Following their competition in integrated washing and drying machines, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are now launching AI TVs, sparking another pride battle. On-device AI, which operates AI within the device without a network connection, is rapidly spreading to TVs.
On March 13, Samsung Electronics held a new TV product launch event at its Seocho office in Seoul, and LG Electronics announced the start of sales for its TV new products. Samsung Electronics has been the global TV market leader based on sales for 18 consecutive years, while LG Electronics has been the “OLED power” maintaining the No. 1 spot in OLED TV shipments for 11 consecutive years.
Samsung will officially release its 2024 Neo QLED TV and OLED TV new products on March 15. Yong Seok-woo, president of Samsung Electronics’ visual display business, said at the event, “Korea is a global innovation market leading in premium and super-large TVs,” and promised to “open the era of AI TVs with the 2024 Samsung TV, which embodies our technological capabilities.” According to Samsung, one in four TVs purchased by Korean consumers is a premium product costing over US$2,500, with sales of TVs larger than 75 inches being six times higher than the global average.
The 2024 Neo QLED 8K TV is equipped with the third-generation AI 8K processor, the most powerful among Samsung TV processors to date. The third-generation AI 8K processor features 512 neural networks, eight times more than the previous year, and a neural processing unit (NPU) that is twice as fast. A key feature is the “8K AI Upscaling Pro,” which enhances low-resolution videos to sharp 8K quality. AI also smooths out the motion of balls in sports, amplifies voices to prevent them from being drowned out by background noise, and optimizes sound by detecting vacuum cleaner noise. The top model (QND900) is priced at 15.9 million won (US$12,075) for the 85-inch model and 12.9 million won for the 75-inch model.
Samsung aims to close the gap with LG Electronics, the market leader in the OLED segment, where Samsung currently holds a 23% share. After a decade, Samsung re-entered the OLED market last year, having previously exited due to declining profitability.
LG Electronics has also launched its 2024 LG OLED evo and QNED evo, a premium TV using an LCD panel, starting today.
LG emphasized significantly enhanced AI performance as well. The Alpha11 processor applied to the LG OLED evo series has four times the AI performance compared to the previous Alpha9. Graphic performance and processing speed have improved by 70% and 30%, respectively. This enables detailed analysis down to the pixel level within a frame to improve image quality. The Alpha9 features two additional channels for ambient sound, offering richer spatial sound, and for the first time, incorporates a function to clearly correct the voices of characters drowned out by background noise.