Planned obsolescence is not trendy anymore. These days, more and more of our tech is coming attached to promises of updates for multiple years, whether that’s actual feature updates or security updates. The reason why is pretty clear—vulnerabilities and cyber attacks are rampant, and users need to be protected against them. Now, your TV might last the time it’ll spend in your living room receiving updates, as LG is committing to several years of updates for its webOS-powered smart TVs starting next year.
LG has announced extended software support for its 2024 webOS smart TVs, thus assuaging the concerns of users who were worried about long-term support for its TVs. This pledge is part of the launch of LG’s 2024 QNED TVs, featuring a program named “webOS Re:New.” Under this initiative, LG promises to provide free upgrades to its webOS smart TV platform until at least 2028. Notably, this support extends to certain existing LG 8K TVs from 2022 but excludes those from 2023 due to the absence of 8K webOS TV launches that year.
Having decent update support in your TV is important because your TV is something that you won’t be upgrading as frequently as you would upgrade, say, a smartphone. It’s sticking around for a long time, and since they’re basically the centerpieces of our living rooms, it needs to be updated in this frequently online age. Many TVs barely get any updates, so it’s definitely a refreshing change of pace to see LG commit to updating your TV for that long. A lot of people keep TVs for even longer—some people keep TVs for about 10-15 years. It’s a start, though.
This update commitment is present on LG’s just-announced 2024 QNED TVs, which LG is pitching as having AI capabilities and a lot of neat features. The TVs are set to be shown in better detail come CES 2024, which is due to take place in two weeks, so we’ll definitely keep an eye on those too. If you want to buy any LG TV from 2024 onwards, know that it’ll be supported for a long, long time.
Source: LG via TechRadar
