Samsung announced production-ready 14.1" OLEDs for Laptops and 31" OLED TVs

Samsung Mobile Displays announced 14.1" and 31" OLED TV panels, using what they call Fine Metal Mask (FMM) technology. Those panels are 'ready for production'.

The 14.1" WXGA is aimed for laptop computers. It's got a 1366x768 resolution, 200cd brightness, color gamut of 107% NTSC and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. The whole panel is just 2.7mm thick.

The 31" FHD (1920x1080) TV panel is using LTPS, and also has 200cd brightness,  color gamut of 107% NTSC and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. The panel is thicker at 8.9mm.

Samsung 31-inch HDTVSamsung 31-inch HDTV

The last display is a 40" FHD OLED TV, with pretty much the same features as the 31" TV. This one is not 'ready for production', yet.

SMD has updated their web site, with lot's of details on the new panels, and also other AMOLED (smaller ones for mobile displays), as well as 'future OLEDs' - flexible and transparent ones.

Posted: Jun 01,2009 by Ron Mertens

Comments

Great... though a shame no announcement of a desktop monitor sized 22 or 24 inch model, would've been awesome.

I'm more interested in the prices. It will, of course drop the LCD price market down, but it is already affordable regardless. For OLED to win out it has to beat the OLED market or it will remain a small device market, where LCD draws too much power. I want to be able to "hang" my TV on my wall without a special holder that has to be bolted to the secure parts.

I also want lights that can flex, draw almost no power, and last almost forever. But it has to be out LED lights, you can get good ones for $40+ that lasts 20K-40K hours. Pretty good in and of itself, but I want to "paint" the walls with strips that extend the light out in more areas. However, I don't want to pay 1000s of dollars to do so.

You know you have a good point that I hadn't considered yet. Sure, fancy new tech starts out high and comes down quickly with consumer demand - but there is the problem.

See, you and I know how much better oled is and we'd gladly spend twice the price of LCD to get it... But most consumers are NOT going to see the night and day difference you and I do. Who other that graphics pros and home theater nerds ever complains about black level? No one.

People paid top dollar for LCD because it was a quantum leap over CRT - the sexy, thin, light, clear and wide displays were like nothing they'd seen before! But oled will seem like only a modest improvement to most people. In fact I think only the ultra thin aspect of it will appeal to most.

So that's our problem. How do you convince a world of people who are happy with LCD that they need a new tv at twice the price?

Sadly, this makes me worry that the oled rollout is going to be very slow indeed. People will probably only buy one when they need a new tv, and only then if the price is comperable (unlike the shift to LCD, where consumers couldn't wait to trash their CRT).

Sigh. It may be a long road up ahead :-(