Silver screens

Remember the days when neighbours would flaunt their flat screen televisions? Within a decade, they have become passé and our idiot boxes are now ‘smart TVs’. They are not just more sleek and vivid, but can also understand our voices and predict what we’d like to watch. Each company has something for everyone, but here’s a list of products by market leaders Samsung, LG and Sony, that are indeed a sight for eyes!

For those who do not like to compromise on their viewing quality, Samsung India has launched the QLED 8K series that begins at Rs.1.1 million for the 75-inch model and goes up to Rs.6 million for the 98-inch one. The hefty price tag is justified with an array of features, but what would excite most is its AI upscaling that converts any video type above SD to 8K resolution.

“The 8K QLED comes with ambient mode and your TV doubles as a piece of art. And, the one-connect box maintains aesthetics of the room, doing away with unsightly wires dangling from the TV,” says Raju Pullan, senior VP-consumer electronics, Samsung India.

Along the same lines, the company also has The Frame TV, which when kept idle, transforms into a picture frame that can play a slide of 1,000 artworks from around the world. It comes with in-built motion and brightness sensors and adjusts brightness according to the ambience. And while these TVs may not be for everyone, they are easily available at any Samsung Smart Plaza or on online stores.

Samsung is not the only biggie fighting for the big buck in the television space. LG India’s latest offerings include SMART, LED, UHD, NanoCell and OLED AI ThinQ Televisions. Their OLED range is priced between Rs.180,000 and Rs.1 million across the 55- and 77-inch sizes. The OLED77W8PTA model, which combines an OLED screen with AI, could grace your room for a whopping Rs.3.3 million for the 195 cm screen.

“The W8’s sleek razor-thin profile makes the TV look like it’s levitating mid-air, adding to the sense of immersion. The OLED panel, measuring only 2.57 mm in the 65-inch model, can be mounted directly on the wall with only magnetic brackets, eliminating any gap between the TV and the wall,” says a company spokesperson.

With built-in support from the Google Assistant, giving commands to your TV has become easier, but LG has gone a step further. “The new televisions can understand hundreds of voice commands and handle requests of greater complexity than ever before thanks to more advanced LG ThinQ AI conversational voice recognition technology,” adds the spokesperson.

Now, if you are particularly brand conscious and prefer Japanese technology, Sony has a slew of high-end offerings that are beasts in this domain, to say the least. Their Android-powered MASTER Series includes the A9F model that is priced at Rs.579,900 for the 164 cm variant. It goes all the way up to $69,999.99 for the 98-inch Z9G model.

These companies believe India has been ready for luxury televisions and their data shows, the demand is not limited to a metro or two. Pullan notes, “We have seen an increasing preference and demand for bigger and better displays, and this trend is not just restricted to Tier-I cities, but is being witnessed across markets.”  With demands for large screen televisions soaring, these companies are raring to go. So, the next time a friend or a neighbour boasts about their latest Smart LED TV, you can invite them over for the ultimate TV experience.