LG's next OLED TV has won an award… but it hasn't been announced yet

The LG C1 should be revealed soon, but it's already been recognised for its innovation, apparently

LG OLED TV
(Image credit: LG)
Matthew Bolton
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One of the things we're most looking forward to from CES 2021 is learning about LG's next-gen OLED TVs. To up the ante weeks ahead of a reveal date, LG has already announced that its OLED TVs have been given a CES 'Best of Innovation' Award.

Which OLED TVs have won, exactly? Well, LG says we'll have to wait for its press conference on January 11th to find out, but we can already take a guess at that too – the name LG C1 has been spotted in a Korean regulatory system. That'll be the successor to the mid-range LG CX that's currently on-sale, and riding high in our list of the best OLED TVs and best gaming TVs. 

We'd also expect to see versions of LG's other OLED TVs to match, then – an cheaper LG B1 (a follow up to the LG BX), a more expensive LG G1 (an update to the LG GX) and probably an LG Z1 8K screen to replace the ZX models.

The '1' naming convention makes more sense than it first appears – for the last few years, LG's number convention has been based on the year, so the LG C9 came out in 2019. The 'X' models were the outlier for 2020, presumably because '0' looked a bit odd. Or maybe they just thought X looked cool.

What will be new in LG's new OLED TVs?

We're not expecting to see huge leaps forward in OLED technology this year – we seem to be in a bit of a development plateau there. Most planned OLED improvements are around fixing the one area where LCD TVs can beat it: brightness.

Bringing up both the average brightness of OLED sets and the peak HDR brightness  will help make even more of their huge contrast range, and will make them less prone to reflection and washing out in sunlight.

We're not sure that the key new tech to make a leap forward here will be available yet, so we're not expecting a big change – but we'll still keep our fingers crossed.

But the good news is that OLED's other key issue might take a step towards being solved: the price.

Next-gen panel factories are now said to be up and running, which could particularly help to bring down the cost of making 48-inch and 77-inch panels, making OLED more affordable to get into at a smaller size, or making a huge TV a bit more realistic for people who didn't invest heavily in Apple in the ’80s.

We'd also expect the usual developments in image processing and the usability of the webOS smart TV platform, of course.

Matthew Bolton
Matthew Bolton

Matt is T3's former AV and Smart Home Editor (UK), master of all things audiovisual, overseeing our TV, speakers and headphones coverage. He also covered smart home products and large appliances, as well as our toys and games articles. He's can explain both what Dolby Vision IQ is and why the Lego you're building doesn't fit together the way the instructions say, so is truly invaluable. Matt has worked for tech publications for over 10 years, in print and online, including running T3's print magazine and launching its most recent redesign. He's also contributed to a huge number of tech and gaming titles over the years. Say hello if you see him roaming the halls at CES, IFA or Toy Fair. Matt now works for our sister title TechRadar.

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