Eyes on with LG's near-production 15-inch OLED TV: come on summer

While Sony's OLED TV is little more than a beautiful, 11-inch novelty, LG is swaggering dangerously close to a respectable kitchen TV with this 15-inch AMOLED TV prototype. On display here at CES and planned for a production run sometime this summer, the image is absolutely stunning -- every bit as impressive as the Sony's XEL-1. Nothing else compares to the incredible contrast achieved by these OLED displays. Have a look in the gallery -- we've got the prototype pictured with and without its chubby TV bezel. It's credit-card thin (0.8-mm) and only on Engadget.

Gallery: Eyes on with LG's 15-inch OLED TV shipping this summer

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[damn im so emo @ Jan 7th 2009 8:40PM]

im so returning my new tv and just going to wait it out..... geeshus...

[damn im so emo @ Jan 7th 2009 8:40PM]

not for the 15inch... but oleds in general...

[Patriks7 @ Jan 8th 2009 4:41AM]

If you wait for the next best thing, guess what? You won't buy anything!

[Thomas Ricker @ Jan 8th 2009 1:22PM]

i waited for an oled pmp now i have the sony,s9,iriver!! no i cant choose!

[Lovethatoledshine @ Jan 8th 2009 2:35PM]

LCDs have nothing new to offer, OLEDs are gorgeous.
if you rely on memorable wisdom tidbits, you waste money!

[disco_delite @ Jan 7th 2009 8:42PM]

Very Stylish!

[El Taco @ Jan 7th 2009 8:42PM]

smexy

[Jehzeel Laurente @ Jan 7th 2009 8:47PM]

this one is like a dream that turned into reality! whoa!

[Gad Get @ Jan 7th 2009 10:51PM]

That should have sounded more poetic than it did.

[eggothewaffle @ Jan 7th 2009 8:45PM]

You'd put that thing in the kitchen?

[Daniel @ Jan 7th 2009 8:50PM]

i need one of these to take with me on the road. i travel to way to many hotels and never have a good tv to game on.

[Matt @ Jan 7th 2009 8:51PM]

I'm speechless! I can't believe that it's as thin as a credit card... wow.

[Mark @ Jan 7th 2009 8:52PM]

Sure that's thin but it can't be 0.8mm... more like 8mm or 0.8cm?

[Mark @ Jan 7th 2009 8:56PM]

Sorry. I see 0.8mm is referring to the panel without the bezel.

[Sor @ Jan 7th 2009 8:52PM]

An 22 inch OLED monitor, please my kingdom (or at least a part of it :P) for a 22 inch OLED monitor. NO TV, a monitor plz, a nice 22 inch monitor... I am waiting for something like this from 2000 when it was still in concept !!

[PMetal @ Jan 10th 2009 1:50PM]

No! 24" Monitor so it can support full HD...

And it has to be released before 2010. Chop-chop!

[Skorpius @ Jan 7th 2009 8:55PM]

The quality of that image on the TV, on an angle, as a photograph, is freaking mindblowing.

[BobTurbo @ Jan 7th 2009 9:21PM]

Wow look at the picture quality!!!!

;)

[Kylex @ Jan 7th 2009 9:31PM]

This thing is utterly gorgeous. WANT.

[Zane @ Jan 7th 2009 9:54PM]

That picture quality is superb from 170 degrees.

[FILA @ Jan 7th 2009 9:59PM]

Yea but didnt they say the OLED's start dimming after about 1000 hours of use. i know they said 17000 to, but im talking about a thousand. if so i wouldnt be to happy if i bought this id be constantly paranoid my tv would fade out. (as im smackign the damn thing, there goes 3000 down the drain)

[Unknown @ Jan 7th 2009 9:59PM]

I always worry when people say 'the picture was stunning' and then mention contrast. Most TV sets on display are set to get your attention and are not set correctly for viewing. Setting black and white points and adjusting sharpness (way down) to their proper points makes you wonder what you ever saw in that really super bright edgy picture in the store.

[John @ Jan 7th 2009 11:00PM]

yeah, one of the lesser known gotchas that comes with buying a TV for cheap is that sometimes your discount comes from that it was the floor model, and will revert itself to the ultra high settings until you switch the mode. Of course, that's hardly an issue where you would feel cheated, but it can throw you for a loop the first time it happens.

[queeg @ Jan 7th 2009 10:27PM]

I looked at all the pictures in the gallery and seriously, the picture doesn't look one bit better than the monitor I'm viewing it on.

[andres @ Jan 7th 2009 10:48PM]

i see what you did there

[Dash @ Jan 8th 2009 12:48AM]

I've been reading about OLED tvs for years. What will it take for large sizes? Is the technology there yet or do they need to develop something that supports applying this to large panel?

[Shinigami @ Jan 8th 2009 12:59AM]

Samsung had their 40-inch OLED TV for YEARS. Ask them when its hitting the shelves. The answer would be "we wish it never happens". They're making loads of money on LCDs since nothing really new is being made but the plants and technologies already exist so its cheap to make them but the prices are kept at a relatively high level. So, in order to make similar amounts of money, OLED, that is far superior to any LCD made, simply needs to cost 100x times more. And they will "gradually decrease production costs and increase sizes". Thats "business, not greed".

[Shinigami @ Jan 8th 2009 1:02AM]

Other than greed there were some problems with screen's durability - they lost brightness in about a year or so. Sony OLED screens, that is. The problem is said to be fixed with different researchers periodically stating they found a material that allows to double or multiply "blue OLED life period" so there should be no problem now with production of massive amounts of OLED screens, making them blow the TV market like LCD did. And lowering the price from 100k to 1k for 32 inches.

/IMO

[Ogo @ Jan 8th 2009 2:05PM]

Samsung recently said that they can make large OLED TVs but they will cost 10X LCDs of the same size. Basically they don't think there is a big enough market for OLEDs at that price and people who want 50" TVs will not want a 22". Samsung said they would focus on 1.5 - 3" OLED until 2010 when they will release their first TV.

Sony will be releasing a 25" or 27" OLED soon or at least that is Sony's claim.

[Ronald @ Jan 7th 2009 10:32PM]

While we are on the subject of OLED displays where is this nifty flexible OLED wristband from UDC that we keep hearing about?

[Mark @ Jan 7th 2009 10:52PM]

15 inch?...yawn

[EUPHOR1C @ Jan 7th 2009 11:05PM]

15 inches at the cost of buying a small country.

[Shinigami @ Jan 8th 2009 12:55AM]

Too bad we'll have to wait till companies think "the market is fed with super-expensive super-small screens, time to start selling 40-inchers at the price of LCD 40-inchers".

[superhobo @ Jan 8th 2009 1:28AM]

0.8mm?

Seriously?

Awesome picture quality, anyway.

[Bluemaple @ Jan 8th 2009 8:57AM]

OLED - Isn't that Organic ???
That means it can be bread... cross it with you pet or something....
may be you can have a walking barking or meoowing Tele...

heheheee....

;-)

[Neilio @ Jan 14th 2009 8:04PM]

it can be bread with pets?
you mean like a kebab from china?

[helioprotus @ Jan 8th 2009 1:24PM]

credit card thin? thats pretty thin. whats next? paper thin?

[raeesgillani @ Jan 8th 2009 4:53PM]

WOW dat thing is thin n picture quality looks pretty gd.

[PMetal @ Jan 10th 2009 1:50PM]

Pretty damned good?! 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

It's not all about the thinness. It's about low-power output, picture quality, response time (0.001 ms) and thinness.

[Luis @ Jan 8th 2009 11:31PM]

I had to do a double take when I saw these. Its amazing how thin they are.

[ol @ Jan 10th 2009 8:39PM]

The 1st pics looks like 8 mm
But the last pics looks like it's different TV and there it seems indeed to be 0.8mm

The pictures are pretty bad, I don't understand anything.

thanks for helping me

[nima @ Jan 11th 2009 1:53AM]

hahah, it makes me laugh when people say look at the quality,

wtf?


you can see the quality? the quality you are seeing is the quality of your current display, i cant wait to see one of these in stores!

[Nathan @ Jan 12th 2009 4:19AM]

Lmfaoooo indeed.

I was trying to figure out how I can appreciate the high level of contrast on my standard lappy LCD...

[Pelvissimo @ Jan 11th 2009 3:20AM]

Well even though we have displays with less resolution, it still is at least minimally possible that we can determine whether what we're looking at has relatively good picture or not.

I'm only 18 now and cannot even imagine what televisions will be like when i buy buy first house in a decade or so. We've gone a long way, technology is pretty amazing.

The size of the only available OLED at the moment (Sony's XEL-1 11") isnt enough for me to go out and buy one. $2,500? Seriously? I'd rather wait it out and just stick with a nice LCD that isn't too heavy. As for the base of these televisions, there should be some type of wireless input standard, instead of the way Sony did with their XEL-1. This LG tv looks GREAT, even on my 720p computer screen.

As for bendable screens, and tv's put into shirts, i dont think i'l ever see people rolling up their tv's like scrolls. Shirts maybe, but i'd rather see the oled's stacked up for a 3d holographic-ish image.

[BB - vantechmag.com @ Jan 11th 2009 11:19AM]

I guess they simply want everyone (who care about quality) to buy big full HD LCD screens, before they release big OLED screens...

And when that finally happen, will they gladly offer OLED so everyone (who care about quality) have to buy a new screen :-(

[Krymzon @ Jan 11th 2009 2:49PM]

15", 1080p, thin, low power... not really a TV, this should be the most awesome laptop screen

[Kentucky Wildcats! @ Jan 15th 2009 11:48PM]

The "production run sometime this summer" link in the article states this unit is 1,366 x 768, which is not 1080p.

[JustinD @ Jan 12th 2009 7:39AM]

If you want understand why new technology is introduced this way:
watch http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912

It'll explain to you why technology is control by the cost of the product.

[Jon @ Jan 14th 2009 12:05PM]

Why do we still not have OLED screens on our PDAs/phones?

[William @ Jan 16th 2009 3:10PM]

Call me when the 110 inch model is available