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CES Day 3: How do you spell Love? O-L-E-D

Day 3, with the crowds easing just a tiny bit we seized the opportunity to storm the major players and get to the big guns of the show. What did we find? OLED's and 3D that reversed my thinking that I don't need one...I also found my "Awesome" TV at home might as well be a black & white TV with the old school wood housing compared to the stunning elegance and picture of these OLED's

First up on the list of Big Guns was Samsung. My GOD these OLED's. Seriously these things are game changers. No other way to put it. Samsung OLED TV's will change your "Picture Quality" scale in such a way that you will no longer be able to watch "Nice" TV's since you have seen the mountain top and know your TV is a rock on the mountain towards the bottom now.

With eye searing colors, flawless motion and blacks deeper than the darkest parts of the universe these TV's are the future. Add to this these TV's are around 8mm (5/16") thick and there is no doubt that this is the technology of future TV's. The only thing stopping this now is getting the cost down to a consumer level but the first company that gets this to market will be sure to reap the rewards as it is far superior to even the very best TV's available today.

The LG booth was next up and the passive 3D push was in full effect. Grab your glasses and hold on, everything is flying at your face. Moving through the booth I noticed the lower end LG TV's had that eye straining effect and it further cemented my indifference to 3D in general...But as I moved towards the High end 55"+ TV's something magical happened. Something unexpected. Suddenly I was standing in a confetti shower and rain drops were blasting me in the face. I was stunned, the effect was SO good I literally forgot I had glasses on and was lost in the moment of 3D nirvana.

The LG Rep told me these TV's were still "Prototypes" but they do expect to ship them by the end of the year. The high end models sporting a 480Hz Refresh rate. I really think when these TV's ship out to showcase floors like Best Buy and the like, these TV's are going to move a lot more units than current 3D TV's as these are non-eye straining and gorgeous to watch, plus the "Pop out" in your face effect was the best I have ever seen.

LG wasn't content to let Samsung have all the OLED glory though and in fact one upped them by having 3 OLED sets running in passive 3D and measuring in at a amazing 4mm. These were incredible as well. Bright, Vivid, Deep Dark Blacks and the best 3D effects I have seen on a TV. However on the other side the 3 OLED sets that LG had running in 2D didn't have the jaw dropping effect as the Samsung's did. Needless to say though this is comparing 1 to 1a they were still amazing TV's and perhaps Samsung just had a better demo running to show off the TV's.

Heading to Intel it was ALL Ultrabooks with a sprinkling of their Phone/Tablet ambitions. For now though it is clear that the Ultrabook is being pushed to the mainstream and after handling a few it is easy to see why. These Ultra's really pack full size power into the smallest form factor yet. While there were a few models that had screens feeling on the "Flimsy" side most of these Ultra's are well constructed and feel sturdy for how slim they are. Making use of Aluminum and Carbon Fiber materials these Ultra's don't sacrifice sturdiness for portability and at the end of the day it seems to be the most appealing feature behind the portability.

We also hit Sony who was in the middle of a Kelly Pickler concert but they really didn't have anything incredible. They have so many diverse products nothing really seemed to stand out in a big way. A big focus on Eco Power saving TV's and devices, but not much else. Sharp had their beautiful 80" Aquos TV's and some 4K TV's but after the OLED's they were just really, really nice. Not OLED Godlike nice. Microsoft belongs in this so-so category as well. They had some interesting stuff but it is clear that the decision to pull out of CES is due to the lack of new announcements they have in the first part of the year.

These booths will receive picture love though in my wrap up blog as soon as I get back to my 50Mbps Internet connection at home and can actually upload photos without waiting 60-90 seconds for each photo to upload ha ha.