"Not Afraid of Competitors' Pursuit"... LG Confident in Maintaining No. 1 Position in Premium OLED TVs

LG OLED Evo Launches on the 25th
'The Next OLED' Ushers in a New Era
"We Aim to Secure the Top Spot for the 14th Consecutive Year"

LG Electronics has announced the launch of its latest OLED TV lineup, which boasts the highest-ever levels of brightness, color, and light reflection performance, marking a generational shift in the premium TV market. Despite external risks such as war threatening results and global competitors aggressively pursuing market share through alliances, the company aims to widen the gap by leveraging its proprietary system-on-chip (SoC) capabilities and the strong position of its webOS platform.

At the new product briefing session for the 'LG OLED Evo' held on the 25th at Ground 220 in Yangpyeong-dong, Seoul, Baek Sunpil, Executive Vice President in charge of Display CX at LG Electronics, said, "We have maintained the top position in the TV business for the past 14 years, and we will strive to retain this spot again this year. With the new LG OLED, we aim to lead a generational change by taking the lead in the global premium TV market."

Baek Sunpil, Executive Director in charge of CX at LG Electronics Display, is holding a briefing on the launch of the 2026 model TV new products including 'LG OLED Evo' on the 25th at Ground220 in Yangpyeong-dong, Seoul. Photo by Jin-Young Kim

The newly unveiled LG OLED Evo incorporates 'Hyper Radiant Color' technology, which condenses LG Electronics' expertise in picture quality. It is equipped with the "3rd generation Alpha 11 AI Processor," enhancing AI performance by 5.6 times over its predecessor, and features an ultra-low reflection display that reduces screen glare to 50% of previous models. The screen brightness of the new model is up to 3.9 times higher than standard OLED TVs (B6 model), making it the brightest LG OLED TV ever.

The new products also feature the next-generation LG smart TV platform, 'webOS26.' In addition to Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini has been added, allowing customers to choose personalized AI search features according to their preferences and needs. The company's proprietary security system, 'LG Shield,' has also been applied to securely protect personal information and data.

The 3rd generation Alpha 11 AI Processor and webOS26 in this new product are LG Electronics' key assets in its bid to maintain its No. 1 position in the premium OLED TV market this year. The company also expressed its ambition not to fall behind in the competition with the joint TV venture between major competitors TCL and Sony, which is scheduled to launch in 2027.

Executive Vice President Baek commented, "Although TCL is relatively weak in chip technology, if their hardware manufacturing capabilities are combined with Sony's picture quality control technology, there will be some synergy. However, while Sony uses Taiwanese chips, LG Electronics has its own chipsets and therefore much more clinical data, which will give us an edge even if the two companies collaborate." According to market research firm Omdia, LG Electronics achieved a 49.7% share of the global OLED TV market (by shipments) last year.

The 2025 OLED G5 model and the 2026 LG OLED Evo are displayed side by side at the LG Electronics 2026 TV new product launch event. Photo by Jinyoung Kim

The company also plans to leverage the dominance of its webOS platform to counter the influx of low-priced Chinese models. Baek explained, "For a platform business, the installed base (number of products with the OS) is crucial, and LG Electronics' cumulative sales have exceeded 200 million units. We sell more than 2 million TVs annually, and the installed base continues to grow as we supply webOS to other brand TVs." Unlike Chinese TV makers that use operating systems from Google, Amazon, and others, LG Electronics, having developed its own OS, does not need to share advertising revenue with OS providers, giving it a profitability advantage.

In the LCD TV market, dominated by China, LG Electronics' survival strategy is to premiumize LCDs. On this day, LG also introduced the premium LCD TV 'LG Micro RGB Evo,' which combines OLED's precise light source control technology. By reducing the size of the backlight source to ultra-small levels and using red, green, and blue LEDs instead of the conventional white, color reproduction has been maximized. The chip used is also the same 3rd generation Alpha 11 AI Processor as the 2026 OLED TV, bringing color performance to a level similar to OLED.

Executive Vice President Baek said, "Rather than a low-cost strategy to reduce panel prices, we will focus on understanding the characteristics of OLED TVs and reducing costs in materials and components. For example, by improving power energy efficiency and reducing heat generation, we can use less heat-dissipating materials such as aluminum." He added, "Despite variables such as surging transportation costs due to war and high exchange rates, LG Electronics' management fundamentals have greatly improved compared to last year. We expect to achieve better results than last year."

Kwon Taejin, Head of Display Solution Planning Team at LG Electronics MS Division, is demonstrating the generative AI feature of the new product. LG Electronics

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.