(Author: Judy Lin, Chief Editor, LEDinside)

OLED TVs are making a comeback at the largest consumer electronic show in U.S. which runs from Jan. 5-8, 2017 in Las Vegas, most notable at this year’s show is Korean consumer electronic manufacturer LG is facing new competition from Japanese manufacturers Sony and Panasonic.

Japanese manufacturers decision to jump back on the OLED bandwagon shows significant changes in their market strategies, since two years ago the companies were slowly backing away from the less profitable large OLED display sector, which left Korean manufacturer LG the sole supplier of large OLED TVs.

The two companies’ return with premium OLED TVs at the show is interesting, considering in 2014 Sony and Panasonic integrated their OLED R&D departments to form a new joint venture, JOLED, with other major Japanese display companies including Japan Display Inc. (JDI) and INCJ.

LG continued to wow the crowd at this year’s show with its paper thin premium OLED TVs weighing merely 7 kilograms that can be mounted onto a wall. Both LG and Samsung also unveiled QD TVs at the show this year, with Samsung betting more heavily on quantum dot technology. LEDinside has covered some of LG and Samsung’s new QD technologies which can be viewed in the reference articles below. For this article LEDinside will sum up some of the latest OLED TV technologies at CES 2017 this year, as well as Sony’s groundbreaking micro-LED TV.

Panasonic’s award winning OLED TV

(Video Source: AV Forum)

Earlier in August, Panasonic won the IFA Show in Germany with its prototype OLED TV, the company displayed the commercialized version at CES 2017 at Las Vegas, reported Forbes.

The new 4K Ultra HD OLED TV, 65EZ1000, has nearly doubled brightness compared to the previous generation OLED TV to 800 nits, which is also 25% more than other OLED TVs on the market.

In terms of color performance, it is capable of displaying about 98% of the DCI color space used in the majority of HDR content, compared to the 90% of the CZ950.

The TV also employs a new ‘Absolute Black’ filtering in the screen, which substantially raises perceived black level response, and delivers blacker color tones that are unaffected by ambient lighting. In comparison, LG’s 2016 OLED TV models were more inclined to emit a slightly magenta hue under ambient lighting.

Sony unveils dual functioning OLED TV and next generation micro-LED TV

If a standard 55-inch OLED screen is not big enough for your living room, Sony’s new generation of BRAVIA 4K UHD OLED TVs are coming in three distinctive larger sizes of 65-inch, and even up to 77-inch screens, according to an Engadget report.

Sony’s OLED TV, A1Es, most astounding feature is its ultra-thin screen incorporates “Acoustic Surface Technology”, in other words the screen functions as a speaker too, reported Forbes. This solves the long term issue of getting good sound quality out of ultra-thin displays, enabling sounds to bounce off the surface of the screen. Goodbye extra clunky speakers.

Sony's  BRAVIA 4K UHD OLED TV A1Es. (Photo courtesy of Sony)

There is no word on pricing yet, but Gizmodo estimated from Sony’s previous flagship TV pricing histories the OLED TV retail price will start from US $6,000 and above.

As for the long anticipated Sony’s next-generation micro-LED display, CLEDIS, was showcased at the show this year. A separate Gizmodo reported noted the large seamless LED display comprised of hundreds of LED tiles stitched together, more accurately hundreds of 45 centimeter large LED modules. Each module houses micron sized RGB LEDs, which gives Sony greater control over the displays pixels and color rendition.

An older CLEDIS display model showcased in 2016. (Photo courtesy of Sony)

The LED modules offers flexibility in the display design, and can be used to assemble screens 8K by 2K large, but no official retail price has been released yet.

Ivan Lin, the Editor-in-Chief of TrendForce projects the success of Sony’s Cledis series will lay the foundation for future micro-LED applications and gradual commercialization. The display technology's increased market penetration will depend on whether this module-based design can be applied in smaller displays.

LG’s elegant ‘wallpaper’ OLED TV

(Video Source: CNET)

How thin can OLED TVs get? Well paper thin. LG demonstrated its next generation W7 series 2.57 mm thick OLED TVs that literally needs to be mounted in a frame and hung on the wall and resembles a contemporary art piece.

The 65-inch 4K OLED TV screen weighs merely 7 kilograms, quite light weight for a large screened TV, reported The Verge. The TV features Technicolor, ultra HDR, boasting better color and image performance than a previous generation concept OLED TV.

There is a downside of using an ultra-thin screen design, though. All the wiring and processing of the TV has to be done externally through a detached sound bar system, reported Forbes. The W7 series to be released sometime in April this year will come with a retail price of around US $8,000, the report added.

As for further details about LG’s new generation of OLED TVs there is an increase in peak brightness from 600-650 nits from 2016 to around 1,000 nits, but only works for a small 5% ‘window’, explained the Forbes report. The estimated day to day viewing brightness of the new generation of OLED TVs is about 800 nits.

For further reading:

• Samsung Applies Metal Coating to Boost QLED TV Color Performance