Credit: Fergus Halliday | IDG
Panasonic showed off a transparent OLED TV for the first time in Australia today, and it just proves that we’re living in 2019 and tech companies are living in 3019.
Demonstrated this morning at Panasonic’s Home AV event in Sydney, the new TV sandwiches an OLED panel between two panes of glass. When the television is off, it’s completely transparent - if you didn’t know it was a TV, it’s easy enough to mistake it for a window pane. When it’s turned on, however, the image is crisp and clear, with rich and deep colours similar to the company’s other OLED TVs.
I tried so hard to stay professional during the demo, because it’s so goddamn cool - but my inner nerd was screaming.
The concept is not new or even unique to Panasonic; Samsung have been talking about transparent screens as far back as 2010.
While Panasonic say they are yet to determine whether a consumer product based on prototype will come to Australia in the future but it seems likely, as the technology is so versatile and exciting. The hype around LG's rollable OLED R suggests that consumers are keen for a TV that they can hide away at their convenience and Panasonic's transparent Smart OLED might be a different route to that same destination.
If you need me, I'll be waiting for this for the rest of my life.
