Source : the age
Christmas may have come and gone, but last week marked a Christmas of sorts for technology geeks. The Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES, is the world’s largest consumer electronics conference and it was held last week in Las Vegas, where the latest and greatest in technology (along with other devices that absolutely have no reason to exist) were on show.
The next year is set to be a blockbuster, particularly for TVs, which are getting meaningful upgrades across the board. It means 2025 is likely to be the perfect timing for an upgrade, particularly if you’ve had your current screen for five years or more.
TV giants Samsung, Hisense, LG and TCL each impressed with their new offerings, as did a number of smaller Chinese brands who don’t yet have a presence in Australia. Exact local pricing and release dates are yet to be firmed up for most of the products, but here’s a sneak peek of what’s coming in TVs this year.
Bigger is better
Australians have a thing for big TVs, according to Korean electronics giant Samsung, which used CES to unveiled its biggest TV yet: the giant 115-inch Neo QLED 4K TV. It boasts a feature called “Supersize Picture Enhancer”, meaning the picture will stay crisp and clear despite the mammoth display size.
Samsung’s giant 115-inch Neo QLED 4K TV on display at CES.Credit: The Age
“We know that Australians love big screens, and we’re bringing our biggest-ever TV to Australia,” Samsung Australia executive Jeremy Senior told this masthead in an interview. He said that despite ongoing cost-of-living pressures, big screen TVs were still selling strongly.
“Big-screen TVs continue to do well. Australian consumers are looking to embrace their sport and embrace the ‘cinema at home’ experience.”
Samsung is also updating “The Frame”, its range of TVs that double as artworks when they’re not in use. The Frame Pro is coming in 2025, which relies on Neo QLED technology, bringing its picture quality into line with its other high-end TVs. The different acronyms can be confusing but put simply, QLED displays have higher brightness but OLED has better picture quality, at least in my opinion. All Samsung QLED TVs will this year also come with a digital collection of more than 3000 art pieces, turning any living room into an art gallery.
Han Jong-Hee, chief executive officer and vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, during the 2025 CES event in Las Vegas.Credit: Bloomberg
Rival South Korean manufacturer LG’s flagship display is the new M5, which comes in at 65-, 77-, 83-, and 97-inch sizes. The biggest new feature there is Brightness Booster Ultimate technology that “enhances light control architecture and light-boosting algorithms to achieve brightness three times higher than conventional OLED models”, according to the company.
Not to be outdone, Hisense unveiled its own XXL display: a 116-inch behemoth TriChroma LED TV, which it says will be Australia’s largest TV. Hisense claims that according to sales statistics, it has maintained leading position in the global premium TV market for its 100-inch TVs.
“As leaders in big-screen TV, our 116-inch TriChroma LED TV epitomises the next step in our pursuit of the ultimate home entertainment experience,” Hisense Australia vice president Chris Kostis said. “We continue to see strong demand for big-screen viewing in Australia, demonstrating our desire to experience sports, gaming and entertainment in a premium setting from the comfort of our own homes.”
Chinese manufacturer TCL isn’t going quite as large, announcing a 98-inch mini-LED TV, the QM6K, which should be cheaper than the majority of its competitors. Little-known brand Sylvox is bringing its 110-inch outdoor TV to Australia in April 2025, which will set purchasers back a cool $120,000.
Japanese manufacturer Panasonic withdrew from the Australian market in 2020, but its flagship model, the 77-inch Z95B, wowed attendees with its accurate picture quality and its brightness: the TV is so bright it needs its own unique ThermalFlow cooling system. Hopefully, Panasonic will be reconsidering its exit.
Total transparency
First unveiled in earnest at last year’s CES, transparent TVs are set to make the leap from the hypothetical to the real. But they will be prohibitively expensive for most, at least initially.
LG’s Signature OLED T is a futuristic device that looks like something out of Minority Report, and transforms from a TV to a normal transparent pane of glass when you aren’t watching something. It’s coming to Australia in the first half of 2025.
“This is for a very high-end customer,” LG Australia executive Tony Brown said. “The price isn’t finalised at the moment, but it is really high. You can quote me on that.” Brown said that the price point for the transparent TV was likely to come in at upwards of $80,000. The first LG transparent TVs went on sale in the United States last month, and are priced at $US60,000 ($97,600).
LG’s OLED T transparent TV.
Brown says transparent TVs may be relatively unaffordable for now, but will eventually become more attainable over time.
Samsung last year showed off its own transparent MicroLED displays, though no word yet on when they will become products people can actually buy.
Wireless wonders
One of the handiest TV innovations in recent years has been the connect box – a receiver that sits underneath your TV, handling connections to your Playstation, Xbox and Blu-ray player. It means there are no ugly cables dangling from your mounted TV and you don’t have to fiddle around with plugging devices in and out.
This year, connect boxes are going wireless, with both LG and Samsung touting their respective efforts, which will come to market in Australia this year.
Samsung claims its Wireless One Connect Box works at a distance of up to 10 metres, even with obstacles in its transmission path, and can sit inside a cabinet and wirelessly connect to its TV with no latency or loss of picture quality.
LG, meanwhile, says its M5 is the world’s first true wireless OLED TV, and is capable of transferring audio and video wirelessly at up to 144Hz also without latency or quality loss, thanks to its Zero Connect Box.
In what was one of the more striking products at the show, a brand called Displace showed off a TV that can stick to a wall using large suction cups. The Displace TV is powered by built-in batteries and is designed to be taken anywhere you want to go. You can even connect multiple units together to create a bigger TV.
AI abounds
As with last year, AI is dominating every presentation and every conversation at CES, and this year TV manufacturers are at pains to explain why your next TV needs to have AI inside.
G CEO William Cho talks about the company’s redefining of artificial intelligence as “affectionate intelligence” at CES 2025.Credit: AP Photo
Samsung’s AI efforts are dubbed “Vision AI”, and can automatically enhance picture and sound quality depending on what you’re watching. You can also use a new dedicated AI button on your remote, which will tell you information about what’s on screen, including other shows the actor is in, or what clothes they’re wearing.
LG’s 2025 TVs will also have AI baked in: you can use a chatbot to ask your TV questions, including for it to change sound or picture modes. The LG Signature OLED M4 and OLED G4 TVs are also packed with an updated AI processor that the company says offers four times the performance of last year’s models.
David Swan travelled to Las Vegas with support from Samsung, LG and Hisense.
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