Samsung MicroLED TVs are amazing — and too expensive to matter

Samsung MicroLED TVs are amazing — and too expensive to thing

(Image credit: Samsung)

Samsung's been showing off MicroLED technology for years, and the first MicroLED TVs are finally going to exist available for purchase this spring. It'south a game-irresolute development for display engineering science, one that has the potential to reshape the TV industry and ripple out to every display in every gadget, from TVs and monitors to smartphones and wearables. It'due south a very large deal.

Information technology's also insanely expensive.

Now, I know that when we get-go talking almost new engineering and innovative TVs, high cost tags are simply function of the game. Early adopters pay a premium to exist the beginning on the block with the latest gadget, the newest feature, the slickest pattern. I become it, believe me, I practise. I wouldn't have the career I've had without a deep-seated honey of the latest and greatest tech.

But that'south when we're talking nearly normal amounts of money.

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Micro-LED vs OLED: Which Telly tech will win?

Micro-LED vs Mini-LED — (Image credit: Lextar)

The first OLED Television set (with an asterisk or 2 on that designation) was the Sony XEL-ane, back in 2007. It was a trivial xi-inch screen with 960x540 resolution, and it sold for $ii,400. But at that size, it was inappreciably a serviceable TV, and more than of a proof-of-concept.

The start honest-to-goodness consumer OLED TVs appeared in 2012, with the LG 55EM9600 and the Samsung Super OLED Telly. When they reached the market place in 2013, the LG sold for $12,000 and the Samsung KN55S9C was a little ameliorate at $nine,000. I experience completely safe in proverb that most people would consider either pick to be also expensive.

Several years on, and nosotros've seen the latest 8K models go for much more than. When we reviewed the LG 88-Inch Z9 8K OLED Goggle box back in 2019, information technology sold for $29,999. You tin can notice the 98-inch Samsung Q900 Series 8K TV on Best Purchase right now for $59,999, and the like Sony Z9G Chief Series 8K Android TV for the same $60k toll.

Exorbitant prices aren't unusual in the world of premium TVs.

But the 110-inch MicroLED TV that Samsung will get-go selling this April? We haven't gotten official pricing for the North America version, but it's listed for pre-society in Due south Korea for 170 meg won — $152,000 U.Southward. dollars.

That's equally much equally an Aston Martin Vantage. It'south as much as a garage-full of xi Ducati SuperSport 950 motorcycles (they're just $13,495 each). It's equally much as 4 Rolex GMT-Primary II watches in white gilt (they sell for $38,250 apiece), enough to clothing one on each wrist, and each ankle, too.

I'g sure I've hammered this item point hard enough. The first MicroLED TVs aren't simply expensive, they're going to exist unattainable to well-nigh everyone. And that raises some questions about what sort of sales Samsung tin can expect.

LG has its own highly anticipated Television receiver, with sci-fi levels of innovation and creativity. The LG Signature OLED R 65RX blew minds when it was first demoed at CES, thanks to a rollable OLED display. Combining OLED with flexible glass and a sophisticated segmented backing, it's an amazing flake of technology.

But it sells in Korea for 100 one thousand thousand won, and is expected to sell for $87,000 whenever it finally goes on sale here in Due north America.

Or maybe it doesn't sell at that toll, considering local business publication Korea JoongAng Daily reports that sales of the rollable OLED are a thou full of ten. For all of Republic of korea. (LG has refused to confirm this number, co-ordinate to the report.)

Sure, $87,000 is a lot to pay for a 65-inch OLED Tv set, peculiarly one that's but got 4K resolution and relies on a rolling and unrolling gimmick that's not only certain to get old when you want to fire upwards your TV, but also introduces worries nigh product durability as the TV screen flexes back and forth over and over again.

But on some level, at that place has to be a feeling fifty-fifty for the ultra-wealthy intended consumers looking at a TV like this and wondering, is this really worth information technology?

The 110-inch MicroLED TV may be larger. And information technology may be revolutionary. There aren't any durability problems, or patience-testing opening and closing processes. But at the end of the solar day, LG is request people to spend a huge amount of coin on a 4K Goggle box. And to do it on a set that'south non much bigger than even the largest OLED and QLED screens.

Recall dorsum to the 98-inch Samsung Q900 8K TV, which offers better resolution. Yes, the cost is still absurdly loftier, but compared to the MicroLED TV, information technology'south now affordable enough to let you purchase ii, and notwithstanding have $30k left over for a couple of those Ducati motorcycles.

I get that some people are rich enough to blow stupidly large amounts of money on new toys and the latest tech, but even billionaire playboys desire to get a reasonable amount of value from their coin, right?

The M1 4K 165-inch TV — (Image credit: C-Seed)

I could be incorrect. Possibly the uber-rich have been riding out the pandemic on their super-yachts, simply wondering what they can buy that would price more than a mint-condition Fleer 1986-87 Michael Hashemite kingdom of jordan rookie carte. Later on all, the foldable C-Seed M1 Micro-LED Television receiver is an even more ridiculous $400,000. That Television set pops out of your floor, and it's astonishing to look at, for what information technology'due south worth.

Possibly the MicroLED TV volition sell, despite costing enough to require a 2d mortgage. And maybe the smaller models coming out later this year will be priced a lilliputian amend. Just I doubt it.

If the largest model, with the lowest pixel density is selling first, information technology'south because Samsung has been able to produce it more hands than the smaller screen sizes they've promised. And while the price for the upcoming 99-inch and 88-inch models could theoretically be anything, I don't expect them to exist drastically different than the 110-inch model that's going on sale kickoff. If anything, they could actually exist more than expensive.

But even a $ten,000 price drop would be a drib in the bucket. Which leaves me wondering just i thing. Micro-LED technology promises to upend the order of the brandish world, just will Micro-LED TVs ever be affordable plenty to brand a deviation? Or will the cost of this innovation be likewise high for information technology to ever be a product that normal people tin buy? How game-changing can a applied science be if it's priced out of the game?

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Brian Westover is an Editor at Tom's Guide, covering everything from TVs to the latest PCs. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he wrote for TopTenReviews and PCMag.