OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 48

LG Display reported its financial results for Q1 2017 - with a record operating profit of just over $900 million as the selling price of its display panel increase.

LG Display says that the company is increasing its investment into OLEDs (going forward 70% of its capital expenditures will go to OLED production and R&D), and is also increasing production of OLED TV panels. The company is currently making about 300,000 OLED TV panels in a quarter, but this will be increased to 500,000 in the second half of 2017.

Sony launched its first OLED TV, the XBR-A1E, in January 2017, and the company now started shipping its TV in Europe and in the US (the 65" model only). The prices (at least on Amazon.com) are $1,000 cheaper than Sony first announced - the 55" model costs $3,999 while the 65" model costs $5,499. The 77" is not shipping or priced yet.

Sony's A1E features a flat 4K OLED (LGD WRGB) panel, Android TV platform, HDR (both HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR) and a built-in speaker which is part of the stand behind the TV to create a stand-less form factor.

Skyworth has been producing OLED TVs since 2014, and the China-based TV maker has now unveiled its latest two OLED TVs, the S9E and the Wallpaper OLED TV. The Wallpaper one resembles LG's Wallpaper OLEDW7 TVs and also use a design that enables hanging the 3.6 mm screen on the wall and connecting the input box via a cable.

Skyworth's Wallpaper OLED TV will cost ¥99,999 ($14,500) for the 65" model - which is almost double than LG's OLEDW7 ($7,999)!

LG Display's CTO says that the company current generates about 10% of its revenues from OLED displays, but it expects OLED's share to reach 50% by 2020.

Currently almost all of LGD's OLED revenues come from OLED TV panels. LGD managed to reach production yields of 80% in two years, while this took 10 years to reach the same yields in LCD production. The price decline rate of OLEDs have been faster than that of LCDs - which makes LGD optimistic it will be able to increase production and profits going forward. OLEDs of course also have other advantages of LED LCDs, including the possibility of a flexible design.

LG Display has put on an ambitious OLED lighting display at Euroluce which is a part of the Milan Design Week. LG actually has two booths, with the first one designed by Tokujin Yoshioka. Tokujin's installation is called Wall of the Sun, and it uses 30,000 of LGD's OLED lighting panels installed on the wall.

This makes this installation the world's largest ever OLED lighting installation, which is double in size compared to Konica Minolta's OLED Tulip installation from 2015. This seems to be a very impressive display. The 15 chairs scattered on the floor, by the way, are embedded with LGD's OLED TV panels.

LG starts to ship its high-end 2017 OLEDG7 Signature OLED TVs. The price for the 65" model is $6,999. The 77" model is not shipping yet (the price will be $16,999 when it does).

The OLEDG7 is an update to the OLEDG6 series from 2016. These OLED TVs (65" or 77") feature 4K resolution, HDR support (four different standards), WebOS 3.5, Dolby Atmos sound and an on-glass design.

LG Electronics started shipping its OLEDE7 mid-range 2017 OLED TVs. The E7 costs $4,999 for the 55" model and $5,999 for the 65" model. The 65" model is already available at Amazon.com.

The OLEDE7 series is an update to the OLEDE6 series from 2016. These OLED TVs feature 4K resolution, HDR support (four different standards), WebOS 3.5, Dolby Atmos sound and an on-glass design.

In January 2017 we posted about LG Electronics wallpaper OLED panel that will be adopted in its commercial OLED signage range. LGE finally officially launched this new product, as part of its commercial unit, which also ships dual-sided flat OLEDs and dual-sided curved OLEDs.

The so called "LG OLED Wallpaper Display" features a 55-inch panel and surprisingly only an FHD resolution (all of LG's 2017 OLED TVs feature 4K resolution). The whole panel weights less than 5.8Kg and the width is just 3.65 mm.An ultra-slim mounting brackets with a magnetic mat create a truly seamless design that becomes one with the wall. Electronic components are housed in a separate control box connected to the display with a 2-meter cable. You can see more in the installation video above.

In January 2017 Sony finally launched its first real OLED TV , the XBR-A1E Bravia OLED TV, and now Sony announced the prices of its TVs: $4,999 for the 55" model and $6,499 for the 65" one. That's somewhere between LG's OLEDE7 and Signature OLEDG7 OLED TVs. According to Amazon the TVs will ship in a month or two (which means April or May).

Sony's XBR-A1E feature a flat 4K HDR WRGB OLED panel (produced by LG Display), an Android TV platform and a built-in speaker which is part of the stand behind the TV to create a stand-less form factor. There will also be a 77-inch model, but Sony did not reveal the price of that one yet.

LG started shipping the 65" Signature Wallpaper OLED W in the US recently. The price of LG's flagship TV is $7,999 (the 77" will cost $19,999 and will launch later this year). Value Electronics in New York now has one such on display, and the company sent us the following photos and video showing the display in action.

We also discussed the installation and quality of the new TV. Robert Zohn from VE says that the TV wall mounts very easily and the connection is done via the low-voltage control cable which is placed inside the wall. The cable is then connected to the I/O box (which LG calls the AIO box). This creates the beautiful look as the TV has no visible connections and is virtually attached on the wall with a very thin profile.