At the start of CES, we saw Polaroid embrace the sub-$1K UHD TVs, but that doesn’t help Australians if it has an American release only. Fortunately, Kogan has something up its sleeve.
Coming in January barely weeks after the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas ends, Australian e-tailer Kogan will be selling its first Ultra High Definition TV for under the $1,000 mark.
Yes, you read that right, with the actual price coming in from Kogan at $999 before shipping, which Kogan says “makes Ultra HD affordable for all.”
“We want to make the latest technology more affordable for everyone, which is why we’ve designed a 55” Ultra High Definition Smart LED TV for under $1000,” said Ruslan Kogan, founder and CEO of the Aussie e-tailer Kogan.
“The real innovation here is the price. Generally it’s Australians who look at prices of technology overseas with envy. For once, it’s now the rest of the world looking to Australia, wondering when this Kogan TV will be available in their country,” Kogan said, adding that the rest of the world should “stay tuned” for that last bit to happen.
Little is known about the TV outside of it being a 55 inch LED backlit UHDTV with a 3840×2160 resolution. We do know it will include one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 port, a microSD slot, and support for WiFi and Ethernet, with Android 4.2 running on the TV hardware providing Smart TV support.
It will also upscale content for that Ultra High Definition resolution, which given the lack of 4K content available, is something of a necessity at the present time.
What we don’t know yet is where the Ultra HD panel is coming from (which manufacturer makes it) or any other specifications, leading speculation that it will be similar to the 4K TVs produced by Polaroid recently.
Regardless of whether this TV will match the quality on offer by competing brands such as Samsung, LG, Sony, TCL, and Hisense, it will provide an interesting incentive for people to move to the 4K side of things early, as the $1000 price tag is much less than the minimum prices offered by competitors.
Availability for the Kogan 55 inch UHDTV is expected in late January, where Australians will find it for $999.
i hope it is not another tv running at 50/100 Hz refresh rate.
So do we, but given the price… draw your own conclusions.
For the record, we have asked for more information on the panel being used, but no word from Kogan yet.