3mm. That’s how thin the SONY XEL-1 ultra thin high definition television set is. Made out of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) the HD TV sports an 11 inch screen, 960 x 450 resolution, HDMI input, USB and Ethernet, two 1W built-in speakers, and an unbelievable 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Can you imagine the black colors? The subtlety of the shadows? And HD to boot!

How can SONY make a TV set so thin? Well, Sony accomplished this by the fact that the OLED doesn’t require any backlighting.
An electrical current causes the carbon based light emitting diodes to activate and deactivate as the current is contoled and shut on and off. This means less working parts and incredible low power consumption.

In addition, SONY is able to “cheat” at it by having the digital TV tuners, input jacks, and a host of other circuitry in the base of unit, like a set top box, while the screen itself hovers above . So technically, the screen itself is separate from the circuitry but is chained to it in a wired fashion. Now it would ‘ve really been cool if SONY could figure out a way to wirelessly transmit the signal and still keep the 3mm thickness. Then there’s the fact that the screen is so tiny, that it doesn’t really work as a main HD set. But the technology is new, so we’ll see where they can take it.

Meanwhile, the XEL-1 goes on sale in Japan next month for a whopping $1735.

Source – Ubergizmo.