Samsung to launch OLED TVs at CES 2009

Samsung's 31in OLED TV
Samsung's 31in OLED TV

Samsung has revealed it will release 14.1 inch OLED TVs at CES 2009 in a bid to keep Sony from running away with the nascent market.

Young Joong Noh, developer of OLED parts at Samsung, confirmed to TechRadar the sets will be coming next year, with a similar £1,000 plus price tag.

However, he was keen to point out the superior panel they Koreans will be releasing:

"Sony's TV is only standard definition; in our case we'll have a HD OLED TV with 120Hz capability," he said.

"Our plan is to try and release it at CES 2009."

Bigger and better future

Noh also claimed the technology was well in place for the larger sized screens, like the 31inch OLED screen on display at the Samsung stand, but the amount of TVs that make it through production is too low, as the larger size means they contain too many defects.

As reported earlier this year, Samsung is going to create a new company that will exclusively develop OLED displays, and Noh believes this will be announced as a new entity at the end of the year.

"When we make OLEDs, we have to modify existing LCD lines," he said. "The company is now developing production lines just for OLED, which will cater for mobile to the larger sizes we provide for LCD.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.