News.blog: Sony repeats its OLED performance

Sony will bring its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs to the US, but the company may be having a size problem.

The TV is only 3 millimetres thick, about the same thickness at three credit cards, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show taking place in Las Vegas this week. It also has a 1 million-to-one contrast ratio. It is quite impressive and elegant. (It also costs $2,500 (£1,225).)

Sony is showing off a 27-inch prototype OLED TV at CES too. Sony, however, showed off a 27-inch prototype at the show last year.

OLED is not an easy technology. It degrades over time. Building large panels has also bedeviled many manufacturers. That's why OLEDs have mostly been used as screens for mobile phones.

Still, the fact that the prototype is the same size as last year's should raise some eyebrows. Maybe they aren't getting the manufacturing yields they would like.

In the meantime, other TV manufacturers have worked to thin their LCD and plasma TVs. Hitachi is showing off plasmas and LCDs that measure 35 millimetres thick at the show. That's 10 times as thick, but it's still less than 51mm (2 inches). JVC and Sharp also have thin LCDs.