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LG's midrange LA6900 series TVs to feature voice control, Magic Motion remote

The midrange series of TVs from LG will also have an edge-lit LED with local dimming.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
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Ty Pendlebury
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LAS VEGAS--If you're looking for a midrange television, then one of the LG televisions to consider in 2013 is the LA6900 series, which will come in three sizes: 50-inch, 55-inch, and 60-inch.

Half of LG's range now includes the "Cinema Screen" design the company debuted last year with its impossibly thin bezels and the LA6900 is also one of these.

The LA6900 boasts "natural language" voice control via the new Magic Motion remote, which means you don't have to utter some robotic command before looking for what you want. Good if it works, but we'll wait to see how it is in a noisy home/theater environment.

The LG will feature an edge-lit LED with local dimming, and it is the last model in the range to do dimming -- all the models below it are edge or direct only.

The TV also halves the reported 240Hz refresh rate of the higher-end models for a 120Hz rate but still retains passive 3D capability.

LG's Smart TV platform will also get an update with a customizable dashboard via the new "My Interest Cards" -- a set of folders you can fill with your favorite apps. LG has also boosted sharing capabilities from tablets and smartphones with WiDi (Intel) and the new Miracast (Android) allowing wireless screen sharing. If you want get close and personal with your TV there's MHL (wired), and the new Tag On feature, which offers "tap to share" between the TV and an NFC (near-field communication) device.

The TVs also have an improved content recommendation engine called On Now that suggests content from on-demand and cable and satellite services via pop-up thumbnail images.

Pricing and availability are yet to be announced. See the rest of the 2013 LG range here.