TVs at IFA: the best of the best
- — 31 August, 2012 16:30
The big TV announcements of the Internationale Funkaustellung Berlin — IFA to you and me — have come and gone. Samsung, Sony and LG have all released a swathe of information about upcoming, high-end, high-price TVs, and we've put it all together in one place.
Samsung: a sub-$10,000 55-inch OLED TV
Samsung's ES9500 OLED TV is one of two ground-breaking panels to be shown off at IFA. This OLED TV is, in a technical sense, the love-child of LCD and plasma technology — the end result is beautiful.
Samsung always impresses with its TVs' design, and the ES9500 stays true to this — it's sleek, simple, and attractive. It's got the requisite Samsung quirky features, the latest being Multi View. With two pairs of 3D-esque glasses, you could be watching one show on the TV while your partner is watching another.
CNET is saying that according to Samsung Australia's head of audio-visual, Phil Newtown, the ES9500 will be under $10,000 when it lands on Australian shores.
Samsung also showed the rest of the world the ES9000 75-inch LED TV.
LG: another 55-inch OLED TV, now with 3D
LG has added 3D to its OLED TV prototype, which is due out in Australia before Christmas. LG's approach to OLED uses a different pixel design — there's an extra white sub-pixel that should mean brighter overall images and better viewing angles — and it says the process is slightly cheaper than Samsung's.
The EM9600 OLED TV is expected to be in the $10,000 price range, although with Samsung under-cutting this slightly we'd expect to it pushed down a little. The EM9600 is projected to be around €9,000 in Europe and just over $11,000 in the US.
Engadget has a great gallery showing off the design of the EM9600. LG told us a while ago that the TV will hit Australian shores before the end of the year.
Sony: a 4K, 84-inch behemoth LED TV
Not content to be pushed out of the limelight by the Koreans, Sony yesterday took the wraps off its BRAVIA XBR-84X900 — an 84-inch edge-lit LED TV that will be the first to hit Australian shores with a 4K resolution. Call it Quad Full HD, UDTV, or UHDTV, but by any name it's four times as detailed as a standard Full HD TV of the same size.
We had our eyes opened wide when we took a look at the X900 yesterday at Sony's Sydney showroom. We sat very close — much closer than is advisable with a 1080p TV — and the level of detail visible was stunning. It's got great speakers, a great screen and its sheer size simply makes it a sight to behold.
Sony's probably only going to sell the set through its Sony Centre stores — fitting it in a JB Hi-Fi display cabinet would be difficult — and it's got a 4K-compatible Blu-ray player and A/V receiver that you can throw in for a few extra dollars. We don't know the price of the BRAVIA, but we're expecting it to be above $20,000. It'll also be out by year's end.
