Smart TV manufacturers are increasingly updating their televisions every year by incorporating brighter panels and the latest technologies to take picture and sound quality to new heights. increasingly surprising. Additionally, the operating system of these televisions is becoming more capable, including advanced functions to control smart home devices, download applications, interact with voice assistants, integration of artificial intelligence-based technologies and much more.

The bad news is that most manufacturers other than Google with Android TV and Google TV They do not offer important and free updates to their operating systemsSo until now, buying a TV from LG, Samsung or any other manufacturer meant being tied to that operating system (unless we connected an HDMI dongle or a set-top box like Chromecast or Fire TV). But LG wanted to change its own rules and took a seemingly impossible first step: updating its older TVs to the latest versions of webOS.

Annual version updates, something that seems impossible on Smart TVs

As we already knew a few months ago, the company announced: It will offer webOS updates for up to five years on some television. This means users can have four different versions of webOS on their televisions over the years, and can also count on some new features added over time.

LG plans to update its models. Image: FlatpanelsHD

LG has announced this strategy for now for the models announced by the company in 2022. In this way, some of the manufacturer’s Smart TVs were also put on sale. They are already updating to webOS 23. Among the models chosen by the company for this update: LG Z2, CS, C2, G2, LG QNED 99 from 2022 and LG QNED 95 from 2022. All can now download version 23, which refers to one of the webOS 13.30.55 versions of the operating system.

Users of these televisions in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia are already receiving these updates as the launch is happening in phases. If you have not received it yet, you will have to wait until you receive your television.

Planned obsolescence is on the rise in all types of devices, including televisions. And its functioning depends not only on technologies that are increasingly prone to technical malfunctions, burns and image defects, but also on updates to the operating system. They can limit the operation of televisions. And it’s not strange to see that many apps are no longer compatible with older models, leaving the user dependent on a streaming player like Chromecast, Fire TV and the like.

LG seems to be paving the way for updates to televisions, although its initiative is still very limited. Everything indicates that Samsung wants to do the same with Tizen OS. During CES 2024 in January, media AVForums teased Samsung’s 2023 televisions They will also have future Tizen updatesAlthough the company has not yet officially demonstrated this strategy to the public.

Companies provide updates for their televisions every year a pro-consumer measure we rarely see. While there is no shortage of constant security updates, we do miss out on features that become exclusive to current operating systems, leaving users after a year without these features because they cannot receive the updates.

Hopefully this will be a first step for more and more manufacturers to jump on the bandwagon of offering important annual updates to their users. Even if that were the case, there would be less reason to tout new televisions beyond minor improvements in image and brightness delivery.

Cover image | Xataka

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