China’s TCL is well-known for pushing the envelope when it comes to screen sizes, recently launched a 115-inch Mini-LED TV called the X955K Max in the U.K. and the 115QM891G in the U.S.
But the company believes that that’s still not big enough to satisfy every kind of consumer, and is now setting its sights on delivering even larger TV sizes of 130-inches or even 150-inches, according to a report by FlatPanels HD.
TCL’s display manufacturing arm is called TCL CSOT, and it builds its 115-inch Mini-LED displays at its Generation 11 factory in China. The 11G factory is said to be an upgrade on its older Generation 8.5 or 8.5G manufacturing facilities, where it produces panels of up to 98-inches in size. The newer factory is all about delivering plus-size displays, and is capable of going far bigger.
When TCL CSOT builds its Mini-LED displays, it actually creates what’s called a “mother glass”, which is a substrate that can be cut in multiple ways to create smaller panels of different sizes. The company recently told FlatPanels HD that these mother glasses are so large they could actually be cut into a pair of 130-inch displays if desired.
The company further claims that even a 148-inch display might be possible in the near future, and this would also be produced at the 11G factory. However, the costs of these mega-sized displays would likely increase exponentially too. At present, the 115-inch Xi955K Max is said to cost around £24,999 in the U.K., and going even bigger than this would come with a significant premium on that already sky-high price.
That said, there does appear to be a small, niche market for such monstrous displays, as evidenced by TCL’s recent entry into the Micro-LED TV space. MicroLED is a different, and supposedly superior display technology that delivers more accurate colors, deeper blacks and better contrast than either Mini-LED or OLED. TCL recently launched its first MicroLED TV, the X11H Max, which is currently only available in China. It’s said to be a 163-inch model and it comes with a whopping price tag of around 800,000 yuan, which translates to approximately £85,000 in U.K. money.
Other brands, including LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics have also launched massive MicroLED displays in the past, but it’s unclear what kind of sales numbers they are seeing.
