Technology Sony's XEL-1 First OLED TV Goes on Sale

[Jurhum]

It seems that Sony is making good on its promise to deliver the first commercial Organic LED (OLED) based TV in 2007. The new XEL-1 (organic EL based panel) will be the first to go on sale on Japan this December for around $1735. The new ultra thin (3mm) 11-inch display will boost a remarkable contrast of 1,000,000: 1 (or higher) compared to around 20,000:1 on today's high end Plasma displays. The high contrast will result in much deeper (more realistic) black color and should also allow to view the TV in a brightly lit room.

What do you think of the contrast? I'll wait a couple of years to see how this new technology develop.

 

[ARon]

We probably won't be able to get it for a couple years anyway. At least things are progressing, the technology is crazy though, how they get things to line up.

 

[masta247]

yeah I got a message about it from my friend from Sony few months ago.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/01/the-sonydrive-xel-1-oled-tv-1-000-000-1-contrast-starting-decem/

OLED was up to be released for the masses back in 2005 but there are few reasons it wasn't.
There is too much money pumped into LCD technology research, OLED is not stable in bigger displays (unable to keep steady blue and red colors), Biocrystals doesn't last for too long, 70% displays burn out after few months. OLED is good in small 3-4 inch displays but most probably it will never hit the market in tvs or computer monitors.
There's more to expect from flat CRT, LED/FFL backlighted LCDs or e-paper based technologies, untill that (few years at least) all we can buy is lcd (which fortunately evolves fast - take a look at new s-pva or s-ips matrixes) or those new crts (still with tube but much slimmer) and plasma which still is the best technology for large flat screens.

btw. contrast in oled or crt is not important as it's unlimited. It is only measured in LCDs to show how black is black and how white is white because of backlight. LCDs won't ever pass 10000 contrast even with led backlight.