Darker darks, lighter lights, oh my

— -- Precious few of you will ever plunk down $2,500 for a television with such a small screen. But I wouldn't blame you for at least being tempted by Sony's XEL-1 OLED TV. It's one of those "statement" products we'd all brag about if we actually owned.

In describing top-notch TVs, technophiles often revert to geek-speak: rich color saturation, fast response times, the blackest blacks and highest contrast ratios. The Sony shines in these categories.

Contrast ratio in particular is often hyped and sometimes misused. It measures the range between the brightest white and the darkest black a TV can display: The larger the ratio the better. Sony's OLED boasts a whopping 1 million:1 contrast ratio. Though it's hard to make a direct comparison, a very nice LCD or plasma might have a contrast ratio of 10,000:1. Bottom line: To the naked eye, the OLED boasts a vibrant picture.

That said, the price seems even more mind-boggling when you figure the TV is not even high-definition: It has a "native resolution" of 960 by 540 pixels, about half the full high-definition standard of 1,920 by 1,080. Don't sweat it. The TV can still accept high-def video signals in widescreen mode and scales them to the resolution on hand, which is perfectly fine for an 11-inch display.

Here's a closer look:

•Design. So just how thin is the TV? When I first opened the box it arrived in, I thought the company had somehow forgotten to include the television.

The black-and-silver panel — the sexiest part — is permanently raised on a base that reminds me of a more handsome version of a laptop docking station. The top of the screen is about 10 inches above the surface the base sits on.

You can tilt the screen back and forward, but you can't swivel it side to side — hardly a big deal, given the screen's very generous viewing angle. Because of the thinness of the TV panel, the speakers and various connectors reside on the rear of the base. There are two HDMI inputs (for connecting a DVD player, audio system etc.) and an RF connector (for an antenna or cable hookup).