LG 88Z9, the World’s First Commercially Available 8K OLED TV, Goes Up for Pre-Order

LG announced the world's first 8K OLED TV, the LG OLED88Z9, back in January this year at CES 2019. The TV is among the earliest 8K-resolution TVs announced, and has a resolution of 7680x4320 pixels with an 88-inch OLED display. LG has now put the TV up for pre-order in South Korea, with it is set to make it to North America and Europe in the third quarter of 2019. The company has not yet announced the pricing of the TV.

8K is the next big thing in TVs, with panels having a resolution of 7680x4320 pixels, or over 33 million pixels on screen. The LG 88Z9, which was announced ahead of CES 2019, is the first 8K OLED TV, with a massive 88-inch screen. The TV also supports the HDR and Dolby Vision formats. Although 8K is four times as sharp as 4K and 16 times the number of pixels as full-HD, there is currently very little worthwhile 8K content available to take advantage of the resolution.

This was an issue even with 4K when it was first commercially available, but over time 4K content has become widespread. Various online streaming platforms offer a growing list of TV shows and movies in 4K, while the 4K Blu Ray format has also gained popularity. Although the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo are expected to be broadcast in 8K resolution, for the time being there isn't much you can do with an 8K TV, at least when it comes to video content.

The LG 88Z9 is also a smart TV, and in some markets, will feature support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Although the price hasn't been announced, the LG 88Z9 is expected to be quite expensive. For now, it's only up for pre-order in South Korea, and while there are plans to bring it to key markets, India may not be on this list initially.

We discussed 5G, 8K TVs, Keyboards for Xbox One, and everything else you can expect to see at CES 2019 on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.