LG’s new OLED TVs are repeating the iPhone X’s tongue-twisting mistakes
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What’s in a name? A lot, actually – as we can see withLG’s latest series ofOLED televisions, all of which have ditched the usual pattern of numbers (LG C7,C8,C9, etc) for some old-fashioned Roman numerals.
LG’s 2020 TV lineup has differentiated from previous years with the numeral ‘X’, meaning ‘ten’ – mirroring what we saw with the iPhone X back in 2017. (Where’s theiPhone 9? We couldn’t tell you.)
That means this year you can expect the budget BX, mid-range CX, wallpaper-thin WX,8Kdisplay ZX, rollable RX, and new “gallery series” GX OLEDs acting as successors toLG’s 2019 lineup.
Our time atCES 2020so far has shown us that press representatives are still describing the sets verbally as “C10, G10” rather than spelling out the letter, in which case the branding seems like an unnecessary source of confusion for consumers, journalists (present!) and LG employees alike.
To the letter
While this likely won’t be a deal-breaker for those after a qualityOLEDTV – LG being the dominant seller of OLEDs worldwide – it’s another instance of divergent branding just muddling where successive TV ranges sit in relation to each other.
When we first got wind of the new product names in a press release, our first instinct was that the ‘X’ was a placeholder before the official branding was decided, and it doesn’t make choosing between older and newer sets any easier.
We doubt this confusion had much impact on the iPhone X’s sales, but the company’s willingness to commit to non-linear naming conventions just gets worse – especially with theiPhone ‘XS’model, whichsomehowwasn’t a smaller model of the mainline phone.
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A fuss about nothing? Perhaps. But witheight new 8K TVs from LG, and a host of new OLED models at asmaller-than-ever 48-inch size, we need all the clarity we can get.
Henry is a freelance technology journalist, and former News & Features Editor for TechRadar, where he specialized in home entertainment gadgets such as TVs, projectors, soundbars, and smart speakers. Other bylines include Edge, T3, iMore, GamesRadar, NBC News, Healthline, and The Times.
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