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Comment by necovek | Hacker News Reader

If the price difference between making it bendable instead of always curved is neglible, you might as well cater to both flat-screen and curved-screen buyers with one product.

If flat OLED screens are significantly cheaper, then bendable screens will evolve into always curved models down the line.

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> If the price difference between making it bendable instead of always curved is neglible, you might as well cater to both flat-screen and curved-screen buyers with one product.

I agree.

In my case I bought years ago a curved LG OLED display even if I was quite against it because it was 1000.- CHF cheaper than its identical but flat twin (2500.-) => I relocated last October and the only place I could put the TV in the new flat was in front of the fireplace, which is in the livingroom's corner cutting the 2 walls by 45 degrees => the curved TV fits better than a flat TV to show the image towards the viewer sitting on the couch in the square room.

Therefore, if the price diff is not too high, then why not - maybe you won't need that feature or not immediately, but you never know; it does give you more "options" and I'm always in favour of that, as well when coding, managing a project, etc - having more options decreases risk, makes you more able to adapt, etc :)

Not only flat vs curved buyers but it can add flexibility in usage too. Maybe I want to put the monitor on a table and use it as a TV for a while (maybe a friend's kids are over and I want to put a TV in the corner). This way the same device can switch between a single-person curved display or a wider-viewing-angle flat display in seconds.

Sure, it is a niche use case, but why not?

Owning a curved ultrawide as my main PC monitor, I've definitely hit cases where it might be nice to briefly flatten it. I keep my main PC in my bedroom and don't have a TV in the bedroom. You can watch TV/videos that are centered in the display pretty well from the bed, but if you wanted to watch two things side by side or if there was a market for videos in "2K" ultrawide aspect ratios it would be tougher to watch things.

I've often also thought about the durability of the monitor if I need to move it to another home. Right now the only packing material I think is safe to use due to the curve is the packing material it came in that was molded to its curve. Movers are used to flat screens these days, but I can't imagine they'd have an easy time with this curved ultrawide.

I'm in a similar spot as you. I've also taken to holding on to the original packaging of this thing as a bit of an albatross, but so long as there's the slightest chance of needing to move this thing, I need the original styrofoam and cardboard. I've already gotten use out of it a few times.

the problem is that bendable OLEDs will ultimately never be quite the shape you want. especially if you want it flat - there will always be a small bit that bulges out, and it won't be a uniform curve, it'll actually be a crease or a localized bulge; and it'll be that tiny bit annoying to where people won't want to have them, especially with clear rather than matte displays, because of the inevitable annoying reflections which move as your head moves.

bendability is clearly a great thing for advertisements, and I see a lot of those things showing up in buses and trains (curved banners at the top, like on the London tube), tradeshows (curved artsy-fartsy installations), car dashboards, etc. but before any of that can happen, oled longevity in presence of static images needs to be fixed... which might never happen.

I’ve been using OLED displays for years on my phone and TV and never run into any issues with burn-in (not made any effort to prevent it either).

My current phone isn't OLED, but on a previous one after two years or so of usage the status bar area at the top was somewhat discernible if you looked for it.

do you display the exact same static image on your oled tv for weeks, like an ad banner would?

I think every input source on the TV has a software solution to move the UI elements around, because the developers know burn-in exists. The TV displays a screensaver if the input cuts out. I do have an old receiver that wants to display a constant blue screen when it loses input so I took steps to make sure my setup is configured to prevent that (use the TV as an HDMI switch and it sends audio to the receiver).

I know burn-in was a big deal back in the plasma TV days, but on the current generation of OLEDs I don’t think it’s as common. Every OLED I’ve seen in real life looked amazing.

All of what you're saying only applies to bending a screen in half, right?

I'm not seeing why a monitor like we're discussing would automatically have bulges or creases.

No, it's essentially slightly flexible plastic, it's not going to have a perfect curve. Look at some reviews, they already note that it's kind of annoying. I forgot where I saw those comments, I think the whole idea is bonkers so don't keep it around in my head.

They will, ultimately, be significantly cheaper, for one reason - freight. TVs ship in big boxes, full of styrofoam - you’re limited on how many you can fit in a standard container, and they’re expensive and fragile to ship the last leg to the consumer. They take up warehouse space, and are often a two-man lift for larger models.

Being able to ship a TV rolled up in a tube will be revolutionary.