Grundig is back!
The great-grandfather of tech is back in the UK, and it's equipped with a fancy new range of HDTVs and DVD recorders
Yesterday marked the official relaunch of Grundig. That's right -- the company best known for flogging cheap tellies through cheap retail outlets is back, and it's better than ever. Apparently.
It marked its re-entry to the UK market by hiring a room at the exclusive Groucho Club in London's Soho, serving lots of alcohol and showing the football on a Sony projector.
We went to the relaunch expecting the worst. Grundig, after all, is part of the Alba corporation -- the same company guilty of flogging brands like Bush, Goodmans and Ministry of Sound Audio. Not to mention the fact that the word 'grundig' conjures up images of filth, as in: "Eeeugh, you've got a bit of grundig on your shoe."
But we were pleasantly surprised. The Grundig stuff (TVs, DVD recorders, personal media players and CD players) actually looked pretty good from a design standpoint. Except the diarrhoea-coloured leather-bound worldwide radio receiver, which despite being designed by F.A. Porsche, looks like it came straight from the Fifties.
We didn't get a chance to play with the Grundigs at length (everybody was preoccupied with the England vs Trinidad & Tobago match), but we'll take an in-depth look at the Vision II HDTVs, GUDVDR011V DVD recorders and VP6200 personal media players in the very near future. They're all bang up to date with the latest technology, so we recommend you keep an eye out.
Check out the Grundig Web site for more information, or ask your granddad. -RR