No IFA would be complete without a colossal concept TV and this year, Skyworth delivered a monstrous 98-inch 8K vision of the future.
While Skyworth loses out to last year’s bendable size queen by just a few inches, the Shenzhen-based TV maker trumps Samsung by packing more pixels – 7,680×4,320 beats 5,120×2,160.
Quite why anyone would need such a huge TV is beyond us, but Skyworth – little known outside its native China – is about to launch its wares in Europe. Parking an attention-grabbing 98-inch tank on Samsung’s lawn is a great way to signal your intentions.
Related: FIFA Women’s World Cup to be broadcast in 8K and NHK to test 8K Ultra HD TV via satellite in 2016Unfortunately, deep-pocketed folks who fancy snapping one up may not have the chance. Allen Liang, Skyworth’s team leader for overseas marketing, told us that the unit is a proof-of-concept model and might not make it to market. Then again, Samsung said the same thing about its UN105S9B and look what happened there.
If Skyworth did sell this, Liang said it could cost in the region of $20,000 (£14,570). This isn’t too far off the prices of those very first 4K TVs.
Specs are thin on the ground. Aside from coming with two HDMI 2.0 ports and a pair of USB ports we were unable to find out anything about what it’s got running under the hood. The looped demo footage on the screen looked amazing, but such footage always does at trade events.
While freakishly big, the unnamed 98-inch 8K beast isn’t the only thing Skyworth has to offer; as well as this there’s the more-affordable 4K units from the G9200 Air Series, which was announced late last year.
These slender 7mm-thin models come in a variety of ranges and will soon be launching in European markets. Prices for every model are still to be confirmed, but Liang told us that the 55-inch model should cost around $1,500 (£1,340).
While the UK’s first 4K TV channel is now live and kicking and UHD tellies actually start approaching sensible prices, we’re hoping that Skyworth takes a leaf out of the Hisense book and continues the 4K price war.
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