Curved for gaming, flat for TV

Ever since LG showcased its first rollable OLED TV at CES 2019, and maybe even before that, the vision for these flexible displays was that they could encompass any curved surface to provide a screen with a vivid color profile. Compliant with state-of-the-art OLED technology. Back in the day, that meant watches and other similar portable devices, but since LG promoted these flexible displays for TV a lot, it made sense that at some point they would come up with a curved display for gaming. The trick is to make it work for both TV and games.

One of the first announcements for this year’s CES remote show is that LG’s latest flexible display is a 48-inch model that can be used flat for regular TV viewing or as a 1000R curved screen for gaming. . This means that in both viewing modes, the screen aims to provide a uniform viewing distance with comparable depth and quality, even with a curvature radius of 1000mm. This is a tighter curvature than many gaming displays currently on the market, such as the 1200R to 2000R models, and these only serve the curved-screen gaming community. LG doesn’t say what the resolution is, but they do confirm that the screen has a variable refresh rate range of 40Hz to 120Hz, with an assumed response time of 0.1 milliseconds.

Combined with this, the screen implements LG’s CSO technology, which allows the screen to vibrate to create sound, rather than having external speakers. This is due to a new thin-film “ exciter ” (the bit that actually vibrates), which LG claims to have managed to reduce from a thickness of 9mm to 0.6mm. The screen also has a low blue light mode to reduce eye strain.

As is often the case with these promotions for CES, we expect LG to be around 3-9 months after the product has commercially launched. LG didn’t go into detail on how the screen goes from curved to flat, for example, nor did it mention the price. Cutting edge features like this will likely pay off.

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