CES 2024

You have to hand it to LG for letting their R&D department dream up far-out TV designs.

A couple years ago it was the (now discontinued) Signature OLED R — a TV that rolls up and disappears into a low-profile cabinet when it’s not in use. Mighty impressive, but you had to wonder who would buy it, especially for the asking price of $100,000.

At CES 2024, the company is showcasing a different kind of disappearing television — one with a screen that becomes all but invisible when you turn it off.

Hailed as the “world’s first wireless transparent OLED TV,” the OLED T gives owners the “unprecedented freedom to meticulously curate their living spaces.” In other words, it’s an ingenious alternative to having an unsightly black panel hanging on your wall. Or, as LG puts it, a TV that “seamlessly harmonizes with its environment,” meaning you don’t have to push it up against a wall. Put it in the middle of a room — or even in front of a window, LG suggests.

While you don’t have to run wires to the TV, you do have to get a power line to it (so that middle of the room option might require some doing). Images and sound are transmitted through the air from LG’s Zero Connect Box, which can be located up to 30 feet from the screen as long as there’s an electrical outlet nearby.

Turn on the OLED T, and TV images appear on its spacious 77-inch screen. You can watch in transparent mode or create a more normal viewing experience by hitting a button on the TV remote that raises (or lowers) a contrast screen on the back of the TV. Turn the TV off, and the screen goes away, allowing you to showcase artwork, videos, or photos through its Always-On-Display (AOD) feature. The cool thing is, content, like the fish tank in the opening photo, appears to float in air. Or you can activate a T-Bar function that displays a ticker along the bottom of the screen for displaying news, weather alerts, etc.

Images are enhanced by LG’s new AI-powered α (Alpha) 11 AI processor, though don’t expect the same level of performance you’d get from the brand’s top G series models. LG expects to ship the OLED T sometime this year but hasn’t committed to a price or specific time-frame for delivery, perhaps because the engineers are still working out a few bugs. The demo Mark Henninger attended (video below) today had a few technical glitches. As for how much this most unusual TV will cost, it’s a safe bet that it will be in line with the OLED R roll-up TV that came before it, which is to say…a lot.