T3 Awards 2018: Got cash to splash? LG OLED W8 wins our Best Luxury Tech prize

published 25 September 2018

After months of testing and reviewing the best luxury tech released this year, we somehow managed to whittled down a long list of products to a prestigious shortlist, where only the very best expensive and lavishly hand-tooled products did battle.

The T3 Awards 2018 takes place this Thursday (27th September) at the Ministry of Sound, but we're revealing winners in the week running up to then. And we can say with some certainty who the gong for 'Best Luxury Tech' is going to.

This year's category reads like the shopping list of someone who's just won the lottery, but who has exquisitely good taste.

As well as expensive audio/visual equipment we've got innovative watches, opulent automobiles, stylish cameras and AI speakers from luxury luggage vendors. But there can only be one winner, and this year the winner is…

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Best Luxury Tech Winner: LG OLED W8

When it was unveiled at CES at the beginning of the year, we asked "Is this the best TV of 2018, already?"

While we'll have to wait just a little longer to definitively confirm that, we can say for sure it was the best piece of luxury technology we've seen in 2018, and the TV we'd buy if money were no object.

With that incredible 2.75mm thin screen and its attractive sidekick, a 4.2-channel soundbar, there's no question the LG OLED W8 is the most attractive television out there. But beneath that slither of a panel lies a new brain which has upped the image quality even above last year's OLED W7. It's more like looking through a window onto the world than gazing at a screen – except the real world is less colourful.

That's all thanks to LG's new Alpha 9 processor, a powerhouse which has improved the picture processing, a key part of quality in OLED, making it better than ever. It offers four layers of picture processing, improved sharpening, and super smart object recognition.

It was one of the first television to offer "HFR", or high frame rate compatibility, with the W8 able to play footage at a whopping 120 FPS. That means sports and movies look uncannily realistic, even when the action speeds up.

It's the ultimate package, combining performance and beauty, making it a worthy winner for this year's Best Luxury Tech award. It beat off strong competition to claim the prize, too…

Also nominated: Land Rover Range Rover P400e, Bang & Olufsen BeoVision Eclipse Wood, Ressence Type 2 e-Crown, Louis Vuitton Horizon 55 with Echo, Leica M10 Edition Zagato, and McIntosh MT2.

Best Watch Winner: Tudor Black Bay GMT

Tudor won Baselworld 2018, and our hearts, when it announced its first GMT model, the Black Bay GMT. Now, it's also won a prestigious T3 Award.

The piece sports a stunning blue and burgundy bezel, red 'snowflake' hand, and retains a strong 'Black Bay' identity. It also features a new manufacture movement made in-house by the cleaver people at Tudor.

Highly commended: Christopher Ward C65 Trident Diver

Also nominated was the Hamilton Khaki X-Wind Auto Limited Edition, Marloe Watch Company Lomond, Nomos Glashütte Autobahn and TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 16.

T3 Awards 2018: here are the shortlists

As the Style and Travel Editor at T3, Spencer covers everything from clothes to cars and watches to hotels. Everything that's cool, stylish, and interesting, basically. He's been a part of T3 for over seven years, and in that time covered every industry event known to man, from CES and MWC to the Geneva Motorshow and Baselworld. When he's driving up and down the country in search of the greatest driving roads, he can be found messing around on an electric scooter, playing with luxury watches, or testing the latest fragrances.