Sony 3-mm thin XEL-1 OLED TV in person. Oh, and it's fricking thin.

Sony was all about showing off their new turbo-thin XEL-1 OLED TV at CEATEC today, and we have to hand it to them, this thing is kind of mind-blowingly thin. Naturally that kind of thinness is a little hard to capture in photographs -- it's kind of one of those things you have to see in person. But once you do check it out, you may just find its gorgeous, bright pseudo-HD, 1m:1 contrast ratio picture hypnotizes you from remembering its ridiculously high ¥200,000 (about $1700 US) price and piddly 11-inch size. We want one on our desk, like, yesterday.

Gallery: Sony 3-mm thin XEL-1 OLED TV in person. Oh, and it's fricking thin.

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[shamrock593 @ Oct 1st 2007 11:01PM]

That's pretty friggin thin.

[CT @ Oct 1st 2007 11:58PM]

That's what she said.

[kaztm @ Oct 2nd 2007 8:26AM]

I can see Engadget wagging its tail again to Sony whom they call liar every chance they get.

[Chino B @ Oct 1st 2007 11:05PM]

Thats sickkkkkkk

[Feb30th @ Oct 1st 2007 11:05PM]

Saw one of those OLED TV when I was at the Sony Show this past weekend... I gotta say the technology is amazing. The panel is so razar thin, it's amazing to think anything can actually fit inside.
The best part though is the picture quality... it is mind blowingly good. It's like watching a high quality still photograph, only it's moving.

[BananaBoat @ Oct 1st 2007 11:09PM]

I'd like to see how good non-native resolutions look on this thing. 1m:1 contrast ratio doesn't mean a whole lot if anything SD I feed to it looks like crap. If Sony can get OLED's to 12-15 inches, at something more like 1280x768 or higher, I'd love to see it in a laptop. would be freaking sweet.

[Solomon @ Oct 1st 2007 11:11PM]

Why does it have an ethernet jack?

[Michael La Framboise @ Oct 1st 2007 11:58PM]

err... porn?

[Ethan Fahy @ Oct 1st 2007 11:15PM]

who cares how thin it is if the base is that huge? is this just a 1st gen thing? what does that giant base even do? if you stick the base on the back of the oled then it's thicker than lcds. wtf.

[imacmatt09 @ Oct 1st 2007 11:22PM]

The base obviously contains the circuit board, power (inverter?) and all the ports and such. At least click though the pics. But seriously if you want the board built in it would probably have to have one hell of a Jay Leno chin and be a bit thicker.

[theCardinal @ Oct 2nd 2007 3:25AM]

Exactly. The design was obviously devised to make it look as thin as possible, but with that huge base it's completely meaningless.

[taku @ Oct 2nd 2007 4:04AM]

That base apparently contains TV related components (including speakers).

Btw, the OLED part IS actually paper thin, but then it has to be sandwitched between the two supporting panels. (Like glass in front and some kind of metal on the back i suppose...)

[Miles Cave @ Oct 2nd 2007 6:16AM]

MAny displays would be skinny without the controll board. The desing is nice, but yeah, whats the point?

[daedric @ Oct 2nd 2007 6:31AM]

Many screens wouldn't be skinny without the control board. Other screens are thick because of the backlights they use.

[jbstingray @ Oct 1st 2007 11:22PM]

I think that it is the base of a sort of "all-in-one" thing - resembles the iMac G4 in that respect. Is it a full out PC or is it just a really little TV? There is a remote...

[daedric @ Oct 2nd 2007 6:33AM]

Maybe the title OLED TV gave nothing away...

[jbstingray @ Oct 6th 2007 2:35PM]

Well, I meant that are there PC components that Sony will be classifying them by (like the amount of HD space, RAM, etc.) or is it just a TV with regular TV components that Sony would put in their, say, Sony Bravia TVs.

[DickHardknocks @ Oct 1st 2007 11:46PM]

The Base is probably there at that size to act as a weighted stand for the unit.

I'm not impressed by its thinness. Considering OLED screens can be as thin as film, I'll be impressed when I see on that is PAPER THIN.

Furthermore, Engdget showed a story a while back about Piezo Electric speakers that were film-thin.
If you add those to the OLED screen you could have a Wall-Mount TV only 1 MM thick.

[Jeff @ Oct 1st 2007 11:55PM]

So I'm guessing you're dreaming of the day you can stick your TV to your wall with 4 pieces of box sealing tape right?

[Michael La Framboise @ Oct 2nd 2007 12:01AM]

Yes, you're right about the actual screens being very thin, however I think you're forgetting that you also need a pretty good backlight to fully enjoy the screen - unless of course I missed something and these glow by themselves. -- But yeah, it would be pretty hot to see a TV that thin - though why even bother w/ internal speakers? - surround sound ftw!

[greyscale @ Oct 2nd 2007 12:24AM]

Michael, you missed something. It's an OLED display, there is no backlight.

[Michael La Framboise @ Oct 2nd 2007 12:55AM]

oh... :p - well I feel pretty stupid now :p hahaha :D

[Michael La Framboise @ Oct 1st 2007 11:57PM]

I would actually love to see this technology applied to laptop displays - I mean that alone would shave a 3rd of the unit's thickness - however I would still like to know how durable these are - I mean I wouldn't want it snapping in two after the first time I open it ;)

[mushrooshi @ Oct 2nd 2007 12:18AM]

Such a kawaii wee screen

[docree @ Oct 2nd 2007 2:01AM]

A few years ago Kodak / Sony were promising a flexible, and transparent OLED material. They were even talking about it possibly being cheaper than LCD because there was no lighting substrate and they could use plastic instead of glass. I'm certain they had one OLED display slightly larger (around 17 inches) and a fraction thicker as a demo last year. Now it seems that focusing on small size OLED for hand held devices, has set this tech back a couple decades. (For the consumer at least.)

[Eric @ Oct 2nd 2007 2:39AM]

Having an Atari 2600 as a base stand completely cancels out anything cool about this monitor.

[LEXX911 @ Oct 2nd 2007 2:54AM]

Nice. I really want to see this in person. So what is the actual lifespan of OLED so far?

[Jon @ Oct 2nd 2007 6:30AM]

30,000 viewing hours.

[Tan Tran @ Oct 2nd 2007 3:12AM]

Damn man thats bloody thin

[Peter @ Oct 2nd 2007 3:18AM]

Michael La Framboise @ Oct 1st 2007 11:57PM
I would actually love to see this technology applied to laptop displays - I mean that alone would shave a 3rd of the unit's thickness - however I would still like to know how durable these are - I mean I wouldn't want it snapping in two after the first time I open it ;)


go to your local SONY store, guess u never heard of or seen SZ and TZ Vaios...........

[Yem @ Oct 2nd 2007 4:43AM]

What about that 27" 1080p OLED screen Sony had at CES? That's the product they should be launching.

[Alexis @ Oct 2nd 2007 5:38AM]

US$1700 was not that unusual for a screen back in the 90s (can't believe I said that). I'm tempted.

[bharatk12 @ Oct 2nd 2007 7:31AM]

please remember ppl...........this is BARELY A COMMERCIAL LAUNCH..2000 sets a month...but this is the beginning for sony to take the lead and this time they will.

[Jay @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:30AM]

Expect Apple to "invent" this in six months time.

But seriously, what do Sony have to do to please you whining, b*tch*ing people? If they invented a cure for all cancers and handed it over gratis to the UN you'd all post here complaining about their DRM, BluRay, Betamax and Atrac.

[Sony OLED TV Fan @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:03AM]

Sony beat Canon to the punch by introducing the first next generation flat screen that's available now. SO what if it's tiny. I don't want one but I bet thousands will be snapped up.

http://www.fed-tv-reviews.com/sony-oled-tv

[JSW @ Oct 3rd 2007 11:37PM]

Kodak invented this and has the patent for it.

I am just wondering how SED TV will compare to this as far as detail and Progressive frame movement. Not sure OLCD is as impressive...?

[JSW @ Oct 3rd 2007 11:53PM]

I mean have u seen the Canon SED, it is 'way out there' ?

One of these two OLED or SED (not laser it seems) should come out as the new leading TV technology. !

I hope Sony prevails over Canon, but..... ...not sure which is 'really' better.

I work for Kodak, they invented it and Canon is Kodak's digital competitor.
US vs JP.
SED looks REAL impressive though.