Sony Launches 3mm Thin XEL-1 OLED TV

i4u writes "Sony introduces their first commercial OLED TV, the XEL-1. The stunning XEL-1 is what Sony teased on Friday on their site in Japan. The XEL-1 is an 11-inch display that is only 3 mm thin. It features a dramatic 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and the power consumption is a low 45 W. Sony plans to start shipping the XEL-1 OLED TV on December 1 for 200,000 Yen (~$1,740). Here is Sony's OLED TV product page (in Japanese)."

Lifespan?

[tgd]

I didn't see any mention of the lifespan of the OLED screen?

Has something changed recently, or is the TV likely to start looking funny in a year when the blue fades?

Very nice, but...

[Aphrika]

...what about that honking great ugly box at the bottom of it that's way bigger than 3mm deep and obviously has to sit under the TV?

Granted, it's cool that Sony have developed an OLED TV, but sorry I don't see the point of having a wafer thin screen when the base unit looks like a brick. If you could remotely stick the box somewhere else and wallmount the TV that'd be nice, but from what I can tell, you can't.

Re:Sir Not-so-Thin

[Artichoke]

No it wouldn't. It would be very nice though :)

Analysis

[suv4x4]

1. They will produce only 2000 of those per year.
2. The product for OLED was selected not to be practical but newsworthy. Everyday Joe cares about TV-s, although he won't buy this one, he'll read about it, so newspapers will write about it. Consider: OLED has shorter pixel life and wastes less power than LCD+light. Where is this useful? Laptops (limited energy and no constant use). Where is it harmful? TV-s (constant use and unlimited AC power).
3. The design is made to impress, not be practical. Notice they put the tuner down in an ugly box to show off the very thin OLED display (no backlight). Notice the off-center hinge, designed to stress how light the screen is (puts unneeded stress, however small, on the materials).

Bottom line is, of course, great that someone is pushing OLED for something bigger than a camera preview screen. But it's NOT mass produced product. They make just few units, to make the news.

It's a product straight from the PR department. I suspect Sony Rolly will have similar fate.

Those aren't products made to sell, they're made to rebuild the image of Sony as the cool tech company. However, years ago they were the cool tech company which mass produced goods that are at the same practical, high tech, and luxury.

Those new gadgets don't send the same message. Wish them good luck with this, maybe if they keep producing gadgets like those at this pace, at some point they'll hit a homerun again...

Re:low power ?

[kannibal_klown]

I don't know much about electronics, but not everything scales linearly. Perhaps out of that 11W there is a baseline, like a processors + red LED light (showing it's on) + infrared sensor + etc. So maybe only portion would have to increase x-times as the size increases?

Re:Very nice, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

I lived in Japan for a while and Sony actually does this with some frequency, they'll release very high end, extremely expensive kit that isn't designed optimally yet because it's cutting edge, first generation to market. I don't think I ever saw any of these items ever make it to US shores, because they had refined the design by the time it was low enough cost to be marketable in the US.

The image on these things is simply amazing, and makes it hard to return to your LCD. People buying this are buying it for the image quality, and to have something no one else has.

Sony makes literally millions of LCD sets a year, while OLEDs are being produced on the order of a few thousand. I give props to Sony for actually making product you can buy now to play with rather than wait until they have the mass market designs perfected.

Believe me, by the time this tech makes it to US shores it won't remotely resemble the 11" on top of a clunky box.

Re:So...

[dal20402]

Seconded! At first I read the summary and thought 'SHIT THIS SOUNDS FUCKING AMAZING'

Also at only 11" what use is it to anyone?

Do you have a single brain cell? The summary quite clearly said the display was 11".

They will have to film everything really zoomed in to compensate for this appalling oversight. Its typical Sony this, they design something thats good on paper, but when the final product comes out it is blighted by a terrible design flaw

Since there's obviously no use for a gorgeous 11" display anywhere, you're obviously right. All those people installing displays in airplanes, cars, and, um, LAPTOPS must have overlooked something fundamental.

I haven't seen a more moronic post on Slashdot in years. That includes the goatse trolls.

Re:Power consumption?

[afidel]

My 42" LCD TV(which is 16x larger) uses 170W max, so about 4.25x more efficient per area. Now some of that power draw is constant since things like a tv tuner take a relatively fixed amount of power.