LG transparent OLED TVs could be coming to your living room — here's why

LG OLED T Transparent OLED display
(Image credit: LG)

While we shouldn’t expect them to be among the best TVs just yet, it’s been a big year for transparent OLED TVs. At CES 2023, LG showed off the LG OLED T, an incredible transparent OLED TV prototype. Then later this year, LG brought the OLED T to Incheon International Airport, giving us a look at a transparent OLED in the wild.

Now, it looks like transparent OLED’s moment may finally be here. At the K-Display Business forum (h/t The Elec), LG Display managing director Yeo Joon-ho announced that LG will be adding to its transparent OLED display lineup this year. In addition to the existing 55-inch transparent OLED display manufactured by LG Display, there will now be a 30-inch and 77-inch display panel, with the 77-inch panel hitting mass production by the end of the year.

This mass production is expected to lead to increased transparent OLED TVs in the home. While many of the examples of the OLED T we’ve seen in the wild have been for commercial purposes — notably the displays at Incheon airport — Yeo says that these new transparent display panels are intended for “general home environments” as well. Great news for anyone that wants a statement-piece TV in their room with a view.

LG Display announces full OLED lineup at K-Display

LG TV lineup 2021

(Image credit: LG)

Transparent OLED panels weren’t the sole focus of LG’s presentation, however. The South Korean company also laid out the rest of its OLED display panel offerings for the future.

First up, the 8K TVs. LG looks set to continue to make 77-inch and 88-inch 8K OLED display panels for its Z series 8K OLED TVs. On the one hand, it’d be nice to see LG go a bit bigger — a 98-inch OLED 8K TV would be awesome — but at least they aren’t going smaller. As mentioned in our tips for buying an 8K TV, we never recommend buying one smaller than 75 inches due to the diminishing returns of smaller 8K TVs.

Then, we get the 4K OLED panels. Here, LG didn’t announce anything groundbreaking in terms of display sizes, which will still range from 42-inch to 97-inch. However, in the monitor lineup — dubbed “Mid size” — there were two 16:9 aspect ratio displays that could be used in smaller OLED TVs

In particular, the 31.5-inch display panel could be used to make a 32-inch OLED TV, which would become LG’s smallest to date. Time will tell if these panels are reserved for monitors like the 34-inch, 39-inch and massive 45-inch 21:9 ultrawide OLED monitors also shown at K-Display, or if they become LG’s smallest OLED TVs available.

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Malcolm McMillan
Senior Streaming Writer

Malcolm McMillan is a senior writer for Tom's Guide, covering all the latest in streaming TV shows and movies. That means news, analysis, recommendations, reviews and more for just about anything you can watch, including sports! If it can be seen on a screen, he can write about it. Previously, Malcolm had been a staff writer for Tom's Guide for over a year, with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI), A/V tech and VR headsets.

Before writing for Tom's Guide, Malcolm worked as a fantasy football analyst writing for several sites and also had a brief stint working for Microsoft selling laptops, Xbox products and even the ill-fated Windows phone. He is passionate about video games and sports, though both cause him to yell at the TV frequently. He proudly sports many tattoos, including an Arsenal tattoo, in honor of the team that causes him to yell at the TV the most.