By Alex Jensen
If CES 2024 was designed to indicate future technology trends, well here we are, over a month later – and you can imagine the tech kids in the back asking, “Is the future here yet?”
From seemingly endless gadgets harnessing artificial intelligence to off-grid home energy solutions, this year’s show indicated where we could well be heading. As for the display industry in particular, CES visitors and online observers might have the impression that screens are undergoing a revolution that defies the view that “there’s only so much you can do with a display panel.”
At the forefront of this atmosphere of reinvention, we find LG Display. It used its spaces at the Las Vegas Convention Center to exhibit futuristic, convention-busting innovations – and if we look closer, they capture trends that can tell us where the display industry’s moving in 2024.
1. TVs are getting brighter and more lifelike
As the reigning champion of OLED TV displays, LG Display unveiled META Technology 2.0 at CES 2024. In short, this leap from last year improves peak brightness by 42% compared with a conventional OLED panel – we’re talking 3,000 nits and color brightness of 1,500 nits. This has been achieved through the light-maximizing capabilities of billions of tiny lenses placed over already impressive self-emissive OLED pixels, supported by algorithms to produce incredibly vivid image quality.
It’s all so spectacular that you might say these latest OLEDs “blow away Mini-LED TVs,” which may otherwise be seen as a rival technology in the high-end TV space. To put it another way, “META 2.0 could address one of the biggest criticisms of OLED compared to rival screens – whether Mini or MicroLED – that it can’t get bright enough.”
But most of us probably aren’t counting nits when we’re watching TV – or hopefully not? The trend that META 2.0 is leading is towards realism and immersion. Through this tech breakthrough building on OLED’s self-emissive foundations, LG Display is trying to get us to see images and color the same way our eyes perceive them in real life. The result sets a bar that will encourage the industry as a whole to go as far as possible towards closing the gap between TV viewers and the content they’re watching.
2. Blurring the boundaries between gaming and life
If realism is a desirable quality when watching TV, then it’s almost essential for those seeking an immersive gaming experience. When it comes to gaming, there’s nothing like a stutter or a break in gameplay to snap you out of that sense of sheer involvement. So, LG Display’s Gaming OLED breakthrough made waves at CES 2024 by delivering its smoothest and sharpest visuals yet.
To put some numbers on that, the 27-inch QHD Gaming OLED panel that we saw in Las Vegas features a 0.03ms response time and the world’s first 480 Hz ultra-high refresh rate for an OLED display. Combined with LG Display’s own Clear Motion Ratio (CMR) measurement of over 20,000, these figures add up to a monitor that is able to stand up to the most demanding games without sacrificing rich images in QHD.
For these reasons, words like “blistering” and “insane” have been used to describe this gaming advancement, which won a “Best of CES 2024” award from Android Authority. And that’s why this Gaming OLED panel is a trendsetter.
3. A clear view of the future?
Transparent screens appearing in TV shows and movies always seem to scream “future!” And the question was genuinely being asked around CES 2024, “are transparent TVs the next big thing?”
I would personally rather go for a META 2.0 option for an optimal TV experience, but if you like your entertainment on a transparent screen, then great – I admit that it’s amazing how you can watch a movie on a Transparent OLED TV and forget that the screen’s see-through!
Yet, the transparency factor comes into its own in commercial settings, where “you can really see how you open up the possibilities.” If you’re designing an office, a store, or even a home, why settle for ordinary glass when you can have a clear panel that comes to life through Transparent OLED? The opportunities for decor and advertising are as wide as the imagination, and LG Display used CES 2024 to show what’s possible with Transparent OLEDs – including expanding their lineup to include 30- and 77-inch panels in addition to the 55-inch one we’re familiar with. The company has put itself in a prime position to drive the transparent trend because it’s already made so much progress – Transparent OLEDs can now achieve 45% transparency and luminance of 600 nits, allowing these panels to integrate with just about any environment.
4. Displays in motion
Screens, screens everywhere. That’s another expectation for the future – or at least, more screens in more places than we see now, including in cars. What we really need is autonomous driving to take off if we want to see display technology shine inside vehicles. I mean, if you don’t have to keep your eyes on the road, why not enjoy some screen time? But for now, even while drivers need to remain at the wheel, automotive displays are trending because they just keep getting bigger and better.
For some people a 57-inch display is too big for their living rooms. Yet, LG Display managed to show off a 57-inch Pillar-to-Pillar LCD automotive display in Las Vegas. This expansive panel spans the width of a windshield, opening up the possibilities for infotainment and more for both driver and passengers. Its recognition as a winner of the “CES 2024 Innovation Award” was an endorsement of its potential.
But that is “just the start” as we move into this intersection of cars and tech and software-defined vehicles. LG Display has developed various technologies to meet the needs of the in-vehicle environment – from flexible P-OLED to Advanced Thin OLED to LTPS LCD. In practical terms, what this means is the ability to have screens of all sizes curve, slide, and roll their way into the automotive experience. And unlike regular car interior materials made of cloth or leather, screens can evolve – a vehicle manufacturer has the flexibility to “redefine their purpose with a software update.”
Final takeaway
LG Display’s theme for CES 2024 was to show us “A Better Future.” It’s a reminder that innovations remain just concepts or wild gadgets unless they actually offer us something that improves on existing technology. That’s the ultimate test of a tech trend, and the four listed above do appear to be offering a substantial elevation in their respective areas – at least for the foreseeable future.
