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LG has set Australian pricing for its highly anticipated curved OLED TV, as well as announcing a changed pricing structure for its 55- and 65-inch Ultra HD TVs.
(Credit: LG)
The Curved OLED TV (55EA9800) will retail for AU$11,999, while the 55-inch Ultra HD TV (55LA9700) will cost AU$4999 and the 65-inch version (65LA9700) will be AU$7499.
In terms of Ultra HD, these prices are a reduction on the RRPs given by LG when the company launched the TV range back in May. This follows a similar trend for LG Ultra HD TVs around the world. In fact, on the 55-inch model, the pricing now matches the US, where it costs US$4999.
With the 55-inch curved OLED TV, the AU$11,999 price represents a significant cut from the current US pricing of around US$14,999. It’s unknown whether the US pricing will be dropped in the near future. In late August, LG announced that it would drop the South Korean pricing of the 55EA9800 by 30 per cent to the equivalent of US$8900.
At both the 65-inch level for Ultra HD and for the curved panel, the pricing is slightly above similar products available from competitor Samsung.
LG’s Marketing general manager Lambro Skropidis told CNET Australia that LG has “fundamentally different technology that we think warrants the price being put on it”.
LG noted a number of exclusive features in the TV range, such as an integrated sound bar in the Ultra HD models. The sound bar retracts into the body of the TV when not in use and has forward-facing speakers, a rear subwoofer and can operate even when the TV is wall mounted.
In an industry first, LG will also be shipping its Ultra HD range with High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) playback via USB already incorporated into the unit. Although it has yet to be formally adopted, HEVC is tipped to become the default standard for compressing 4K-resolution video files. LG is suggesting that its inclusion of HEVC playback “may eliminate consumer need to purchase a separate UHD media device in the future”.
The curved OLED TV also has sound system built in to its clear base, with five speakers offering 40W of sound. Design wise, the unit is 4.3mm at its thinnest point and just 17kg in weight. The 55EA9800 recently won the Red Dot: Best of The Best at the Red Dot design awards earlier this year.
LG is extremely bullish about the popularity of its Ultra HD range. Citing a study that reported consumers are increasingly willing to spend over AU$4000 on a TV, Russ Predergast, head of Marketing at LG, said “our expectation is that we will be very busy over the coming months selling Ultra HD TVs”.
