Image: LG
Often at CES, you’ll see a very impressive new technology debut at exorbitant prices before trickling down to more affordable models a couple years later. Lo and behold, that’s exactly what we’re seeing with LG and its Zero Connect Box. We got our first look at it with the M Series OLED in 2023. Now the company is bringing that Zero Connect Box, which beams audio and video to the TV panel, to one model of its still-terribly-named QNED Evo Mini LED lineup.
The box can transmit 4K video at up to 144Hz, and by all accounts from reviews last year, it works as advertised and poses no issues for gaming. The only cable that runs to the TV screen itself is the power cable.
LG says the QNED Evo series is also ditching quantum dots this year for a “proprietary wide color gamut technology, Dynamic QNED Color Solution” that supposedly produces “pure colors that are as realistic as they appear to the eye in general life.”
Unfortunately, I predict we’re going to see a lot of hype about AI on TVs at CES 2025 — even more than usual — and LG is already backing up my theory. It’s even putting a new AI button right on the Magic Remote for this year’s TVs. In what’s destined to be a controversial decision, the AI button actually takes the place of the traditional inputs button:
A short press on the AI button guides users to relevant keywords and TV features, while a long press enables personalized searches based on a large language model (LLM4). For example, if a user is planning a trip to France, they can ask their remote, “Recommend movies to watch on my trip to Paris.” The AI will understand the context and suggest movies set in the French capital, including specific genre recommendations based on the user’s viewing preferences.
Do people actually want this functionality from their TV? I digress. LG claims AI will also allow for more advanced upscaling, more fine-tuned HDR, and the conversion of two-channel stereo sources to a virtualized 9.1.2-channel sound output. LG claims its new AI tricks can also better distinguish voices from background noise — a challenge that TV makers never seem finished addressing — and make them clearer.
LG hasn’t yet shared pricing or a release timeframe for the 2025 QNED Evo lineup. But again, this is how CES TV announcements always go. You hear about the flashy new tech and better-than-ever picture quality months before learning how much it’ll cost you. The Verge will be in Las Vegas in just a few short weeks for the show, so you can at least count on some first-hand impressions of LG’s latest TVs.
