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LG Display announces the era of ‘8K OLED’ display

Posted January. 02, 2018 08:05,   

Updated January. 02, 2018 08:28

한국어

LG Display officially announced Monday that it has developed the world’s first 88-inch 8K Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) display.

Many industry observers have thus far expected that OLED panels would not be able to beat Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD) in terms of resolution as 8K LCD screens have been already in the market since early 2016, taking a lead in the competition over high resolution screens. Yet, it remains to be seen whether LG Display’s successful development of 8K OLED display will bring an unexpected change in the market.

OLED displays do not require backlighting, which makes the use of OLED as TV screens more attractive in terms of design. TV products with LCD screens need additional backlights to adjust brightness, which usually means extra weight and volume as well. “As for 4K products, we can add backlights in the bezel of LCD screens,” said LG Display. “But 8K products need backlights to be attached in the backside of the panel, so they are likely to be thicker.”

Still, OLEDs are notoriously known for image quality issues such as burn-in, and the prevention of these possible problems will be likely to determine the success of 8K OLED display in the market. Unlike an LCD screen, an OLED screen has each pixel providing its own illumination, making the screen more vulnerable to functional issues.

“8K means four times as many pixels as in a 4K display, thus with more complex circuits and increased power consumption along with larger risks in functional problems including heating up,” said an industry insider. “The key is whether LG Display would be able to prevent such potential issues during the process of actual production of 8K displays.”

The 8K display will be officially unveiled at CES 2018 that opens next Tuesday (local time) in Las Vegas.



Ji-Hyun Kim jhk85@donga.com