Polaroid announce a sub-$1000 4K TV
Old-timey camera makers Polaroid are backing a new horse – after giving up on, umm, Polaroid Cameras a few years ago, they’re now trying their hand at making TVs – and have announced what is probably the cheapest 4K TV yet.
4K televisions – also known as “Ultra HD” have long seemed like a distant dream for many consumers, with early versions retailing for many thousands of pounds. Take this Panasonic for example, which would cost around 5 grand.
This new Polaroid model looks set to retail below the psychologically important $1000 (about £600 or so) – making the photo-realism accessible to many more people. Okay, so it’s not exactly a price that will mean that we can solve the world energy crisis by burning cheap 4K TVs for fuel – but it does mean that the market for 4K tellies won’t be just Russian Oligarchs looking for something to put in their yacht.
The new 50″ TV will have a resolution of 3840×2160 – or “2160p”, as we’ll be seeing all of the time over the next few years. This is four times larger than a HD TV today – and having seen one running in the flesh, I can confirm it looks pretty damn spectacular.
Of course, the issue at the moment is the lack of things to watch in 4K… not many people are making TV shows in such a large format. But hopefully Polaroid and inevitably other manufacturers getting in on this lower price-point will create the critical mass of 4K users to turn the tide.
Polaroid have bigger ambitions too – whilst this 4K TV is the headline grabber, they’ve also revealed plans to produce regular (1080p) HDTVs in everything from 32″ to 69″. Apparently at next week’s CES they’ll also be showing off a 50″ smart TV, with built in Roku functionality.
