LG Electronics just announced its 55-inch OLED television — the inevitable home for the world's largest OLED TV panel revealed last week by LG Display. The TV will be featured at CES 2012 where the world's tech media will busy themselves photographing pencils, Moleskins, and Droid RAZRs next to the TV's 4-mm thick profile in an attempt to convey just how thin this 7.5-kg (16.5-pound) beauty really is. Better yet, unlike the overly saturated OLED panels we're accustomed to seeing, LG claims its image processing features combined with the WOLED panel produce "the most natural colors of any TV set" and at a "much lower price point" than OLED panels of this size would traditionally command, and its Color Refiner helps ensures consistent color across a wider viewing angle. All very important developments in LG's march to make WOLED "the future of home TV entertainment." Yet for all of its teasing, LGE's still not offering a ship date or suggested retail price.
Update: LG USA's Tim Alessi, director of new product development, told the Associated Press that the TV is likely to go on sale in the fourth quarter of the year.



There are 70 Comments. Add yours.
Is that woman a cardboard cut-out? She just doesn’t look real, but they’ve got her in two different poses.
With regards to pricing, my bet would be – Too much for me.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 7:54 AM EST reply Recommend (13) Flag actions
Such is a power of OLED display, you will doubt the reality too.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 8:19 AM EST reply Recommend (16) Flag actions
It’s got better resolution than the real world.
Posted on Jan 02, 2012 | 9:43 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Distortion caused by taking the photo with a wide angle lens.
And I don’t think cardboard cut outs are all that expensive.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 8:48 AM EST reply Recommend (13) Flag actions
Haha, well played.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 10:12 AM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
If she is a cut-out then where can I order one?
If she is real, then where can I order two?
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 4:00 PM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
S. Korea has made great strides in robotics. And the t.v. is nice looking also.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 5:05 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
LOL that’s so funny and so true
Posted on Jan 07, 2012 | 11:15 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Now her I wouldn’t mind in my living room, but the TV? Heck no, and it wouldn’t improve the programming either.
Btw, where is the video of this thing?
Posted on Jan 16, 2012 | 6:12 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I wish it wouldn’t cost more than $5000, though i know it would…..
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 7:58 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Look at it this way. When plasma TVs came out they were EXPENSIVE. I remember seeing a 50" for $10k at Fry’s. Nowadays a better same size display can be had for under $400. It might take a few years but eventually you will be able to afford it, and with a better quality display to boot.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 12:52 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
Please give me a link for a 50" Plasma HDTV for $400.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 3:40 PM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
You could maybe pull it off on a clearence closeout sale or something but yeah $400 is a little low but it is easy to find one for $600 and that would be WAY better than the old SD Plasmas back then.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 3:50 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Yep, I remember seeing a 42" 1024×768 plasma at a local high-end A/V store for $10k, and thinking it was amazing. OLED’s price will eventually drop to affordable levels; I just wish we didn’t have to wait another 10 yrs for that to happen.
Posted on Jan 02, 2012 | 10:10 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
great
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 7:59 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Imagine eyefinity with OLED monitors. The bezel wouldn’t even be a problem!
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 8:09 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
A kidney, a lung and both arms and you won’t have to imagine.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 9:00 AM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
Time to take out some student loans. Give me the price, LG.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 8:22 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
What are LG thinking, tacking on all that bezel?!
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 8:26 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Does the babe come with the TV?
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 9:59 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Optional extra.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 11:21 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Unfortunately it’s her option.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 11:42 AM EST reply Recommend (27) Flag actions
I don’t know but I like your profile picture Sbtrkt for the win!
Posted on Jan 02, 2012 | 6:08 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
55" TV that is lighter than a gallon of water or a big Alienbook. Even the cardboard cutout could lift it above the fireplace! The power draw must be equally as insane.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 10:10 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
A gallon of water only weighs around 8lbs….
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 10:39 AM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
Cool, the TV is 4mm thick, how big is the brick that runs the show? Who gives a shit how thin it is if you can’t mount the damn thing on the wall because of the nonremoveable pedestal with all the brains.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 10:10 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Well if you could store the pedestal in a cabinet with the rest of your home theater equipment then it wouldn’t be so bad. Especially if it meant you only had to run two cables to the TV (power and then the video connector). Would make wiring stuff so much easier.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 3:52 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Not to mention that weight would include the pedestal. Why mount the TV to the wall when you can add a less permanent shelf that the TV can sit on. Maybe the Base can just screw into the wall too. You could do 16 pounds with anchors in drywall if you want. Or even hang it like a picture on one stud.
Posted on Jan 02, 2012 | 2:10 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Looks like i may be getting a new TV this year
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 10:12 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Doesn’t OLED degrade over time? Wouldn’t that be the reason we’ve never seen an OLED TV? On a phone, it’s fine, because they aren’t expected to last more than a few years, but on what’s essentially a consumer durable, I think it would be a very bad move to sell something that’s going to look like crap in a few years.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 11:13 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I know Super AMOLED has screen burn, because that’s what my old Galaxy S had on the notification bar area. But no idea on OLED, but I’m thinking it would be the same.
But then again, screen burn only happens because something is set like that for a long time, like a notification bar. On a TV, nothing is ‘set’ exactly. But I guess it’d still degrade.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 11:24 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
AMOLED is just the type of arrangement the OLEDs are in. (Active matrix).
I’m sure they’ve sorted out uneven wear problems or designed around the issue here.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 1:18 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Thank you :D
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 5:15 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
That would be from the blue OLED degrading over time because of the UI needing to use it all the time. Black status bars green to red icons should be standard on OLED devices. Though they did change the menu bar in stock Gingerbread (but with light gray icons), I’m guessing Samung’s faux-iOS skin dispensed with the stock menubar.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 2:15 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Thank you :D
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 5:15 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Actually, blue OLEDs are problematic because their lifespan to reach half-brightness is much shorter than red, green and white. This problem has been one of the big hurdles preventing consumer sized TV production. But recent advancements have blue OLED’s reaching half-brightness at the 10-year mark (the industry standard for TV-sized displays), thus CE companies are ready to start producing large OLED displays.
Posted on Jan 02, 2012 | 10:46 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
not to be rude or anything, but isn’t screen burn in due mainly to the glass used in the display and not the actually illumination source or filters. This is coming from knowledge of Plasma displays, so forgive me if I am way off when it comes to OLED.
Posted on Jan 02, 2012 | 2:58 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You are way off when it comes to OLED ;) and also a little bit when it comes to plasma. The burn in plasma is the same as in CRT – the phosphors gradually lose their ability to luminesce in response to cathode (in a CRT) or UV (in a plasma) rays. With OLEDs the elements themselves are glowing with visible light, and it is these that gradually lose their brightness. The glass is totally passive, there’s no phosphor coating.
Posted on Jan 03, 2012 | 1:45 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
That’s why this TV is different. Instead of red, green, and blue OLEDs, they used white OLEDs and put a RGB filter over it to produce color. Normal OLED screens have their blue OLEDs die faster than red or green, causing a color shift over time.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 11:32 AM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
The while OLED has vertically stacked red, green and blue OLED elements. This allows them to dispose of the three mask process but it doesn’t get away from the deterioration of the blue OLED. There may be other technologies incorporated to handle this issue but if you are inte market for an $8,000 first generation TV, I doubt you’ll be keeping it for more than a few years till the next new thing.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 1:05 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Nope.
(from the source link)The addition of the white might delay the blue degradation by negating the need for the blue OLED to light up when white is displayed, but my understanding is that their is still an intrinsic degradation of at least the blue OLED (and by intrinsic, they mean excluding environmental factors like light and exposure to air).
I asked my original question to see whether that has changed, and to my knowledge it hasn’t. This addition of the white pixel might allow them to sell the displays with say, 2 to 5 year warranties, but they are still time untested, which worries me and I’m sure worries them.
One thing is sure—they’d better not use blue for any of the UI—and Comcast/DirecTV users should not buy an OLED TV.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 2:03 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
If I’m understanding that correctly, does that mean that WOLED = RGBW pentile?
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 2:44 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I imagine it’s like Sharp’s Quattron 4 subpixel RGBY arrangement, so you don’t have that Pentile checkerboard/screendoor issue, but more of a slight potential spacing of pixels.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 4:45 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
If you are staring at the TV UI for hours then you are doing something wrong, 99% of the time I am watching a show on my TV now browsing through a blue UI. But it will be interesting to see how these big OLED screens turn out as far as longevity, but I’m sure just like plasmas they will get way better and the price will come way down and then I can finally buy one. :)
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 3:57 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
My understanding of the blue OLED degradation is that fades rather consistently with use. This is different from burn-in. To venture into the realm of ridiculous analogies: burn-in is like, “Keep making that face and it’ll get stuck that way.” OLED degradation is like, “Sorry, you’ve used up that face and can’t make it anymore.” So if you have UI elements that are blue, you’ll probably use up the blue pixels faster, which will create that green cast sooner.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 5:36 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Sony has a OLED TV.. it was just small.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 12:03 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
If I had the money, I’d buy this. Sadly, I don’t have the money.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 11:22 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Should have called it WOAH-LED
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 11:44 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Is it that good? Ohh… me want this!
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 12:06 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I’m a guy and I am wet.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 12:21 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Lesbians are legal in few places. But again, that girl is hot! :)
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 9:04 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Bezels are so 2011.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 1:07 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
Holy sh*t. That is all.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 1:39 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
This is HANDS DOWN THE MOST BEAUTIFUL TV I’VE SEEN
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 1:41 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Very thin and sexy, and the TV bad either.
I would love bezel-less monitors for my workstation computer.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 2:55 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Wow, LG has really outdone themselves this time. I would buy such a TV once college tuition is payed for and the price has come down significantly enough to where it is “affordable”. But I wonder where all the ports will be/are? Perhaps at the foot of the stand or even the use of adapters for VGA, HDMI, etc.?
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 3:38 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It would be nice if they put a wireless receiver into the television, came out with a mated surround sound that transmitted wireless signals to the set to reduce cable management.
Posted on Jan 02, 2012 | 1:25 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It’s crazy to think I could snap that TV in half and heck I bet someone will come up with a way to cut there wall and then install this so it is completely flat with the wall, which would be pretty crazy.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 3:59 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You could hang this TV with a 3M Command Strip…
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 4:02 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
One of these days, they will make a tv so thin, it will suddenly rollup like a cartoon window shade “thwup, thwup, thwup”.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 4:38 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
That bezel, oh that beautiful bezel.
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 5:07 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
That girl is so fat…
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 8:56 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Man Asians can be sexist when showing off new technology. Why do we always need a hot babe pointing and smiling at the product? Can you imagine if it was a “hot guy” instead? (not that I want this, trust me) but it does illustrate that sexism is alive and well. The Western world has mostly dispensed with that kind of crap (think of ads from the 50s when every product had to be demonstrated by a smiling woman)).
Then agin this babe is kind of hot and I know I’m being inadvertently racist and generalising when suggesting its an Asian thing….. (I think my socialist, politically correct conscious is at war with my capitalist greed and lust for new technology)
Posted on Jan 01, 2012 | 11:37 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
There is a simple question that should be answered in this situation… Would you like that image more or less if she were removed from it?
Posted on Jan 02, 2012 | 3:06 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
When I saw the 2010 model LG had on display at my local bestbuy I though it was the most beautiful television that I had ever seen with having almost no bezel whatsoever and full array LED backlighting… Now I correct me previous thought in stating that this tv is by far the nicest I have seen. Now if only I could trade my UN55C8000 straight up for this :) any takers?
Posted on Jan 02, 2012 | 3:03 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
What happened here? I thought Samsung with the biggest drivers and proponents of OLED – is this the next screen technology shift?
SONY ruled for years with their CRT-based Trinitron screens, Panasonic led in plasma, Samsung led (excuse the pun) on LCD/LED screens, will LG lead the field on OLED?
Posted on Jan 02, 2012 | 4:56 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
aw. almost no Bezel. and a 55 inch 4 mm thickness OLED TV…
*throws 42 inch LCD TV in the trashcan
Posted on Jan 02, 2012 | 7:57 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
This is just jaw droopingly impressive, how on earth did they manage to get the panel this thin? Science or magic?
Posted on Jan 03, 2012 | 6:21 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It looks great until you start plugging in power and HDMI cables into it. It’s only true asset will be that it’s super thin with no bezel, which itself is an amazing achievement. It’s great to see technology advancing like this, although I see this purely as a concept. Give it 5-10 years when new technological features are integrated with it for half the price of whatever LG put on this later in the year,
Posted on Jan 03, 2012 | 11:32 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
After a few generations of this product I’ll be able to get one.
Posted on Jan 04, 2012 | 9:00 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Something to say? Choose one of these options to log in.