TCL takes advantage of the runway at Display Week 2021 to show off what it’s capable of and, likely, what’s coming to market soon: an 8K mini-LED screen.
At the Display Week 2021 taking place in San Jose, California, CSOT, that is the company of the TCL group that develops and produces screens of various kinds, gave a real show of strength, presenting some products that could end up in a short time in department store televisions.
TCL is a Chinese company that in Europe we know only for a few years, so many may think that it is a manufacturer born recently. That’s not the case: TCL has been around since 1981, it doesn’t just make televisions but also smartphones and digital cameras, and in 2019 it closed its books with a whopping $10 billion in sales. Not exactly an inexperienced company then, but one of the largest electronics manufacturers in the world as well as the third largest manufacturer of televisions after “giants” of the caliber of Samsung and LG. In Europe, therefore, it has arrived with a wealth of experience and the new products announced at Display Week 2021 are just the latest demonstration.
The new TCL 120 Hz screens
The most important new product announced by CSOT, which it is worth reiterating is synonymous with TCL, is the first 85-inch 8K panel at 120 Hz based on a TFT IGZO (acronym for Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) substrate, a technology that combines speed in the alternation between the frames that make up a movie and energy savings compared to technologies that use silicon. The gain in terms of energy is not indifferent, and can be quantified in a lower energy demand of about 30% with the same characteristics.
Contrastingly to the IGZO TFT panel, CSOT has shown at Display Week also 8K, always with a refresh rate of 120 Hz in sizes 65 and 75 inches but with the presence of silicon, then without IGZO technology.
The TCL miniLED
And we come to miniLED, a technology still in its infancy on the market that promises greater backlight precision – which means better contrast – and higher peak brightness.
In terms of panels that exploit this technology, in which TCL has been investing for years, CSOT showed an 8K panel at 120 Hz with a 75-inch diagonal and active matrix substrate “on glass”, a technology hitherto unknown in consumer products.
The most interesting feature of the TCL-CSOT panel shown at Display Week is the number of local dimming zones in the miniLED matrix – as many as 5184 – , and many think that the American catwalk may suggest a move to large-scale production within a short time.
Finally, CSOT has somewhat merged two pretty interesting technologies, IGZO and miniLED, giving a real show of force through a 142-inch display with 1,920 x 1,200 pixel resolution composed of 160 11-inch borderless miniLED tiles.