CES 2012: Sony Shuns OLED For Crystal LED

Sony presented a rival technology to OLED at CES 2012, called Crystal LED. This is basically a kind of LCD technology in which each sub-pixel uses an inorganic diode rather than the organic diodes seen in OLED screens.

Unlike LG and Samsung, Sony hasn't presented an OLED TV at CES 2012. The manufacturer has instead developed Crystal LED, which is actually a kind of Full LED TV taken to another level. Instead of using 96 to 288 local dimming blocks for as many white backlight diodes, here, there's one diode behind each sub-pixel—that's 1920 x 1080 x 3 RGB sub-pixels = 6.2 million white diodes!

Sony claims that this new diode technology has two major advantages.
- First of all, the technology is perfectly mastered, as we've been using LCD screens for years now (the diodes are smaller, but they're basically the same as in current LCD TVs).
- Second, Crystal LED is much cheaper to produce than OLED technology (the 55" OLED TVs from LG and Samsung are due to sell for around £8,000).

To show off its new technology, Sony placed a prototype Crystal LED display next to the excellent Bravia HX923 TV released in 2011. The difference in quality was clear for all to see. Blacks looked much deeper in the new display, and Crystal LED screens apparently reproduce a more extensive colour palette than current LCD TVs.

For the moment, there's no word on release dates or prices.

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