LG launches its big screen OLED TV

LG has started taking orders on its new 55-inch (139cm) OLED TV in Korea – to be available from February and to retail for 11 million KRW (USD 10,000).

OLED TVs use an advanced display technology promising startlingly clear images on wafer-thin screens. LG’s latest model is only 4mm thick. The new TVs will be available in North America, Europe and the rest of Asia before the end of March, LG said in a statement.

“We are extremely pleased to be able to make this announcement at the start of the new year because we believe that OLED will usher in a whole new era of home entertainment,” said Havis Kwon, president and CEO of LG’s Home Entertainment Company.

“Not since colour TV was first introduced 60 years ago has there been a more transformational moment. When high definition TV was first introduced 15 years ago, the public’s reaction was ‘wow!’, but when customers see our razor-thin [4mm] OLED TV for the first time, they’re left speechless. That’s a clear indicator as any that OLED TV is much more than just an incremental improvement to current television technology,” Kwon added.

With this, LG becomes the world’s first company to bring a big-screen next-generation TV to market. TVs using OLEDs, or organic light-emitting diodes, feature images with enhanced clarity, deeper colour saturation and sharper contrast than liquid crystal display TVs.

LG’s announcement is the culmination of a race by electronics makers to be the first to deliver the next-generation sets that began in 2007 when Sony showed off the world’s first OLED TV, which had an 11-inch screen.