Yesterday, Chinese OEM Seiki officially priced its 50-inch Ultra HD TV at $1500 , making it
the cheapest 4K television in the history of absurd resolution. It's cheaper
even than the last round of super-cheap Chinese 4Ks we saw. The price is so
low, in fact, and the brand name is so unfamiliar, that you had to wonder if
this television was a joke—or worse—a piece of garbage. I'm one of the first
people in America to see this mythical creature, and I'll tell you right now: I
can't believe my eyes.
We got a chance to watch 4K content
on Seiki's 3840 x 2160, 120Hz LED beast for about 30 minutes today, and it was
totally breathtaking. Much of the footage was stock 4K so, you know, it was
amazing and perfectly shot and calibrated. But even with that knowledge in mind
my brain was bombed by the clarity and detail of the picture. It's hard to get
over the thrill of squinting at a TV up close and not seeing a pixel or a blur.
While watching footage of a tokyo
cityscape, I could see the tiniest details like, for example, a tiny train
navigating its way through skyscraper canyons. I also watched a 10-minute clip
of animated video designed to be representative of 4K video content, and it was
totally enrapturing. The TV was only 50-inches, but the picture was so
immersive that you could've told me I was in movie theater.
Now, this wasn't a full, formal test
of the TV so we can't argue for sure that it's a keeper, but for a 4K, it is
unbelievably cheap. Please remember, too, that there isn't a whole lot of 4K
content out there, but a lot of big companies like Sony are planning to start
delivering large amounts of it within the next year. 4K is a fairly safe bet
for the feature. Investing in a 4K panel doesn't seem as crazy today as it did
a few years ago. The power of the television's 4K-scaling engine will also be very
important to test.
The company also told us that there
would be a one-year no questions warranty. It's hoping to have a 65-inch 4K TV
ready by midsummer.
Now, the TV is
cheap in part, because it doesn't come with any bells and whistles. It's just a
straight up beautiful panel with three HDMI inputs. The simplicity is a clear
rebuttal to Sony, Samsung, LG and the rest, and we're willing to be people
don't care about connected TV crap and 3D or even a brand name enough to spend
$25000 on a TV. People just want a simple, beautiful televisions they can
afford. What good is a television the price of a sports car? Sure, at
$1500, Seiki isn't gonna going to make any R&D money—but they might
actually sell some TVs. [Source]
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