Samsung was first to market with a curved OLED TV in 2013, and LG's offerings followed the next year. But such screens were a case of a technical capability in search of an application, and consumers in their wisdom realized that TVs weren't it. Gaming monitors are definitely a better fit due to the shorter distance to the viewer, but now LG Display is set to demo a bendable OLED display that offers the best of both worlds.
Designed to go flat for watching video content and then bend so as to provide a more immersive viewing experience for games, the 48-inch Bendable Cinematic Sound OLED (CSO) display that will be unveiled (virtually) at CES 2021 boasts a curvature radius of up to 1,000R, which means it can bend up to a radius of 1,000 mm.
Whether curved or flat the display retains all the hallmarks of OLED displays – inky black blacks, an infinite contrast ratio and, of particular benefit to gamers, a lightning fast response time of 0.1 milliseconds, a refresh rate of 120 HZ, and a variable refresh rate range of 40 Hz to 120 Hz.
On the audio front, the CSO technology makes the OLED panel the speaker, just like the Acoustic Surface technology Sony uses on its OLED TVs. This allows the sound to be emitted directly from the screen, while the vibrations themselves are undetectable to the eye. LG Display says it has also managed to reduce the depth of the exciter that vibrates the panel down from 9 mm to just 0.6 mm, so the display doesn't sacrifice slimness for sound.
“LG Display’s 48-inch Bendable CSO display is optimized for gaming as it maximizes the use of advanced technology that produces another level in terms of providing an immersive experience," says Dr. Chang-ho Oh, Executive Vice President & Head of the TV Business Unit at LG Display. "In other words, it offers the very best gaming environment to gamers.”
Having said that, LG Display hasn't indicated if or when such a product will be available to consumers.
Source: LG Display