4 Stacked Credit Cards
Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are competing to gain supremacy in the next-generation TV market at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016, the largest home appliance exhibition in the world. Samsung Electronics sought to differentiate itself with the SUHD TV with the second-generation quantum dot display technology, while LG Electronics attracted customers with the LG Signature organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV.
On Jan. 5 (local time), a day before the opening of the CES 2016, the two companies held a press conference at two major exhibition centers in Las Vegas, the U.S. to unveil their strategic products for the year, sparking off each other. In particular, the competition in the TV sector, in where the two have been competing with 4K, OLED and curved TVs at the CES for years, is growing increasingly intense.
Samsung Electronics has pointed out productivity issues of OLED TVs and recommended the quantum dot display technology. The company admitted that its first-generation quantum dot TV needed improvement in terms of brightness and energy efficiency, and it is planning to advance the second-generation quantum dot TV into the third-generation and fourth-generation in the future.
It is also said that Samsung Electronics plans to advance the current second-generation quantum dot TV into a quantum dot light emitting diode (QLED) TV in the medium and long term. A QLED is an organic light-emitting device that emits light directly and requires no backlight unit (BLU), just like OLED, using the quantum dot device.
LG Electronics and LG Display seems to be becoming tense with Samsung Electronics’ second-generation quantum dot display technology and QLED technology. A senior official from LG Display said, “The concept itself to produce an organic light-emitting LCD TV is ideal. However, its film can be easily broken in the process of realization so it needs to overcome the durability problems. It will be difficult to secure productivity in the short term.”
LG Electronics and LG Display have expanded the possibility of the OLED TV as much as possible. Notably, the new LG Signature OLED TV measures in at just 2.57 millimeters thick, or the same thickness as four stacked credit cards. It boasts one billion colors and deeper black levels, the strongest point of the OLED. The TV also delivers 800-nit brightness, more than two times brighter than existing premium OLED TVs. A nit is a unit of visible-light intensity, commonly used to specify the brightness of liquid crystal display computer screens. One nit is equivalent to one candela per square meter. In other words, the LG Signature OLED TV offers the brightness equivalent to 800 candle lights.
It also meets the standards of high dynamic range (HDR), the most-talked-about topic in the industry. OLED TV supports the HDR standards of not only the UHD Alliance but also Dolby r Vision, providing a wider variety of choices of HDR content.
The company also plans to improve the productivity of OLED panels, which account for more than half of the price of OLED TVs. On the same day, LG Display CEO and Vice Chairman Han Sang-beom pledged to achieve 80 to 90 percent of the yield rate of UHD OLED panels by the end of the year.