Bendable OLED TVs: introduction and market status - Page 2

A few days ago LG launched the world's first bendable TV, the 77" EG9900 OLED TV. According to Trusted Reports, LG aims to release the EG9900 in the "second half of 2015".

LG did not disclose the price, but according to a Danish site, the TV will cost around $50,000 in Denmark (which will be around $38,500 without the 25% VAT).

Last week LG unveiled nine new OLED TVs, but did not release any pricing information or release dates. Now a Danish web site revealed the prices of five of those TVs, and reportedly these prices originated from LG salesperson.

Here is the full price list. Note that Danish prices include a 25% VAT tax, and are usually higher than in the US. And also these aren't official of course.

LG Electronics announced six new OLED TVs - including some curved TVs, some flat ones - and also the world's first bendable TV. All of LG's new TVs use 4K resolution. LG Display says that LG is committed to the "superior qualities of OLED" and sees 2015 as the breakout year for OLED TVs.

So the most interesting TV is probably the EG9900, which features a 77" 4K OLED panel that can be switched from a flat state to a curved one. It uses a newly developed anti-glare filter and is powered by a ten-core processor (!). LG did not disclose the price and release date of this TV. But it'll probably be very expensive as the company's fixed curved 77" 4K OLED was priced at $29,999 in 2014.

Some people like their TVs flat, and some like them curved. A curved TV has several image quality advantages, but they look less nice mounted on your wall. A bendable TV offers the best of both worlds - you can hang it flat on the wall, and curve it when you want. Don't miss our new article on bendable OLED TVs - which according to LG will arrive on the market next year.

LG Display posted an interesting article explaining their plastic-based flexible OLED technologies and displays - showing how these displays are better than LCD displays in several aspects (mainly the fact that plastic OLEDs are thinner than LCDs and glass-based OLEDs). In addition, LG Display posted their flexible OLED roadmap:

As you can see, LG already produces flexible OLEDs for phones and wearable devices. In 2015-2016 the company sees flexible OLEDs being adopted in tablets and bendable phones. From 2017, LGD sees flexible OLEDs being used to produce foldable and rollable devices.

In January 2014, LG unveiled a bendable 77" 4K OLED - a TV that can change from flat to curved (using a "combination of water and motors" - whatever that means). When at full curve, the curve is eight centimeters in total. An LG official now says that LG plans to release such a bendable OLED TV in 2015.

We do not know what will be the size of their first bendable TV, but it sure is going to be expensive. But this is actually a neat idea because it means you can wall-mount the TV on the wall and keep it flat, and only curve it when you want to watch it and when it makes sense. A 2015 release is actually in line with LG's original plan in early 2014.

Back in June 2012 LG was awarded with Korea's ambitious Future Flagship Program that aims to develop 60" flexible transparent UHD OLED displays by 2017. This project raised a few eyebrows and was never mentioned again. Now we hear that LG Display is still developing the technology, and still says that the want to be ready with a real product by the end of 2017.

Flexible OLED TV concept (Sony)

LGD is currently developing a 17" transparent flexible OLED and they hope to ready a prototype by the end of 2014. If this is successful, LGD will move on to the next stage - the 60" UHD panel. This panel will feature 40% transmittance and a curvature radius of 10 cm.

LG unveiled a bendable 77" 4K OLED TV prototype a couple of days ago - this panel can change from flat to curved at the press of the button, allowing consumers to enjoy a single TV that can be both flat and curved. We finally got a video showing this interesting new prototype in action:

This is just a prototype, but LG actually plan to ship this bendable TV to the US in late 2014 or early 2015. Samsung has their own bendable OLED TV at CES, by the way.

Updated: it turns out that the 85" bendable TV prototype is an LCD, but Samsung indeed also shows smaller (55") bendable OLEDs.

Yesterday we reported that Samsung unveiled a 85" bendable TV prototype at CES, and at that post I assumed that this was an LCD panel. But I'm happy to be mistaken - it's actually an OLED, as you can see from Samsung's booth photo clearly saying this is a bendable OLED TV:

It actually seems to me that those OLED TVs in the photo above aren't so big - it seems to be around 55" in size and not 85". So perhaps these are different prototype, I'm not sure, but now it seems likely that the 85" prototype bendable TV is also an OLED.

LG already announced it will be showing several new OLED TV models at CES (including new 55", 65" and 77" models), but today at CES the company unveiled a bendable 77" 4K OLED. As was speculated last month, this panel can change from flat to curved using a "combination of water and motors" (whatever that means).

Engadget says the new TV is gorgeous. They were told by LG that they actually plan to ship this TV to the US soon - at H2 2014 or maybe at the beginning of 2015. It'll be interesting to see how all this bending effects the OLED structure. The TV anyway moves 7.5 cm to bend (it's eight centimeters narrower in total at full curve).