LG 15EL9500 OLED TV: The future’s bright, the future’s OLED, for the few

There is no doubt that OLED is a great technology. The perfect colour reproduction, combined with contrast ratios much better than LCD screens and faster response times provide a viewing experience that is better than the best LCD and plasma screens. The ability of each OLED picture element to produce its own light, and therefore not require a separate back or edge-lighting system, like LCD TVs need, allows a lot of flexibility in the design and the performance improvements. However, this does come at a price. It is no real surprise that Sony has moth-balled its OLED fab. Few people are prepared to pay the price premium for the technology.

Other companies continue to push forward with OLED, and it is possible that if some of the challenges are ironed out then OLED will be cheaper than LCD, but not at the moment.

Take this LG. It has always received rave reviews whenever it is shown. The key parameters are a factor of 10 of LCD screens. For example, with a contrast ratio (The difference between “black” and “white” on the set) is 10,000,000:1. This is 10 times the figure of top-end back-lit LCD screens. The response time (the time it takes for a picture element to update) is 0.001ms. Again, one tenth of the response time of a good LCD set. And the price is a mere €2000. Again, 10 times the cost of a similar 15” set. This is not a big set and so this is an extraordinary figure to charge.

Due to appear in May in Europe, I expect that there will be more sets given to reviewers than to the paying public. The reviewers will continue to enthuse about the set, but unless the price comes down from wonderland, I fear that more companies will leave the field and OLED will die.