14 DAY TRIAL // After months of slow reports and leaks, Sony is finally ready (well, almost) to start selling its new collection of television sets featuring a native resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. Well, that as well as an updated media player.
As the title says, the new displays are launched as part of the Bravia series, Sony's long-standing range of TVs, and we're not just talking high-end here.
However, looking at the XBR-X850B makes us think that the term “entry-level” or “low-end” might have been stretched a tiny bit too far this time.
After all, when one hears that a product is “entry-level,” they naturally assume that the price will be low, maybe in the hundreds of dollars/euro or less.
Even adjusting for the type of display technology, 4K / UHD (ultra high definition), the assumption would still be that the price is of one thousand dollars / Euro at most.
Yet the entry-level 49-inch member of the XBR-X850B series has a price of no less than $2,099 / €2,099. Probably a dozen more after adding all the VAT and shipment taxes.
Then, there's the best of the “entry-level” series, which measures 70 inches in diagonal and bears a price tag of $5,499 / €5,499.
The price tags only go higher from there, with the largest being the one borne by the 85-inch XBR-X950B: $24,999 / €24,999.
Between those extremes lie several other TVs, with varying display dimensions. The XBR-X900B line reaches from 55 inches and $3,999 / €3,999 price to 79 inches and $8,999 / €8,999 price. The 65-inch is a middle ground, of sorts, with a tag of $4,999 / €4,999.
You probably won't want to buy any of these things if you don't have a television broadcast contract that includes channels in 4K quality.
If you do, though, or if you possess a media player that can scale quality up from 1920 x 1080 pixels (Full HD) to 4K, you have until June to raise the necessary cash. Until then, Sony will only be shipping the displays to retailers, online and otherwise.
Speaking of media players, the FMP-X10 will be getting an update by the time Sony's Bravia 4K TV collection comes out. It has a hard disk drive of 1 TB and will be shipped, for free or with a discount, with the TV sets we have mentioned above.
The price will probably be of around $699 / €699. That's the price that the original media player had anyway. Since the company didn't see fit to mention the new one, we're just guessing here.