CES2016: Slim TVs are Back, Baby

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One of the big trends of last year’s CES was the curved TV, but it came at the expense of thickness. If you’ve seen one of these, you realize that they come in at about 5″ thick… not a huge problem but still that’s a lot chunkier than the 1.5″ TVs you could get back in 2010. 4K televisions from 2015 were also pretty chunky, and when you looked at the lower-tier manufacturers, they all provided TVs with super-thin bezels that looked great straight on but carried a lot of heft when viewed from the side.


Sony’s long row of TVs were all super-thin. Last year they were a lot thicker.

If you look at the 4K televisions in our 2014 article, you’ll see what I mean. Major manufacturers either couldn’t deliver a slim TV or they just thought people didn’t want one. Either way, things have certainly changed. I’m very glad to see that things have moved back in that direction because I personally think my 2011 Samsung TV is better looking (not the picture quality, the actual item itself) than any of the TVs shown in 2015 and that’s one of the reasons why I’ve been holding off purchasing. (Another big concern I had: new specs that would make low priced 4K TVs obsolete.)

But now that’s in the past, at least it will be when these 2016 televisions make it to market. Even the curved TVs are super-slim and that means that once again they look as futuristic as they used to, even when they are off. And even the massive TVs are super-thin. When you look at the production-ready 80″ and 90″ TVs you see a thin, light form factor that means that most current TV mounts will be able to hold these behemoths. That’s good news for our vendors as well.

By the way, the blog team hasn’t completely scoured the Central Hall yet, but there’s no sign of 3D TVs this year. Even LG, who really focused on this technology last year, has stopped emphasizing it. I’m sure there are some 3D-capable TVs in the mix but they aren’t being featured. That’s as it should be… the technology was already dead at last year’s show and it has no real place here unless there’s a new wave of content that raises the excitement level.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.