Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

Usually it’s “the bigger the better” but with Acer’s new S1 series of LCD TV screens it certainly looks like “less is more”. Announced this week, the super thin and small screens not only keep the high quality goods in a smaller space but also are “wallet friendly”. So if you’re interested in a smaller TV for your house or a decent quality, decent sized, space saving monitor, read on.

Housed in a nice glossy black outer shell the Acer S1 series truly indicate that size doesn’t matter. Opting to keep the screens small (18.5” to 23”) these little beauties only measure 15mm thick and a staggering 13mm in depth. Now I know you’re thinking squashing it so thin will mean it’ll lose out elsewhere. WRONG! They offer Full 1080p HD and a whopping 12million : 1 contrast ratio which alters frame by frame to deliver super sharp images. Couple that with a response time of 5ms and you’re looking at a belter. Now there is a downside in that the smaller screens only have VGA and DVI ports where as the larger 21 and 23 get HDMI too. Not only that with EcoDisplay low power consumption, you can sleep easy knowing your helping the environment too.

Prices start at an ultra-low £119.99 too.

The LG OLED TV has been doing the rounds at tradeshows and on blogs the world over for a good year or so now but now us Brits can expect a release of the super sharp but small TV anytime soon. Now we can finally get our hands (well if you happen to be well-off) on a bigger rival to the Sony XEL-1 which was the only OLED screen available.

At 15” you may think this is relatively small in comparison to a 50” plasma or LCD but the quality is far beyond that of either of the older techs which if you have a mobile or PMP that utilises OLED technology you may have noticed the difference between it and its LCD counterpart. The output is a good 720p and will have Freeview inside. It also has a USB port and will playback any of your movie files including DivX HD. To top all that off though is the best part ………… It’s only 3.2mm thick.

No exact date has been posted by the South Koreans for us though but expect real soon. Also price details are a bit hazy too but you’ll be looking at around £1500. A lot you might say for a 15” screen. Unfortunately OLED screens aren’t cheap to make but when it’s only competition is the Sony XEL-1 which is a few inches smaller but £3000, it doesn’t seem too bad.

The D241H Display+ is a new monitor with what i can only describe as bizarre features for a monitor. I’m not saying their bad features by any means just strange. In a world where most people own mobile phones or PMPs which can do your social networking, emails and photos, why not have a monitor that can do it independently of your desktop PC.

This 1080P Full HD panel with a 2ms response time, HDMI and DVI port, it’s your standard fairly decent LCD monitor for your desktop, What makes it stand out though is its ability to connect via Wi-Fi(or ethernet) to the net when your desktop is powered off. Once connected it’s widgets can check your email(Gmail and Yahoo! mail) collect RSS feeds from your favourite MightyGadget blog, and other assorted web feeds.

You can also plug in an SD card or USB dongle and playback your pictures turning the monitor into an oversized picture frame. What’s cool is you can have three widgets working at once too. It also comes with a remote with a slide out QWERTY keyboard making it easy to write your emails or messages from a comfortable distance.

No pictures of the screen yet but it’s believed to be available in May and pricing is still TBC.

Taiwanese giants Asus have recently announced this monstrous new 27” monitor with 3D support. Asus seem to be embracing the new future of 3D tech already with a 3D supported laptop out on the market and it seems to continue here with this super monitor.

Design wise it’s not the best looking monitor in the world but Asus can please aesthetically if they want. Quality is the name of the game here though, 27” screen with NVIDIA 3D vision support, will also be available in a smaller 23”(MG236 and VG236H) and 23.6”(PG246)(but why would you want that when you can get 27?). It has dual link DVI allows for full 1080p HD quality images at a staggering 60fps so when you slap on your 3D specs, the image is smooth and jerk free.

Due out later in the year, we don’t have any price available as of yet so keep your eye out for that. It is believed however that the smaller model will be available before the gargantuan one.

As you may have guessed (despite the recent flurry of mobiles on our blog) we love a good telly and this one looks like a great one coming from those super-relaxed Dutch folk at Philips. This is a contrast ratio beast.

The 2 models will both have Full HD capabilities, available in 32”, 40” and 46”(9000 series) and 37”, 40”, 46”and 52”(8000 series) both have a 0.5ms response time and a staggering 10million : 1 dynamic contrast ratio thanks to those lovely little LED's showering the screen in light.  The 9000 also dishes a super fast 400Hz refresh rate whilst the 8000 a lesser 200Hz(you say lesser but it’s still great) Both series also pack Wi-Fi which can stream video direct from a DLNA enabled PC.

What else makes these great is that both series of TV will be ready for the 3D revolution. However this function wont be given as standard with the initial release. If you want it, you’ll have to upgrade with a a pack containing a wireless transmitter and “Active Shutter” glasses.

The launch has happened today in Spain so details of a UK release and price are still unavailable at the moment but should be around soon.

The two Korean Electronic giants are both looking at launching their 3DTV screens as soon as next month. Samsung’s LED9000 Series 3D TV will be its first release where LG will be shipping its 32-52” Infinia LE9500 range of screens.

With so much in the 3D world appearing within the next year (Sky 3D, 3D gaming and more 3D Movies) now is a good time for the release. With the obvious popularity rise in 3D now at its highest since the 80s 3D revolution the question asked we need to ask is “will people spend the money on what could be the next fad”. Samsung seem to think so but maybe not as highly as first anticipated. Samsung Visual Display Division chief Yoon Boo-Keun said that Samsung had dropped their target of 2.6million 3DTV sales to 2 million(still a lot of sales)

Only problem is they’re keeping shtumm about prices but i wouldn’t expect it to be anything but ludicrous!

LG’s first told us about its new SL9000 a few months back now we have it here in Blighty the information is here for you. As were still waiting for OLED to break the 15” barrier LED is the next best thing inn television.

The super-slim edge to edge screen uses LED’s to backlight the screen. As LED’s are small this allows the screen to be super thin. Also they use a lot less power than a standard LCD TV, but the most important point is the clarity and depth it adds to the screen in comparison to an LCD or Plasma.

At a mere 3cm thin, it sports 4HDMI ports aswell as all the standard component and PC slots. However due to how thin the screen actually is and the fact the ports are on the back and not on the side of the panel, wall mounting this baby will require a dab DIY hand!

Prices start at £1000 for a 42” and £1500 for a “47, LG have however said this is the start of the series and it will soon come in smaller flavours which if you don’t have the space or the money for a mammoth screen, you can pick a smaller one up soon.

For those of us that didn’t know, Toshiba helped develop the Cell processor with Sony which powers the PS3. Now Toshiba re taking the tech into its new TV, the “Regza 55X1” LCD TV. The processor improves the quality of the image with better colours, brightness balance and improved picture quality around the edge of the screen.

The Cell chip is actually housed in an external box which also houses a 3TB HDD to save up to a whopping 26 hours from up to 8 simultaneous channels. Yes that’s right 8 simultaneous channels. Just to show off you can show 8 separate channels at one time on the screen. These can then be flicked through without any delay like a standard HDTV.

Throw in 55 inches of LED backlit screen, a 240Hz display and a contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1. A 7 speaker sound bar attached under the screen, network functionality with DLNA support and an Opera based web browser you can see this TV packs just about everything. Now what will it cost?? The TV was on show at CEATEC in Japan where it will be released this December at a cool 1 million Yen. That’s around £7000 to you and me…… Ouch