Sony puts a price on its 4K TV: $25,000
Early adopters who want twice the resolution as ordinary HD TV will have to pay dearly for it. The price tag for Sony's XBR-84X900 works out to 0.3 cents per pixel.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
A week after Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai uncloaked the company's massive 4K 3D TV, Sony has uncloaked its price, too: $25,000.
People can pre-order Sony's 84-inch XBR-84X900 today, but it won't be in stores until November, Sony said today.
The 4K TV has four times the number of pixels -- 3,840x2,160 -- as a regular HD TV. The 4K label, a bit of a loose term meaning 4,000, refers to number of pixels across the width. Sony is pushing hard to move the industry to 4K video, hoping for a new upgrade cycle such as the one that occurred when people replaced bulky CRT TVs with today's flat-panel models.
The price of Sony's massive XBR-84X900 obviously will deter ordinary buyers, but prices should drop over time as they have with HD, 3D, and flat-panel TVs in recent years.
One hurdle for Sony to overcome: there's barely any video available that's shot in 4K, though there's a 4K YouTube channel, some movies and movie theaters are making the shift, and Sony's TV can upscale traditional 1,920x1080 HD video to 4K. Another hurdle: 4K resolution is too high to perceive unless you're sitting very close to the screen, by some measurements.
The XBR-84X900 is a passive 3D TV, meaning that watching 3D requires only polarized-light glasses that don't require batteries or synchronization with the TV itself.
It's also got a 10-driver stereo speaker system mounted along the edges of the screen. The screen itself is an edge-lit LED-based LCD. Sony uncloaked the huge Bravia model at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.
Updated at 7:52 a.m. PT to correct the price per pixel of the TV: 0.3 cents each.