This morning you saw what a 9.9-mm thin LCD from Sony looks like. Now it's Philips' turn to drop jaw. Albeit just a concept compared to Sony's ZX1 soon to be production TV, this 8-mm thin, 32-inch LCD with LED backlighting is done with the engineering and now waits for the suits to bring it to market. Two thin strips of Philips' own LumiLEDs -- 30 on top and 30 on the bottom -- are the secret sauce to this thin, Full HD mixture. According to Philips' "Senior Scientist," Dr. Giovanni Cennini, this 8-mm design will scale to panel sizes of 42-inches and probably higher. Better yet, these are the same panels Philips already uses, no extra tweaking required. So it's your move corporate, we're all waiting.

We knew Sony's new 40-inch Bravia Edge LED ZX1 was thin, 9.9-mm thin in fact (at least at the top section). But man, we didn't expect it to make the iPhone 3G slipping around the insides of our pockets look like such a chubster. Plenty more to see in the gallery below.

Sony's taken the crown in the race for thinnest LCD HDTV. At just 9.9mm thick the KDL-40ZX1 nearly halves the depth of Hitachi's former champ (likely throwing up in the bathroom right now) and comes within a whisper of Pioneer's ultra thin concept. Featuring a LED backlighting, a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 120Hz MotionFlow tech, x.v.Color and BRAVIA Engine 2 image processing this is about as close to a 40-inch window on your wall as is likely to arrive soon. Only one HDMI in is directly on the screen itself, all unnecessary HDMI / USB / component inputs are relegated to a base station, with the option for wired or -- possibly WHDI based? -- 5Ghz wireless (unfortunately limited to 1080i max resolution for now). We'd mention the XMB GUI, AcTVila video on-demand and DLNA support, but at some point it's just piling on. A mere 490,000 yen ($4,474 U.S.) puts the ZX1 on your wall, due at your local Japanese retailer November 10. See you there?

[Via AV Watch & Sony Insider]

Chinavasion isn't known for offering up cutting-edge gadgetry -- far from it, to be honest -- but the MP4 player known only as the CVSJ-1304-4GB is actually fairly notable. According to the dodgy specifications, the $39.55 device checks in at just 4.5-millimeters thick, which is certainly thinner than the other so-called "world's thinnest" DAP. Of course, this may only be true due to the "MP4" moniker, seeing as most units not created and sold exclusively in China are called "MP3" players. Semantics aside, the unit also includes a 1.8-inch display with a 160 x 128 resolution, a curious 2.5-millimeter headphone jack, a USB 2.0 port and a rechargeable battery. So, do any of you have a competitor that's a hair thinner? Our hunch is yes.

[Via PMP Today]

AU Optronics (AUO) is tooting the "world's first" horn this morning with its new curved TFT-LCD process on glass substrate. They've also got the world's slimmest -- 0.63mm -- TFT-LCD available in both 1.9-inch and relatively massive 8-inch versions, the latter boasting a 400cd/m2 brightness and 2.1-gram weight. Not bad, but they can't hold a candela to future generation OLEDs. Perhaps most interesting, though, are a pair of in-cell, multi-touch displays offered at 4.3- and 8-inches. The panels are said to offer superior anti-glare properties while manufacturing the multi-touch feature directly into the LCD cell without necessitating any additional glass. The 4.3-inch panel hits mass-production this quarter. Feel free to speculate on which MID devices might sport 'em.

[Via DigiTimes]

The oft-irrational quest for thin already overwhelming television R&D budgets just hit our beloved LCD monitors. Meet the BenQ V2400W billed as the "world's slimmest 24-inch LCD monitor." BenQ claims that the LCD's 2.44-inch max depth is 21% thinner than any of its chubbier competition. Unfortunately, while BenQ happily drones on and on about the monitor's B-2 stealth bomber inspired design, it remains tight-lipped on the specifications. We know it offers a 4,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 2-ms response, touch control panel and selection of ports including HDMI, DVI and VGA inputs. However, the V2400W's brightness, panel resolution or backlighting tech, color reproduction capabilities, HDCP support for that DVI jack, and something so trivial as price all remain closely held secrets. Nevertheless, it'll be available at the end of this month in Asia then heading to North America and Europe in April. You know, if you can find it.

Update: Some of the specs found: 1920 x 1200, 250 cd/m2 brightness, 16.7 million colors, and 160-degree viewing angle.

[Via Fareastgizmos, thanks Strayan]

So just how thin and lightweight is the new 13.3-inch MacBook Air. We've pitted it against the 13.3-inch Dell XPS M1330, 13.3-inch Sony VAIO SZ, and Apple's own MacBook to see how it stacks up, literally. Not bad Stevie, not bad.

JVC's "thinnest" LCD (if you only count screens with an integrated tuner) was also on display at their showroom and of course we've got the pics. This might not be a nearly cellphone-thin 9mm screen, but its still pretty skinny and probably a lot more likely to hang on your wall than some of the prototypes we've seen at CES this year.

You've seen it during our liveblog, now have at in product shots. Having successfully acquired countless awards, Pioneer's Kuro line is now aiming to take being the thinnest, blackest flat panel on the market to a whole new level. Today it unveiled "Project Kuro", a 50-inch plasma that it says is capable of displaying absolute black, while also measuring a minuscule 9mm (0.35-inches) thick. Besides making Hitachi's Ultra Thin 1.5-inch thick plasma appear obese, the promise of an infinite contrast ratio would represent a holy grail of PQ. This HDTV that can perfectly mimic a piece of art hanging on the wall, is definitely not going on sale in 2008. Check out the rest of the pictures of this HDTV after the break, this is the closest you'll get to perfection for a while.

When you call yourself "nano," you'd be wise to prepare for the onslaught of throne seeking waifs. In from stage Seoul comes this 5.6-mm slimster, the TM-M1 from Ixing. That's nearly 1-mm thiner than the iPod nano -- less than a quarter-inch thin. Announced at the IFA show, the TM-M1 is now available in 1, 2, and 4GB capacities with built-in FM radio (and recording). The 10-hour battery with 2-hour charge is pretty lackluster however, and that 1.5-inch, 65k color OLED won't win any awards either. Still, it's fracking thin and that has to count for something, right? Priced at about $100 for 2GB if you can track these down outside of S.Korea.

[Via AVING]

In a refreshing change of pace from Samsung's traditional black-slab design, we bring you this trio of hotness: the SGH-E950, SGH-E840, and SGH-J600 pictured above left-to-right. All are on display right now at ComnunicAsia and ready to ship in Southeast Asia before July is up. Of the three, only the E840 has a shot of making it Stateside with its quadband GSM, EDGE radios packed into the world's slimmest 10.6-mm slider. It features a 2 megapixel camera and up to 2GB of MicroSD to store your media. Nice and all but we'd love to get out hands on the tri-band GSM E950 instead. That black box on the face is actually a touch-sensitive display which fills itself with a variety of icons depending upon how the phone is being used. Interestingly, the FCC approved J600's main claim to fame is its "intense hues" of "mystical colors" like, say "dark gray" -- riiight, and dreary office cubicles are just tiny magical kingdoms for gifted marketing drones. Be sure to check the full gallery over at Engadget Mobile.

AU Optronics seems to know a thing or two about LCDs, and the engineering minds behind the scenes have apparently developed a few mobile screens that replace those wide borders with more pixels. The firm will be showing off its new 2.2-inch transflective panel with the "world's slimmest border of 0.9-millimeters" and its 2.7-inch panel which touts the "world's highest contrast ratio" (for its size, we presume) of 2,100:1, which just barely edges Sharp's iteration. The near-borderless display is reportedly "a half size smaller" than existing renditions, and the 2.7-incher claims to be uber-bright and offer up an unusually wide viewing angle as well. Unfortunately, it sounds like this technology won't be making its way up the LCD food chain, as one researcher noted that what you see here will be "mobile device-exclusive."

[Via FarEastGizmos]

A busy day on the OLED front this morning with both Samsung and LG.Philips announcing new AMOLED goods. Samsung announced the "world's thinnest" 2.2-inch Active-matrix OLED display (pictured above) which touts a 320 x 240 resolution, 262k colors, 10,000:1 contrast ratio, 100% NTSC color gamut, and life span of about 50,000 hours when set at 200cd/m2 brightness. Better yet, the 0.52-mm thin wafer of a display is ready for mass production. That trumps LG.Philips' new 4-inch AMOLED which rocks the same resolution but only 16k colors. That is, unless the whole flexible display thing gets ya hot. If so, then you'll want to check the pose after the break.

Read -- Samsung 2.2-inch
Read -- LG.Philips' 4-inch

World's thinnest titles aren't just for cellphones and DAPs, don't you know, Solid State Drives need to shave those millimeters just as much as the next guy, and SimpleTech seems up to the task with its new 64 gigger. The 2.5-inch drive, a member of SimpleTech's Zeus SSD lineup, measures a mere 9.5mm thick (0.37-inches), compared to some competing solutions more than twice as thick, making it a solid option for squeezing into those ever-slimmer laptops. SimpleTech is currently targeting the device at high performance applications such as military, intelligence and aviation, and has apparently buffeted the drive against shock, humidity, vibration and altitude -- most of the stability naturally thanks to the flash technology, of course. No word price, but with those kind of customers, we're guessing this one won't be cheap.

In the cellphone game, just how thin is too thin? If you're Samsung, the answer apparently lies somewhere south of the 5.9 millimeters put up by its latest fashion accessory, the appropriately named "Ultra Edition 5.9." For the record, that's a solid millimeter less than the previous world's thinnest, Samsung's own X820 -- the phone allegedly shown snapping helplessly in two on video under fairly minimal pressure. Of course, the authenticity of said video has been repeatedly called into question, but either way, we're hoping this new one has been fabbed with some pretty crazy space-age resins and polymers that'll keep it from multiplying in our pockets. Specs include a tri-band GSM radio (though recent announcements have us encouraged that an American version could be down the pike), a 3.2 megapixel cam, Bluetooth, and 80MB of onboard storage. Look for the record-smashing Ultra Edition 5.9 to start gracing European pockets bulge-free some time in March.

[Thanks, Tony]