Quick Summary
Samsung Display has reduced the size of OLED panel bezels to create a single display made from multiple tiles.
Further improvements could transform large 8K OLED TV manufacturing for good.
Two things are true about the biggest versions of the best OLED TVs: they're amazing, and they're amazingly expensive – especially the 8K models. They can cost around £15K / $15K / AU$31K for a 77-inch model. However, Samsung may have found a solution.
Samsung Display has returned to an idea it previously used in its 2020 The Wall TV, which started at 88-inches and was also available in 99- and 110-inch versions.
Rather than try to make a single enormous TV, which is very expensive due to manufacturing inefficiencies and yields, Samsung decided to get a whole bunch of little ones and stick them together. It proved successful, using multiple Mini-LED panels.
Now Samsung's display arm has turned its attention to tiled OLEDs. It's not quite ready for your living room yet, but if Samsung can improve it further, the concept could slash the cost of large-sized OLEDs.
Samsung Display's bezel breakthrough
According to the brand, it's managed to create tiled OLED displays with bezels that are 40% thinner on all sides – they measure just 0.6mm. And while that means there are visible gaps on screen – where two tiles meet you'll get a 1.2mm space between the pixels – it's a huge improvement over what was previously possible.
If Samsung Display can make the bezels disappear altogether, which I'm sure it will eventually, this has huge implications for huge TVs. For starters, really large panels are frighteningly expensive, even those with 4K resolutions, let alone 8K.
For example, the biggest OLED TV that LG currently makes is the 4K 97-inch LG G5, which is priced at an eye-watering £24,999 / $24,999 / $37,999.
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The 55-inch LG G5 is just £2,399 / $2,499 / AU$5,299 in comparison – and has better peak brightness than the 97-inch model.
Of course, it's a bit more complex than simply taking four LG panels and glueing them together, but you can see the sort of savings that might be possible. And the possibility for giving us even more TV real estate in our homes.
TOPICS
Samsung