A new report out from Display Search suggests that Sony’s groundbreaking new OLED display television, the XEL-1, may have a significantly lower lifespan than the manufacturer claims. We’re talking 17,000 hours as against 60,000 hours for a typical LCD or plasma flat screen TV. The report also says that the product suffers from what it calls ‘differential aging’, with differing degradation rates for each of the primary colours. Oh and the screen doesn’t look so bright in sunnier conditions. Still, at least the technology is cutting edge organic, eh?
The RGB architecture is very sensitive to the image and has a 5,000 hour lifetime for white and a 17,000 hour lifetime for the typical video image, well below the published specifications of Sony. Moreover the panel suffers from differential aging: After 1,000 hours the blue luminance degraded by 12%, the red by 7% and the green by 8%.
The beautiful die young…