Sh3.5 million for a TV set? I would rather buy a house

Two 84-inch television sets introduced by Sony and LG have left tongues wagging, not because of their size but their rather inordinate prices.

It is not the fact that the size of the gadgets is considerably larger than the average Toyota Vitz, but because for an average Kenyan, a Sh2 million-plus investment is maybe 15 years of gruesome mortgage of a two-bedroom house on an eighth of an acre parcel of land.

Last week, Sony introduced a Sh3.5 million XBR-84X900 4K LED TV, a behemoth system that can hug an entire side of a luxurious sitting room, which is rare for a country like Kenya.

This comes barely a month after its electronics competitor LG unveiled their flagship 3D Ultra HD TV of the same size but going for Sh1.8 million.

Sony’s selling point is the screen resolutions, hence the tag “4K-generation” television. Also known as Ultra High Definition, 4k is a resolution that is four times the normal high definition plasma TV. It boasts a 3840x2160 pixel resolution while a full HD has 1920x1080.

They are the future televisions.

Compare that to the fact that many homes in Kenya have the Sony Wega type of television, which is basically 640x480 pixel resolution strength.

Kenya does not have the capacity for the 4K video content at the moment, and local broadcasters are yet to achieve such quality in their transmissions.

The LG 3D TV is embedded with a Resolution Upscaler Plus technology while Sony Bravia 4K has an X-Reality PRO chip which upscales any low-resolution content, say movies or old TV programmes, into 3D up to 4K resolutions.

Both have 3D experience that equals that of Imax. The gadgets are accompanied by 3D glasses that do not require batteries or recharging.

Their speakers have the capacity of 50W. LG’s Ultra HD TV features an internal 2.2 sound system consisting of two 10W speakers and two 15W woofers while Sony has mounted removable large speakers on both sides of its new Bravia sets angled by 10-degrees inward.

The Sony’s 4K LED TV’s 10-unit speakers are housed in an aluminium chassis comprising domed tweeters, midrange units, and four subwoofers.

The two gadgets contain other extras that can be found in other high-end TVs like the SmartTV suite, which opens to the consumer a whole new world of entertainment with access to live streaming, gaming, apps, extra content, and other services from providers.

SmartTV is the integration of the Internet and web features into television sets, which gives the user ability to access online social services like Facebook, Twitter, or watch news.

Consumers have the comfort of watching separate movies or television programmes using both televisions comfortably.

LG’s Dual Play and Sony’s SimulView technologies allow two players to experience the game independently on the same screen without necessarily splitting it by use of the 3D glasses.

Both televisions are of the same built and offer more or less the same content in terms of quality home experience.