A rollable OLED TV that unfurls from your ceiling. A 65-incher that bends on command. And a first-class airline seat with floor-to-ceiling OLED panels instead of windows. These are just some of the innovations on display at LG Display’s booth here at CES 2020, and I got a sneak peek of all of the eye candy in action.
And while the roll-down OLED is nifty, it’s the the bendable TVs that really caught my attention.
Airplane cabin of the future with bendable TV
Picture this. You walk up to your first-class seat of tomorrow and you find that there’s an OLED video wall instead of those tiny windows.
It’s a pretty mesmerizing effect, and it’s designed to give you a feeling of openness in an enclosed space. I definitely didn’t feel confined when I sat down, but the huge 65-inch OLED display in front of me didn’t hurt either.
On command the TV bends at both ends, which delivers a more immersive experience when playing games or watching movies. (LG also showed another bendable TV that you could put in your living room that’s optimized for gaming.)
Just on the outside of your seat is a 55-inch transparent OLED screen with 40% transparency, which you can make opaque when you don’t want to be disturbed.
Roll-down OLED TV
While LG Electronics says it is going to ship its roll-up Signature OLED TV R sometime this year, LG Display is already on to the next iteration.
At its booth I saw the new 65-inch UHD Roll-Down OLED display in action. The whole thing is stored in a unit that you mount on the ceiling, and the panel is super thin. It’s like a projector screen that’s a TV.
LG’s roll-down OLED TV at #CES2020 has my attention. Watch this... pic.twitter.com/lg0ozCSDHqJanuary 7, 2020
The roll-down speed isn’t super fast, which I think is fine for showing off the first few times but after that I might get impatient. This design does make a little more sense than the roll-up model because it saves more interior space in the room.
LG isn’t saying how long it would take to bring this display into development, but I would guess it would take a year or more and be limited to custom installers as opposed to your local Best Buy.
Plastic OLED displays that reinvent the dashboard
The car dashboard of tomorrow could be all screen, which sounds scary at first but not when you think about how much smarter cars are getting in terms of self-driving and safety features.
LG showed off a super-sized dashboard with four Plastic OLED automotive displays. There’s a 14-inch cluster, a 12.3-inch center info display a 12.3-inch co-drive display and a 12.-8-inch control pad display.
My favorite part? The side-view mirrors are replaced by displays, making it much easier to look for blindspots because you can do so just by touching the screen.
Wallpaper TV gets booming sound
LG Electronics’ current wallpaper display is so thin that it requires a separate soundboard for audio. But the 77-inch UHD Film Cinematic Sound & Wallpaper OLED screen has a sound system made of films, so the display is essentially a speaker.
It’s not as thin, but LG also showed off an 88-inch 8K Cinematic Sound OLED display with a 11.2-channel sound system built in. Even better, the sound is directional, so you can actually tell what’s coming from the left and right side of the screen as you watch.
Foldable OLED
One of the big trends for 2020 is foldable screen laptops, including the ThinkPad X1 Fold coming later this year. And LG is making devices like this a reality with its foldable OLED display. This 13.3-inch QXGA panel can be folded in half for easy storage, and there’s a cool curved portion on the bottom that can display notifications when closed up. LG says that the foldable OLED will enter mass production in Q2 of this year, so who knows what device it could show up in.
Bottom line
LG Display had lots of other goodies to show, including a huge 86-inch LCD display with In-Touch technology that can be used as an electric whiteboard, complete with four active pens that can be used simultaneously.
Personally, I want the bendable TV in my house — just to freak people out.
Be sure to check out our CES 2020 hub for the latest announcements and hands-on impressions from Las Vegas.
