Insanely Thin Sony XEL-1 OLED TV to Appear in Japan

• November 20th, 2007 | General

If you’ve ever wanted a TV so small that you might actually misplace it, the new Sony XEL-1 OLED TV just might be your ideal choice. OK, so it’s not that small but, this thing is amazingly compact. From it’s picture you might think it’s pretty cool to look at, as well. It’s very stylishly designed–not a lot of wasted space and that screen. Who knew a TV screen could actually be that thin?

Specifically, the XEL-1 OLED TV has an eleven inch-diagonal screen which also just happens to be a practically microscopic 3 millimeters thick. That’s some seriously lilliputian sizing right there. Of course, Gulliver couldn’t quite drop this in his pocket and take it with him, but it is fairly portable for a TV set. The only catch here is that it’sOLED. Of course, it’s the OLED-part that makes the 3mm-part possible, since OLED screens don’t need a backlight like traditional LCDs. While OLEDs do reduce power consumption (always a good thing in our energy-hungry world) it also has a much shorter lifespan, due to the “O” in “OLED.”

OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. Basically, this is a light emitting diode (in a sense, a light bulb made of plastic) that is comprised of organic compounds. Sadly, these organic compounds break down, causing OLED screens to die much earlier than LCD screens. So, in the end, smaller is better, but you get what you pay for. However, it is a Sony and Sony TVs have been incredible since the dawn of man. Speaking of which, Sony’s XEL-1 OLED TV drops in Japan on December 1, with drop dates elsewhere still up in the air.

Read more about the XEL-1 at Sony.net.