LAS VEGAS—Last year the biggest TV buzz at CES was all about “wireless” TVs. This year, the world’s largest TV manufacturers are all about transparent screens for the home.

At CES2024 this week, LG Electronics unveiled what it’s calling the “the world’s first wireless transparent OLED TV.” The LG SIGNATURE OLED combines a transparent 4K OLED screen and LG’s Zero Connect box to beam video in 4K HDR to the screen, even at 120Hz. 

LG says the 77-inch LG SIGNATURE OLED T is powered by the new α (Alpha) 11 AI processor and is “practically invisible” when turned off, bringing new possibilities of placement within a room, i.e. not necessarily bolted to the wall. It comes in stand-alone, against-the-wall or wall-mount options and viewers can further customize by adding standing or floating shelves on either or both sides of the screen to best suit their unique tastes and preferences.

The OLED T can be used as a transparent digital canvas for showcasing artwork, videos or photos with the Always-On-Display (AOD) feature. Content displayed on the transparent screen appears to float in air, yet simultaneously fuses with the surrounding space to create a compelling and atmospheric visual effect. 

Another option is the T-Bar feature that displays an info-ticker along the lower part of the screen. The T-Bar displays news alerts, weather updates or the title of songs being played while the rest of the screen presents a clear, unobstructed view of the space behind it.

LG says its new α (Alpha) 11 AI processor offers 4x greater AI performance, providing a 70% improvement in graphic performance and a 30% faster processing speed compared to its predecessor. 

Meanwhile, Samsung trotted out its new transparent MICRO LED display—again touting it as the world’s first. Although Samsung was fairly mum on the technical details, according to Engadget, the Transparent MICRO LED’s crystal-clear, glass-like display comes in three versions, two featuring a tinted glass panel making it easier to detect and a third version with regular glass but a more defined physical frame. 

Neither company has released price details but LG says its transparent OLED will ship in 2024. TV Tech sister brand TechRadar has more information on LG and Samsung’s new TVs.

Apple’s interest in virtual and augmented reality has been fairly clear for a while. It started acquiring companies with expertise in the field at least as early as six or seven years ago, perhaps most prominently the startup Vrvana in November 2017. Whether it’s fair to call Vision Pro a “Vrvana Totem” evolved by Apple’s vast R&D budget is necessarily speculation, but the purchase was certainly part of a trend. 

A few months earlier, the company bought SensoMotoric Instruments for its eye-tracking technology. Apple had owned environment-tracking specialists Flyby Media since the beginning of 2016 and augmented reality startup Metaio since the year before. It’s hardly rare for large companies to make that kind of acquisition, but it didn’t take much to connect the dots even then.

The Legacy of Evans and Sutherland
The concept of head-mounted displays in general dates back to at least the 1960s and the work of Ivan Sutherland, whose later collaboration with David Evans would yield things which are still fundamental to computer graphics. Evans and Sutherland equipment would be key to Tron, for instance. Apple, meanwhile, would quite rightly object to the idea that its Vision Pro device is a mere display. It incorporates several displays, loudspeakers, cameras for conventional imaging, motion tracking and eye tracking, as well as all the computing resources to make those things useful. 

(Read: I wore the Apple Vision Pro — and it's truly amazing (and a bit unsettling))

The company has been particularly keen to emphasize the system’s low latency, with sub-ten-millisecond numbers suggesting that it should be capable of avoiding the lag between real-world movement and display updates which sometimes make devices like this distracting to use. Ultimately, latency in digital imaging affects everyone from video gamers to camera operators watching a viewfinder. Back in the days of analog electronics, the time between a photon entering a lens and another exiting a display was often mere nanoseconds—the propagation delay of a few dozen transistors, but no longer.

There’s an argument that digital technology has made hardware designers too relaxed, waiting for an entire frame to be downloaded from a camera’s sensor before starting work on it. Do that, and the minimum delay is one full frame, or about 17 milliseconds at 60 frames per second. It doesn’t take much for that to become a few frames, which is sluggish enough to risk seasickness in the context of a headset.

This is particularly relevant to Vision Pro, which creates its augmented reality by taking pictures of the real environment, superimposing virtual elements, and then displaying the result to the user. The advantage is that virtual objects appear solid, without the ghostly transparency of augmented-reality devices which reflect virtual objects into the user’s field of view. The disadvantage is that latency must be low, and considering there’s 3D rendering to be done, that’s not necessarily easy.

There’s nothing preventing a camera from sending the picture in much smaller pieces, for vanishingly low latency. It’s just rarely done like that. Exactly how far into the weeds Apple has gone on this is something only its engineers know, but it’s no surprise that Vision Pro uses some custom hardware. The semiconductor Apple calls R2 presumably incorporates quite a lot of digital signal processing to handle the eye, feature and gesture tracking from the device’s twelve cameras, but we can guess with some confidence that the whole architecture of the device is designed, wherever possible, for low latency.

Micro-LED
As to Vision’s CPU, notice that Apple recently moved its last computer range to linger with Intel processors, the upscale Mac Pro, to its own ARM-based M-series device. There are both business and technical reasons to do that, but the company has probably been most vocal about reduced power consumption for its laptops. Some promotional hyperbole was inevitable, and when the first M1 CPUs emerged there absolutely were Intel-compatible options with competitive power-to-performance numbers (the surprise was that they came from AMD.) 

Power concerns are less relevant to a performance-centric, mains-powered workstation like Mac Pro, but they certainly are relevant to the M2-based Vision Pro. With the device relying on external power, every joule saved is worth its weight in lithium ions.

The displays being driven by this combination of hardware are described by Apple as “micro OLED,” which is a comparatively recent development. The term “micro-LED” is a more common term for highly miniaturised arrays of LED emitters; essentially a microscopic version of the video walls used for virtual production. Micro-LED is a promising technology that might replace LCD and OLED entirely, offering more brightness and contrast than either, but it exists outside the lab. An OLED emitter, meanwhile, is still a diode that emits light, but it involves some rather different physics. The terms are not interchangeable.

So “micro-OLED” means a very small OLED, possibly based on Sony technology. A lot of head mounted displays use LCD display panels simply because they’re available, and they’re available because of the huge demand for marketable resolution figures in the cellphone market. 

The problem is that even the best LCDs aren’t really what a headset designer really wants. 3800 by 1440 pixels and 500 pixels per inch, as achieved in the Galaxy S23 Ultra, is more than enough for a phone. It’s still too few pixels, and in too large a format, to be ideal for a device like Vision Pro, which wants to fill the observer’s field of view using small, lightweight hardware.

The compromise is between field of view and resolution. Like most headsets, with a 100-degree field of view, Vision Pro does not fill the user’s entire visual field. Vision Pro’s 4K displays are competitive for a current release, but the human visual field is almost 180 degrees wide. That’s a lot to cover considering there are speculative designs which discuss 35 pixels per degree. That’s the number discussed by Pimax’s Reality 12K QLED, which was intended to hit CES 2022, though it’s now projected for 2024. The 12K number, in that case, means one 6K LCD display per eye.

An Impressive Piece of Technology
If 12 cameras seems like a lot, consider that many of them will be in at least stereo pairs. The inside-out motion tracking, which locates the headset by observing the environment, might account for several. The eye tracking requires cameras, and the gesture recognition too. 

Add cameras for general-purpose visible light imaging and it’s not hard to reach a dozen. These will presumably be cameras of the general type used on cellphones, representing another technology which has benefited hugely from advancements in that field. 

Vision Pro is an impressive package of technology. There’s a lot in it and what’s there is high end, as it should be for the price. While it’s a cutting edge VR/AR device, the cutting edge is in rapid motion and it’s certainly not the first such device to be cutting edge at launch. In the end, the success of any computer hardware ultimately depends on what the software does with it. It depends how reliable the gesture recognition is, how accurate the motion tracking is, how well those displays work, and what developers do with them.

Apple certainly knows that the price tag precludes Vision Pro becoming a mass-market item, and that might make success difficult to identify, let alone predict.  What matters is whether the hardware works well enough for the software to be popular and effective. The company has certainly given itself the best possible chance.

LAS VEGAS—This year’s edition of CES was vastly different from a quarter-century ago. Back then, televisions were just breaking free from low-resolution cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) as high-definition television was taking its baby steps. A 50-inch high-resolution display in 1998 contained just 1280 x 768 pixels (Wide XGA) and cost as much as a car. Rear-projection televisions were just switching to solid-state light modulators. And liquid-crystal display (LCD) televisions weren’t even available—the largest flat screen TVs all used expensive plasma display panels (PDPs).

Today, all of those technologies (and some of their manufacturers) are distant, fading memories. We’ve had 4K TVs for over a decade, while 8K sets appeared five years ago. LCD technology rules the roost nowadays, and the median TV screen size is about 55 diagonal inches and slowly increasing. Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays have supplanted plasma for image quality, but with much lower power consumption.

But there are other contenders: Mini and microLEDs, quantum dots and QD-OLEDs are finding their way into televisions and computer monitors. What are the differences between them? Will they replace or obsolete any currently available displays? Read on…

Liquid-Crystal Displays and Enhancements
It didn’t take long for large LCD panels to become the preferred solution for large televisions after their introduction 20 years ago. Those original models have evolved from heavy, bulky designs using fluorescent lamp backlights to modulate thousands of tiny light-shuttering pixels, to sleek housings stuffed with light-emitting diode (LED) backlights. Over time, pixel counts have continued to grow as retail prices drop with increased manufacturing efficiency. 

The debut of high-dynamic range (HDR) video forced more design changes. Given the gross inefficiency of LCD imaging panels (only 5% of the backlight illuminance actually makes it to the front of the screen), other solutions were needed to boost brightness levels. One approach was to add a thin layer of quantum dots, tiny metallic particles that absorb blue light from LEDs and re-emit it as higher-intensity red and green light (hence, the quantum energy conversion effect). 

Televisions with a “Q” in their model names (like Samsung’s QLED TVs) use quantum dots (QDs) to produce high dynamic range images. These displays are still hamstrung by the light transmission inefficiency of LCDs, but they are now able to pump out luminance levels in the range of 1200 to 1500 candelas per square meter (cd/m2). TCL also manufactures LCD TVs with quantum dot enhancement layers. LCD TVs equipped with quantum dots are priced at a premium over conventional LCD models. 

There’s another way to achieve HDR imaging by packing more “mini” LEDs into a smaller area and change their light levels in step with luminance levels in video content, a process known as local area dimming. Sony and Hisense (ULEDs) use this approach instead of QDs. The challenge is to minimize LED light from bleeding into adjacent pixels, creating what looks like a halo effect around bright text and objects. 

Fixing that problem requires some additional structural changes to each pixel as well as specialized light modulation techniques. But there’s another problem looming—TVs using large matrices of miniLEDs for local area dimming consume lots of power, and pending European Union regulations on energy conservation may keep these models from ever coming to market.

Organic Light-Emitting Diode Displays
OLEDs have been in development for decades, yet it seemed like they could never get over the finish line. Tricky to manufacture, they were susceptible to moisture and differential aging of colors. And you couldn’t drive them too hard, as they’d burn out quickly. 

OLEDs emit different colors of light when a low voltage is applied across a junction of organic compounds. Those colors are saturated and bright, and OLED displays exhibit high contrast, deep blacks, and wide viewing angles. Unlike LCD panels, OLEDs are very thin and can bend and warp. These latter properties have made it possible to offer foldable smartphones and tablets, not to mention digital signs that can be wrapped around poles, buildings, cars, and other objects.

There are two types of OLED displays in wide use today. For televisions, white OLED panels with color filters (WOLEDs) dominate the market. (The white color in RGBW displays is generated by a compound of blue and yellow organic chemicals.) LG Display is the source of all WOLED panels used in OLED TVs, no matter whose brand you see on the bezel. The underlying technology uses an RGBW pixel stripe to produce high levels of luminance (up to 1000 cd/m2 with a 10% full white window). WOLED televisions are available in sizes from 42 inches to 97 inches. 

The second type of OLED display, used in smaller products such as smartphones, has discrete red, green, and blue emitters (RGB stripe). Several companies manufacture RGB OLEDs, among them Japan OLED, Samsung Display, and Chinese manufacturers AUO and BOE. While RGB OLEDs can achieve similar peak luminance levels as WOLEDs, the largest RGB OLED display currently available is a 32-inch desktop monitor. 

The challenge for both RGBW and RGB OLEDs is the time to half-brightness of the blue organic materials. (A similar problem affected blue phosphors in color TV picture tubes and plasma displays.) Some clever solutions have been devised to overcome this problem, such as using multiple blue emitters with each running at reduced brightness. One way to get more luminance out of an OLED display is to employ microlens arrays on each pixel, collimating the light and directing more of it to the screen. This technique is currently implemented by LG on its latest series of Evo OLED televisions.

QD-OLED Hybrids
A new, clever hybrid display technology combines a stack of blue OLED emitters with red and green quantum dots. This QD-OLED hybrid was launched by Samsung Display last year at CES in 55-inch and 65-inch screen sizes and was joined by a 77-inch television at this year’s show (Samsung and Sony both sell QD-OLED models). QD-OLED TVs command higher prices than conventional LCD TVs and are priced on par with quantum dot-equipped sets and WOLED TVs. 

The big advantage of the QD-OLED is the simplicity of imaging layers—four in all—in the display panel. As an emissive display, it too exhibits excellent contrast performance, deep black levels, high color saturation, and a wide viewing angle. The blue OLED emitter is actually a stack of smaller blue OLEDs, each running at reduced power to extend their useful life. The rest of the horsepower comes from the quantum dots, with Samsung Display claiming a maximum luminance of 2,000 cd/m2 for 2023 models. Think of the QD-OLED as a turbocharged WOLED or RGB OLED!

MicroLED Displays
Display manufacturers are now prototyping televisions made up solely of tiny red, green, and blue LED emitters. These “micro” LED displays can also be used across a wide range of display products from smart watches and phones to tablets, computer monitors, and in transportation applications. To make this happen requires high manufacturing yields of microLED chips at a reasonable cost, which has so far proven to be a difficult task.

The advantages of microLED displays are in simplicity and image quality. Instead of the multiple light-absorbing layers of polarizers, backlights, and color filters in an LCD display, there’s just an array of LED emitters and transistors to switch them on and off. Since microLEDs are emissive displays, there are no issues with black levels and contrast flattening when viewed at wide angles. And they’re plenty bright at 1500 cd/m2, although they can easily hit peak levels exceeding 2000 cd/m2.

Although multiple companies are researching and developing microLED displays, only Samsung is currently offering models for consumers. At CES, they unveiled a 76-inch Ultra HD model to complement earlier 89-inch, 101-inch, and 110-inch offerings. The main selling point of the 76-inch Micro LED CX is that it can be installed by the end user. However, given the steep price point of the previously-introduced 89-inch model (about $80,000), it’s going to be a high-end, ultra-premium television for now.

Even so, many display analysts predict microLED displays will likely replace all other display technologies by the end of this decade—if manufacturing costs can be lowered and high yields achieved. And the odds are that it will happen. Recall that the first plasma televisions came with five-figure price tags, but by 2010 cost well under $1K. And the first 4K monitors (not TVs) sold in North America in 2012 were priced over $20,000! Today, you can buy a 65-inch “smart” Ultra HDTV for as little as $400 on sale.

Looking Ahead
Given the popularity of WOLED TVs, you’ll see more companies like Toshiba and Sharp offering them in 2023. LCD TVs will continue to be the cheapest TV offering, while QD-equipped models are slowly coming down in price to keep pace with OLEDs. 

As for microLED TVs—well, if you have eighty grand just lying around… 

SEOUL, South Korea—Samsung is providing the first look at its new 2021 TV display models, which include the Neo QLED, MICRO LED and Lifestyle TV models. The company says that these models show its commitment to accessibility, sustainability and innovation, as well as helping to redefine the role of TV in households.

Neo QLED is a new display technology that will be incorporated into Samsung’s 8K (QN900A) and 4K (QN90A) models. The monitors feature the Quantum Mini LED light source, which is 1/40 the height of a conventional LED and uses thin micro layers to disperse light; Quantum Matrix Technology controls the densely packed LEDs. Samsung says that Neo QLED increases the luminance scale to 12-bit with 4096 steps, which helps with HDR imaging. There is also the Neo Quantum Processor, which uses up to 16 different neural network models that use AI and deep learning technology to optimize picture quality.

The Neo QLED 8K model has a Infinity One Design, consisting of a nearly bezel-less screen, and an attachable Slim One Connect box cable management system. Audio features include Object Tracking Sound Pro to correspond to movement on screen and SpaceFit Sound, which analyzes the TV’s environment to create an immersive audio experience.

Additional features in the Neo QLED models include Samsung Health and Smart Trainer for in-home exercise; Super Ultrawide GameView and Game Bar allow for gamers to alter aspect ratio and other gaming settings; Google Duo works with a users phone for a video call; and PC on TV for connecting a PC to the model for work.

Samsung previously announced its MICRO LED line of TVs, which will initially be available in 110-inch and 99-inch models, with smaller models rolling out by the end of the year. Among the features that Samsung is highlighting is the MICRO LED’s 99% screen-to-body ratio; 4Vue (Quad View) for viewing up to four content sources simultaneously on a single screen; and Majestic Sound, delivering 5.1 channel sound.

A new design and form factors have been added to the Lifestyle TV line from Samsung, including a new version of The Frame that is half thinner from previous models, as well as offering up to five color options for the bezel and two customizable styles (Modern and Beveled). Other Samsung Lifestyle models include The Serif, The Sero, The Terrace and the Premiere.

Part of the demonstration of these new models was Samsung’s new “Going Green” initiative, which will see it align its TV business operations with new long-term sustainability programs. These include reducing carbon footprint and improving energy efficiency; creating sustainable packaging designs, like expanding its “Eco-packaging” with minimal text and oil-based ink on boxes to the 2021 Lifestyle TV and 2021 Neo QLED models; and introducing the Solar Cell Remote Control, a remote that can be powered by indoor and outdoor light or a USB.

Samsung also has new accessibility features that will be available on all 2021 QLED and Neo QLED models. Among them are Caption Moving, Sign Language Zoom and Multi-Output Audio for hearing and vision impaired individuals. By 2022, Samsung says that it will also expand its Voice Guide feature providing audio guidance to the hearing or vision impaired.

“Our commitment to an inclusive and sustainable future goes hand-in-hand with our relentless pursuit for innovation to meet consumers’ ever-changing needs—from reducing the carbon footprint of our products, to providing a suite of accessibility features, to offering an unparalleled viewing experience that fits each user’s lifestyle,” said JH Han, president of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics.

For more information on Samsung’s 2021 TV models, visit www.samsung.com.  

TV suppliers are turning to big screens and advanced display technologies to bolster ASPs and improve earnings at CES 2019, where 8K TVs, improved contrast ratios, voice assistants, and new display technologies such as micro LED and rollable OLED are front and center.

The first roll-up TV — a 65-inch LG OLED model — is making its debut along with a greater selection of LCD TVs with quantum-dot WCG technology.

During the first 10 months of 2018, the retail ASPs of U.S. LCD TVs were flat year over year, with both dollar volume and unit sales up 3 percent, The NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service found. LCD accounted for the vast majority of North American flat-panel shipments in 2018, or 98.4 percent of 42.6 million units, IHS Markit said.

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Continuing growth in demand for larger screen sizes could help boost ASPs in 2019, when sizes of 50 inches and up will account for almost 100 percent of North American 4K/8K TV shipments, said IHS Markit executive director Paul Gagnon. Among all TVs, sales of 60 inches and larger will increase faster in 2019 to account for 23 percent of all North American TV shipments, thanks to rapidly declining costs of 65-inch panels.

Big-display demand will help stoke 8K demand, Gagnon noted. 8K resolution will be more apparent on big screens that also reduce pixel visibility when viewers are close. Chris Larson, TCL’s North America senior VP, expects 8K “will be represented by all major brands” in the U.S. in 2019, though IHS expects 8K shipments to account for only 0.1 percent (or 42,700) of 42.7 million TVs shipped in North America.

Although native 8K video in noticeable quantities might be a few years away, 8K TVs will use up-scaling technology that has improved dramatically to deliver 8K resolution from HD sources, said Gagnon. Content from 8K cameras can also be displayed, as can a few 8K YouTube videos.

In Japan in December, NHK launched an 8K satellite channel, but David Mercer of Strategy Analytics said “expectations for 8K services should be cautious.” The rest of the world “will be slower to follow suit, given that the number of homes with 8K-ready TVs will remain low until the mid 2020s.”

Despite the excitement surrounding 8K TV, added Strategy Analytics director David Watkins, “It is important to remember that image resolution, whether native or otherwise, is only one element in perceived video quality, and TV vendors and content players alike should not lose focus on other important drivers of consumer satisfaction, such as high dynamic range (HDR) and high frame rate (HFR).”

At CES, 8K launches include LG’s first two SKUs (an 88-inch OLED and 75-inch LCD) and a 98-inch Samsung LCD. They join Samsung’s $15,000 85-inch LCD. TCL is demoing a 75-inch 8K LCD and plans 2019 shipments of an 8K model, expected to feature 8K-capable HDMI 2.1 inputs. Samsung’s current 8K TV features an outboard HDMI switching box that can be swapped for a future HDMI 2.1 version.

8K screen sizes could trickle down below 75 inches in the U.S., said TCL's Larson, but “anything below 65 inches will be a challenge in a real-use environment.”

See: TV At CES 2019: 8K Is 'Getting Real'

Nonetheless, Nanosys sales/marketing VP Russell Kempt expects some suppliers to push LCD-based 8K into more mainstream sizes down to 55 inches in coming years. OLED displays, however, will be challenged to bring 8K to anything but “very large form factors.”

In other big-screen developments, LG is expanding its selection of 70-inch-plus sizes, Samsung is launching a 98-inch 8K model, Philips is showing a 75-inch 4K Android TV, and TCL is bringing back a 75-inch SKU (at less than $1,800 MAP).

Here’s what else to expect:

MICRO LED

Select suppliers will demo micro LED displays, which use emissive red, green and blue LEDs to create 4K color images. Each LED can be turned off to deliver perfect blacks and improved contrast, with faster response times and better off-axis viewing, compared to LED-lit LCD displays. Samsung is showing a smaller, 75-inch version of last year's 146-inch Wall TV. The Wall is available for commercial and custom residential applications. Sony showed a pro model at the CEDIA Expo.

CONTRAST

Full-array local dimming (FALD) will spread to more LED-backlit 4K LCD TVs in 2019 to improve contrast ratios. “Almost all premium LCD sets at about $1,500 and up will transition to FALD in 2019,” predicted Kempt of Nanosys. “We can achieve excellent contrast that a couple years ago people didn’t think possible with LCD technology.” In a new flagship 8 series, TCL is offering 300 percent more zones versus 120 and 96 in its 65- and 55-inch 6 series SKUs, respectively. Select 2018 Sony and Samsung TVs sport around 500 zones, and Vizio offers up to 192. 

MINI LED BACKLIGHTS 

With new mini LED backlights, more LCD TVs will feature thousands of FALD zones, Nanosys’s Kempt said. Samsung features thousands of zones in its current 85-inch 8K TV. TCL is demoing thousands of zones. Other demos might be private.

Mini LEDs are smaller than typical LEDs but larger than micro LEDs. 

More TV suppliers at CES will build far-field microphones for digital assistants into the chassis of select TVs rather than deliver voice control solely through a remote with built-in near-field mic. At a minimum, TVs with embedded far-field mics will be available later in 2019 from TCL and Philips, joining Sony models.

Separately, LG will offer three voice assistants — Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and proprietary ThinQ — in all new 4K smart TVs, with voice control delivered by a mic-equipped remote. ThinQ delivers voice control over more TV functions than other assistants alone provide, the company said.

BRIGHTNESS, GAMUT

More TVs will get closer to delivering 100 percent of DCI-P3 color gamut, delivered by 4K Blu-ray discs and streaming services. TCL plans its first U.S. TVs with gamut-widening quantum-dot displays sometime in 2019 in multiple screen sizes. “In 2019, quantum dot delivers the right performance for the cost for mainstream consumers,” said TCL North America SVP Chris Larson.

Attendees will likely find more 4K LCD TVs with peak brightness levels of 4,000 nits, as delivered by Samsung’s current 8K TV. One of the brightest 4K displays has been a 2,000-nit 65-inch Vizio TV.

As quantum-dot costs fall, added Kempt of quantum-dot supplier Nanosys, “it is now becoming possible for set makers to waterfall the technology across their product lineups.” As a result, by the end of 2018, “we’re beginning to see quantum-dot technology entering the mainstream market for TVs with several 65-inch TV products available below $1,500.” 

HDMI 2.1

At least one more company, LG, is adding select HDMI 2.1 features to TVs. All LG OLEDs and three top LCD series add 2.1’s variable refresh rate (VRR), auto low latency mode (ALLM), and eARC. Sony added them to select TVs in 2018.

Let Your Voice Be Heard At The CES Social Hub!

LAS VEGAS–In advance of the 2019 CES, Samsung unveiled the latest developments in its modular Micro LED display technology. The company introduced Micro LED technology at the 2018 CES via the debut of its massive 146-inch “The Wall.”

This year, Samsung is emphasizing the modularity of the technology, which will allow consumers to customize the size of their home displays. At the 2019 CES, the company is launching a 75-inch (more “home-friendly”) version of “The Wall,” along with a 219-inch version.

“For decades, Samsung has led the way in next-generation display innovation,” “Our Micro LED technology is at the forefront of the next screen revolution with intelligent, customizable displays that excel in every performance category,” said said Jonghee Han, President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics.

Featuring self-emissive technology and modular capabilities, Samsung’s Micro LED displays are made up of individual modules of self-emissive Micro LEDs, featuring millions of inorganic red, green and blue microscopic LED chips that emit their own light to produce colors on screen.

Samsung says it was able to replicate the 4K picture quality in a reduced display size due to technical advances in the ultra-fine pitch semiconductor process that narrows the gap between microscopic LED chips.

By adding Micro LED modules, users can expand their display to any size they desire, the company said. The modular functionality of Micro LED will allow users in the future to create the ultimate display even at irregular 9×3, 1×7 or 5×1 screen sizes that suits their spatial, aesthetic and functional needs.

Samsung’s Micro LED technology also optimizes the content no matter the size and shape of the screen. Even when adding more modules, Samsung Micro LED displays can scale to increase the resolution—all while keeping the pixel density constant. Additionally, Micro LED can support everything from the standard 16:9 content, to 21:9 widescreen films, to unconventional aspect ratios like 32:9, or even 1:1—without having to make any compromises in its picture quality.

Since Micro LED displays are bezel-free, there are no borders between modules—even when adding more, according to Samsung. The result is a “seamless, stunning infinity pool effect that allows the display to elegantly blend into any living environment,” the company said. 

The company did not mention pricing or availability of the new displays. 

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