Key Points
- LG announced a new “lifestyle” TV called the Gallery TV AI. It features a gallery mode to display art, similar to Samsung’s The Frame.
- The TV uses a mini-LED panel rather than LG’s famous OLED technology.
- The LG Gallery+ service offers over 4,500 works of art, but requires a subscription.
- The price will be revealed at CES, where it will face tough competition.
LG just announced a new TV that is designed to look like a piece of art hanging on your wall. The LG Gallery TV AI is a “lifestyle” TV that features a special gallery mode, much like Samsung’s popular “The Frame.” When you’re not watching a show, it can display famous paintings or your own photos, turning a black screen into a beautiful picture frame.
However, there’s a big surprise with this new TV: it doesn’t use an OLED panel. LG is known for producing the best OLED screens in the world, but for this model, they chose mini-LED technology instead.
The main advantage of mini-LED is that it’s less likely to suffer from “burn-in” if you leave the same image on the screen for a long time. However, LG’s mini-LED TVs have historically not been as impressive as their OLED TVs. In fact, most expert reviews don’t even include LG’s mini-LED TVs in their “best of” lists.
This is somewhat disappointing, as the rest of the TV looks great. It comes in 55 and 65-inch sizes and features an anti-glare screen that automatically adjusts the picture based on ambient light.
The main selling point is the LG Gallery+ service, which provides access to over 4,500 works of art. You can also use your own photos or even use a generative AI to create a few new images each month.
The big catch is that the full art collection requires a monthly subscription. The free version provides about 100 images and doesn’t include the AI feature. We don’t yet know whether the Gallery TV will include a free trial of the full service.
LG hasn’t announced the price yet, but they will need to be competitive. They are competing against strong rivals such as Samsung and TCL, which have been in the “art TV” market for some time. We will have to wait until CES next week to see whether this new mini-LED model stands out in a crowded field.
