Sony launches 'thinnest' LCD TV

Sony has announced what it claims is the world's thinnest LCD TV – just 9.9mm thick.

Engineers have managed to do this by lighting the 40in Bravia ZX1 screen from the side by LEDs rather than the back.

The company, unveiling the ZX1 at IFA in Berlin, did not explain how it managed to get uniform illumination across the screen.

It uses Sony's 100Hz Motionflow technology to screen 100 frames per second – double the standard rate.

It also supports 60GHz Wireless HD, so that HD pictures can be pumped to it without wires.

Another new Sony model, the Bravia Z4500, runs at 200Hz, equivalent to 200 frames per second. Sony says software 'fills in the gaps' between the transmitted frames to make fast motion shots more realistic.

But one of Sony's most interesting screens is also one of its smallest. It is to bring to Europe for the first time its 11in Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) TV, the XEL-1.

OLED screens have previously been available only in small devices like mobile phones. They generate their own light and are therefore more efficient than standard LCDs, which work by blocking (and thus wasting) light.

The XEL-1 is just 3mm thick and has a contrast ratio of more than a million to one.

There will be more on these products, and pictures, in our Test Bed blog later.