LG Signature OLED R, the world’s first rollable TV, can now be bought in India

In May this year, Korean electronics and home appliances company, LG, announced the introduction of its rollable television, the LG Signature OLED R, in India. Today, the TV has been made available at a store in India, with electronics store Croma in Juhu, Mumbai announcing its availability for any user who would intend to purchase it.

The TV was announced last month in India at an eye-watering price of Rs 75 lakh – although it is a novelty in terms of its technology and the way it operates.

The LG Signature OLED R uses a rollable display, which utilizes the organic light emitting diode (OLED) screen technology as its underlying offering. OLED displays have self-light emitting diodes, and therefore do not need a separate backlight layer to operate. This, alongside making them efficient in terms of energy consumption, also makes them lighter and slimmer – in turn facilitating flexibility.

Flexible, foldable and rollable displays are touted as the next generation of innovation by consumer technology companies, led most prominently by the introduction of foldable phones – such as Samsung’s Galaxy Z series of phones, and the Motorola Razr.

While LG is right now the only manufacturer to have a rollable OLED TV available commercially, it is not the only company to have worked on this new technology. Fellow Korean technology company, Samsung, is also reportedly developing its own rollable television, under its subsidiary, Samsung Display. The latter is tipped to be using QD-OLED display technology, which uses quantum dots in its OLED layer – something that Samsung has claimed can resolve the issue of image burn-in and low brightness levels in OLED displays.

Image burn-in is a common issue that was faced by various OLED TVs over time, caused by the exposure of static images on a display. The issue would cause an image on a TV’s display to appear as a silhouette even after the said image has been removed from the display – thereby causing disorientation in the image on the TV.

TCL, a Chinese electronics company, also showcased a sideways rollable TV concept at the 2020 Display Technology Conference. LG, meanwhile, had originally showcased its rollable TV technology at USA’s Consumer Electronics Show in 2018 – and unveiled it in select markets a year later.

LG’s Signature OLED R can now be demoed and even purchased at Croma’s Juhu store, and is presently available only in a 65-inch screen size.