LG has beat Samsung to the flexible OLED TV game. The electronics giant announced it will take pre-orders for a curved 55-inch OLED TV.
The set will begin to ship sometime next month and will at first be only available in South Kora. It is priced at a whopping KRW 15 million or $13,500. The company says it is now the first to sell both a flat and curved OLED TV.
LG first unveiled the curved OLED look back in January at CES 2013. At the time, both Samsung and LG were touting their flexible screen capabilties and stated OLED technology was the next big thing in TV watching.
"Our Curved OLED TV is not only the proof of LG's unmatched leadership in next-generation displays but also a testament to LG's commitment to bringing to market the most exciting TV technology available today," Havis Kwon, CEO of LG Home Entertainment, said in a statement.
LG's 55EA9800 model has a huge, gently-curved screen. The TV itself is 0.17 inches thin and weighs a mere 37.5 pounds. It has a carbon-fiber reinforced plastic screen and better image quality, according to LG.
The screen is supposed to add depth in the display. The screen has white sub-pixels that help brighten up the display because it works with the standard red, green and blue colors. It also has computer-controlled contrast levels that can adjust for positioning and ambient light. LG says watching the TV is an "IMAX-like" experience.
"The announcement makes LG the first and only company to commercialize both the flat screen OLED TV, which began shipping to Korean customers in February, and the curved OLED TV, giving LG a significant lead in the OLED segment that is expected to grow to 7 million units by 2016, according to DisplaySearch," said LG in a press release.
Perhaps more exciting is possibility that LG and even rival Samsung could be closer to utilizing the flexible screen technology for smartphones. Both companies have mentioned that flexible OLED displays will be making it into mobile handsets and tablets this year.
