Roku enters premium TV territory at CES 2024 with its new Pro Series TVs, which feature Mini LED backlighting for better brightness and contrast, as well as improved audio. The company announced its first self-made TVs at CES last year, a surprising move since it has also partnered with TCL and others for years to build "Roku TVs" Powered by Roku OS. The first batch of Roku TVs, the Select and Plus models, were clearly value-oriented, with prices ranging from $149 to $999. The Pro Series, which includes 55-, 65-, and 75-inch models, tops out at $1,500. We hope to see you in person in Las Vegas next week once CES begins.
calling these "high-end" Televisions are relative, of course. You can easily spend thousands more on QLED TVs from Samsung, Sony and LG, and prices only increase once you look at OLED TVs. Instead of targeting the top of the heap, Roku still appears to be targeting value-oriented buyers who would normally consider TCL's cheaper TVs. (Roku told us last year that it wasn't planning to compete with partners like TCL, but that now seems harder to believe.)
While Roku's previous mid-range Plus TVs included some notable features, such as QLED displays and support for Dolby Vision and Atmos, the Mini LED backlighting on the Pro series TVs will be a notable improvement. Most mid-range TVs feature a small number of local dimming backlight zones, which can increase brightness and contrast in specific areas of the screen. Mini LED backlights offer higher brightness and, because they are so small, allow for hundreds (and potentially thousands) of dimming zones.
At this point, Mini LEDs are the closest you'll get to the power of OLEDs, which can turn individual pixels on and off to achieve perfect blacks and extreme levels of contrast, on a standard LED display.
In addition to a new family of TVs, Roku also announced that it will leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning for its new Roku Smart Picture features, which can automatically adjust Roku TVs for specific types of content. The company says most consumers typically don't adjust their TV settings, meaning they're likely stuck watching suboptimal content. We won't see Smart Picture in action until spring 2024, but it could help tone down motion smoothing during movies and increase it in sports, where you want images to look more realistic. (And of course, image purists can always turn it off.)
Roku says its new Pro Series TVs will arrive in the US in spring 2024. The company will also expand retail availability of its Select and Plus series TVs, but we don't have details yet on where they will appear.
We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas January 6-12. Stay up to date with the latest news from the show. here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/roku-high-end-pro-series-tvs-feature-mini-led-screens-164354589.html?src=rss
