By Alex Jensen
CES 2023 may have wrapped up, but the future of technology’s only just beginning based on some of the jaw-dropping innovations we saw at this month’s Las Vegas show, which rightfully describes itself as “the most influential tech event in the world.”
CES also says it’s “the proving ground for breakthrough technologies and global innovators.” If that’s the case, then the 2023 edition was another glowing endorsement of LG Display’s latest advancements, which promise to enhance every corner of our lives. The company’s innovations earned rave reviews – from its vision of future mobility to the bright brilliance of third-generation OLED, or META Technology.
Sliding into the future of mobility
Without doubt, one of the most impressive exhibits at CES 2023 was the fully autonomous concept car that LG Display had on show at its automotive display booth. This was a fitting exhibit considering the blurred line between cars and tech that I previously pointed out. Of course, we’ve seen self-driving concepts before, but this one stood out because of its numerous display solutions – I mean, we’ll need something to entertain us while an autonomous vehicle drives us around in the future, right?
LG Display is a great example of how tech companies used CES to demonstrate their in-roads into the automotive sector, as its self-driving concept car was decked out with automotive displays aimed at both providing entertainment and essential information to passengers. And these displays have the power to completely transform our expectations of cars, particularly their interior layout and infotainment options. For instance, LG Display’s concept car featured the industry’s first 18-inch Slidable Automotive OLED – a display that extends down from its hiding place in the car’s ceiling. I love how this innovation not only saves on space but also makes the most of OLED technology’s flexibility – or in other words, “backseat TVs that roll up into the roof of a car are my childhood dream come true.”
Staying with the mobility theme, it wasn’t just about bright and beautiful screens for LG Display at CES. We additionally got to hear – and feel – its Thin Actuator Sound Solution, a razor-thin and lightweight audio innovation that can be placed in display panels and various parts of a vehicle’s interior to produce rich, 3D-immersive sound. Essentially, the company has managed to replace conventional speakers with a paper-thin game-changer. And everyone who encountered this at the show was visibly impressed by what they heard inside the cabin of LG Display’s test car. Imagine sitting inside, feeling the sound coming from all around – ”the doors, the frame around it, the dashboard, and the center panel” – but with no bulky speakers in sight!
OLED’s leap forward with META Technology
Alongside those automotive innovations, LG Display’s META Technology was another showstopper at CES, as we saw “substantially brighter screens than their previous generations.” As I briefly mentioned before, META Technology represents the company’s third-generation OLED, building on 10 years of display development with “a very smart way to make OLED panels brighter!”
To briefly explain, META Technology’s brilliance is delivered by LG Display’s META Booster algorithmic processing in combination with billions of micro lenses known as the Micro Lens Array (MLA) – we are talking over 5,000 lenses per single pixel for a total of 42.4 billion micro lenses in a 77-inch 4K OLED panel. These lenses work together to save light that would normally be scattered, and the result is rather spectacular – a whopping 60% brightness improvement compared with conventional OLED displays, or 2,100 nits of brightness, which is ”very, very bright.” In practical terms, it means OLED panels can now ”produce even clearer picture quality, especially in a bright room.” No wonder MLA is described as “a cool, clever technology, it’s very effective, and it’s going to make OLED TVs look even better.”
There’s another really innovative element to mention here too, as LG Display was apparently inspired by the eyes of a dragonfly when developing META Technology. A dragonfly sees through millions of convex lenses that curve around for a wide view of the world – and META Technology’s being celebrated for its ability to deliver pictures at any angle without image distortion. To be more precise, it widens OLED’s already impressive viewing angles by 30% to reach 160 degrees, along with other benefits like improved HDR performance.
So, META Technology is a huge statement in the battle for TV panel supremacy, as “clearly LG Display would like for OLED to become the new standard TV panel tech.” Based on what we saw and heard at CES, we can expect META Technology to be applied to ultra-premium OLED TVs in a range of sizes – from 55-inch 4K all the way up to 88-inch 8K OLED TV panels.
Best of the rest!
It’s difficult to summarize a whole show’s worth of innovations, even when focusing on only one company, but I can’t not mention a gaming display in this CES round-up – especially given the excitement around OLED in that regard, as I referred to late last year. I was really impressed by the way LG Display integrated a 45-inch Ultra-Wide Curved OLED into an advanced gaming rig for racing. This panel’s 800R curvature, combined with the aforementioned advantages of META Technology, delivered a ”super-immersive” experience when taking it for a test drive.
I can also see how others visiting CES 2023 might have been blown away by LG Display’s Foldable OLED displays. A perfect example was its “show-stealing” 8.03-inch 360° Foldable OLED, which can apparently withstand being folded over 200,000 times! What makes LG Display’s foldables so impressive is that it’s “pretty hard to detect” any kind of seam, as demonstrated by its 17-inch Foldable OLED when fully extended, and that seems to be a vital progression for this technology.
All in all, this year’s CES was another celebration of LG Display’s much-loved ”cool and wacky” approach to showing off tech advances. Even better, many of the company’s concepts have translated into real-world applications in recent years, from Transparent OLEDs on public transportation to the most immersive home theater setups available today. And while we await next year’s show, I’m fascinated to see how CES 2023’s innovations progress from show floor to daily reality.
