Latest news with #OLEDs
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
OLED Dominates Display Technology Market; High Growth Expected in Micro-LED Segment
Growth drivers in the display market include the adoption of larger screens, innovative technologies like OLED and micro-LED, and rising demand in sectors like consumer electronics and retail. Display market Dublin, June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Display Market Industry Trends and Global Forecasts to 2035: Distribution by Type of Product, Type of Technology, End User, Type of Resolution, Aspect Ratio, Type of Touch Technology, Brightness, Viewing Angle, Power Consumption, Durability and Key Geographical Regions" report has been added to offering. The global display market size is estimated to grow from USD 167.47 billion in the 2025, to USD 261.38 billion by 2035, at a CAGR of 4.13% during the forecast period, till 2035. Display Market Growth and Trends The evolution of digital technology in the display sector has opened up unparalleled opportunities for companies to connect with and engage their intended audiences. The increasing trend towards larger screens across various fields, coupled with the introduction of innovative display technologies from advanced 3D displays to next-generation digital signage and video surveillance systems is transforming how people interact with information and visual content. Over the years, the rise of sophisticated technology has resulted in a range of technologies, including liquid crystal displays (LCDs), light-emitting diode displays (LEDs), organic light-emitting diode displays (OLEDs), and more. These displays are widely used in numerous devices, encompassing tablets, laptops, televisions, monitors, and digital signage. Moreover, the role of displays in providing visual feedback and facilitating interaction between users and electronic devices enhances user experience across various applications and sectors, making them a favored option among users and businesses alike. The appeal of foldable displays, flat panels, and touchscreen functionality also attract consumers in search of high-quality displays for their commercial needs. Additionally, the rising trend of digital display solutions in the retail industry has generated new avenues for companies to improve their in-store experiences. Intelligent, data-driven retail displays that offer personalized product suggestions, real-time inventory updates, and seamless integration with e-commerce platforms ultimately boost sales and foster customer loyalty. Given these factors, industry participants are adopting these state-of-the-art display solutions to create a memorable impact and establish their brand value for sustainable success in the ever-evolving digital environment, which will likely enhance the market's growth potential during the forecast period, till 2035. Display Market: Key Segments Market Share by Type of Product Based on the type of product, the global display market is segmented into automotive displays, digital signage & large format displays (interactive kiosks, interactive monitors, interactive tables, interactive video walls, interactive whiteboards), PC monitors and laptops, smart wearables, tablets, television, and others. Currently, the smartphones segment captures the majority share of the market. This can be attributed to the growing adoption of OLED and flexible displays in smartphones, which provide outstanding color precision and vibrancy, delivering richer and more lifelike visuals. However, wearable segment is anticipated to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. Market Share by Type of Technology Based on the type of technology, the display market is segmented into direct-view LED, E-Paper / E-Ink, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) (IPS LCD, TFT-LCD, TFT-LCD, VA LCD, Others) LED, Micro-LED, Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED), AMOLED, Micro-LED, Mini-LED, PMOLED), quantum dot, and others. Currently, OLED displays segment captures the majority share of the market. This can be attributed to the fact that major smartphone manufacturers, including Apple, Samsung, and Google, are increasingly incorporating OLED displays into their devices such as mobiles, tablets, and TVs due to their superior display quality and design versatility, which boosts demand for OLED technology. However, micro-LED segment is anticipated to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. Market Share by Feature Based on the feature, the display market is segmented into flat panel display, flexible panel display, non-touch display, touch display, and transparent panel display. Currently, flat panels segment captures the majority share of the market, owing to the fact that flat panels have become standard displays widely used in TVs, monitors, laptops, and tablets. However, touchscreen displays segment is anticipated to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. Market Share by Panel Size Based on the panel size, the display market is segmented into large display, medium display, micro-display, and small display. Currently, the micro display segment captures the majority share of the market. The use of micro-displays in wearable technology like smartwatches and near-to-eye devices, which require compact screens, greatly benefits from the advantages offered by micro-displays. Additionally, specialized medical devices that utilize micro-displays are anticipated to contribute to market expansion. However, medium display panels segment is anticipated to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. Market Share by Type of Resolution Based on type of resolution, the display market is segmented into HD, 4K (ultra high definition), 8K (super high definition), and other resolutions. Currently, 4K (ultra-high definition) segment captures the majority share of the market. This can be attributed to the increasing demand for 4K resolution displays, particularly for streaming services and content creation. However, full HD resolution displays segment is anticipated to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. Market Share by Aspect Ratio Based on aspect ratio, the display market is segmented into4:3, 16:9, 16:10, and others. Currently, 16:9 aspect ratio segment captures the majority share of the market. This can be attributed to its status as the standard aspect ratio widely utilized in most consumer electronics such as televisions, monitors, and smartphones. Additionally, it is the most frequently supported aspect ratio for both content consumption and creation. However, 16:10 aspect ratio segment is anticipated to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. Market Share by Type of Viewing Based on type of viewing, the display market is segmented into narrow viewing angles, ultra-wide viewing angles, and wide viewing angles. Currently, wide viewing angles segment captures the majority share of the market. Wide viewing angles are commonly used in consumer electronics where shared viewing happens frequently, and their varied color brightness consistency contributes to them holding the largest market share in this segment. Moreover, the demand for high-end and professional screens boosts market growth. However, ultra-wide viewing angles segment is anticipated to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. Market Share by Power Consumption Based on power consumption, the display market is segmented into high power consumption (more than 5W), low power consumption (less than 1W), and medium power consumption (1-5W). Currently, medium power consumption (1-5W) segment captures the majority share of the market. This can be attributed to their well-rounded performance and efficiency, making them well-suited for a variety of consumer electronics, with designs that enhance energy efficiency. Sample Players in the Display Market Profiled in the Report Include: AUO Corporation BOE Technology Group Box Light Corporation Chi Mei Corporation Innolux Corporation Japan Display Leyard Optoelectronic LG Display Marvel Technology Minda Industries Mitsubishi Electric NEC Corporation Panasonic Corporation Samsung Electronics Sharp Corporation Sony Corporation Display Market: Research Coverage The report on the display market features insights on various sections, including: Market Sizing and Opportunity Analysis: An in-depth analysis of the display market, focusing on key market segments, including type of products, type of technology, feature, panel size, type of end-user, type of resolution, aspect ratio, type of touch technology, brightness, viewing angle, power consumption, durability and geographical regions. Competitive Landscape: A comprehensive analysis of the companies engaged in the Display market, based on several relevant parameters, such as year of establishment, company size, location of headquarters, ownership structure. Company Profiles: Elaborate profiles of prominent players engaged in the Display market, providing details on location of headquarters, company size, company mission, company footprint, management team, contact details, financial information, operating business segments, display portfolio, moat analysis, recent developments, and an informed future outlook. SWOT Analysis: An insightful SWOT framework, highlighting the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the domain. Additionally, it provides Harvey ball analysis, highlighting the relative impact of each SWOT parameter. Key Questions Answered in this Report How many companies are currently engaged in display market? Which are the leading companies in this market? What factors are likely to influence the evolution of this market? What is the current and future market size? What is the CAGR of this market? How is the current and future market opportunity likely to be distributed across key market segments? Which type of display is expected to dominate the market? Reasons to Buy this Report The report provides a comprehensive market analysis, offering detailed revenue projections of the overall market and its specific sub-segments. This information is valuable to both established market leaders and emerging entrants. Stakeholders can leverage the report to gain a deeper understanding of the competitive dynamics within the market. By analyzing the competitive landscape, businesses can make informed decisions to optimize their market positioning and develop effective go-to-market strategies. The report offers stakeholders a comprehensive overview of the market, including key drivers, barriers, opportunities, and challenges. This information empowers stakeholders to stay abreast of market trends and make data-driven decisions to capitalize on growth prospects. Additional Benefits Complimentary Excel Data Packs for all Analytical Modules in the Report 10% Free Content Customization Detailed Report Walkthrough Session with Research Team For more information about this report visit About is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Attachment Display market CONTACT: CONTACT: Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@ For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Korea Herald
13-05-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
LG Display Targets Future Markets with World-Leading Technology at SID Display Week 2025
SEOUL, South Korea, May 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Display, the world's leading innovator of display technologies, is demonstrating its OLED technology leadership at the world's largest display exhibition. Under the theme, "Display Technologies Shaping the Future," the company has unveiled its full OLED lineup - covering large, medium, and automotive displays - at SID Display Week 2025 in San Jose, California. The three-day event from May 13 (local time) is gathering global display companies and researchers to present research papers on new technologies and showcase mid- to long-term future technologies alongside new products. LG Display has divided its exhibition space into three zones, demonstrating the evolution of large-sized OLED technology, automotive display solutions targeting future mobility, and next-generation display technologies for a sustainable future. In the Large OLED Zone, under the theme "Unrivaled OLED," LG Display is presenting the excellence of its fourth-generation OLED technology through TV and gaming panels. Fourth-generation OLED panels apply LG Display's proprietary Primary RGB Tandem structure, which independently stacks RGB (Red, Green, Blue) elements to emit light. This enables a maximum luminance of 4,000 nits, the highest in the industry (with 1 nit being the brightness of a single candle). They feature a special film to express natural colors and brightness in any environment, achieving vivid colors and perfect blacks even in bright indoor spaces, as if watching in a dark movie theater. LG Display plans to accelerate its efforts to target premium markets with its fourth-generation OLED panels, such as AI TVs and Gaming OLEDs. The fourth-generation OLED TV panel unveiled at SID Display Week 2025 perfectly implements AI TV features, such as upscaling that converts low-resolution content into overwhelmingly high picture quality. It also boosts energy efficiency by approximately 20% compared to the previous generation (based on a 65-inch panel), through enhancements in the element structure and power supply system. Moreover, LG Display is exhibiting a comparison between third-generation and fourth-generation OLED technologies by showcasing the different generations of 27-inch Gaming OLEDs side by side. The fourth-generation Gaming OLED panel allows visitors to witness brightness and color gamut improvements while experiencing the evolution between the technologies. The company is additionally presenting its 45-inch 5K2K Gaming OLED, which provides the ultimate gaming experience with the world's highest resolution (5120×2160). It features approximately 11 million pixels densely arranged to deliver outstanding picture quality, as well as a 21:9 aspect ratio similar to a movie theater screen, offering an entirely new level of gaming immersion. LG Display is drawing further attention to its proprietary Dynamic Frequency & Resolution (DFR) technology, which enables the optimization of various game genres on a single monitor. Depending on the content, DFR allows users to freely choose between high refresh rate and high resolution modes. By selecting high refresh rate mode, they can smoothly enjoy fast-paced games like first-person shooters or racing games without any stuttering, while high resolution mode enhances the vividness of games featuring high-quality graphics. In addition, the company is demonstrating its blue phosphorescent OLED technology for the first time, showcasing a blue phosphorescent OLED panel for IT devices such as smartphones and tablets. With significantly greater luminous efficiency than all OLED generations to date, blue phosphorescent OLED is the result of LG Display's implementation of a newly developed hybrid two-stack Tandem OLED structure. By featuring blue phosphorescence in the upper stack of this structure, the IT panel exhibited at SID Display Week 2025 consumes about 15% less power than existing OLED panels. With LG Display becoming the first company to succeed in reaching the commercialization stage of blue phosphorescent OLED panels, the next generation of OLED panels is in sight. The Automotive Display Zone, under the theme "Driving the Future," presents future-oriented solutions such as a Stretchable display and a concept car equipped with a full, unique lineup of automotive display technologies, including P-OLED, Advanced Thin OLED (ATO), and high-end LTPS LCD. The Stretchable automotive display, which can freely expand, has been applied to the center fascia area where physical buttons would traditionally be located, opening up possibilities for innovation in future mobility design. The concept car features an automotive display optimized for Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs). An ultra-large Pillar-to-Pillar (P2P) display, which LG Display was the first in the industry to commercialize, spans across the dashboard, while an 18-inch Slidable OLED is installed for Rear Seat Entertainment (RSE). The 57-inch automotive P2P, the largest in the world as a single panel, allows users to conveniently enjoy the advanced infotainment system of an SDV. The 18-inch Slidable OLED is usually rolled up and hidden inside the ceiling, but when needed, it unfolds to show movies on a large screen or allow users to play games on the move. Both panels have secured reliability and durability to operate normally in extreme environments, from freezing cold as low as -40°C to the extreme heat of +85°C, making them suitable for automotive use. Additionally, under the theme "Sustainable Innovation," LG Display has unveiled next-generation displays featuring low power consumption technology and eco-friendly components. Its 16-inch Neo:LED panel for laptops achieves the highest level of color reproduction, suitable for professionals in fields such as photography and video production, while being energy efficient through the development and application of new LED technology. This makes it an ideal product for IT devices where battery efficiency is especially important. LG Display is also exhibiting a 14-inch laptop panel with 41% of its weight made up of eco-friendly materials. With the goal of environmental conservation, the company aims to increase its use of eco-friendly materials in this product to 50% by 2030. "We will continue to create differentiated customer value in the future display market and further strengthen our technological leadership," said Soo-young Yoon, CTO and Executive Vice President of LG Display. Elsewhere at SID Display Week 2025, LG Display is presenting 16 early-stage research papers on next-generation display technologies, including research achievements in the development of fourth-generation OLED. About LG Display LG Display Co., Ltd. [NYSE: LPL, KRX: 034220] is the world's leading innovator of display technologies, including thin-film transistor liquid crystal and OLED displays. The company manufactures display panels in a broad range of sizes and specifications primarily for use in TVs, notebook computers, desktop monitors, automobiles, and various other applications, including tablets and mobile devices. LG Display currently operates manufacturing facilities in Korea and China, and back-end assembly facilities in Korea, China, and Vietnam
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Researchers achieve major breakthrough with material that shines 1,000 times brighter than regular LEDs: 'Vibrant and intense colors'
Ever struggle to read your phone on a bright, sunny day? The next generation of LEDs could soon make that problem a thing of the past. Perovskite LEDs could usher in a bright new era for displays. They can shine a thousand times brighter than traditional LEDs, as the European Commission reported in 2024. LED technology has been around since the 1960s. Now, you'll find light-emitting diodes in everything from lights to television screens. Organic LEDs are commonly found in the touchscreens of smartphones. As the name suggests, OLEDs feature a thin, carbon-based semiconductor layer, according to the Department of Energy. While this results in exceptional picture quality, OLEDs have a limited shelf life since organic matter breaks down, and they exhibit limited brightness — hence, the difficulty of seeing your phone screen in broad daylight. Perovskites are a group of minerals that were discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia in 1839. They take their name from mineralogist Lev Perovski, per the American Chemical Society. Because perovskites absorb light so well, they've been touted for use in solar cells. Not only are PeLEDs a thousand times brighter, but they're also cheaper and easier to manufacture, as Feng Gao, professor of optoelectronics at Linköping University in Sweden, explained to SciTech Daily. "They can also produce vibrant and intense colors if used in screens. I'd say that this is the next generation of LED technology," he said. There are, however, significant obstacles in the way of PeLEDs replacing traditional LEDs. Researchers examined 18 different designs to determine a sustainable path to making them commercially viable. One area was the use of toxic materials in production. For example, while small amounts of lead are necessary, there is hope that gold, which is toxic to produce, can be replaced with aluminum, copper, or nickel. The biggest issue identified was longevity. The best PeLEDs last hundreds of hours, but researchers are seeking a lifetime of 10,000 hours. "If a product has high technical performance but is expensive and isn't environmentally sustainable, it may not be highly competitive in the market," Muyi Zhang, one of the study's authors, explained. "That mindset will increasingly come to guide our research." Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Yahoo
The LG C5 OLED is 5-star TV — but I would buy this instead
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. We recently published our LG C5 OLED review, and with it came heaps of testing data and hands-on reporting about LG's latest mid-range OLED. Spoiler alert: It's a stunning TV that our own Matthew Murray calls 'nearly flawless.' Despite the eye-popping picture, the praiseworthy set of features and our much-deserved accolade, I think there's an LG OLED more worthy of your dollar right now: the LG C4. Both sets are among the best OLED TVs you can buy, but there are three factors that push the C4 over the top: its performance, features and price relative to the C5. Let's start with performance. These two TVs have plenty in common when it comes to picture quality, but that's a good thing — they're both incredible-looking TVs. From a hardware perspective, there's not much of a difference between their displays. Each TV leverages a WOLED panel and neither of them makes use of additional display enhancements, like quantum dots or LG Display's Micro Lens Array (MLA) technology. Here's a chart that shows how they measure up based on our test results. The newer C5 is on the left side of the chart. These are fantastic test results, but there's not much of a difference between the two TVs. Let me start by saying that these are fantastic test results for OLEDs in this class. These are well-engineered TVs that put performance first, and these results line up with our real-world testing in watching movies and shows. However, there's not much of a difference between the two. The C5 gets brighter in both SDR and HDR, but I'd wager that most viewers wouldn't notice a difference unless the two sets were sitting side by side. In HDR, the C5's increase in brightness will manifest mostly in small highlights (the reflection of sunlight on water, for instance). According to our testing, the C5 offers slightly better color volume, too. But as is the case with brightness, I'd only expect the most eagle-eyed of viewers to even notice a difference. The same can be said for out-of-the-box accuracy. Gamers needn't fear that they're missing out on a snappier C5 experience — both of these OLEDs offer nearly identical input lag, and because they both settle below 10ms, gaming is buttery smooth on both TVs. The story's the same when comparing each TV's bells and whistles. If you're planning on using your next TV as a daily driver for all of your streaming needs, the C5 and the C4 deliver a largely similar experience. Each set comes with LG's webOS built in, and despite the fact that the C5 is running the latest version (webOS 25), LG's commitment to offering five years of major webOS updates means the C4 will eventually grow into webOS 25. C4 owners won't be getting the newest generation of LG's Alpha 9 AI processor, and you might decide that its added enhancements are worth the upgrade — namely AI-based, voice recognition features and an AI chatbot — but those wouldn't move the needle for me. Gamers probably won't notice a difference between these TVs. Both of them offer a full suite of HDMI 2.1 inputs and support 4K gaming at both 120Hz and 144Hz. Ditto for features like Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility. With Dolby Vision support in tow, select Dolby Vision titles will be looking their best, too. In moving through each TV's menu systems and smart platforms, you might notice a minor difference here and there. When taken as a whole, however, these TVs offer a near-identical set of features for streaming, gaming or just making minor adjustments to the picture. But there's one aspect of the C5 and C4 that couldn't be further apart: their price. At the time of publishing, a brand-new, 65-inch LG C5 OLED is $2,699. It's a pricey the other hand, the 65-inch LG C4 is just $1,396 on Amazon right now. That's right: It's a full $1,300 cheaper than its successor. What does that $1,300 net you at a 65-inch size point? A slightly brighter picture, a handful of AI-based features and an updated remote control. Now, to be fair, you might be shopping for a 55- or 77-inch OLED TV. But even still, the difference in price between the C4 and C5 at these size points is about $800 and $1,500, respectively. One could argue that the biggest benefit of spending more on the C5 is intangible; you get the newest version of a really good TV, and in the process, you earn the peace of mind that comes with getting the newest and best version of something. I'm certainly not immune to the ever-beckoning allure of the new and shiny, and the C5 OLED is shiny in all the right ways, but the difference in price here is tough to ignore. At a time when our budget for luxury goods like TVs is tighter than ever, know that you can get 99% of the performance from a TV that costs half the price should make a lot of shoppers very happy. They're both incredible TVs, but I know which one I'd buy. LG C5 OLED TV review LG C5 OLED vs C4 OLED: What's the difference? It looks like the beginning of the end for QD-OLED TVs
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WIRED
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- WIRED
Sony's Dazzling New Display Adds to the RGB LED TV Hype
Mar 13, 2025 12:45 PM Sony's incoming RGB tech joins Hisense and Samsung in the race to define the future of LED TVs. LED TVs are about to get a lot better. As demonstrated by Hisense and to some extent Samsung at CES 2025, a new backlight technology called RGB LED is poised to improve the quality and efficiency of TVs that use LED backlights and LCD panels to work their magic. The innovative new tech should help LED TVs give more premium-priced emissive screens like OLEDs, which create light imaging at the pixel level, a serious run for their money. As of today, Sony has officially put its hat in the RGB TV ring. A New Kind of LED Unlike traditional LED TVs that use pure white LEDs (or the tinier mini-LEDs) that light up display layers like color filters and an LCD panel to create an image, RGB LED TVs use tri-colored red, green, and blue lights that create colors directly at the source of the panel stack. This can provide significant advantages over today's best mini-LED TVs, including higher brightness, less blooming (light bleed around bright images), and purer, more accurate colors. Pure Color RGB LED Courtesy of Sony Pure Color mini-LED Courtesy of Sony While Samsung hasn't disclosed much about its RGB tech, Hisense claims its 116-inch UX Trichroma RGB TV, unveiled in Las Vegas in January, provides color accuracy at an astonishing 97 percent of the next-gen BT.2020 color gamut spec. The TV also claims an eye-blasting 10,000 nits peak brightness, though that's unlikely to equate to much real-world content, mastered at 4,000 nits or less. The TV is set for release in 2025, with pricing yet to be disclosed. Turns out, Sony has been working on its own version of this technology for its mini-LED panels for years now. Not to be outdone by its competitors, the TV pioneer flew a crew of global journalists and reviewers, myself included, to its Tokyo headquarters for a firsthand look at its latest and greatest home theater creations. Its RGB LED TV prototype was the pièce de résistance. Panel structure of RGB screens Courtesy of Sony Panel structure of mini-LED screens Courtesy of Sony Sony Has Entered the Chat Even for those of us steeped in TV technology and its flurry of acronyms, it's not easy breaking down a new display type you've barely seen in action. Luckily, nobody explains TV tech better than Sony's engineers. At its Tokyo HQ demo, Sony took the face off its RGB prototype to show the backlight system in action. In fact, the company took half the face off, so we were able to see the raw backlighting and fully realized image side-by-side in one display. To our collective amazement, the RGB LEDs were able to create wholly recognizable color images. The backlight-only images looked almost like 8-bit pixelated versions of the regular scenes at the left, but even small details were often apparent. Again, this was just the backlights making the picture, working in concert with Sony's XR Backlight Master Drive algorithm technology. Courtesy of Sony; Composite: Wired We then got to see the fully assembled RGB prototype next to Sony's best traditional mini-LED TV, the Bravia 9 (9/10, WIRED Recommends), and its 2023 flagship OLED, the A95L (9/10, WIRED Recommends), and again the results were impressive. While the prototype wasn't able to create the same perfect black levels and focused contrast of the OLED model, it had strikingly effective blooming control and image focus. Its colors looked richer and more saturated than both TVs, and its brightness easily outdid even the Bravia 9, one of the most fiery TVs in its class. Sony says the display can produce 99 percent of the baseline DCI-P3 color spectrum, and 90 percent of the more advanced BT.2020 spectrum, both major feats. Just as intriguing is the display's claimed level of color control at low brightness, designed to improve accuracy over current displays in dimly lit scenes. Interestingly, this is not the first RGB LED display in Sony's 60-plus-year TV catalog. Sony introduced a now archaic version of RGB LED tech in 2004, though that version can hardly be compared to today's displays. The best mini-LED TVs comprise thousands of lights and hundreds of dimming zones for much better brightness, accuracy, and precision than in the early days. Still, as striking as these latest RGB mini-LEDs are, they're not nearly as tiny as the millions of pixels that make up 4K TVs, so they can't come close to creating the precise color gradations required for the billion-plus colors modern TVs can display on their own. As the engineers demonstrated, the RGB prototype utilizes color filters, Sony's proprietary XR Color Booster, and other technologies to produce the final product. This necessitates a hand-off between the tri-colored backlights and the rest of the panel, all of which must be coordinated by a TV's processors. According to Sony, this is at the heart of what sets its RGB TV's performance apart from other brands. That's part of what makes the Japanese brand's entry into the RGB TV horse race so intriguing. A Great View From Any Angle Sony laid out multiple ways its RGB displays outdo today's best LED TVs during my time in Japan. The ability to create subtractive colors between the backlights and the color filters helps lead to higher efficiency for improved brightness, potentially equating to Sony's renowned professional monitors. The lack of white light behind the panel reduces light spillage and allows for more focused colors, for better blooming control, and the creation of colors at the light source allows for a higher bit-depth in color gradation and better saturation than traditional LED displays. This means richer and more accurate color reproduction. Maybe the most compelling trait of RGB LED TVs is their improved off-axis performance for when you're not viewing head-on. The prototype's brightness and colors looked excellent for an LED TV when stepping to the side, something Sony says is due to both the new display's cell structure as well as its advanced control over color gradation. Poor off-axis viewing has long been my biggest gripe with LED TVs, especially compared to OLED counterparts. Even the most premium mini-LED TVs today struggle with a loss in color saturation and brightness from the side, and it's an even more common problem with midrange models. That's particularly noticeable with larger screen sizes, which is otherwise a major benefit of LED TVs: Because of how they're made, they're much easier (and cheaper) to produce in large sizes than OLED TVs. This, to me, is the most promising potential benefit of RGB LED technology: Affordable large TVs with improved performance, no matter where you sit. That's a real-world advantage even the least nerdy TV buyer can appreciate. It's also worth noting that Sony engineers told us the prototype we saw in Tokyo is already three years old, which makes me wonder how many improvements have been made in the meantime. I'd wager a lot. We don't yet have an exact date for when Sony will launch its first RGB LED TV, let alone pricing, but the company will start mass production this year, with a general road map for TVs hitting walls in 2026. Could Sony's RGB TV be the first approachable version of this technology that regular folks can bring home? That's the company's hope. For now, all we know for sure is that Sony's new display tech is on its way, and that RGB LED technology is clearly here to stay. Page 2
