LG reveals world's first 88-inch, 8K, OLED television ahead of CES

Jan. 02, 2018 05:33AM EST

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is often dominated by huge new televisions, and 2018 will be no exception as LG reveals its massive new 8K screen days before the event opens its doors.

Measuring in at a world-first 88 inches, the television is more of a technological showcase than a commercial product for now. But that just means what you see here is the television of the future, in the same way CES played host to HD screens and 4K displays before they went on sale.

LG claims the new television is the world's first 88-inch, 8K, OLED screen and was built as a way to show off what OLED tech is capable of. The screen's resolution is an enormous 7680 x 4320, which means there are 33 million pixels - four times that of Ultra HD (4K), which is itself four times the resolution of regular old HD.

Packing so many pixels into a screen means incredible detail and sharpness, but because the pixels are so tiny LG has had to develop a new way of lighting them. This can be a problem for OLED screens as, unlike LCD displays which have their own separate backlight, the light for an OLED screen is produced by the pixels themselves - which, in the case of an 8K display, are tiny.

8K resolution will be used for the 2020 Tokyo OlympicsLG

Using a new in-house technology, LG claims to have found a way to illuminate pixels to the same level as an LCD panel. This might sound like a lot of effort, but opting for a backlight-less OLED screen over LCD means a significant weight-saving and allows LG to make its TVs thinner, too.

There's no price for the television just yet - and hardly any 8K content to watch on it - but we can safely say the figure will be eye-watering. For an idea of when 8K content will be available, there are plans in place to broadcast the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 8K via national broadcaster NHK.

The TV is "a milestone for the 8K era and underscores the exciting potential of OLED," LG Display chief technical officer In-Byung Kang said in a statement. "OLED is clearly a next-generation technology leader and for this reason, LG Display is accelerating its research and development into OLED so that we can provide differentiated products to customers and markets."

CES kicks off at the end of this week and GearBrain will be on hand to bring you the latest news from the show floor.