Got a fondness for eye-catching consumer electronics and have $60,000 to spare? LG’s see-through Signature OLED T television is now available for preorder, the company announced on Wednesday. Let’s be transparent here: This set is seriously expensive. But if you want a 77-inch 4K smart TV that won’t block natural light or obstruct your view, you’re going to have to pay to play.
The TV — first shown at CES earlier this year without a release date or price — has a retractable motorized black shade that transforms it from a standard OLED TV to a transparent display at the touch of a button.
In one LG promo shot, the Signature OLED T sits at the foot of a bed in a room with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook an ocean sunrise. There’s no need to look around the television to catch the serene scene. You can peer right through it.
You can also turn the TV into a high-resolution, transparent always-on canvas that displays videos, photos or animations from art to nature scenes like floating clouds and turtles. Picture those aquarium screensavers of yore, reimagined for the future and on steroids.
The idea is that the Signature OLED T enhances your design aesthetic rather than hampers it. It helps that the TV transfers video and audio signals wirelessly, through LG’s Zero Connect Box, which removes the need for a bunch of cables that clutter your space. The Signature OLED T nabbed the “Best of Innovation” award at CES 2024. There’s no denying the cool factor here.
OLED TVs, or organic light-emitting diode TVs, offer a number of key advantages over LCD (liquid crystal display) models. Among these are better contrast, greater brightness, a wider color gamut, faster refresh rates and a larger field of view. OLEDs also consume less power and they make for ultra-thin, flexible, foldable and transparent displays.
OLED displays do have limited lifetimes, however, and they cost more. The LG signature OLED T, of course, costs way more. If you want an extra large, immersive viewing experience for less than the price of a house in some places, you can get well-reviewed 77-inch OLED sets, from LG and others, starting at around $1,700.
The LG Signature OLED T set is available for preorder at LG.com, Best Buy and Video & Audio Center. And if you snag one of these flashy devices, please do me a favor and invite me over. As a cord cutter who usually watches my favorite shows on a 15-inch laptop, I wouldn’t mind a touch of luxury.
