Ruh roh. Research firm DisplaySearch has just unleashed a new report that takes an in-depth look at the ultrathin
XEL-1, and it ended up finding a video lifetime barely half of what Sony promises. Apparently the company ran a couple of Sony's OLED TVs for 1,000 hours, after which it found that blue luminance degraded by 12-percent, the red by 7-percent and the green by 8-percent. Extrapolating the data it gathered, it estimated that the unit would lose half of its brightness in 17,000 hours -- Sony says you can expect 30,000. Of course, Sony is still standing by its numbers, and even we can see that DisplaySearch's methods aren't perfectly scientific, but if you were honestly expecting to watch this thing for the next decade (and not a year less), you may want to hit the read link and snoop around.
[Via
Yahoo, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted May 8th 2008 3:04AM
just kind of curious as to why anyone would find it useful to know the brightness half-life is 17000 hours or 30000 hours.
17000 = ~708 full days
30000 = ~1250 full days
does anyone actually watch that much tv?
Good point - this is a stupid article. Anyone who is buying this now at $2500 is going to keep it on their desk for a few years at most. They will replace it as soon as something cooler comes along.
I dunno dude, I'm sticking with my old 32" LCD TV until it goes out.
@Ignatius
I doubt it. Have you EVER had a TV for 10 years? Ever? Not only that, but this Sony is so God damn expensive that only people with massive disposable incomes probably own one. They won't be hanging onto anything for 10 years.
@Pochi - if you've one of these in person you might find a way to afford one. I will say that it being only 10" (or whatever) it feels like 30" the screen's so clear. I simply couldn't believe it & stared at it for quite some time (The Incredibles was playing & it truly was).
Did I buy one? No. But if I had any reason for a new TV it would be at the top of my list.
I still use a television circa 1988. I don't have an LCD/Plasma yet. I'm still waiting for the next best thing to come out which should be right around the corner.
@Anthony
$2,500 for an 11" television?
I think you SERIOUSLY overestimate my bank account.
@Pochi: Dude, I don't know Ignatius, but I have a 15 year old TV... And it still works quite well (with just a new remote control).... Not everyone is a rich a$$
There are shops and companies that leave their display running for 24hrs a day either for commercials use or for other important uses. So 2 years on this new technology isn't good.
@DarkLightConnection Unbanned
Yeah, damn those "rich a$$" folk and their fancy TVs manufactured less than a decade and a half ago!
Plasmas dead, OLED is the future my ass. Long live the reliable Kuro.
another curse of the early adopter... untested longevity.
I think occasionally turning it off might help.
That's about 2 years non stop.
If you're in a house where the Teev is left on sort of my default even if no-one is watching, say 8 hours a day, then that's 6 year of life.
Actually, that's about 6 years@8 hours a day. Sounds ok, however, they mention that by then brightness will be degraded by half. Anything beyond a 10% decline in brightness is perceptible, which means you will begin to notice significant degradation long before the 6th year. Someone who is so much of an early adaptor as to by this set will probably replace it long before they notice any problem.
The technology is still really cool, and I'm sure they'll iron it out. Great color, great contrast, very thin and efficient.
If you're an early adaptor, then you won't care if the display quality changes!
The "sony timer" really exists!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_timer
has anyone actually experienced this?
Anyway personally I don't own a tv, and owing to amount of work-spare time i get, have no intention at present either (though the panny elite looks quite impressive). just would be interesting to know since i'm considering buying a sony tz soon
Yes... sony products are plagued with broken problems.. take for instance ps2 lasers or sony cd burners or look at their horrible cameras. It's not the laser that dies but the little motor that moves it. My last sony CD burner died after burning 300 discs. They told me that was "industrial use" and refused to fix it. 3 months left on the warranty and wouldn't shell out. Went and bought a LG drive for $50 and haven't looked back since. Sony will use top quality parts through out anything and then skimp in one spot and boom the thing is in the shop every 6 months.
has anyone actually seen these outside of japan yet? i walked past one in akihabra and although the picture is cream-your-pants-perfect its soooo small, almost pointlessly small
They sell them at all the Sony Style stores. Pretty pricey though at $2500.
Uneven degradation of colors? Is that really tolerable? I can tolerate a darker pic pbetter than one with screwy colors
Let's put this into perspective. Projection TV bulbs last a fraction of that amount. Like 3000 hours.
5 years ago, the ultimate in high end televisions were Runco CRT projectors. The phosphor on the tubes for those things would start showing burn marks well before 10,000 hours.
By the time you've watched 17,000 hours on an XEL-1, you'll be able to buy a 65" OLED television for a fraction of what that thing cost. Not to mention the fact that if you own an XEL-1, you're a rich mofo who can afford anything.
Trust me that Sony, and any company playing around with OLEDs, tests lifetime **rigorously**. If they say it's 30k hours, it's 30k hours. This number will only have a approximate correlation to real world performance, of course. Ambient temperature is important, for example. In this case however I suspect DisplaySearch are just out to grab some headlines. OLEDs tend to fall in brightness rather quickly initially and then level off, its not a simple logarithmic decay, and the only way to measure it is to run the display until it gets to the 50% point. (Often done at high temperature to accelerate the measurement) Measuring the first 10% drop and fitting the data to an exponential curve and extrapolating to 50% is going to lead to a serious underestimate of the lifetime.
I think DisplaySearch extrapolation is may be somewhat dubious (no acess to full report anyway), but it does shows the color gamut staying constant throughout the 1,000 hour test, as far as I know, OLEDs of different color tends to degrade differently, and in this case, Sony seems to have managed that problem, which can't be a bad thing right?
This is an 11 inch telly and will mostly serve it's time in t he kitchen or on the bed side table. In other words it won't be on for more than maybe an hour per day or so. More over there might even pass days when you don't use it at all, it's not a product which is used as your main TV.
Since OLED displays are made with organic material, wouldn't the material in the TV degrade/decay over time, even without use? Maybe much slower (or maybe not), but if it were me, I'd much rather enjoy the full use of my TV than allow it to sit over time and degrade only as a side unit, careful touchy not to use it so much.
Especially at the price one would pay for it, that's no pocket change, I'm afraid.
This is just a TV? It does not run Doom or irssi? Who in their right mind mind would buy this?
That's not quite true that you can't play Doom on this unit. I have an Atari Jaguar with Doom. If I decided to hook up the system it surely can play Doom.
This topic just reminded me of Art Lebedev's Optimus Maximus keyboard, which also uses OLED technology. Unlike Sony's XEL-1 tele, one might expect to use a keyboard for quite a few years, especially one that costs well over a grand or two. Just think when the keys "go dark" after 6 years (or however many years it will be to reach half-life)...
I still would want an XEL-1, but not at the price Sony is offering them for. Stylish, very; innovative, absolutely. But I prefer some peace of mind when I buy a product; I prefer it will not poop out on me after so many years, even if I am going to replace it before it does.
It's like a doctor telling me, "I'm sorry, man, you're going to die in 20 years. Nothing we can do". Sure, 20 years seems like a lot of time for me to enjoy, and I'll try my darndest to enjoy it to the fullest, but I'd just much rather not know when I will die. Same for this TV, I like to think my stuff will last forever, or a lifetime; even if it doesn't.
You're right, it's much more likely that a keyboard will be on all day than a TV.
I saw one of these on display and I have to admit it was beautiful. I was seriously, the best display I have ever seen. Nothing comes close in contrast. After seeing it, I just had to laugh at the Pioneer Kuro just 3 meters away.
But yeah, the display is way too small for any real watching and the price is just crazy. I'm sure though that in few years I will be buying an OLED monitor.
If you watched it for those 1000 straight hours, your eyes would be so f*cked you wouldn't notice anyway.
It's organic, like us. It dies.
That is the problem with OLED's. Always has been. Else they would have been to market 3 years ago with them.
Just like ever other media sony makes..
You would have got away with it too.
Those Trinitrons lasted me forever. Even our 21" from like the late 80s is still alive and running with amazing color quality. And now Sony's releasing an OLED TV with less than half a decade of life? Bah. I'm sticking to my big ass, 400 lbs, CRT, Trinitron-equipped HDTV.