TVS OF THE FUTURE: What is OLED?

Richard Mooney

As the future moves forward, technology becomes more advanced and smaller; PC-equivalent devices can now fit in your palm, your entire music library can be stored in your pocket and TVs are now set to become slimmer than a dozen staples. That’s 6mm wide.

OLED (short for Organic Light Emitting Diode) is a new technology that is being touted to take the place of existing TV screens within the next three to five years. The difference between it and current slim-line televisions is that OLED does not need a backlight to power it. LCDs require a backlight to power them meaning that their backs are made bigger. OLED utilises an organic material that emits its own light, meaning it has no need for a backlight.

One more feature about OLED screens is that they use half the power that LCDs use, so you’re getting a great picture whilst lessening your carbon footprint. Another major difference between the two is the contrast ratio. This is the difference between the darkest dark colours and the lightest light colours a TV or projector can display. Anything with a contrast ratio with over 2,000:1 is considered an excellent picture, however most modern LCDs and Plasmas have ratios as high as 15,000:1.

An OLED screens contrast ratio can be much higher because of their inherent organic nature. Sony is the first manufacturer to start selling OLED TVs with the release of its XEL-1 TV. This telly has an astonishing 1,000,000: 1 contrast ratio. That’s right; one million to one, not a typo; possibly the most vivid consumer-available image in the world next to the IMAX experience.

There are two drawbacks with the XEL-1 though. One is that it is only 11 inches in screen size and two…it’ll set you back about £1200 to import from America.

Also larger OLED screens have a very short lifespan, hence the reason that they are currently not in production. Current LCDs and Plasmas have an average lifespan of about 80,000 hours viewing time (that’s around 43 years if you’re average Joe and watch 5 hours of TV a day). Larger OLED screens only have between 5,000 and 10,000 hours viewing time right now (that’s approximately between 2 and a half and five years).

Like CRT, Plasma and LCD before it, OLED is still a very young technology with its full potential still waiting to be revealed.