Sony’s first OLED TV available in the UK “by 2009″

If you’ve been waiting patiently for Sony to bring its incredibly thin OLED televisions to the UK, there’s some good news in store: the XEL-1 should be here by 2009.

That’s the word from Sony’s Christian Brown, who told TechRadar he’d be “very surprised” if the 11-inch gogglebox wasn’t available by then. The XEL-1, which is already available in Japan and the US, sports a plasma-busting 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, a couple of HDMI inputs, networking abilities via Ethernet and a Memory Stick slot for viewing hi-res digital photos. It also borrows the Xross Media Bar interface used on Sony’s PS3 and PSP games consoles.

There’s no confirmed UK price yet, but given that the US version goes for around $2,500 (£1,250), we’d expect it to be at least £1,500 - a sum which could easily get you a top notch 42-inch LCD or plasma telly. Given that the XEL-1 doesn’t even offer hi-def, Sony’s clearly banking on its design, colour reproduction and contrast making it a winner.

Out TBC | £TBC | Sony (via TechRadar)

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