Surprise! LG's BX OLED TV is affordable and coming this spring

News
By Brian Westover
published

The entry-level LG BX OLED is coming early this year

LG BX OLED
(Image credit: LG)

It looks like we'll be seeing the LG BX OLED TV in stores a lot sooner than we thought, with news that LG's entry-level OLED will be launching this May.

In the past, the LG BX OLED has always launched several months after the main spring launch, likely an attempt to prevent the lower-priced model from eating into sales of the more premium models. But this year, LG is changing its game plan, launching the BX alongside the more premium LG CX OLED and LG Signature GX Gallery OLED.

The LG BX OLED uses LG's self-illuminated OLED panel, which uses individual light-emitting pixels instead of the separate backlight used in traditional LCD TVs. The pixel-perfect lighting lets the display produce true blacks as well as vibrant colors and wide variations in brightness for HDR (high-dynamic range) content, like HDR10 and Dolby Vision. And the new 2020 models also support Dolby Vision IQ, which adjusts the brightness of the HDR format to adapt to the brightness of the environment it's in.

LG BX OLED TV

(Image credit: LG)

Thanks to built-in support for both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, the BX will also serve as a central hub for all of your smart home devices.

The budget-friendly BX uses the Alpha 7 Gen 3 processor, a lower-specced chip than the more expensive CX and GX models use. This hardware difference will result in less extensive support for some of the latest smart features, like content aware searches and intelligent sports alerts.

Unlike budget-friendly models from other manufacturers, LG is also outfitting the BX OLED with HDMI 2.1, which offers support for 120Hz 4K content and advanced features like enhanced ARC for better sound, and Auto Low-Latency Mode (ALLM) for convenience in gaming.

LG BX OLED TV

(Image credit: LG)

Sound quality should also be excellent, with Dolby Atmos support to go with the TV's 2.2 channel, 40-watt sound.

The LG BX OLED will begin selling in May of this year with 55-inch and 65-inch models, priced at $1,599 and $2,299, respectively. 

Brian Westover
Brian Westover

Brian Westover is currently Lead Analyst, PCs and Hardware at PCMag. Until recently, however, he was Senior Editor at Tom's Guide, where he led the site's TV coverage for several years, reviewing scores of sets and writing about everything from 8K to HDR to HDMI 2.1. He also put his computing knowledge to good use by reviewing many PCs and Mac devices, and also led our router and home networking coverage. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he wrote for TopTenReviews and PCMag.