Premium German TV brand Loewe is back – with a vengeance
Television | £2999 | whf.cm/Bildi55
Given the brand’s history of delivering beautifully built TVs with innovative and bespoke design elements, strong performance standards and unique upgrade options, we are happy to see Loewe return to the UK TV game. The Bild i.55 is the debut result of Loewe’s ‘rebirth’ – and while it’s a chip off the lovely old Loewe block in some ways, it does suggest that Loewe in 2022 is a nimbler and more focused brand than previously.
Its price puts the Bild i.55 at the premium end of the TV market, particularly when compared with LG’s OLED55C2 (£1199), Sony’s XR-55A80K (£1499) and even QD-OLED TVs such as the Samsung QE55S95B (£1199) and Sony XR-55A95K (£2199).
This puts the Loewe at an immediate disadvantage – especially as it is built around the traditional ‘WRGB’ type of OLED technology rather than the newer QD-OLED approach. Loewe’s set does offer some unique features, though.
Its design and build quality are a clear cut above the norm. Its chassis is also designed to accept a supremely elegant soundbar upgrade as and when you want to add it and, uniquely for today’s TV market, it sports a built-in hard disk video recorder with 1TB of storage space.
The Loewe Bild i.55 really is a thing of beauty. The OLED screen is supported on a fantastically finished brushed black metal panel that is also outrageously slim at its outer edges. The frame around the screen is super slim too, and appears to sit flush with the screen.
Inevitably for a TV that wants to take sound quality seriously, a large section of the Bild i.55’s rear sticks out much further than it does at its edges. This bulgy bit still looks elegant on the Bild i.55, though, thanks to the way much of it is covered by a rich, graphite-grey cloth cover.
It is possible to add an optional extra ‘soundbar’ speaker arrangement to it without it spoiling the aesthetic at all. This Klang Bar i accessory simply slots onto the TV’s bottom edge, wearing the same fabric finish that you get on the TV’s rear.
All the OLED advantages
The Bild i.55 is built around a traditional 4K-resolution WRGB OLED panel, offering support for the HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision HDR formats. As ever with OLED TVs, the assumed advantages of Loewe using the technology are a pixel-level degree of local contrast, deep and uniform black levels, and wide viewing angles.
The Bild i.55 uses the VIDAA smart platform developed by Hisense. VIDAA has gone from rather humb
