- You can’t afford it
- You don’t have room for that
- It’s probably quite nice though
When we saw Samsung’s world-first 130-inch RGB TV in person back in January, we thought it was beautiful, but it wasn’t clear if it would actually go on sale – at the time Samsung said it was just a concept, but now there are more rumblings that it could happen.
But now a new report suggests that if it does become available to buy, it will be very, very expensive.
Huge TV in ‘expensive’ shocker, I know. But there is a significant jump in production costs between the current 115-inch / 116-inch panels and a 130-inch, so there will likely be a very significant cost for early adopters.
How much will a 130-inch TV cost?
The current flagship extra-large TVs are 116-inch models, such as the Hisense 116UX, which had a launch price of $29,999 / £24,999 / AU$39,999.
According to research firm Counterpoint, as reported by FlatpanelsHD, the price of a 130-inch LCD panel is almost 1.5 times that of a 115-inch.
It’s tempting to grab the calculator and multiply the price of the Hisense 116UX by 150%, but the panel is only a fraction of the price of a TV. While that’s a significant chunk of the overall bill of materials, there are other factors that come into play, including the processor, the sound system – in Samsung’s case, 14 built-in woofers – and the cost of developing and building the frame for such a large, heavy panel. Some of them may cost more than a 115-inch TV, some may cost the same.
(If you’re wondering about the raw value here, a 130-inch screen is 27% larger than a 115-inch screen in terms of area — so 50% more price for 27% more screen.)
Obviously, the first 130-inch LCD TVs will be out of reach for most of us, but their role is not really to sell in serious numbers: the first flagships are there to showcase new technology and to polish brands’ reputations as market leaders, so that they are only really bought by the most affluent early adopters.
As we said about Samsung’s 130-inch prototype, “it’s a big flashy showcase”. Each new generation of TV technology has started with sky-high price tags and then gotten much cheaper in a relatively short period of time as production improves and becomes more efficient.
Assuming you’re even in the market for one of the new TVs, there’s also the matter of performance. The advice “never buy a 1.0 product” is an old tech maxim, and it also applies to TVs: when we reviewed the Hisense 116UX, for example, we noted that it had issues with screen uniformity and struggled with some dark scenes.
With each new wave of TV technology, we’ve seen the panels and the TVs that contain them improve over time – and the price drop – and it’s highly likely that the same will happen with these even bigger flagships. So initially a high-end 130-inch might be in the $40-$45k region – but later, who knows? Maybe you only pay DKK 20,000. I want two!
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