Sony plans 2009 Euro OLED TV debut
Bigger sets than its 11in screen, hopefully
Sony will bring its skinny OLED TV family to Europe next year, so says Japanese newspaper Nikkei, though it's unclear if the move will see the arrival of the 11in XEL-1 OLED TV or a follow-up model.
Certainly, by the time Sony OLED TVs appear in Europe the XEL-1, which was launched in Japan in October 2007 and in the US in January 2008, will be well over a year old.
Sony's XEL-1: bigger version coming to Europe, we hope
The XEL-1 may only be 3mm thick, but it's still only an 11in screen - not exactly big by LCD and plasma standards, though it is an HD screen. It's also bloody expensive: ¥200,000 ($1827/£979/€1228) and $2500 in the US.
We'd hope that Sony has a larger model in the works. It's promised to release a 27in screen by May 2009, and it's a good bet this is the screen that'll become Sony's first OLED TV sold in Europe.
According to market watcher DisplaySearch, only 200,000 OLED TVs will be sold in 2009. Sony is investing ¥22bn ($201m/£108m/€135m) in the development of OLED TVs.
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COMMENTS
Bigger? Are you kidding?
11 inch is preety much an ideal size. Especially for standard resolution television. Even with HDTV there is not much use of a screen larger than about 24 inches.
The big potential advantage of OLED is that you might get a quality simmilar to very good CRT displays at a fraction of the cost. They just need a better case. Back in the late 80s, Sony perfected the case design of CRT TV-sets by introducing a line of box-like models you can even stack.
Stackable OLED screens might be a whole new market. As the OLED pixel can be tiny, you could have large high-resolution displays which would actually be even crisper and sharper than paper.
Over £900?!
Screw that, I'm going for a projector... it's cheaper, it's got a box about the same size but the screen's only ~900nM thick at its thickest!
And I'd be able to see it from more than 2 feet away...
What's the point of HD resolution on something that small? It's not like you'd ever be able to actually see details that small unless you fell head-first into the TV. SVGA would, I'm sure, provide much the same viewing experience from the distance you would normally sit from an 11" TV (across a Kitchen, perhaps).
This is an emerging technology. Lets hope it grows a bit post-emergence...
It's the one with the tape measure in the pocket to measure my projected screen. The very big tape measure. Screen size in inches... pah!
It's not the thin that counts
It's the quality that is so impressive about this TV. Have a look at one of the demo ones in T5, or presumably in every Sony shop up and down the country. The contrast and picture quality is incredible and even though it's only eleven inches you get the impression you could almost reach in and grab the bowl of bright red apples used in one of the demo videos.
Lifespan?
Has the lifespan of OLED screens been improved of late I wonder? Last I looked, they were notably inferior to LCD.
Not much point yet
The screen itself may be (and is) very thin, but there's not much point in aiming for this if there is a fat base attached to it. The base is about 2 inches hight and 8 inches deep.
The screen needs to be completely detachable from the base in order to be of any practical value (ie - hanging on a wall, which, let's face it, is what it's ultimately aimed at).
The XEL-1 is a showcase product to demonstrate the technology, and in this roll, it works fine. But it's not actually of much practical value; in real terms, it takes up no less space than a more conventional flat display.
