The Year Of Oled

Meet the 4K OLED TVs tussling for a place in your home this year, from mid-range movie marvels to pieces of screen art

- Matt Bolton

BANG & OLUFSEN HARMONY

Continuing B&O’s on-going quest to prove there’s no design too audacious, the wooden panels that house this TV’s speakers fold up automatically and partially cover the screen when it’s turned off, so that it becomes more like a sculpture than a deactivated pane of glass.

When you fire it up, they gracefully rotate down into a more traditional soundbar position, while the TV panel itself rises above them. It’s so satisfying to watch, in a Thunderbirds kind of way, and is guaranteed to make every single person who sees it say, ‘Wow, that’s cool’ or, ‘Boy, my home seemed a lot less dull two minutes ago’.

Hidden behind those wood panels are an impressive set of speakers: a one-inch tweeter, twin 2.5-inch full-range drivers, a four-inch woofer, and a pair of four-inch bass drivers, with a combined power of 450W. From what we’ve heard so far, it’s one hell of a system, balancing all that grunt with lots of exquisite detail.

For a screen to match that level of quality, the Harmony borrows from the LG C9, which is just fine with us – the 77-inch panel used by B&O is going to be one of the best of the year, with luscious HDR support and fantastic Ultra HD detail that you won’t want to miss.

That said, the C9 itself will cost many thousands of rupees less than the Harmony, so for this price you might be hoping for some 8K action or something. Here B&O is planning ahead: you’ll be able to upgrade the display in the future, so you get a damn fine 4K OLED Harmony in 2019 (it’ll launch towards the end of the year), then keep updating with new, hotter telly tech when you can.

TBA, bang-olufsen.com

SONY AG8