A few months ago it was reported that LG will unveil a 77" OLED TV at the IFA 2013 exhibition - and today indeed the company unveiled a 77" curved UHD (4K) WRGB OLED TV prototype. This may be just a prototype, but still a great technology feat by LG...

So - this is the world's largest OLED ever shown (the previous biggest one was AUO's 65" panel shown at SID 2013). We've seen 4K OLEDs before from Sony and Panasonic and Samsung also has a UHD OLED panel on display at the exhibition.

About four months after LG launched the world's first curved TV (the 55" 55EA9800 OLED TV), both Samsung and Sony launched curved LCDs - showing us that LCDs can also curve. Samsung actually announced two models, in 55" and 65". Both offer UHD (4K) resolution (and so Samsung proudly says these are the world's first curved UHD panels).

Sony S990A

Sony's S990A curved LED-backlit LCD is 65" in size, and "only" Full-HD. It features the color-enhancing Triluminos display technology (QDVision's Quantum-Dot films). Sony's TV is closer to market - in fact the company already accepts pre-orders in the US for $4,000. It will ship in late October 2013. Sony also showed the 4K 56" OLED TV protoype, which seems to be the same one shown at CES 2013:

Samsung is showing new 4K OLED TVs prototypes at the IFA 2013 exhibition. Samsung calls these panels a 'proof of concept' - which probably means we shouldn't be expecting this panel in a commercial product soon. They are showing two models, one flat and one curved.

It's still not clear whether 4K at a 55" TV actually makes a lot of sense, but it seems that this is the way the market is moving, and it's good to see more 4K OLED TV prototypes.

In May 2013, Ignis Innovation announced that it will soon start shipping sample 20" AMOLED displays to display makers to evaluation their MaxLife compensation technology. Today Ignis announced that they decided to go for a larger 55" FHD OLED TV. The company said it received "firm orders" for those samples from display manufacturers and OEMs.

The MaxLife external compensation technology continuously measures every pixel in the display and compensates for even the smallest shift in performance (due to burn-in or bad manufacturing issues), making it completely uniform and completely stable. MaxLife can work with a-Si, LTPS and metal-oxide backplanes (those 55" panels now in production use a metal-oxide backplane). The technology should, according to Ignis, allow for cheaper OLED TVs as it improves yield and also enables simpler device (i.e. a simpler pixel structure with less TFTs per pixel).

Haier is showing a new 55" OLED TV prototype at the IFA 2013 exhibition. The TV is only 4 mm thick and the bezel is only 1.5 mm. The TV has a built-in stand and a unique design:

I do not know who makes the actual OLED panels, but my bet would be on LG Display. The company's flat OLED panel is 4 mm thick and in addition we know that LGD are interested in supplying OLED panels to other companies (besides LG Electronics). At least that was true for the beginning of 2013 when the company's CEO said that the company is in talks with Japanese TV makers for the supply of panels.

As expected, Samsung launched two new mobile devices today with Super AMOLED displays. First up is the Galaxy Note 3 that sports a 5.7" Full-HD Super AMOLED display (386 PPI), a 2.3 Quad-Core CPU (or a 1.9Ghz octa-core in some markets), 3 GB of RAM, 32/64GB of storage, a 13 MP camera (will be capable of 4K videos in some markets) and Android 4.3. Samsung managed to pack all this in a phone that is smaller and lighter than the Note 2.

The Galaxy Gear is Samsung's first smartwatch and it features a 1.63" 320x320 (275 PPI) Super AMOLED display, a 1.9 mp camera (can do 720p videos), 800Mhz processor, 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, Bluetooth 4, and a 315 mAh non-removeable battery. The watch will support third-party apps and 70 partners signed up to supply applications at launch.

The OLEDs World Summit, one of the leading OLED events in the world will take place in two weeks (September 17) in San Francisco. This event is a great networking opportunity for anyone interested in OLEDs.

The organizers offer a special $200 discount for OLED-Info readers. Simply use the OLEDINFO13 coupon when you register.

Pioneer developed new flexible PMOLED panels. Those monochrome panels are bendable (curvature radius : 20mm) and very slim (0.15 mm thick) and light (0.04 g/cm²). Those flexible OLEDs use an ultra-thin glass substrate:

Pioneer wouldn't reveal any more details (such as when they expect to start producing such panels). But if you look at the text on the display, it seems that Pioneer expects to finish development by next year.

A couple of months ago, OSRAM posted an interesting article saying that OLED is the next technological development for car lighting. Today the company announced that it will unveil its OLED for automobiles product roadmap during the Frankfurt International Motor Show (September 12). The company says they achieved "road suitability" for their OLEDs and they will start offering initial special equipment based on OLEDs next year. They see OLEDs used in "series production of new vehicles" in 2016 at the latest.

Last year Osram were able to increase the temperature stability of their OLEDs. Now their panels are stable at 85 degrees Celsius for several hundred hours. Now the company says that the remaining obstacles regarding serial production are small. The company expects OLEDs to be used in rear light fixtures. Transparent OLEDs will offer new design possibilities.

LG announced it will launch a new OLED TV at the IFA 2013 exhibition next week. The GALLERY OLED TV (55EA8800) seems to be similar to the flat 55EM9700, except that it is wall-mounted. The TV also offers a 2.2 channel sound system in the frame (see image below) using LG's new Canvas Speakers and a special Gallery Mode that shows high-res images of famous paintings (that's why they call it a GALLERY TV)

LG did not reveal the price of this TV yet - and when and where it'll be launched. We can guess it will be similar to the EM9700 - which is now on sale in South Korea for 9.9 million won (about $8,900), and in the UK for £9,999 (about $15,000, but it's likely that LG will reduce the price soon).