LG’s rollable TV costs 50 times as much as a normal OLED – Ars Technica

LG has finally revealed pricing for its 65-inch rollable OLED TV, dubbed the LG Signature OLED R: $100,000. The price was revealed briefly on LG’s website.

Apart from the rolling feature, the TV offers little over other OLED TVs. The Signature OLED R doesn’t even feature the best picture quality that LG’s OLED lineup has to offer. The high-end, non-rollable G1 sets (which cost a little under $3,000) can achieve greater peak brightness, which is key to making a big impression with HDR content. The rollable version instead offers similar performance to 2020’s high-end OLED sets. (The peak brightness upgrade was exclusive to the G series in the 2021 lineup.)

The LG C1 is arguably the most comparable set from the 2021 lineup in terms of picture quality, and the 65-inch version of that TV retails for just over $2,000. That means you’ll be paying almost 50 times more for the ability to roll your TV’s screen down like a car window.

That said, the Signature OLED R offers all the other features you’d expect from a top-of-the-market TV in 2021: four HDMI 2.1 ports for 120Hz at 4K, support for HDR standards like Dolby Vision, a variable refresh rate, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support, and Dolby Atmos audio.

And if you’re worried about mechanical failure when rolling the TV up and down, LG says the TV will survive at least 50,000 rolls in its lifetime.

The Signature OLED R doesn’t just roll all the way into the base; it also has a mode called Line View in which a portion of the screen peeks above the base and offers some simple information, including media playback controls, a photos widget, a clock, and more.

LG’s rollable TV concept was first unveiled as a prototype at CES 2018, but tech companies have been showing off rollable OLED prototypes for a long time; we remember seeing a barebones 13-inch rollable OLED prototype at CES 2009, for example.

Now the concept is finally a consumer reality, provided you’re extravagantly wealthy. Preorders start in August, according to LG.

Listing image by LG