Mitsubishi Unveils 155in OLED display

Author	Gordon Kelly
Published	12th Oct 2009

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Is it hyped to the point of meltdown. It is hailed as the all singing, all dancing technology to end plasma and LCD/LED and that's probably true. On the other hand, with the first OLED - the Sony 11.1in XEL-1 - priced at £3,489, how ever did this happen...

Mitsubishi has demonstrated an OLED measuring a remarkable 155 inches diagonally at Ceatec 2009. Too good to be true? Kinda, Mitsubishi uses 1.5 x 1.5in modular OLED 'blocks' which simply need to be slotted in or out to create whatever screen size is necessary. Yep, the idea of buying a 32in OLED TV and in time increasing it to 42in then 52in then 65in+ appeals to me too!

Naturally there are buts in all this so let's out with them. But #1, OLED degrades over time and these blocks have an estimated lifespan of 20,000 hours (approx. 2 1/2 years of continuous usage) something that would make any commercial installations troublesome. But #2, pricing and availability remain unknowns and even teeny tiny 1.5 x 1.5in blocks are unlikely to come cheap - or consumer focused - for some considerable time.

Of course like all new technologies, price and availability will improve, but whether three or four years down the line when it does we are all watching 100in images courtesy of shoebox sized short throw projectors sat on top of our streaming media boxes is another question entirely...

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