Samsung drops jaws with 40-inch 1080p OLED display

Anyone who figured OLED would go the way of SED has another thing comin', and Samsung's got the prototype to prove it. Over at the OLED-heavy FPD International 2008 show, Samsung is showcasing the biggest panel (of this nature) that its pilot line can even create: a 40-inch Full HD OLED display. 1,920 x 1,080 pixels of delicious OLED goodness, mixed with a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, a color gamut of 107% NTSC, a luminance of 200cd/m2 and a thickness of just 8.9-millimeters. Judging by first hand reports, the actual quality wasn't top-notch, but we're willing to forgive the early glitches in hopes of a better tomorrow. Hit the read link for one more look.

[Via OLED-Display]

[JerJer @ Oct 30th 2008 10:29AM]

yowza!

[konshuss @ Oct 30th 2008 1:51PM]

now this is what i'm talkin' about! full beautiful 1920x1080... no more 1366 x 768 nonsense, please.

[eiki @ Oct 30th 2008 2:03PM]

there are shit-loads of 40" 1080p LCD screens for reasonable prices now, this OLED should be srsly yowza for contrast and brightness after a bit more dev tho!

[Jon @ Oct 30th 2008 10:29AM]

Nice .. Now lets get to 60" + .. 40" is a bedroom tv ...

[Levi @ Oct 30th 2008 10:43AM]

Dude how big is you bedroom?? I'll admit my living room is small, but my 40" Samsung is perfect... I was thinking a 32" might even be too big for the bedroom!

[Hiattech @ Oct 30th 2008 11:22AM]

40" is fine for the living room in the new place I'm moving to, but at our previous house, our 42" still seemed a bit small for the living room.

[Kelmon @ Oct 30th 2008 11:42AM]

We bought a 40" Sammy this month (40A656 to be precise) and it's huge. How anyone can want or even house something bigger than 40" is quite beyond me. It's not like our apartment is small but anything bigger and it just dominates the place.

[Jon @ Oct 30th 2008 11:49AM]

Wow .. i wasn't being snooty .. i am just used to my 60" .. something to get drawn into , you know a Home theatre, with HD you need to be closer then normal Tv to get all the rich details anyway ... Plus I don't like seeing my wall behind my tv , it distracts me

if 40" does that for you more power to you

[Shinigami @ Oct 30th 2008 12:29PM]

I'd rather buy full-electric hybrid vehicle rather than 60" OLED Full-HD TV... I think the price will be similar...

[rock99rock @ Oct 30th 2008 12:54PM]

@Shinigami

What is a full-electric hybrid?

[thors1982 @ Oct 30th 2008 1:27PM]

Don't feel bad Jon

I have a 56" DLP in my living room and a 37" LCD in the bedroom :-p so I completely agree.

Then again i am really big into home theater so thats where most of my money goes.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Oct 30th 2008 3:22PM]

Recommended screen size for HD is much larger versus SD at the same viewing distance due to the higher resolution. I have what I think is sorta a 'normal size' living room (maybe 12'x12'). Viewing distance is probably somewhere between 8 and 10 feet, and my 46" Samsung .. well it doesn't look too small, but a 60 sure wouldn't be too big.. I definitely think from 8 feet a 40" would be too small.

[Valicore @ Oct 30th 2008 5:22PM]

My previous dwelling had a huge living room with 18 foot ceilings, and it really made even enormous tvs look small. My new place has an average living room size and a 42" is perfect for it. It all depends on the size and layout of the room.

[SneezyPorcupine @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:07AM]

I knew I should have waited before I bought an LCD in February 2007... prices have come down sooo much since that it hurts me to walk into the home theater section of an electronic store. But, at the time, it seemed like it had to be done since my house got robbed and insurance had a time limit for how long they would reimburse us for the theft...

In any case, I ended up buying a 37'' Toshiba LCD for close to $1900 with tax and everything, and its not even 1080p, its 1080i/720p. Not that it would be very noticeable on that size of a screen... but now I'm seeing 40'' LCDs that are 1080p for like $899... Oh well, maybe I'll buy a new one next year and move that one to the bedroom.

What really puts salt in the wounds is going to my girlfriend's parents' house... they have a projector installed on their high ass ceiling that projects wide angle 1080p signal on a MASSIVE wall. I would say the image is probably 8 feet diagonal. I've always wondered how much he spent on that projector since it must have a REALLY high contrast ratio. They have huge bay windows on the other side of that room and you can still see the picture with zero glare.

[Gatzke @ Oct 30th 2008 1:03PM]

8.5mm thick?.. You mean 8.5mm "thin"... Sweet as..

[Brad @ Oct 30th 2008 10:36AM]

I think I just moved a little.

[hustler @ Oct 30th 2008 6:40PM]

I have heartburn.

[xcrunk @ Oct 30th 2008 10:40AM]

BRAVO!!!

Looks like Plasma just became LCD, and LCD just became RPTV, and RPTV just became CRT.

OLED is now the shizzz-nit.

[Craig @ Oct 30th 2008 10:42AM]

If you meant "LCD just became plasma," then you're spot on. Just look at the sales figures.

[xcrunk @ Oct 30th 2008 10:50AM]

Craig...you're right, from a sales standpoint. I was talking picture quality.

[Jeremy K. @ Oct 30th 2008 10:40AM]

Wow! That is friggin' awesome.

[rock99rock @ Oct 30th 2008 10:40AM]

Thats huge. Wasnt it just yesterday that the "Worlds Largest" was posted? Maybe a different type of oled i guess...

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/29/cmel-shows-off-1mm-thick-25-inch-hd-oled-panel/

[esoterica @ Oct 30th 2008 10:56AM]

The saying is, "Anyone who thought... has another *think* coming." It's pseudo-incorrect grammar for the purpose of sarcasm.

[jitty @ Oct 30th 2008 11:38AM]

I hate samsung because they are sometimes exaggerate their specs. On the LNXXA650, they did a test of dynamic contrast ratio independently and got ~11k at most. Samsung claims it's 25k, flat out off, not just a little off, very off.

[Shinigami @ Oct 30th 2008 12:33PM]

Will it really matter if your contrast will actually be 300.000:1 instead of 1.000.000:1? I bet you won't notice the difference...

[Mr. Ford @ Oct 30th 2008 3:25PM]

The 81 series lcd from samsung (it uses local dimming led's instead of ccfl back lighting) has by far the best contrast of any lcd to date. When ANSI contrast was measured, the LN-T5281F did very well for an lcd, but it was a far cry from 500,000:1.

Here is the measurement excerpt from Home Theater Magazine:
"The ANSI contrast ratio measurements produced a more realistic result. Using a 16 square checkerboard pattern of alternating white and black squares, I measured an impressive ANSI contrast ratio of 2,340:1 (38.84fl white, 0.0166fL black)."

Regardless of exaggerated CR measurements, the OLED stuff at EXPO looked phenomenal. I hope this lives up to the hype.

[bob sakamano @ Oct 30th 2008 11:24AM]

im guessing it will take about a fortnight for the US to receive this

[JM @ Oct 30th 2008 11:34AM]

Expect them to charge the amount of the contrast ratio if you would want to pick one up today.

[Samboini @ Oct 30th 2008 1:33PM]

1,000,000:1 isn't a currency yet.

[norm @ Oct 30th 2008 3:42PM]

Sure it is... $1,000,000 to one 40" OLED display. Prices are always in ratios, but for most things, it's per one item.

[webon @ Oct 30th 2008 11:45AM]

I liked the derogatory/hipocoristic term sammy, EG did you have to stop using it?
peer pressure is a bitch no?

[webon @ Oct 30th 2008 5:26PM]

What?

[ITRanger @ Oct 30th 2008 11:54AM]

Loving Samsung!

For me Samsung are almost the new Sony. Their stuff really Rocks!

[Jensen @ Oct 30th 2008 12:13PM]

200cd/m2 seems extremely low compared to other technology out there.

[Shinigami @ Oct 30th 2008 12:31PM]

At least you won't go blind with it the moment you turn it on :)

[Jensen @ Oct 30th 2008 12:34PM]

especially after it's reached it's half-life

I keed, I keed...

[outkastNK @ Oct 30th 2008 12:25PM]

no, it's 1M:1.

[Jensen @ Oct 30th 2008 12:32PM]

Was that directed at me? If so, 1M:1 is contrast (undoubtedly overrated, especially coming from Samsung). 200cd/m2 is brightness, which is quite low.

[scape @ Oct 30th 2008 1:07PM]

gizmodo: "Way back in 2005, Samsung technically showed off a 40-inch OLED screen. We didn't want to be rude and say anything at the time, but it wasn't sporting HD resolution and the contrast ratio was a measly 5,000:1. Now Samsung is showing off their new 40-inch OLED (that's a mere 8.9mm thick), and needless to say, its specs are more than a little worth our attention"

that's completely different...

[scape @ Oct 30th 2008 1:08PM]

wait, i'm an idiot... x-\

[Jonathan-DBOSS @ Oct 30th 2008 1:37PM]

A tear just fell out of my face... oh lord that thing's beautiful.

[Silverfrog @ Oct 30th 2008 1:48PM]

The best stuff always comes out when i'm broke. Maybe I can do egg donation and get my $20k then be able to afford that.

[carlos @ Oct 30th 2008 6:37PM]

I'd hope samsung divert their r&d funding into putting decent quality audio into their sets. How does anyone put up with those wet fart speakers?

[DarkLight @ Oct 30th 2008 8:43PM]

Why?

Just get a home theater.

A home theater display should go with home theater speakers.... The built-in speakers are _not supposed to_ be of high quality.... They're there just so you can test the thing out to see if everything works well before doing a more permanent installation, not really meant to be used

[boe @ Oct 30th 2008 2:30PM]

While this is far too small to watch movies on if it had a higher than 2560x1600 resolution it would probably make an excellent computer display.

[JM @ Oct 30th 2008 3:31PM]

Yeah I'll be playing Starcraft 2 Protoss campaign on this baby.
Cause thats how long it'll take for one of these to be affordable...

[Troels C @ Oct 30th 2008 3:06PM]

Mine

[Adam Zey @ Oct 30th 2008 3:33PM]

Who cares? Companies have been showing off 40" OLED prototypes for years. Let me know when they're actually on the market and I might care.

[JASON @ Oct 30th 2008 3:39PM]

Designed obsolescence really works on you guys....really is it that important? if it is that important I think you need to take a look at your priorities, but that's just my opinion, and I canceled my TV service, because I discovered the illuminate was trying and succeeding in controlling people's minds with it so I didn't want to be a part of that any more.

[chris @ Oct 31st 2008 4:40PM]

is that to say that the battle between LCD and Plasma are soon at an end?