14 DAY TRIAL // Since television sets are suffering from the same problem of lack of innovation as monitors, now that the market has matured and consumers aren't prone towards changing their existing panels, Philips has released a series that pulls out all the new guns.
Which is to say, Philips has officially released its collection of 4k Ultra High Definition television sets, or the year 2014's 4K UHD TVs series for short.
The high-end 7809 line includes displays in 42-inch, 49-inch and 55-inch diagonals, all of which will be available in Russia and Europe in the second quarter.
That means that they will start to show up in stores as early as April, or as late as June if things don't go well. May will probably be the most active, as is often the case with the middle ground.
Their specifications are pretty standard, as far as UHD TVs go: 3840 x 2160 pixels resolution, various refresh rates, integrated speaker systems, etc.
There is one TV that will turn heads though, namely the 55-inch 8809 series, which is a Smart TV running the Android operating system.
Well, technically, there's a 48-inch model too, or there will be, but that one comes in 1920 x 1080 pixels Full HD resolution, not 4K. In fact, there's a Full HD iteration of the 55-inch Philips 8809 as well, if you don't want to bother with or pay for 4K just yet.
Since the Android operating system is installed, you can download apps from Google Play, and also access Dropbox content (a cloud service).
There's another asset that needs mentioning here as well: the Hue lighting technology, which doesn't do anything for the screen/image itself, but adds to the atmosphere and immersion.
How? By painting the wall behind your TV in the colors of the image. A LED system is built into the back of the TV, you see. That LED system is synced with the image showing on the screen, and will extend the colors along the edges, as it were, to the background.
It will make you feel as if you're part of the happenings in the film, or at least a live witness. That's the goal anyway. Whether or not it has the same effect on viewers depends on them as well. Maybe some people, children in particular, will be more fascinated with the abstract color art than the film itself.
The Philips 8809 and 7809 UHD TVs will all sell by the end of Q2 2014 in Europe and Russia, but the Android one won't make it to the UK and might not reach the US immediately either.