Samsung unveils curved OLED TV on home turf

Samsung Electronics’ first curved OLED TV hit the shelves on Thursday, heating up the race to take the lion’s share of the world’s fledgling premium TV market.

At a showcase event of the 55-inch curved OLED TV at its headquarters, the world’s tech leader pledged it to provide future-oriented products and services and begin a “Zero Pixel Defect” initiative in pursuit of defect-free screens for its OLED TV models.

“There are now two kinds of TVs: Samsung TVs that evolve over time and non-Samsung TVs that do not,” said Kim Hyun-suk, an executive vice president of Samsung Electronics.

As Samsung released the latest curved screen OLED model, it said it had completed the “Future Proof” lineup, including the Premium Smart TV and the UHD TV, all released this year, which could be upgraded to maintain the latest hardware and software with the help of an evolution kit.

“The curved OLED TV with a spotless high-definition screen will provide users timeless quality and functions,” said the executive vice president.

“Samsung will achieve the zero-defect initiative in order to maximize the high-definition images, the biggest advantage of the OLED TV.”

He also added Samsung would replace the customer’s product if even one defective or dead pixel was found.

With a “Smart DualView” function, users wearing digital glasses equipped with earphones can watch two TV channels at the same time.

The curved screen has gotten rid of the problem of screen-edge visual distortion and loss of detail.

The TV set is also compatible with an evolution kit, which contains the latest software and hardware and allows users to upgrade their smart TV.

The tech giant also released Ultra 55- and 65-inch HD TV (F9000) with 2160x3840 resolution on the same day.

The release of the OLED TV and UHD TV came weeks after that of its longtime competitor LG, which began accepting preorders for its 55-inch Curved OLED TV (EA9800), priced the same as Samsung’s, in Korea from late April and started delivering the products on June 10.

“The OLED TV market is still a fledgling market, so the sales are far below those of the LED and LCD TVs,” said an LG official, adding that he could not reveal the sales record according to the company’s regulations.

Samsung also declined to reveal the expected number of sales for its newest TV models, saying the firm was currently trying to increase the demand for the premium TVs.

The world’s largest electronics giant did not publicize the weight and thickness of the curved-screen TV at the showcase either.

Samsung’s curved OLED TV, however, is reportedly thicker and weighs more than that of LG. 

“If the OLED TV is too thin, the system could be affected by the heat of the TV,” said an executive of Samsung.


By Kim Young-won
(wone0102@heraldcorp.com)