At their CES keynote, Sony today announced that they want to wow customers like they once did, admitting that they’d lost the spart for a few years. But they’re back, according to themselves, with a number of amazing new TVs, yet the stark omission of any 3D TVs, indicative of the lack of interest in the market with that style of television.
The TV announcements began with the revelation that Sony’s 80″ TVs from 2012 did actually exceed sales expectations, however also told that they’ve decided to release some more traditional-sized 4K displays.
Starting with a 55″ and 65″ 4K TV, the XBR-55X900A and XBR-65X900A include edge-lit LEDs, and upscaling of legacy content to 4K, which is being handled by an X-Reality Pro engine. There’s also passive-3D, so while that craze isn’t entirely dead, it did miss a lot of the attention of previous CES conferences. There’s Wi-Fi Direct screen mirroring and it will be hitting an undisclosed ‘accessible price range’. But don’t get too excited, 4K will likely remain very expensive for a few years.
Meanwhile, there are some new 1080p TVs, starting from 32″ to 70″ sets, which could look pretty poor in comparison to a 4K TV. Almost all have 3D and Edge LED lighting and the R550A as well as R520A can record DirecTV without a separate PVR, in America of course. Again, pricing is yet to be announced, as well as availability in Australian retail, however I cannot wait to see a Sony 4K TV in my local tech store, if it ever comes. All will be available in spring.
Meanwhile, Sony’s highend TVs now have Miracast, similar to AirPlay, and NFC, allowing users to simply tap an Xperia phone with NFC towards the TV’s remote to share content. W800 and above TVs will get the ew features. The Verge reports that the screen mirroring is one of the best they’ve seen, however don’t compare it to AirPlay, which I think is damn fine too. Hopefully it’s a superior or even on-par feature.
And finally, Sony went all out on TVs, showing a 56″ OLED TV prototype, with 4K resolution. While the demo at the keynote failed, the TV, according to those who have seen it, is amazing and marks the first active return to the OLED market since their comercially available set in 2007. Pricing is obviously going to be sky high, and availability is still also up in the air, but it’s meant to be an amazing set.
If you somehow picked up the Sony NSZ-GS7 Google TV, then a new remote is now available, offering a slightly improved experience and voice capabilities, meaning you can control the TV through voice commands. It still has the backlit QWERTY keyboard, and otherwise is very similar to other Google TV remotes.
That’s almost all the TV news Sony shared at their keynote, however look out soon for news on their upcoming 4K Video Distribution Service for consumers, as well as 4K BluRays, right here on the techgeek.com.au CES Hub.