Sony XEL-1 OLED television review

A tantalising glimpse into the future of TV

We’ve been harpingon about OLED technology since Sony and Samsung wowed us with 27-inch and 31-inch prototypes at last year’s CES show. “Behold the future of TV. Check out the slimness. Marvel at the contrast,” cried the floor. However, 12 months on and the only product you can actually buy is Sony’s 11-inch XEl-1. Should adopters be laying siege to the UK’s Sony shops come the UK launch day?

The short answer to that is not unless you’re minted and your second kitchen or downstairs loo desperately need a new telly. At just 3mm thin, the XEL-1 will fit just about anywhere, even when you factor in the box that it’s mounted on, containing the tuner, electronics and various sockets. If OLED becomes the norm, you’ll literally be able to hang screens up like a picture. The image quality is mightily impressive, too. We connected the XEL-1, via its two HDMIs, to both a PS3 and upscaling Blu-ray player to check out whether the images we saw at CES could be replicated in the real world. Turns out they could.

With a resolution of 960x540, it’s not even a full-HD panel, but it still accepts 1080p signals, scaling the image to fit the screen. Combined with OLED’s “on-or-off” display technology and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, the pictures take your breath away. They’re sharp, detailed and more vivid than LCD, with inkier, deeper blacks than plasma. What’s more, the XEl-1’s response time is a thousand times quicker than a conventional LCD, meaning blur and judder are eradicated during fast-paced cinematic action and sports.

The screen tilts 70 degrees forward and back, offering flexibility in different lighting conditions, too. Another major boon is OLED’s power consumption: the XEL-1 uses just 2w. Sony’s CrossMedia menus make it easy to fl it between USB, memory card, TV tuner and HDMI inputs. The internal speakers are tinny, but there’s an optical out for hooking up an amp.

So why only three stars, you ask? Take a look at the price, then come back and ask us again. £3,500 for an 11-inch screen is simply mad. We really want a full-size, OLED telly hugging our lounge wall, but you know what? We can wait. From this starting point, even with the plummeting pound, the tech can only get cheaper… surely?

Link: Sony