Watching LG’s new OLED TV: is curved the future?

It seems two Korean electronics giants are taking the claim of “world’s first” curved OLED TV here at CES. We’ve just stopped by LG’s massive booth here after checking out Samsung’s concave set, and it looks almost as if the two companies are showing off the exact same 55-inch television. LG has put three of the televisions side-by-side to accentuate the effect, but it’s clear even when looking at one of these displays that something isn’t quite right — it’s almost like a funhouse mirror. That’s not a bad thing, though — we actually were pleased with the curve, even if it doesn’t make an extremely noticeable difference. Representatives at the booth tell us that there aren’t any official specifications yet, and murmurs around the demonstation suggest that the TV is simply a concept flown in for the event. That’s a disappointment compared to Samsung’s promises of it shipping in the second half of this year, but maybe it’s just realistic — OLED TVs sans-curve have been hard enough to come by. What we do know is that the true holder of the title “world’s first” will be the company that can deliver its TV earliest.