Samsung unveiled a new monstrous 85-inch 4K Ultra HDTV at CES 2013 back in January, and it's now available un the UK, in a preview of what American consumers are likely in store for.
The price: a whopping £35,000 (that's almost $55,000!) It's a hell of a price for a hell of a television.
The "4K" moniker means the S9 has a resolution of 3840 × 2160 pixels, four times as much as normal HDTVs, with their 1080p screens. A 4K television can show four HDTV feeds on its single display simultaneously with no loss in quality. Of course, that also means it can play one video with four times the resolution. It's equivalent to a constant stream of images at 8.3 megapixels. In comparison, those beautiful HDTV images are only 1.2 megapixels.
UK consumers will have to pick up the S9 at Selfridges, as it won't be sold anywhere else in the country. But it looks like Americans can buy the behemoth directly from Samsung for a substantial discount: $39,999.99 with free white-glove shipping. What's a year of college compared to a wall-sized screen?
The S9 comes with hedges against technical obsolescence, which is handy when you're spending more than the cost of a car on something that won't take you anywhere.
"The S9 also has the advantage of being upgradeable via Samsung's Smart Evolution kit. This is a new feature of its high-end tellies where you can replace its smart TV system, with new processors and firmware. That's particularly useful on an Ultra HD device, because broadcasters and other moving-picture providers have yet to really agree what Ultra HD means," says Crave.
"Future upgrades may include the ability to accept 4K resolutions at 60Hz, something other 4K TVs lack," added CNET's tv reviewer Ty Pendlebury.
Don't expect to see any S9s sitting at garage sales anytime soon.
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