you’ll have to look at the much pricier ($5,000)  55EA8800, also known as the “Gallery OLED,” a panel made to look like a piece of art, and featuring one knockout of an audio system. If you’re looking for something bigger, you’ll have to wait, and likely pay more. LG has previously announced plans for a 65-inch curved HD model, and a 77-inch curved Ultra HD 4K model, due out later this year.

LG is a sort of lone ranger in the push to propogate OLED televisions at this time. Sony and Panasonic have both backed off of OLED TV development and production, citing OLED TV production as difficult and expensive. Samsung doesn’t appear to be making a big push toward OLED televisions at this time either, favoring Ultra HD 4K LED TVs instead. However, the company does still offer its excellent KN55S9C.

It’s common for consumer electronics companies to paint themselves as the “leaders” in a given product space, but that kind of chest-puffing is usually just marketing bravado. In this case, however, it would appear that LG really is the market leader for OLED televisions.

Topics
Caleb Denison
Digital Trends Editor at Large Caleb Denison is a sought-after writer, speaker, and television correspondent with unmatched…
LG reveals it has made a major leap in OLED technology
A phosphorescent OLED panel.

In the world of OLED panels, there are two main types of OLED material: fluorescent and phosphorescent. Historically, fluorescent OLED has been the easiest to work with, but it's far less efficient than phosphorescent OLED, which is why, for years, the display industry has been trying to develop the technology needed to create a 100% phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) panel. And while we're still not quite there, LG Display says it has crossed a major milestone in that journey, by verifying the commercialization of panels that use blue phosphorescent PHOLED material -- the first time all three primary OLED colors (red, green, and blue) have been produced from PHOLED material in a format that is viable for mass production.

In theory, a 100% PHOLED panel would exhibit 99% efficiency, with almost all of the energy consumed being converted into light, with hardly any heat. LG Display's PHOLED technology, which is based on a hybrid two-stack Tandem OLED structure, doesn't quite reach this peak of performance. The company uses fluorescent blue OLED in the lower stack, with blue PHOLED added to the top stack.

Read more
This 42-inch OLED gaming TV from Samsung has a nice discount
A Samsung S90D TV on a white background.

We all know that Samsung makes some of the best TVs on the market and has for quite some time. But did you know that Samsung makes a midsized OLED TV that perfectly doubles as a gaming monitor? We’re talking about the incredible Samsung 42-inch S90D Series 4K OLED, which just so happens to be on sale this week:

For a limited time, you’ll be able to score this TV for only $900 when you purchase at retailers like Amazon, B&H Photo-Video, and Samsung. The MSRP on this TV is $1,400, so you’ll be saving yourself $500!

Read more
The Panasonic 65-inch Z95A OLED, one of the best TVs of last year, is $700 off
Panasonic Z95A

We were sad when Panasonic stopped making plasma TVs and even more tragic when the manufacturer stopped selling TVs in North America altogether. But we’ve laid our blues to rest, as Panasonic OLEDs have been on the market once again for going on two years now! And it just so happens that one of the brand’s best TVs of 2024 is marked down to a new low price this week: 

When you purchase the Panasonic 65-inch Z95A Series 4K OLED at Amazon, you’ll only wind up paying $2,500 (plus sales tax). The MSRP on this model is $3,200, which means you’ll be saving $700! 

Read more