Sharp’s Uber-thin TV To Arrive on 2010, Top at 131 inches

The new one-inch thick TV are not experimental as we first imagined: they will release them in two to three years, with a flagship 131-inch version illuminated by some “secret technology we can’t talk about.” We’ve just seen them in Berlin and they really are skinny. Sharp’s Corporate Communications PR-Manager, Martin Beckmann told us all about it.

The TVs will be made at Sharp’s new plant in Osaka – which is the same one that makes their solar panels, because it shares the same manufacturing technology.

We asked Martin how they were lighting the panels, suggesting it was LED. Martin smiled and shook his head, saying that it was top secret and he wasn’t at liberty to talk about it. Who knows? Maybe he was bluffing or maybe he didn’t know, but it sure looked amazing.

They are, however, aiming to be size leader of LCD TVs – and, it seems, the kings of thin. Let Giz remind you that the screen is just 23 mm thick – that’s 0.9 inches – and 32 mm (1.26 inches) if you add in the back box and grille. And just check how big their tenth-generation LCD panel actually is – that’s little old me jumping up and down next to it, and I’m 5′11″.