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Sony XEL-1 OLED television review

Posted by T3 Magazine on Fri 2 Jan 2009

A tantalising glimpse into the future of TV

We’ve been harpingon about OLED technology since Sony and Samsung wowed us with 27-inch and 31-inch prototypes at last year’s CES show. “Behold the future of TV. Check out the slimness. Marvel at the contrast,” cried the floor. However, 12 months on and the only product you can actually buy is Sony’s 11-inch XEl-1. Should adopters be laying siege to the UK’s Sony shops come the UK launch day?

The short answer to that is not unless you’re minted and your second kitchen or downstairs loo desperately need a new telly. At just 3mm thin, the XEL-1 will fit just about anywhere, even when you factor in the box that it’s mounted on, containing the tuner, electronics and various sockets. If OLED becomes the norm, you’ll literally be able to hang screens up like a picture. The image quality is mightily impressive, too. We connected the XEL-1, via its two HDMIs, to both a PS3 and upscaling Blu-ray player to check out whether the images we saw at CES could be replicated in the real world. Turns out they could.

With a resolution of 960x540, it’s not even a full-HD panel, but it still accepts 1080p signals, scaling the image to fit the screen. Combined with OLED’s “on-or-off” display technology and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, the pictures take your breath away. They’re sharp, detailed and more vivid than LCD, with inkier, deeper blacks than plasma. What’s more, the XEl-1’s response time is a thousand times quicker than a conventional LCD, meaning blur and judder are eradicated during fast-paced cinematic action and sports.

The screen tilts 70 degrees forward and back, offering flexibility in different lighting conditions, too. Another major boon is OLED’s power consumption: the XEL-1 uses just 2w. Sony’s CrossMedia menus make it easy to fl it between USB, memory card, TV tuner and HDMI inputs. The internal speakers are tinny, but there’s an optical out for hooking up an amp.

So why only three stars, you ask? Take a look at the price, then come back and ask us again. £3,500 for an 11-inch screen is simply mad. We really want a full-size, OLED telly hugging our lounge wall, but you know what? We can wait. From this starting point, even with the plummeting pound, the tech can only get cheaper… surely?

Link: Sony

Related links:

• Sony introducing XEL-1 OLED TV to UK market
• Sony's tiny OLED TV XEL-1 to reach UK next year

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User Comments

By gilore

18|09|2009 17:51

Megsy111, OLED TV and LED TV are two different types of technology and you really should understand this before you even think about buying. I would recommend doing some research, to help you I have listed some articles that i found useful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED-backlit_LCD_television

http://oledtelevision.blogspot.com

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By Megsy111

12|09|2009 01:08

I'd like to know how OLED stacks up against samsung's LED TVs. Are they the same type of tv and if so how have samsung managed to make their tvs larger? A bit confused!

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By Ceatlan

6|01|2009 15:39

I'm pretty certain that the Macbook Air does not contain an OLED screen, but in fact an LED backlit LCD screen which is entirely different.

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