The world's first OLED TV from Sony, the XEL-1, debuted at the CEATEC 2007 electronics and technology show in Japan. At only 3mm wide, the 11 inch model with 1000000:1 resolution will retail for a steep $1750 in Japan this coming December. Despite the steep price and new technology, Sony is confident there will be buyers in the $82 billion flat-panel market.
Reuters Report On The Sony TV
OLED, which stands for organic light-emitting diode, is any LED (light-emitting diode) that is comprised of organic compounds in its emissive electroluminscent layer. This layer is where the light that makes up the colors on your TV screen comes from. The organic compounds are placed on the panel by a printing process into rows and columns. The resulting matrix of organic compounds emits light when an electrical current is passed through it and results in the colored pixels you see on your TV screen.
Because OLED's can be printed on any flat surface, even those that are flexible, OLED TV's look to be much cheaper and easier to produce than the popular LCD and plasma screens of today. Compared to LCD TV's, OLED's enable a greater range of colors, brightness, and viewing angle because OLED pixels directly emit light as they do not require a backlight to function. Because they use a backlight, LCD's cannot show a true black on screen, one of the biggest drawbacks of LCD screens. LCD's also waste a ton of energy because they use polarizers to filter out some of the backlight to minimize the coloration problems that do occur.
The biggest drawback to OLED technology is that organic compounds do decompose. That means that an OLED TV will currently only have about one-third to one-twelfth the lifespan of today's 60000 hour expectation for LCD and plasma screens. Definitely something to consider when looking at the expected retail price.
Sony Debuts First OLED TV In Japan
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