Samsung has introduced 55-inch transparent and mirror OLED displays at a trade event at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Samsung has been producing transparent LCDs for some time, but is calling these OLED models an "industry first."

For now Samsung is pitching the displays as "digital signage" for retail applications, which is usually code for "way too expensive for consumers"—Samsung didn't talk about pricing. Both displays are paired with Intel's RealSense technology (which we last saw on Dell's Android tablet), and for the mirror display, Intel's 3D tech is used to create a “virtual fitting room.” The camera senses where the person is and draws clothing or jewelry on the display in the correct perspective to make it appear as if the viewer is wearing the item.

The mirror OLED panel has a more than 75 percent reflectance level, which Samsung says is "at least 50 percent higher" than mirror LCDs that are currently for sale. Samsung also says its new displays best mirror LCDs at contrast ratio (over 100,000:1 versus 4,000:1) and response time (under 1ms versus 8ms).

The transparent OLED display beats the existing LCDs, too. It's more transparent, letting through 40 percent of the light versus the barely there 10 percent transparency of today's transparent LCDs. It has a higher color gamut than competing LCDs (100 percent of NTSC versus 70 percent), and, of course, neither OLED display needs a backlight.