Remember the 55-inch Samsung OLED TV unveiled by the South Korean tech juggernaut at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show last January in Las Vegas? It will soon hit the stores.

The Associated Press is reporting that the world’s biggest phone manufacturer will be releasing the ES9500 Samsung OLED TV in the second half of 2012.

It won’t come cheap, however, as people who are eager to get their hands on the latest the TV market has to offer will have to part with $9,000 for the new 55-inch Samsung OLED TV.

We don’t know if Samsung meant for the model number ES9500 to be the price tag of the new Samsung OLED TV too but that seems to be the case.

The report from The Associated Press is hot on the heels of Samsung unveiling a production-ready model of its ES9500 OLED TV. The unveiling was done by Samsung in South Korea this Thursday at the World’s Fair 2012.

This means that Samsung has finished working on its OLED TV and it’s already ready to be mass produced.

In a statement, Hyuk-Sun Kim who is the executive vice president of Samsung’s Visual Display Business said:

“As the first company in the world to unveil a 55-inch OLED TV ready for mass production, Samsung is leading the next-generation, super premium TV market into the future. With our new OLED TV and large-screen Smart TVs at the forefront of innovation, we will deliver the very best in picture quality, sophisticated design and Smart TV content to consumers to enable a smarter lifestyle. And with these efforts, Samsung will continue to accelerate its ‘Beyond Comparison’ strategy throughout the marketplace.”

The company is proud of its newest flagship TV just like it is proud of its newest flagship smartphone – the Samsung Galaxy S III – which was unveiled recently.

Nonetheless, Samsung has a reason to be proud as OLED does have its advantages over conventional LCD and LED TVs.

The Samsung OLED TV promises better contrast and black levels compared to traditional LCD TVs as it does not need a different light source or backlight. Because OLED TVs have independently-lit light emitting diode pixels, some of these can be completely turned off to product a stark black. This is opposed to LCDs essentially having light on every pixel because it backlight-dependent.

Because individual pixels can be turned off in OLED TVs, this also results in lower power consumption. The fewer components also make it thinner overall than LCD panels.

Its colors will also be better because it within each pixel of an OLED TV resides dedicated red, blue and green elements. The Samsung OLED TV is said to have 20 percent better color reproduction compared to traditional LCD panels. Its viewing angles are also wider compared to LCD TVs because of its individually-lit pixels.

Separate from these features of the LED TV, Samsung has also packed in additional features for its OLED TV.

There is the Smart Interaction feature of the ES9500 Samsung OLED TV which enables users to interact and control the appliance with their voice and with gestures.

Samsung has also added Smart Evolution as the ES9500 features upgradeable dual-core processors. Because this is a smart TV and it has a CPU, content from the internet and through other means can be viewed with the Smart Content feature.

The South Korean company has also integrated a novel new feature to the ES9500. Users can make use of Smart Dual View to view two contents at the same time on the screen. What is novel about this, however, is beyond getting two contents at the same time on screen.

That is already present in TVs out in the market with the prevalent picture-in-picture feature. The ES9500 Samsung OLED TV enables users to view 2D and 3D content on screen at the same time with the Smart Dual View feature.

This means that even though a user may be wearing a 3D glass at the time of viewing, he or she will be able to view 2D content without having to remove the glasses. Furthermore, sound is also be delivered through a special headphone during this process.

Meanwhile, other news from the unveiling by Samsung is that it will expand its premium TV lineup for 2012 to 60-inch and 74-inch sizes.

As Samsung unveiled the ES9500, we’re also expecting LG to sell OLED TVs in the future but they seem to have been overtaken by their fellow South Korean tech giant.

LG was actually first to announce a working OLED TV with an announcement and demonstration of a 55-inch OLED TV of their own but Samsung seems to have beaten them to the punch as the LG rival looks to market its Samsung OLED TV before LG does.

Those who find the $9,000 price tag of the ES9500 Samsung OLED TV to be too high, however, can wait for three years as Samsung expects OLED TVs to be mainstream by then resulting in lower prices.

About Solon Harmony Dolor

A passion for technology and journalism makes this upcoming writer very interested in social media and technology news. Fresh from finishing an English and Journalism degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman, he aims to bring interesting news to our readers .