Sharp Debuts the First Roku-Powered OLED TVs

Sharp Roku-powered LED TV
(Image credit: Sharp)

Sharp, which recently returned to the U.S. TV market after an eight-year absence, has rolled out the first smart TVs to use high-end OLED display technology. 

The 55- and 65-inch 4K/HDR10 models, which are available on store shelves now for $1,500 and $2,000 respectively, carry Sharp's "Aquious" sub-branding and feature Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos tech. (You can read Sharp's product announcement here.)

They're the first sets based on organic light-emitting diode display technology, and not LCD, to be powered by the Roku OS in the nearly decade-old Roku TV program. (Roku OEM partners including TCL and Hisense, as well as Roku itself, have made Roku sets using "quantum dot LED" tech, or "QLED" as it's known, but that is actually classified as a form of LCD.)

Also read: Roku's Chris Larson: ‘We Spend Roughly $1 Billion a Year on R&D. It's Taken Us 15 Years to Get Here. To Say You're Going to Spend $200 Million and Catch That in 6 Months Is a Lot of Bravado’

OLED technology is featured in the high-end models of Korean manufacturers including Samsung and LG, as well as Japan's Sony Corp. In fact, The Verge speculates that the Sharp Aquious panels are probably made by LG. 

As for Sharp, the venerable Japanese electronics brand is now majority-owned by Taiwan's Foxconn. The company made a return of sorts to the North American TV market last year, after selling its factory in Mexico -- and its North American branding rights -- to Hisense back in 2015.

Sharp subsequently sued Hisense to get its brand back, with Foxconn setting up its own Sharp manufacturing facility in Mexico. 

Daniel Frankel

Daniel Frankel is the managing editor of Next TV, an internet publishing vertical focused on the business of video streaming. A Los Angeles-based writer and editor who has covered the media and technology industries for more than two decades, Daniel has worked on staff for publications including E! Online, Electronic Media, Mediaweek, Variety, paidContent and GigaOm. You can start living a healthier life with greater wealth and prosperity by following Daniel on Twitter today!