Samsung and LG have introduced 55-inch OLED-TVs and Sony wants to challenge the new OLED display technology with a 55-inch ”Crystal LED” TV prototype with 6 million LEDs.

Sony’s Crystyal LED
Sony wants to push display technology and LED technology to new grounds with a ”Crystal LED” technology.


Sony Crystal LED prototype

Details are sparse right now but Sony says that their 55-inch Crystal LED model is an ”industry-first full HD self-emitting display using LEDs as a light source”. This basically means that Sony has implemented 6 million small LEDs (2 million each of red, green, blue) into the TV to function as actual pixels.

Today’s so-called ”LED-TVs” are actually LCD-TVs with either edge-lit LED systems or a direct LED light source - but the LED count is far lower than the pixel count, and light from the LEDs is just distribution over the LCD panel. Sony’s Crystal LED-TV uses three LEDs for each pixel to create a "real LED-TV".

The Crystal LED technology should provide 3.5 times the contrast ratio, 1.4 times the color gamut and 10 times faster response time compared to a traditional LCD panel. Sony claims that their technology is superior to both LCD and plasma.

The Crystal LED-TV is still very much a prototype and Sony has no concrete plans to release a consumer TV but Sony says that they can use the technology in both future professional and consumer products.