SEOUL: A spate of reports about LG’s organic light-emitting diode displays emerged last week as a 15-incher made its way into the U.K. market. TechWatch said the LG 15EL500 will include a Freeview over-the-air tuner, among it’s more well-known visual features.
The LG 15EL9500 sports a 10 million-to-one contrast ratio that creates an extremely bright and unusually colorful picture from any viewing angle, with no backlight and therefore deeper blacks. OLED displays are also the thinnest yet; this one’s said to be less than 2 mm thick. The LG 15EL9500 is the second OLED display to the market. Sony rolled out its 11-inch XEL-1 nearly three years ago. The company announced in February that it would stop selling the display in Japan, where interest had waned.
OLEDs have been long in development but somewhat long on complications as well. The lifespan of the organic material is relatively limited compared to liquid crystal. Power consumption varies and color balance changes over time. And they are not cheap. LG’s 15-inch display is priced at around £1,970, or US$3,000.
Just when the LG OLED showed up for sale in the United Kingdom is unclear--they seem to be trickling in. LG planned a December roll out. Some U.K. sites say this month. Alex Masters at Unbeatable.co.uk reported late last month the model was available at Amazon.co.uk.
A 40-inch model is reported to be in the works for 2012, and a 15-inch, tabloid-sized flexible “e-paper” display was unveiled in January, according to the Korea Times.
