LG Display, supplier of OLED panels to today's OLED TV makers, has unveiled the winners for its OLED screen design competition, showing off potential future iterations of home cinema screens – and they're a real doozy.
The OLEDs Go! competition has been running in association with UK design magazine Dezeen for the past few months, to help LG Display find "fresh and innovative ideas that enhance the user experience" of OLED screens.
The winning entries include a reimagining of the LG rollable OLED, in a thinner scroll-like form factor than can be unfurled against a wall – without the need for a large mechanical base – as well as a raised table that sits above a bed's headboard to allow you to watch TV and films while settling in for a night's sleep.
- Here are the best OLED TVs
- What is OLED?
- Hands on rollable OLED TV review
While the former design ('Scroll') leans into the flexible and rollable capabilities of OLED panels – which is why it's used in rollable phones like the Samsung Galaxy Fold – the latter ('Console') stakes a claim for convenience, and shows how out-of-the-box design can rethink how we use and interact with technology.
The Console might just replace our phones for late-night screen usage, but the idea of a screen elevated above the bed so you can watch in horizontal comfort is really quite intriguing.
It echoes the transparent OLED TV prototype LG Display showed off in late 2020, which can lift up out of a bed frame to enable foot-of-the-bed viewing – and speaks to the relaxing moviegoing one of our writers experienced when using their ceiling as a projector screen.
A press release for the announcement states that "First place was awarded to ‘Scroll,’ a completely new concept that utilizes LG Display’s transparent OLED screen to create an elegant and useful design. Taking advantage of the OLED panel’s slimness, the concept attaches to the wall seamlessly while supporting a wide shelf below its large display."
We're told that "Five finalists were selected among 220 entries from more than 50 countries based on how well they incorporated the infinite possibilities of the company’s OLED display technology into their imaginative work."
Other winners included a sideways rollable screen ('Flag.R') that lets you physically control the screen's aspect ratio, and a screen-on-wheels ('Trollie') that "can be moved around and adjusted according to the user’s desired height".
Wait, can I buy one?
None of these OLED TV design are yet commercially available, but LG Display has hinted that these winning entries could be incorporated into commercial sets down the line.
The press release states that "The award-winning designs will be considered for commercialization once their market potential has been reviewed by the talented LG Display engineers and designers behind new products and businesses."
These designs could be shuttered before they make their way to your local retailer, then, or take a good few years to do so. But they do speak to the budding potential of OLED, as well as what LG Display calls its "unprecedented scalability" – with the premium TV tech expanding across the market in a variety of new sizes and form factors all the time. 48-inch OLED TVs, anyone?
TV maker LG Electronics brought the rollable OLED / 65RX to market, after all, and even if it costs the earth at £99,999 in the UK – and likely $99,999 when it launches in the US – it shows that manufacturers are taking a bet on new and exciting technologies. Just don't expect a next-gen OLED TV to be affordable when it first appears on the market.
- Here are the next-gen TVs to keep an eye out for
