You
hear it all the time about anything high end or high tech - the instant
you buy it, it's already been replaced by something better. Drive a new
car off the lot and see it depreciate the instant the rubber hits the
road.

Purchase a new computer and before you get it out of the box, it's already been replaced with a new and more powerful model.

And
then there are your HDTVs, which have come way down in price while
going way up in quality. Surely they haven't come up with something to
replace those plasma or LCD screens with such beautiful pictures?
Actually, they have. They're called OLEDs, short for organic
light-emitting diodes.

What's that? It's a flat panel TV made
out of organic material. The picture quality is incredible, with
a colour contrast ratio of a million to one. But that's not all. The
pixels actually emit their own light - and that means the set is no
thicker than the width of three credit cards. With something that thin,
it could let you take the Jetson's-like step of hanging the entire set
on the wall like a picture.

And it comes with one other bonus
- because it puts out its own light, it draws a lot less electricity.
"It consumes as little as 34 watts, which is less than a conventional
light bulb," explains Patrick Lapointe of Sony Canada.

Many of
those who've seen it have been blown away by the quality of the
picture. "Looking at it, you know, from pictures and specs and seeing
it in real life, it's just unbelievable," marvels Glenn, an I.T.
technician.

But every new product has some kind of drawback to
it and this one is no different. Where plasma and LCD screens measure
40 or 50 inches or more, the first OLED for sale is only 11 measly
inches and costs $2,500. It lasts for 30,000 hours although Sony is
looking at escalating it to a 27 inch screen - still not close to its
competitors, but a major step up.

Still, not everyone is ready
to step out on a ledge for OLED. "New technologies, usually you've got
to wait and see if there's anything wrong with them," cautions Toomaj
Haghshenas. "The price is high and all that, but eventually, yeah."

The
11-inch model is available now but Sony won't say when the larger one
might appear at your electronics store. Your best bet: wait. If the
history of this explosive industry is any indication, the screens will
get bigger and the prices will almost certainly get smaller.

Strengths and weaknesses

Advantages and Disadvantages

How They Work

OLED vs. Plasma TVs

OLED vs. LCDs

Sony press release