LG is keeping busy – not only does it want to dominate the OLED market, but it also wants to keep up with its competitors (chiefly its main rival, Samsung) in other areas of the display market.
LG has introduced its own large-scale, modular microLED TV.
Samsung’s launch of its first microLED TV and the consumer (30mm-thin) version of the 146-in ‘The Wall', captured the attention of many at IFA 2018 earlier this month, but it’s apparent stronghold on the market, as with a lot of things in the display market, may be short-lived.
LG has gone with the ‘bigger is better’ approach and dedicated a chunk of its ever-expanding R&D budget on creating a 175-in microLED TV – although we don’t have many other details to go off at the moment.
What’s the benefit of MicroLED technology? Well, like with OLEDs, pixels that emit their own light and offer high contrast ratios (10,000 to 1) and “true” blacks, whilst also using less power. Samsung also state that due to the use of inorganic materials, MicroLEDs can live longer and are less likely to suffer pixel burn-in.
Industry whispers suggested that Samsung’s had hoped that its work in microLED could allow it to make a significant challenge to LG in the high-end TV market. The surface of Samsung’s The Wall TV, on display at CEDIA 2018 last week, is constructed from 30- by 50-micron micro LED chips.
Both LG and Samsung have secured partnerships with microLED chip manufacturers to support their respective increased microLED-powered modular TV focus. LG is thought to be sourcing chips from Taiwanese and Chinese manufacturers including Epistar and HC SemiTek, whilst Samsung is working with Taiwan-based PlayNitide.
Although further information on the future release of LG’s 175-in MicroLED TV is lacking at the moment, this summer president of Samsung’s visual display business, Han Jong-hee, said Samsung’s version of The Wall for luxury homes will be coming in 2019, following the release of its commercial option later this year.
Although Samsung has publically stated the “the price will not be as high as people think,” word from the CEDIA show floor in San Diego is that the price will sit around the $400,000 mark…