Sony's XEL-1 OLED TV landing in Europe in 2009?

[MattyBoy]

Sony will expand sales of its 11-inch OLED (organic light emitting diode) television to Europe in 2009, according to a Japanese press report.

Detailed launch plans for the TV, which went on sale in Japan in December 2007 and in the U.S. in January 2008, including its price are yet to be determined, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Wednesday morning edition.

OLED is an emerging flat-panel display technology that uses an organic material in the pixels that emits its own light, so a backlight isn't needed. That helps make the displays thinner and much less power-hungry. OLED screens also handle fast-moving images better and offer richer color reproduction than current LCDs (liquid crystal displays) and PDPs (plasma display panels).

Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports this morning that Sony plans to sell its 11-inch XEL-1 OLED TV in Europe in 2009. That dovetails nicely with a two-week old statement by a Sony representative who said, "I'd be very surprised if this hasn't arrived in the UK by 2009." Us too, after all, it's been on sale in Japan since December of 2007 and was recently caught slumming the big box outlets in the US. It only seems natural then, that Sony would ramp production to the point that by 2009 they could meet the minimal, European demand for a $2,500-ish TV measuring just 11-inches -- million:1 contrast or not. Still, it's all a bit late if you ask us (you did right?) seeing as how Sony plans to be producing medium to large OLED panels as early as April 2009

[stinger]

The XEL-1 comes with 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, with an ultra thin form. If the UK gets a similar model to Japan, it will also come with two HDMI ports, a memory stick port for high resolution photos, and networking capabilities thanks to Ethernet.

It also uses the Xross Media Bar Sony has been keen to use across all its products, and will be seen in the new Vaio laptops and the PS3 and PSP so far.

[halutz]

Sony's XEL-1 has won broad praise for its thinness and bright, vivid images. But at around ¥200,000 (US$1,829) in Japan and around US$2,500 in the U.S. the TV set remains too pricey for most consumers. For Sony to significantly expand sales it will need to increase production from the current 2,000 sets it manufactures per month but technical hurdles remain as OLED is a new technology and production processes are still being refined.

Several of Sony's competitors are also working on OLED screens.

Panasonic is working on the technology and a recent report said it plans to have a set of around 40-inches screen size on sale within the next three years. Toshiba has also said it plans to launch a 30-inch-class OLED set but hasn't provided details while Samsung has also been showing OLED panel prototypes.

[Russell]

Some more details:

The OLED screens take more than two years featured in each of the salons where they appear, but it still lacked the technology of commercial real variations, accessible to consumers. At the IFA 08, Sony promises that the OLED (Organic light-emitting diode) will officially enters the European soil by the holiday season with a model that we have already mentioned, the XEL1 who, with a diagonal measurement of 11 inches, offers a thickness of only 3 mm, and a dynamic contrast that would amount to 1.000.000:1. The brand is associated with a tuner TNT, two speakers (2 x 1 Watt), an HDMI port, a USB port and an Ethernet port on a base measuring 287 x 140 x 253 mm, with a weight of about 2 Kg.

Sony OLED TV XEL-1

Here, the TV presents itself as an extremely thin slab, mounted on a swivel arm that can adjust its orientation. The electronics needed for its operation is located in the foot of the aircraft. Accessible to the consumer does not mean that this young technology will be affordable ... Despite a diagonal reduced, the XEL1 will be marketed around 3000 euros!

Sony OLED TV XEL-1 Photo

[kattman]

I was lucky to see one in Toronto, there the picture quality was superb, the future of television (when the slab will be wider) is drawn with such a technology

[jesse]

The OLED technology-it was certainly not supposed to be cheaper at the time of manufacture?!

[MattyBoy]

Sony's OLED TV is still super expensive at $1,748 considering the amount of screen real estate you get per dollar, but at least this 11" display can be turned into a wireless setup thanks to the boffins at Sony who have recently unveiled a wireless version of the XEL-1 that boasts a built-in HDTV tuner, a battery and a wall mount. No specific information about the timing and price of the “I've got no strings” version, but Sony promises it'll be out "soon."