Huawei is set to join the likes of Sony, LG, Panasonic and Philips in releasing its first-ever OLED TV to the public.
The Chinese electronics manufacturer teased two images of the Huawei Smart TV X65, revealing the 65-inch size and a number of other technical specifications for the OLED display. We now know that the set will feature a 24MP pop-up camera, for instance – like the Huawei Vision 4K TV that was announced at the Huawei Mate 30 launch event in September of last year – more in the vein of a Huawei smartphone than the rest of the TV competition.
There’ll also be 14 under-display speakers that will emit sound through the panel of the television itself – with the option to calibrate optimal sound settings based on the amount of space and layout of furniture in your room.
While pricing and availability have yet to be announced, though, there are reasons to be concerned about the longevity of Huawei's incoming OLED range.
- Here are the best OLED TVs
- What is OLED? The TV tech explained
- Smart TV 2020: what OS is really worth your while?
The risk of OLED
It’s an interesting time to be entering the OLED market. Pretty much all the major TV makers incorporate OLED panels into their premium TVs, but we’ve only just seen another Chinese manufacturer give up on the technology.
It was exciting to see the budget TV maker Hisense release an OLED TV, the Hisense O8B, but we found in testing that it offered a highly inconsistent experience – the result, we would guess, of having to skimp on software development and processing in order to keep down costs (OLED is still highly expensive compared to LCD).
Hisense actually ditched the technology entirely earlier this year. We don’t yet know the price point of Huawei’s set, or the level of quality it’s likely to achieve. It’s also worth noting that Huawei doesn’t traditionally release TVs in Western markets, so the company likely only has to convince domestic audiences in the immediate future.
But with so many excellent OLED TVs out there, and some – like the LG B9 or 48-inch CX OLED – even starting to approach affordable levels, we’ll be curious to see if Huawei can launch an OLED TV that sticks around for much longer than the O8B did.
- OLED vs QLED: comparing the two premium panel technologies
Via GSMArena
