How Bad is this $2,500 OLED from 17 Years Ago?? - Sony XEL-1

Sony released an OLED TV in over a decade ago, and it may have been tiny but it was cool as heck and holds up surprisingly well to today's standards.

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

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MUSIC CREDIT
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova

Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High

CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
1:09 XEL-1
3:03 Gaming
4:42 iPad Pro Comparison
6:20 LIME DAY
7:07 Downsides
8:15 Audio
10:05 R&D
11:30 Conclusion
13:37 Outro

[Tritium]

If i remember correctly, this *is* 1/4 of a 22" professional monitor by Sony...which cost upwards of $20 grand, so spot on

[xenotiic]

What I think is crazier is that only a few years later, late 2011 early 2012, the Playstation Vita released with a 5" OLED at the same resolution, and the whole console cost $250-350 depending on the model. The pace at which this tech became affordable is crazy.

[box]

I still remember working in a small electronics shop in Germany. We received a sample from Sony, and we displayed it with a ridiculously high sticker price. Surprisingly, someone really wanted to buy it. We had to get permission from Sony to sell it because it wasn't actually intended for sale at that point.

[ElNeroDiablo]

11", 960x540p60 OLED from 2008... sounds like it was a stepping stone to the 5" 960x544p60 (220ppi) OLED panel that went in to the Vita 100x/110x units just 3-4 years later (2011/2012).
Honestly impressive for a 16 year old product.

[TechPlasma]

I remember when this was all over the cover and the featured article for Popular Sciences best inventions of that year. It was absolutely crazy at the time.

[JamesMichaelFarley]

When I worked at Circuit City my boss had this and we watched Fantastic Four on it. What a time to be alive.

[themashhoodahmad]

James shot 20 sponsor segments at the same spot 😂😂😂

[kewlhunter]

I was working at a Sony Centre and we had 2 of these, one display and 1 brand new as stock. The boss thought we would never sell it as it was $aus6999. After i sold it for virtually full price, the boss gave me an incredible deal on the display model, as it was no longer needed (2009) as we wouldn't be getting any more.

I have had it next to my bed ever since and its still going strong. Probably gets about 3 hours use every day. Although small, when its this close its really not an issue for me. Thankfully it had digital tuner built in so hasn't become obsolete.

Mine has 2 hdmi, usb and the 3.5.mm headphone jack. I have google chromecast plugged into to stream. I also still have the original demo dvd we used in the store that has all the selling points etc. and the brochure

No burn in issues with mine and picture is still great. Absolutely love it

[SierraLimaOscar]

I remember when we from the professional and broadcast side of Sony were briefed on that exact TV and technology. The opinion at the time was that the end result is great, but the natural deterioration of the organic component of the OLED (?) made larger screens impractical/impossible. Sony hit a wall in its R&D and apparently the larger screen were failing noticeably after 6 months. They did persevere for a while though, but ultimately abandoned OLED. They were quite dismissive internally of LG picking up the tech, and the attitude was more along the lines "we dodged a bullet, watch LG losing money on this". To be fair this was happening when Sony was already considering bowing out of the screen manufacturing business and sold off a lot of its tech to Samsung and LG. Forward a few years later and they became one of the main promoter of OLED in the pro space (using panels from LG).

[Jcon]

I worked at the Sony store in Providence, RI during college and I fell in love with this thing. We had it in the store and it played Meet the Robinsons on repeat all day everyday and from that point on, I've been an OLED enthusiast. What a blast from the past!

[SaccoBelmonte]

Actually. We all need to thank Mr Nakamura. The guy who, against all odds, relentlessly found a way to create a blue LED.

Also: Remarkable that there was no noticeable burn-in on that old display.

[HRM.H]

You should try to buy the worlds first plasma tv next!!!

[LightsAcapella]

How many times do you think Linus has said "boy does it *ever* look good" in his career?

[jimmynuetron]

Thats not an *OLED TV* thats an ᴼᴸᴱᴰ ᵀⱽ

[vanish]

I remember reading the news when it was announced!!! Soon after, a flagship television newscast from Brazil started using it, and most impressively, it is still in use to this day!!

[chuckthetekkie]

In 2008 we were still using a 32" Sony CRT in the living room that my parents bought in the 90's and smaller CRTs in the bedrooms. We still have that Sony CRT as it still works but take 3 to 4 people to move it.

[tdolan]

You had the most perfect opportunity to recreate the plasma tv scene from the office and let it just sail by.

[xTJ]

I really enjoy the enthusiasm in these sorts of videos! Just some cool tech that was at the bleeding edge.

[mattrandall]

I saw this on display in 2008 at a Sony outlet and was impressed, I'm not surprised by your reaction.

[ShwaBdudle]

And here I am watching a review of the first ever OLED screen on my *budget* OLED phone. Crazy how accessible this technology has become