Last week, we brought you the news that LG might be resurrecting its ‘Wallpaper’ series of OLED TVs. The lack of clarity comes from the fact that while the W5 was mentioned as having won a CES Innovation Award, LG didn’t actually show it to anyone at CES. In fact, it didn’t even mention it, either in person or in any of the many press releases sent out during the show.
Let’s put aside the general dodginess of a product getting a CES Innovation Award despite not actually having been at the show itself and instead focus on the fact that LG must have submitted the W5 for consideration for an award, which means it is – or at least was – a real product.
I, for one, am hoping it hasn’t been canned and that it still is a real product, because the scant details we have at this stage suggest that LG has fixed the few things that I didn’t love about its previous Wallpaper OLEDs. And, if it has, the new W5 could be my dream TV.
The original Wallpaper TVs
For those who don’t remember the original Wallpaper TVs – the W7, W8, W9 and WX – allow me to jog your memory.
Essentially, these were OLED displays with the boring-but-essential processing, audio and connections hardware moved to a separate, soundbar-shaped unit. This allowed the display to be extremely thin. So thin, in fact, that it could bend dramatically – with a person holding it at either end it could flex in a distinctly Wobble Board manner.
It was light, too, to the extent that it could be mounted to a wall using magnets. Thanks to the super-thinness of the display and the flush nature of the mounting solution, the TV barely stuck out from the wall at all, hence the ‘Wallpaper’ moniker.
You might assume that the TV’s picture quality was terribly compromised by the design, but that wasn’t the case – each generation of the W series offered the same panel technology and processing as its contemporary siblings. In other words, it was the same awesome OLED picture quality in what – to my eyes at least – was the sexiest TV design ever seen.
So, yes, I absolutely loved LG’s Wallpaper TVs, but they weren’t without their flaws. The unsightly cable that ran between the display and soundbar unit was one. Yes, the flat umbilical could be channelled into a wall, but that wouldn’t suit all buyers.
More of an issue as far as I was concerned, though, was the soundbar unit itself. Yes, it sounded better than most of the built-in TV speakers of the time, but it wasn’t by any means an audio match for the awesome visuals. This was a TV that demanded a full home cinema system as its partner, but what would you do with the big, bulky soundbar bit if you decided to go down that route? It wasn’t exactly easy to hide away.
The new W5 could be even better
And that brings me to the new W5. As mentioned, details are sparse, but the text that accompanies the CES Innovation Award states that it features LG’s Zero Connect Box, which is the unit that comes with the M4 and M5 ‘wireless’ TVs. It handles all incoming signals via its three HDMI 2.1 sockets and then wirelessly transmits the data to the display part. So, there will be no wire to channel through the wall or leave unattractively on display.
What’s more, if this is the same Zero Connect Box as the one included with the M4 and M5, it really is just a processor and transmitter and it doesn’t have speakers. The M4 and M5 have speakers built into the surround of the display, just like a ‘normal’ TV, but the W5 surely will not if it’s going to be as thin as LG claims. That would be a good thing as far as I’m concerned, as it would allow the owner to partner the TV with whatever sound system they wanted without the need to hide a soundbar-sized unit they were never going to use.
On the other hand, could the W5 just be an extra-thin M5?
Now, the eagle-eyed among you will have noted that the description accompanying the CES Innovation Award states that the new W5 will be 'less than 0.5-inches thick'. That is 12.7mm, which is much thicker than the 2.57mm of the original Wallpaper TVs. If the W5 does end up being over a centimetre thick, it presumably won't bend like its predecessors and won't hang on the wall with magnets. And perhaps it could actually have – oh, the horror – integrated speakers.
I think that would be a real shame, though, because to me that sounds more like an extra-slim version of the M5 than a genuine Wallpaper TV, and therefore not my dream TV after all.
At this stage, I suppose all we can do is wait and see whether the W5 gets an official announcement, but I really hope LG doesn’t let me down with the return of its awesome Wallpaper OLEDs.
MORE:
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These are the best OLED TVs you can buy right now
And these are the best soundbars
