QLED Killer: LG’s 55-Inch BX Series Offers Affordable Entry Into Coveted OLED Panels
And that means it should be a hit with consumers—and a threat to QLED.
In the premium HDTV market, LG’s OLED offerings are known to be the undisputed champs.
If you’re in the market for fantastic picture quality, accurate colors, wide-angle viewing, deepest blacks, and inimitable uniformity and contrast ratio, look no further than these highly regarded sets manufactured by the Korean tech giant.
The caveat, however, always has been that these panels don’t come cheap and are out of reach for many middle-class Americans. Know that if you’re looking to purchase a high-end sixty-five-inch-plus model, you’ll likely be set back at least two or three grand.
Fortunately, more affordable choices are finally making their way onto the market. And LG’s BX Series fits perfectly into that profile, as the fifty-five-inch model is now retailing for a reasonable $1,500 at Best Buy, a modest savings of a hundred bucks.
Yes, you could always choose to go with LG’s B9 Series—a great value in its own right—for $200 cheaper, but the BX definitely packs more punch and you’ll be partly future-proofing as well. You can rest assured that the BX will be relevant in your living room for years to come.
Keep in mind that the BX models are a tier below LG’s CX, GX and WX 4K OLEDs, but that fact alone shouldn’t make you shy away from committing. It is powered by last year’s Alpha 7 Gen 3 Intelligent Processor, which isn’t as robust as the Alpha 9 chip found in the other pricier models, but know that the overall picture and sound quality really isn’t lacking in any way.
This set also boasts Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and Filmmaker Mode, which does a wonderful job in disabling any of those annoying soap-opera effects. And if you’re an avid gamer, you will be pleased to know that Nvidia G-Sync will surely ramp up your immersive gaming experience by basically eliminating any chance of screen tearing and stuttering. The end result is noticeably smoother gameplay—no matter how graphics-intensive the games are. You can consider yourself good to go while waiting to get your hands on the next-generation consoles, from PlayStation and Xbox.
Perhaps the most conspicuous shortcoming of the BX is the webOS smart platform. Yes, it has a pleasant, stripped-down user interface, but it lacks the innovative extras and app-based setup and coverage of Roku TV, Samsung’s Tizen, or Sony’s Android TV. If you desire a heartier selection of apps, your best bet is to go out and get an external streamer.
Finally, don’t forget that all OLED TVs, regardless of the brand, have that slight chance of suffering from burn-in and image retention, which can occur when static image elements have “worn out” certain areas of an OLED screen’s organic materials faster than the rest of the screen.
Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.