LG flexes 4K muscle with 105-inch curved TV
The incomprehensibly colossal 105UC9 is being billed as the world's first curved 4K (Ultra High-Def) TV.
- Although still awaiting his Oscar for Best Picture Reviewer, David does hold certifications from the Imaging Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology on display calibration and evaluation.
There are a few big things to know about the LG 105UC9 TV.
Its screen measures a vast 105 inches on the diagonal. It's curved. It has 4K resolution, also known as Ultra-High Definition. And it's the first TV ever with that combination of attributes. Update: Welp, it looks like Samsung has one too, so "first" is up for debate.
What LG hasn't revealed yet is how much it will cost. Pipsqueak 84- and 85-inch 4K sets range from $16K to $40K, so I'm guessing the gigantic 105UC9 will cost at least $80,000.
Curved TV screens first appeared this year on LG and Samsung OLED TVs, but the massive 105UC9 uses standard LED LCD, not OLED, technology. The only other curved LED LCD on the market is the 65-inch Sony KDL-65S990A, and it has standard 1080p resolution.
The gargantuan 105UC9 has a screen with a 21:9 aspect ratio, a closer match to ultra-wide-screen movies than to standard 16:9 HDTV shows. Like the 58-inch Vizio XVT3D580CM, an earlier 21:9 TV, LG also touts another advantage of the extended screen width: "it enables users to access viewing information on the side of the screen without blocking any of the ongoing action."
As a result of its wider shape, the screen also has a higher native resolution than most 4K/UHD TVs: 5,120x2,160. That's 11 million pixels and change.
LG will debut the Brobdingnagian 105UC9 at the Consumer Electronics Show, which begins this January 7.
[Updated 1/4/2014: LG has changed the name from the earlier 105UB9 to the 105UC9]
