TVs

After debuting at CES 2025, the StanbyMe 2 launched last July with a 27-inch 1440p display (the original was only 1080p). Less than a year later LG is introducing a new 32-inch version with a resolution bump to 4K and a slightly longer 4.5 hour battery. It’s launching in South Korea for around $1,080 but US availability hasn’t been confirmed.

Starting in “late May 2026,” for channels you watch over an antenna, you may not see program information in the guide “depending on the channel”, and only programs from recently watched channels “may” appear, Sony says.

Never did I expect Samsung to be the more affordable option, especially next to Hisense, but its 65-inch R95H is $3,200 — $300 less than the Hisense UR9. The step-down R85H is also only $1,600 in the 55-inch size. As more companies announce pricing, things are bound to get more competitive.

As expected from the trademark filing late last year, Sony’s RGB LED technology will be called “True RGB” and is coming this spring. The new TV (Bravia 10, or better yet, Bravia X?) has been impressive in demos. We’ll see soon how it compares to competitors’ RGB TVs this year.

The QN90 has been Samsung’s flagship mini LED since 2021, but is no more as the company moves more towards RGB LED TVs, leaving the QN80H and QN70H as its main quantum dot 4K mini-LED TVs. A new “Mini LED TV” line has 11 less expensive, non-QD options.

Rather than two cameras capturing a stereoscopic image, the NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories in Tokyo tried using a single camera shooting through 2,500 microlenses. Obviously, the technology never really took off, but NHK was still working on Integral 3D as recently as 2012.

Skyworth will make the Panasonic-branded TVs, leading marketing in the US and Europe while Panasonic focuses on development. It’s the second storied Japanese TV company to partner with a Chinese manufacturer in as many months, further highlighting the decline of Japanese TV dominance over the past decade.

If you’ve even wondered how important that lumen measurement is on projectors…

Rollout of Amazon’s Fire TV OS redesign announced at CES begins today for US customers. The update hits the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, 4K Max (2nd gen), and Omni mini-LED TVs first, expanding to other products later.

A software update allows its G5 and C5 OLED TVs to work with the Dolby Atmos FlexConnect speaker system it announced at CES. FlexConnect allows for more flexible speaker placement and configurations, and could boost the surround sound speaker market.

According to FlatpanelsHD, LG Display has halted production of 8K panels. We haven’t seen a new 8K model from LG since 2024, and certainly won’t in 2026. So for the seven people that still care about 8K TVs, Samsung is the only manufacturer still making them.

Samsung has been the leading TV maker globally for 20 years. China’s TCL is this close to unseating the South Korean champ after posting a 20 percent surge in year-over-year global TV shipments, according to Counterpoint Research. That Sony x TCL deal all but guarantees a new leader should it go through.

New 75-inch ($498) and 65-inch ($398) Vizio mini-LED TVs — the first from the company — have appeared on Walmart (previous Vizio TVs were FALD but not mini LED). They’re the cheapest mini-LEDs available in those sizes and I expect their brightness will compete with comparable TCL and Hisense TVs.

CES saw only a very minor update to the Frame family, with the mainline adding 75-, 85-, and 98-inch models, and the Frame Pro now coming in a smaller 55-inch size. Oddly, only two of the seven mainline Frame models will support the One Connect Box — the 43- and 50-inch.