While Sony works on its OLED TVs (see previous blog), Samsung is bringing out a 70inch LCD TV that uses LED backlighting and local dimming.

By using LEDs for the back-lighting, Samsung claims it improves the TV’s life-cycle, picture quality and contrast. The technology is, the company said, expensive to produce, and so only used on selected sizes. In the Middle East it will only be available in Samsung’s latest 70inch LCD, although in other regions there is also a 53inch TV using the system.

A full HDTV, it has a contrast ratio of 500,000:1, which helps produce deeper colours. The LED backlighting works dynamically, so only comes on when needed.

Called the LA70F91, it comes out at the end of October and costs Dhs170,000. Also due for launch are 50inch and 63inch plasma TVs, the P9 and P7, costing Dhs12,000 and Dhs34,000 respectively.

The company is also releasing new MP3 players, including the widescreen YP-P2 with a 3inch WQVGA screen, making it good enough to clearly watch video. It comes with Bluetooth and with 2, 4 and 8GB of memory. In January Samsung will add a 16GB version to the range. They cost Dhs749, Dhs879, Dhs1,099 respectively.