LG today announced plans to sell a TV with transparent-display technology that has almost exclusively been relegated to commercial applications and demonstrations at tech shows.
LG is showing off the Signature OLED T at CES 2024 (which officially starts tomorrow). LG says the see-through TV will be available this year but hasn't shared pricing. Still, it's remarkable to see transparent tech make its way into a consumer TV, even if it is expected to be extremely expensive. Other groundbreaking, Signauture-branded OLED designs from LG have cost six figures.
During a press event today, LG executives discussed the OLED T as a way to satisfy customer demand for bigger TVs without those mammoth displays always dominating the living room.
To fit more seamlessly into home layouts, the OLED T can be transparent when turned off or on. During demos before CES, LG showed the TV in transparent mode, with parts of the image that users would want to stay visible appearing "bright enough to retain a remarkably intense presence in front of the wall you can see behind them," per Forbes, which saw a demo of a non-finalized version of the OLED T.
During LG's livestreamed press conference, the OLED T appeared to allow the audience to see the presentation behind the TV. CNET's David Katzmaier reported that the screen looked less transparent than glass during his demo, yet he could see a vase behind the TV.
When you want the TV to look like a regular TV, a remote button makes the TV's black contrast film roll up from a box behind the display.
If the idea of a TV with rolling display parts sounds familiar, you may remember another LG TV, the OLED R, which has a display that rolls down into a box beneath the screen so that the display's out of sight. That TV debuted at $100,000 in 2021, which doesn't bode well for the OLED T's affordability.
That said, during LG's event, the OLED T's contrast screen seemed to roll up and down slowly and seamlessly. Of course, we'll have to take LG's demo with a grain of salt, especially since the TV's design hasn't been finalized yet.
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