CES Report: LG Intros Large OLED Display, Is Bullish on Passive 3D

Press day at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas gives top manufacturers a chance to snag headlines in the big papers on Tuesday morning and later in the week. Although many of the most important consumer-electronics introductions (in particular, those from Apple and Amazon) are not part of the CES landscape, plenty of news will be made at the show.

LG Electronics launches the first 55-in. organic LED screen for consumers at CES.

LG Electronics officially kicked off the press-event day with an overview of new products, including one that has already snagged headlines — the industry’s first 55-in. organic LED (OLED) screen for the consumer marketplace — and enhancements to its 3D-set lineup. OLED has been a part of the CES experience for a few years now, but the next-generation technology, which offers better blacks and colors and also much thinner and lighter screens, is prohibitively expensive in larger screen sizes. And, while we know the weight of the new set (approximately 15 lbs.), pricing and availability are currently unknown.

The prominent place that 3D held at the press events throughout the day demonstrated that CE companies continue to see it at as a feature that can make a difference in consumer buying decisions.

LG Electronics CTO/President Dr. Scott Ahn introduced the latest lineup of LG Cinema 3D HDTV sets. Unlike the vast majority of consumer sets on the market, the Cinema 3D lineup requires only passive glasses, enabling what the company says is a more comfortable viewing experience. The company also says consumers have embraced the technology, with approximately 30% of 3D sets sold now using passive rather than active glasses.

Among the new offerings from LG are four screen sizes: 55, 60, 72, and 84 in., each only 28 mm thick with a 1-mm bezel. Ahn also introduced the “Ultra HD” feature for the 84-in. TV set, which will deliver resolution equal to placing four 42-in. panels together and, thus, four times the resolution.

ESPN Mobile SVP/GM Michael Bayle was also on hand to tout the network’s delivery of 720p mobile video through the new LG Spectrum phone, available from Verizon next week.

“In November last year, [mobile users] spent more than 4 billion minutes with ESPN mobile content,” says Bayle. “And, in October, we had more than 36 million unique visitors. HD on a mobile device is a huge growth area.”

Password must contain the following:

A lowercase letter

A capital (uppercase) letter

A number

Minimum 8 characters