2. Looking For: OLED and Skinny TVs

Veterans of expansive tech trade shows know that there are two kinds of interesting products on display. First, there are the mainstream marquis products: products from famous manufacturers who’ve come out with their “next big thing” that will either maintain the company’s brand position, or doom it to mediocrity.

Then, there are the hidden gems: the unexpected inventions that have potential, but are so quirky, limited, or below-the-radar that the don’t have mass appeal.

At Tom’s Guide, we like both types of promising tech, but we’ll start by giving you a few examples of the big-name brands and products we’re psyched (and hopeful) to see in Vegas.

Skinny TVs

We know we said there wouldn’t be many extreme-size contests at CES this year, but skinny seems to be in. News has already leaked that LG intends to show off what may be the thinnest HDTV ever. The company’s LH95 LCD set is expected to be only 24.8 mm thick (that’s under an inch) and feature a contrast ration of 2,000,000:1. Is that for real? We don’t know, but we’ll do our best to check it out. But, if LG is already bragging about its slender set, won’t Toshiba, Samsung, Sharp, and the rest of the gang have to come up with something to shut LG up? There’s always some kind of size fight when this group is involved.

OLED TVs

OLED TVs are skinny, too, but that’s not the only thing that makes them totally awesome—they’ve also shown demonstrable high contrast ratios, excellent viewing angles, and extremely low power consumption. The wave of the future? Sony and Samusng seem to think so. They’re beginning to go to war over the technology. Sony’s 3mm-thick XEL-1, with its 11-inch screen, is the first OLED TV to reach the market and sells for $2,500. But Samsung showed off a 40-inch OLED TV in October. Will we see a Samsung OLED TV at CES that’s ready for prime time? We’re expecting one that doesn’t require us to squint to look at it—say, 30 inches?