Xiaomi’s transparent OLED TV is a transparent eye-catcher, and it works

The best TVs deliver an image that is so good, it’s like looking through a window to another world. But – and stay with me – what if your next TV was like a window in, what’s behind your TV? That’s what Xiaomi’s new $ 7,000 transparent OLED TV promises. The Mi TV LUX OLED Transparent Edition is a new product announced as part of Xiaomi’s 10th anniversary celebration that, according to press releases, is all about displaying solitary objects floating in space.

This TV can be transparent, in part due to the fact that Xiaomi puts all the gut in its circular base instead of behind the screen. But the more magical part of how it actually created a transparent OLED screen comes down to the use of transparent OLED technology (TOLED). As mentioned on the Universal Display Corporation page that breaks all specs, TOLED screens use transparent components all the way through the stack that makes up the screen, and without the need for backlighting (each diode emits its own light , hence the acronym), images can look like they are floating. Most other OLED screens use a reflective layer of the cathode, which prevents you from seeing through it even when the back was removed.

Image: Xiaomi

The result is a 55-inch transparent TV that “looks like a glass display” when turned off. Powered, it has a refresh rate of 120Hz, response time of 1ms, contrast ratio 150,000: 1, and it has 93 percent of the DCI-P3 color profile. In terms of display, it looks great, but I have a few concerns that Xiaomi’s press release does not really respond.

For example, probably me to be able to what to watch or play on this tv, but what kind of content will work best on it? The press releases show animals just cooling off in the lowlands. Xiaomi talks about its AI Master Smart Engine and the custom MediaTek 9650 chip for intelligent optimization of how the image appears, but he does not mention how it can isolate objects from a background as seen in the images – if that itself is something that it can do. Maybe it just shows some high resolution .png files, and for everything else I could expect it to have just some transparent quality, what I can not say is what I ever wanted. And even if you are viewing content that is optimized for this screen, it is possible that the sleeping parts of the screen will not be as crystal clear as you might hope it to be. LG showed something similar in 2019 that was built for signature purposes, and the frame has a dark tint to it. Xiaomi’s press releases actually reflect that the panel may be a bit darker, so this may be true to how it looks personally.

This TV is only set to release in China for RMB 49,999 (about $ 7,200), and it will be available to order on August 16th. Honestly, I would love to see it in action. All we have in the West are these crappy OLEDs that I have can not look through.