February 8th, 2008SONY Release OLED TV in Canada this month
Sony publicize today it will launch the XEL-1, an 11-inch natural Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) television, in Canada on February 29th for $2,499.99. OLED is a light-emitting display skill based on electroluminescent natural cloth that many experts consider could replace LCD and plasma televisions in the next ten years.
OLEDs have several benefits that make them ideal for televisions of the future. They are brighter than any back-lit passive technology, such as LCD, and they react faster to changes in signal than does either plasma or LCD TVs. This fast response time makes OLED well suited for full-motion video. Because they do not need a backlight, they are much lighter and use significantly less power.
Other advantages of OLED include high contrast ratios, a measure of the difference between the brightest and the darkest colors the display can show, and panel thickness. At its thinnest point, Sony’s new TV set is only 3 millimeters thick. On image unevenness, the new XEL-1 has a contrast ratio, of over one million to one, far better than the 2,200 to one achieved by Sony’s Bravia LCD TV series.
“OLED display panels use extremely low power levels due to the light-emitting structure that eliminates the call for for a separate light source. As a result, OLED panels can be up to 40 percent more efficient per panel-inch compared to conformist flat panel technologies”, says Patrick Lapointe, advertising manager for TV products at Sony Canada.
While OLED seems to be an excellent choice to replace plasma and LCD, there are still some serious problems that need to be addressed before we see widespread adoption of OLED panels.
The main problem with OLED’s are their short lifespan. The red and green LEDs have long lifetimes of 10,000 to 40,000 hours; however, the blue part suffers high breakdown rates after about 3,000 – 5,000 hours sense the lifespan of the panel is limited by the blue LEDs’ life.
The second major problem is the current high cost of production. At $2,500 for an 11″ HDTV, the XEL-1 is strictly for wealthy buyers looking for a very elite product. The XEL-1 TV features an 11 inch screen, 960 x 450 resolutions, HDMI input, USB and Ethernet, two 1W built-in speakers, and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and will be in Canada on February 29th for $2,499.99.
