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).
I'm not sure how much sense this makes actually for consumers. Most people who've seen or reviewed curved TVs actually say they prefer a flat panel (even though curved displays do apparently offer an improved image quality due to reduced reflections).
Maybe a nice advantage to a bendable TV is that you can attach it to your wall, as it is flat, and then you can still bend it to create a curved TV only when you're watching. An OLED is light enough (LG's 55" OLED TV panel weighs only 3.5Kg) so maybe it will be enough to secure it just in the middle of the display (as the sides will be away from the wall when curved). In anycase, this is obviously another important step towards rollable OLED TV panels.
Samsung also unveiled their own bendable TV. They wouldn't reveal any technical details beside the fact that it is a 85" panel. I believe this one is not an OLED but an LCD. I'm sure Samsung would have mentioned the fact that it is OLED. In addition it seems like a very thick TV, but maybe this is just because of the prototype motors and frame. Hopefully we'll learn more about Samsung's bendable panel soon. Update: it turns out that these Samsung bendable TVs are actually OLEDs!
Samsung 85-inch bendable TV prototype
Samsung by the way, was granted a US patent that describes bendable TVs. It''ll be interesting to see whether they think LG infringes on that patent. This may start a new patent war between the two Korean rivals, but hopefully their "peace talks" announced a while back will prevail.
Comments
It turns out that you are right, and Samsung's bendable TVs are indeed OLEDs!
Quite interesting, but I can't believe that Samsung is using LCD. How should they handle the mechanical stress on the LC-cells which would cause faults in the image immediately if you bend the TV?