Gizmodo
Why is this dinky little TV so important? Its screen is roughly the size of the box that Lebowski comes in, and it costs hundreds more than the 50" plasma overshadowing it in the picture. Why so important? Because this little TV is LCD's Grim Reaper. The days of the LCD are numbered—the time of OLED is at hand. And if the performance of Sony's XEL-1 is any indication, nobody is going to miss LCD—or plasma—in the least.
I single out LCD because the folks taking the lead on OLED are Sony, Samsung and others firmly entrenched in the LCD business, and because LCD still suffers from image demons that plasma overcomes more easily, and OLED smashes with a hammer, even at infancy.
Also, although everyone is demoing thinner and thinner sets in both LCD and plasma, most of the weight loss is currently on the plasma side. LCD seems to have hit some firm threshhold that, again, OLED and even plasma seem able to conquer. But at 11 inches, Sony's first production OLED is laughably small. What the hell, Sony? Way to taunt a guy. Seriously, there are major amounts of taunting happening here:
When you put an LCD next to a plasma, you almost always notice the contrast issues. Fiddle with the settings all you want, and you generally still can't make the blacks black enough on that LCD. When I first set up the OLED next to this Panasonic, a 50" 1080p 50PZ700U, I thought for a moment that maybe OLEDs had a contrast problem, too. But then I realized that whoever had the thing before me had been jerking the controls around too much. I reverted the picture settings to "standard" and suddenly the contrast was deeper than the plasma, with brighter highlights. OLEDs are self illuminating, so the very same thing that makes them super thin also gives them awesome contrast.
Obviously another big challenge for LCDs is the motion blur problem, which is mostly solved in higher-end LCDs using 120Hz systems and other similar techniques, but leaves cheaper sets hanging. It's most noticeable when you put an LCD side-by-side with a plasma showing the same movie. Fortunately, here again, the OLED did as well or better than the plasma at motion in the side-by-side test. 
In the end, you're essentially staring into what could very well be the perfect TV. Only you're not a hobbit, and this isn't Bag End.So why the dinkiness? OLED production is tricky, as you might recall from
this video of Benny the Intern and me at an OLED factory. Methods are best suited for small sheets of "substrate," not big screens of the stuff. Sony couldn't produce anything bigger now and still guarantee this kind of quality.
OLED makers also have to deal with panel half-life issues similar to those that used to afflict plasma in the days of yore. The XEL-1 is rated for 30,000 hours, or roughly 10 years of use; today's plasmas, including the above Panasonic, get something around 60,000 hours. In other words, long enough.
In the end, it's not a thing you go out and buy. It's a message in a slender frame. Sony never had massive R&D investment in LCD like Sharp or in plasma like Panasonic, and it's clear that this is Sony's way of saying, "Screw all of those, cuz OLED is what will matter, and oh yeah, Sony will drive OLED." Am I putting too many words in your mouth, Sony? I hope not, because this time next year, I'd like to be staring at a 50-inch version of this junior wonder. OK, 32 inches will be fine. 25 inches? 20????? [Sony XEL-1]
Comments
i saw one of these at a sony store and the PQ was simply amazing
Send one to me so I may review it. Yepper. :D
Damn! I might have been the first to post, but I spent too many minutes laughing uncontrollably at that sublimely captioned photo.
the future is here!
well... at least this little bit of it
time to buy some more Universal Display stock
it will be great in 5-7 yrs when these are affordable, and larger.
Can I ask why its attached to a monstrous (comparatively) and ugly box?
I have seen this in real life and Giz is right. The future is OLED. It's like looking out a window. Stunning.
The price is insane, here in Canada, at the Sony Store, they go for $2400!
@Darrone: The screen is thin, but the electronics have to go somewhere. They could have bolted them on the back, but then we would not see all that razor thin goodness.
"Sony will drive OLED"
Let's just hope they put most of the money from their share of the Blu-Ray win into this. At least, that's what I'd do if I ran Sony.
i'd settle for 32 inches OLED style. Maybe 20" if it were a computer monitor and (i have no idea what i'm talking about regarding OLED) had high enough resolution (like 1680 x 1050 for example)
I just bought a 32in Samsung LCD six months ago. NOW you tell me! ROTHMAAAAAAN!
smokey shouldn't have stepped over the line...
"mark it a zero dude"
@Darrone: It's attached to an ugly box because you still need a power supply and a place for inputs/outputs. Way too soon to talk about oled being a perfect tv. There are still quite a few issues to be resolved. Size, burn-in, short life, etc. Oh yeah and price... Give it about 3-4 years before it's ready for consumer market and by that time there will definitely be something way better. This never ends.
Come on, 11 inches is plenty big! We just need to start sitting way closer to our TV's. Duh.
Cameras with OLED are cheaper, but talking about TVs the thing is different.
@Gary_7vn: Pardon me, but if you have a box that is 8 inches wide, then its absolutely pointless to make a 1/2 inch width screen. I mean, realistically, the unit is still 8 inches. Sure, you can marvel at how "awesomely" thin it is, but it still leaves an 8 inch footprint.
Yes, it's not a finished product, but the only thing it appears to be offering is picture quality.
SPOILER ALERT!!
Car Blows up in Michael Clayton.
Thanks Gizmodo.
Next time use an older movie
what was the resolution and pixel density on this demo????
I would love to have a 65" OLED TV right now for unde $4K.
Sadly I'm dreaming, because it will not happen for another at least 3 years (in size- maybe) and 5+ years (in price - for sure).
These OLED TV's (when large) are going to have 5 figure pricing for years to come.
Today's top of the line plasma in the 60"+ range are ~ $9K+.
Soooooo... How's Mitsubishi's Laser TV doing these days?
How thin are they going to be?... How Much mula they'll command?
I heard they'll be available at the end of 2008....
Bueller...Bueller?
Goddammit, I didn't watch my friends die face down in 'nam to have this guy breaking the rules!
Has everyone given up on FED/SED already?
I thought oleds had a pretty finite life (less than plasma) wouldnt this make a poor candidate for a tv?
Any OLED display on a rigid substrate can't even expect to offset the marketshare that LCDs and plasma's have and will continue to have. By the time OLED displays above 27" are brought to market, LCD prices for the same size screens will be that much more affordable (and have faster response times).
The game will change with flexible/rollable tech.
Will OLED technology going to hit the computer market first (like LCD did)? Laptop screens? Desktop screens?
Slap that baby on a Sony laptop!
is that 1024x768?
@wecanfreakit: @Parapraxis:
"Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling...there are rules."
What pushed the price of LCD's down dramatically was use as computer monitors. How much extra are people willing to pay for OLED quality? Twice as much? This is 11 inches of love for a couple grand. Sure, I would pay a couple grand to have 11 inches of love, but that is another thing entirely.
What is a realistic expectation for these screens to be within a reasonable range of LCD prices? It seems unlikely that this is going to happen for quite a few more years.
I hope I am wrong, though.
@Darrone: but in an lcd or plasma, the components that actually go into producing an image (backlights and whatnot) are fairly bulky, whereas in the oled tv, they are relatively nonexistent. sure you still have the inputs, power, blah blah blah in a bulky little box, but even if you threw the guts of that little box onto the back of that monitor you would have a pretty thin tv (as thin as the profile of the bezel on the plasma next to it). the electronics that feed the display don't scale the same as the guts of the actual monitor components, so you could expect to get a 50" oled tv without much bulk beyond what you see here, maybe double or something assuming all else remains the same.
dyaaaaaamnnnn
now just gotta wait 2-3 years
so much cool shit coming out in 2-3 years
The dude abides.
I am the walrus?
@MrBlahBlah: isn't always?
Has the world gone crazy?!!! Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules?!!!!!
11 inches is perfect for an even THINNER Vaio.
Watch Sony soon slip four of 'em in a manila. :-p
Grandma pressed flowers in the pages of her books, we'll be pressing lappys. ^_^
...Ok, I'm over exaggerating but who knows. ;-)
it will take at least ten years for OLED to be price and size competitive with LCD in the TV market. Where OLED will really shine is in the small display market. OLED is better suited for small screen manufacturing. It also consumes less power, and has better outdoor visibility. The lack of a backlight means less strain on your eyes, which is even more important in the small display market, since you are holding it closer to your face. Oh, and it is super thin. Seriously, I'm surprised you didn't accidentally cut yourself on that TV. Or did they give you special gloves?
I like it a lot. The only problem is, its smaller then my PS3!
I have one and it is fantastic. I have multiple LCD TVs and their picture is good, but this small set is so much better than they are that it is almost as if the pictures were from two different sources.
The colors are so deep and bright that it almost looks 3D.
I can't wait for Sony to make them larger and I really want one for my laptop!
If it was 499 instead of 2499 then it would be great for screens in the car when watching movies. Too bad they haven't made a touch screen version yet.
...a natural, zesty enterprise.
The only reason that it is so thin is because the hardware is in the base, which they can afford to do in something of this size.
screw that. I'm just fine with my 5265f sammy!
@CubFan81: If you ran sony'd you know they don't own Blu-Ray therefore didn't get some windfall from it winning, except for being able to sell their products.
@ johnnyabnormal
thank you for using the proper and perfect quote for these pictures.
Also for people that haven't seen The big Lebowski, see it...
I've seen pictures of these around for a while now.
I didn't realize they were so tiny.
The design makes much more sense given the small size.
@Bantam: Well, that whole movie is a good quote. Along with "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Repo Man".
@Darrone: Even if you attach that box to the back of the screen, it is still thinner than most LCD TVs. Also, at such a small size, the box is thicker than it would be on a larger TV. All the components have to be crammed in. If you attached that box to the back of a 32" TV and spread out the components, it would be uber thin. Besides, like you mentioned, this is really more of a proof of concept. They are simply showing the possibilities of this TV. Then again, with how light the actual screen would be, they could just design the unit so that the box actually doubles as a reticulating wall mount. That would be cool.