LG Display

Want a TV thin and light enough to stick to the wall like a poster? You might not have to wait long.

A leak seems to indicate that LG could begin selling its futuristic "wallpaper" OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TV next year.

As reported by flatpanelshd, the website of the WiFi Alliance has revealed what appear be all of LG's new 2017 OLED TVs. The information, as of press time still available on the Alliance's site, consists chiefly of model numbers and Wi-Fi certification dates.

When asked to confirm the information LG's Director of New Product Development Tim Alessi said "We are not going to comment on 2017 product plans right now, and we won't comment on a speculative article based on Wi-Fi certifications." He added that "a number of things" in the flatpanelshd report were inaccurate, but would not specify any.

Throw it against the wall, hope it sticks

OLED technology delivers the best picture quality we've ever tested, but it's also uniquely thin and flexible, allowing some unusual form factors. In its concept form first revealed last year, the wallpaper TV weighs 1.9 kilograms and is less than a millimeter thick. Thanks to a magnetic mat it can be stuck to a wall like a poster. To remove the display from the wall, you peel the screen off the mat.

I saw and actually handled a couple of concept wallpaper TVs during a trip to LG's facilities in Korea last year. It's pretty incredible, and flexible enough to bend along a gentle curve, similar to the curved OLED video walls the company has shown previously. I've always been skeptical about its real-world applications -- wall-mounted TVs seem thin enough already, with little need to move them around -- but it sure looks cool.

Speaking with LG's representatives at the time, they said the intention was to make the wallpaper TV marketable, as soon as they could overcome hurdles like how to integrate connections and a power supply. Those hurdles hardly seem insurmountable.

Like all leaks this one should be taken with a grain of salt, but based on LG's current lineup of OLED TVs, those leaked model numbers seem entirely plausible to me. All of the current sets, such as OLED65B6P, follow the naming convention of OLED[screen size][letter designation]6, where "6" denotes a 2016 model. All of the leaked model numbers follow suit, with a "7" instead, which could easily denote a 2017 TV. Here they are.

Leaked 2017 LG OLED TVs Model number Size Best guess OLED55B7 55-inch Entry-level flat OLED, successor to the current B6 OLED65B7 65-inch OLED55C7 55-inch Sole curved OLED, successor to the current C6 OLED65C7 65-inch OLED55E7 55-inch Step-up flat OLED, successor to the current E6 OLED65E7 65-inch OLED65G7 65-inch Step-up flat OLED, successor to the current G6 OLED77G7 77-inch OLED65W7 65-inch All-new "Wallpaper" OLED OLED77W7 77-inch

I agree with all of those best guesses above, which first appeared in the flatpanelhd article, including the speculation that the "W" in the model number of the final TV could easily indicate "wallpaper." LG's stated intention to bring wallpaper OLED TV technology to market soon seems to corroborate the guess.

I'm not going to venture any more speculation at this point, except to take a stab at the pricing of the 65-inch "wallpaper" set: $10,000.

I do expect to find out more shortly before the 2017 CES in Las Vegas.

In the meantime, here's the most popular video from my coverage of last year's CES, showing another concept OLED display -- one that can be rolled up like a newspaper. 2018, maybe?