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LG Display peels back magnetic wallpaper OLED TV panel

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A model peels LG Display's "wallpaper OLED" panel from its magnetic mount
LG Display Co.
LG's 55-inch "wallpaper OLED" panel is just 0.97 mm thick and weighs 1.9 kg (4.1 lb)
LG Display Co.
A model peels LG Display's "wallpaper OLED" panel from its magnetic mount
LG Display Co.

LCD panels have enabled widescreen TVs thin and light enough to be hung on a wall like a picture – assuming you hangyour pictures with a VESA-compliant wall mount. But LG Display has gone onestep further, showing an OLED panel that can be stuck to a wall likewallpaper – assuming you hang your wallpaper with magnets.

LG Display showcased its 55-inch"wallpaper OLED panel" – or possibly the world's biggest fridge magnet – this week at a media event in Seoul. Incomparison to LG's current flagship 55-inch OLED TV that is 4.3 mm thick, thenew panel is just 0.97 mm thick and weighs 1.9 kg (4.1 lb). It is also flexible, makingit easy to peel off a magnetic mat affixed to the wall.

LG's 55-inch "wallpaper OLED" panel is just 0.97 mm thick and weighs 1.9 kg (4.1 lb)
LG Display Co.

Competitors such as Samsung and Sonyseem to have largely dropped out of the OLED race and pinned their hopes on the nextevolution of LCD technology, quantum dot. But the head of LG Display's OLED division, YeoSang-deog, promised his company would be scaling up OLED production later thisyear to meet client demand. Although LG Display is an independent company andsupplies panels to a various companies, including Dell, ASUS and Apple, itsbiggest customer is affiliate LG Electronics.

Earlier this year, LG Display released OLEDpanels in 55-, 65- and 77-inch sizes, with LG showing TVs utilizing the panelsat CES. Now the company plans to go even bigger, with Yeo promising a 99-inchunit within the year. But he says it won't be ignoring the small- to mid-sizeddisplays, with plans to continue improvements to its plastic OLED technologyfor use in transparent, rollable and flexible displays for wearable devices andvehicle dashboards.

Yeo added that improvements in yields forOLED panels would be a key factor in helping it achieve sales targets of 600,000OLED panels this year and 1.5 million units in 2016.

"It hastaken a year and half for us to raise the yield to this level (for OLEDs),while it'd taken nearly 10 years to achieve the yield for LCDs," Yeo said.

There's no telling when a wallpaper OLEDmight be headed to the walls of consumers' houses, but the idea of a TV thatsticks to a wall like a fridge magnet is sure to be "attractive" tomany.

Source: LG Display, Yonhap

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8 comments
Daishi
This is pretty cool but you still have to get around things like needing inputs and speakers. I'm sure the hardware doing stuff like video decoding is also not in the flexible display.
If the magnetic mount has to be recessed into the wall to support all that stuff it kind of defeats the purpose. You might as well just go for a super thin TV that can be mounted flat against the wall save for the novelty of having a removable display.
You could get mostly the same look by using a recessed wall mount like this: http://i.imgur.com/bp6VjEE.jpg
That way the TV sits flat against the wall and if you replace it you just mount a new one without having to drywall in a new TV. Run conduit from the recessed mount to the floor or something so you don't have cables in front of the wall.
DaveWesely
It’s amazing to me how some people can be shown a new innovation and not see its implications. A display 1mm thick doesn’t need to be recessed into the wall. The magnet it is attached to just makes it appear that way. What makes the display dramatically different is that the TV image can be defined by the space instead of it defining the space. IOW you could put the display inside a picture frame, or any other method that you cannot easily do with a thick heavy rigid display. And TVs are just one application for this technology. Think of a tablet, phone or laptop that you could roll up into a tube or unfold...
Kevin Ritchey
Sony makes a nice cable concealer that includes 2 HDMI and 2 AC power conduits for about $50. I think it may be discontinued soon, if not already. I just received one yesterday in case I ever decide to wall mount on of my sets but then what to do with my nice cabinet? Gotta put accessory devices someplace too.
Douglas Bennett Rogers
Very handy for an apartment or rental house where you can't put holes in the walls.
Robert Griffith
An instance where Bluetooth would come in very handy...just wondering if speakers ,and audio devices could all be used at the same time with this TV??
Colin Macpherson
There is 'magnetic paint' on the market used in kids bedroom that may work. Cables would be an issue unless wireless. Methinks there's more to the magnetic mat than explained here?
Chris Goodwin
Never mind about dashboards, that's kids' stuff. Stick it on the outside of a car. Dick Tracey used to have to deal with crooks who could drive a red van round a corner, and emerge with the same van coloured bright blue ! Now we all can. Poor Dick.
And, instead of a paper advertising screen, the back of your truck can be a video screen. I know, Coca Cola did it first, but that was SFX on TV. This system gives street cred. Actually, street reality. You do not have to credit it, you will be able to see it with your own eyes. (And also, of course, steal it, if it rolls off as easily as it rolls on. Oops ! Back to the old drawing board.)