4K OLED: introduction and market status - Page 10

LG installs a huge 13x8 meter OLED display at Seoul's Incheon airport, made from 140 individual 55" OLED TV displays. LG says this is the world's largest OLED display - as they consider this to be a single display.

Those 55" OLEDs are 4K panels - which means that there are 290 million pixels in total. This looks like a beautiful display - and hopefully a great showcase of LG's OLED technology.

Our friends from FlatPanelsHD visited LG Display in Korea, and came back with some interesting information regarding LG's plans for the OLED TV market.

First of all, LG is still developing its 0.97mm wallpaper-thin OLED TV with an aim to make it more durable - and also to figure out the cable issues. Currently LG is using an external box for all the connections - and LG considers using this design in future OLED TVs so the display itself can stay as thin as possible. The current plan is to release a 0.97 mm OLED TV commercially towards the end of 2016.

Mirage Vision, a US-based outdoor television outfitters announced the world's first outdoor OLED TV, which is a weather-proof LG 65" 4K curved OLED TV:

Yesterday we reported that LG slashed $1,000 off their curved 4K OLED TVs, and today the company also lowered the price of the flat models (the EF9500) to match those curved ones.

So now you can buy the 55" flat 4K OLED for $2,999, and the 65" flat 4K one for $4,999. This is still priced quite high but much more affordable than only a few weeks ago when LG first launched those TVs and priced them at $6,999 for the 65" model and $5,499 for the 55" model.

LG's OLED TV prices keep dropping, and today the company reduced the prices of its 55" and 65" curved 4K OLED TVs by $1,000. The 65" 65EG9600 is now on sale at Amazon.com for $4,999 while the 55" 55EG9600 is shipping for $2,999.

This makes LG's current OLED pricing a bit confusing. The flat 4K OLEDs are now more expensive than the curved OLEDs - but it's likely that LG will match those prices soon. The latest 55" FHD curved model, the 55EG9100 is shipping for $2,499 - which means that you only need to add $500 to get 4K resolution.

LG's 55" flat 4K OLED TVs (the 55EF9500) are finally shipping in the US - for $3,999, the same price as LG's curved 4K OLED, the 55EG9600. The 65" flat model is also shipping for $5,999.

The EF9500, available in either 55" (55EF9500) or 65" (65EF9500) models feature a flat 4K OLED panel, HDR, a new anti-glare filter, WebOS 2.0 and quad-core CPUs. LG offers similar curved models, the EG9600 TVs at the same prices.

The display measurement experts at DisplayMate posted a very interesting article comparing LG's 65" 4K OLED TV (the 65EG9600, which costs $5,999) and Samsung's top of the line 65" 4K LCD (the UN65JS9500). DisplayMate performed dozens of tests, comparing those two high end TVs in several scenarios.

Black level comparison, OLED (left) vs LCD (right)

DisplayMate finds that the OLED TV outperforms the LCD in all the tests - the only category in which the LCD outperformed the OLED was brightness with average picture level higher than 25%. Specifically the OLED offers a higher contrast, a higher color accuracy, much better viewing angles, faster response time and higher power efficiency.

LG's 65" flat 4K OLED TVs (the 65EF9500) are finally shipping in the US - and as expected the prices are the same as the curved version - $5,999. The 55" models are not shipping yet - but Amazon says they will ship within 3 to 5 weeks.

It's great to see LG finally shipping flat OLEDs. The EF9500, available in either 55" (55EF9500) or 65" (65EF9500) models feature a flat 4K OLED panel, HDR, a new anti-glare filter, WebOS 2.0 and quad-core CPUs. LG offers similar curved models, the EG9600 TVs at the same prices.

German TV brand Metz is demonstrating 4K OLED TVs at the IFA 2015 trade show. The Metz brand is now owned by China-based Skyworth, and it will be great to see Skyworth launch their OLED TVs in the Europe.

Skyworth is using LG Display's OLED panels. The company launched its first OLED TV in China back in March 2014, and will soon launch its first 4K OLED TVs.

As expected, Panasonic announced the company's first OLED TV, the TX-65CZ950. This is a curved 65" 4K OLED panel that features Panasonic's 4K Pro tech which includes advanced gradation controls and 3D color look tables. The TV supports HDR and is THX certified.

The OLED panel itself is produced by LG Display, and uses LGD's WOLED (WRGB) architecture. Panasonic used to co-develop OLED TVs together with Sony, but that OLED TV joint development project was canceled in December 2013. Panasonic (together with JDI, Sony and the INCJ) formed a new company (JOLED) to develop small/medium OLED panels. But the company OLED TV program is reportedly halted.