Loewe Stellar 97 TV review: the brand’s biggest screen ever

German AV brand Loewe has announced a new flagship television, the Stellar 97. As the name suggests, this is a television for big spectacles, with a 97-inch OLED screen and integrated 300W soundbar.

The Loewe name dates back to the age of wireless technology, and the company was one of the earliest television pioneers in the early 1930s. Fortunes ebbed and flowed in the following decades, but Loewe maintains an HQ in Kronach, Germany, about 60 miles north of Nuremberg.

The facility combines offices, a showroom and manufacturing, although some components are sourced from sub-contractors and assembled on site. We’ve been tracking the brand in recent years, admiring its restrained contemporary aesthetic, the curious but effective use of materials like concrete and niche but excellent devices like the Klang S3 CD player and audio streamer.

Television remains the pinnacle of the firm’s manufacturing abilities, both in terms of components and finish. Those experiments in wafer-thin concrete panelling debuted on the smaller Stellar TVs and can also be found here on the 97. It’s paired with an aluminium bezel and rear cover, with the emphasis on minimal lines. The only showy moment is the ‘magic.light’ system beside the soundbar that provides a discreet backlight in an infinite range of colours, should you so desire.

The OLED screen incorporates Dolby Vision IQ Precision Detail, with each unit hand-calibrated at the Kronach factory. Expect velvety dark blacks and perfect colour reproduction. Channel hopping is handled by Loewe’s os9 smart TV system, which comes with all the streamers pre-installed and can handle smart home integration as well as special gaming modes.

An all-new remote control unit allows for Bluetooth and voice activation, while there’s also an Art Mode, which takes advantage of that big-screen real estate to showcase photography, paintings and other visual media when you’re not watching actual television.