4K OLED: introduction and market status - Page 7

LG Display announced that it has developed a 77" flexible and transparent OLED display. The display features a resolution of 4K/UHD (3840 x 2160), a 80 mm radius of curvature and 40% transparency.

LG Display demonstrated two possible applications for this display - above you can see the "smart desk" demonstration, and below you can see a commercial retail demonstration. It is not clear from the press release, but it seems that LGD plans to commercialize such a display in the future.

JOLED (Japan OLED) was established in August 2014 by Japan Display, Sony and Panasonic with an aim to become an OLED medium display (10-30 inch) producer. The company is aiming to start mass production in 2019, although some panels may ship in limited volume earlier.

Last week at Cebit 2017 JOLED demonstrated some of its latest OLED prototypes. In the photo above you can see JOLED's 21.6" 4K (3840x2160, 204 PPI) "medical applications" monitor. JOLED also demonstrated what seems to be the same panel for "consumer" application (they call this private viewing). The whole panel weighs just 500 grams and the color gamut is 130% sRGB.

LG revealed its 2017 OLED TV lineup in January at CES, but the company did not disclose the prices or actual release date of these new TVs. Well, except the 65" OLEDW7 Wallpaper TV which costs $7,999 and is up for pre-order at Best Buy.

Today Amazon.com published product pages for some of LG's 2017 OLED TVs, with listed prices. Amazon lists the 55" OLEDC7, the 65" OLEDE7 and the 65" OLEDG7 signature TV. Amazon did not yet publish its product page for the OLEDB7, but it's still great to finally know LG's prices for 2017:

• 55" OLEDC7: $2,499
• 65" OLEDE7: $4,999
• 65" OLEDG7: $6,999

As expected, Sony finally launched its first OLED TV (well, except the 2008 11" XEL-1). The XBR-A1E Bravia OLED TV features a flat 4K OLED panel. The TVs are based on the Android TV platform and feature 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. Sony will offer the TVs at 55", 65" or 77" and the TVs will ship later in 2017.

The OLED panel themselves are produced by LG Display. According to reports, LGD agreed to supply Sony with 100,000 panels each year.

San Francisco based Osterhout Design Group (ODG) announced that it raised $58 million from several investors, including Shenzhen O-film Tech and Vanfund Urban Investment & Development. This is ODG's round A investment, but it is not a new company - it has been active with enterprise AR solutions for eight years, and in 2014 it sold some of its IP to Microsoft for $150 million.

ODG R-7

Why does ODG need so much money? Because it is entering the consumer market with its upcoming codename-Horizon platform, which will be an AR/VR platform that is based on OLED microdisplays. The Horizon platform will support a wide FOV, 120 fps and support for 4K 3D content.

A few days ago we reported that BOE Display started to supply OLED TV panels to Skyworth. Today we have this photo you see below, showing the new 55" UHD (4K) panels. The new panels were produced at BOE's 8.5-Gen pilot line in Hefei.

Skyworth is currently using LGD WOLED panels for its OLED TVs, and in December 2015 the company launched its latest OLED and OLED HDR TVs . Skyworth hopes to sell 200,000 OLED TVs by the end of March 2017. Skyworth said its main problem with those OLEDs is that LG Display cannot supply them with enough panels, especially the 65" ones - so now it seems Skyworth found its answer with BOE Display.

Our friends from DisplayMate posted an in-depth shootout of LG's 2016 OLED TV, the 65" 4K OLEDE6. DisplayMate finds this new TV to perform "exceptionally well" - in fact this TV offers an image quality that is "Visually Indistinguishable from Perfect". This is unquestionably the best performing TV ever tested at DisplayMate.

LG's OLED TV breaks many TV display performance records at DisplayMate: including the highest absolute color accuracy, the lowest screen reflectance , the highest absolute luminance accuracy, and the highest contrast ratio with perfect Black Levels of any TV ever tested. Almost all tests showed improvement over LG's 2015 OLED TVs.

LG's Signature OLED G6 is now shipping for $5,999 at Amazon.com - that's $2,000 off the previous price of $7,999! I'm not sure how much longer this price will last, but this is a great deal. The G6 is LG's premium OLED TV, featuring an ultra-slim on-glass design, a high-end pivoting Harman Kardon soundbar, LG's webOS 3.0, Color Prime PRO technology and HDR. The 77" model costs $19,999.

LG also >reduced the price of the entry-level flat 55" OLEDB6 to $2,297 (down from $2,497). The 65" B6 still costs $3,999.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin developed a 2K x 2K OLED microdisplay based VR HMD, which is now being offered to partners (the company's first licensee is probably ODG). The company is also developing its next-gen 4K OLED microdisplays.

eMagin needs to find a high-volume production partner if it wants to enter the consumer market (eMagin announced production expansion will not be enough) and eMagin already stated that it is in talks with potential foundry partners. One of these partners is AMD - which we already know is working with eMagin.

LG's EG9600 are curved 4K (UHD) OLED TVs, introduced early in 2015. LG now offers the 65" model for only $2,499. The 55" model is shipping for $1,888.

LG EG9600 OLED TV

The EG9600 TVs offer HDR support, an anti-glare filter, WebOS 2.0 and quad-core CPUs. LG offers similar flat models, the EF9500 TVs.