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Tin foil hats and hover boots at the ready, we’re about to visit the future. Or rather, the future is about to visit us, in the shape of the Sony XEL-1. It’s the world’s first commercially available OLED TV, measuring just 3mm thick and pumping out eye-searing pictures in pin sharp clarity.
It’s a super-special TV whichever way you look at it, not to mention knee-knockingly gorgeous. Sure, the screen’s just 11 inches wide, but with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio it produces some of the best pictures we’ve ever clapped our peepers on.
Inside there’s a USB port, so it can show off digital photos, as well as an Ethernet port to hook it up to the web and a HDMI input for hooking up to Blu-ray players and the like. There’s also a digital tuner built in.
But let’s get back to the picture quality. The XEL-1 shows blacks properly. Rich, deep and dark, they’re completely solid and there’s no murkiness. Likewise, the XEL-1 handles moving pictures better than any other TV, with no blurs or jerks.
And all this, no matter where you choose to sit. The XEL-1’s OLED display looks fantastic from any angle.
And now for a dose of reality. No matter how jaw-flooring the pictures produced by the XEL-1, it’s still just 11 inches across. You’d hardly want to watch a feature film on this, although we have to say: Corrie has never looked better.
Sustained watching also highlights the difference between ‘natural’ tones and surreal enhanced ones. It can be quite disconcerting after a while. And then there’s the price. £3,500 is a fair dollop of cash to spend on any TV, but one that’s smaller than most netbooks?
Ultimately the XEL-1 remains a work in progress. A prototype deemed too cool to keep in the lab, but it’s far from ready for public consumption. At the moment the XEL-1 is one of a kind. Pretty soon though, all TVs will be like this. Treat it as a glimpse into the future, but keep hold of your cash until the kinks are ironed out, and the prices tumble.
