Sony ZX1 is TV sex on a very thin stick

Davey Winder
Thursday, 28 August 2008 14:13

Your IT - Home IT

Sony appears to have rediscovered its mojo, at least as far as innovation in the massively overcrowded flat screen television market is concerned, with what it claims is the thinnest and lightest LCD TV in the world...

It takes a lot to stand out in the flat screen TV business these days. Most seem to take a bigger is better approach to differentiation. Sharp held that particular crown with its 108 inch Aquos LCD until earlier this year.

Then along came Panasonic with the stonkingly huge 150 inch Astrovision plasma that it recently showcased at the Beijing Olympic Games.

There is no doubting that these are big, equal to nine 50 inch sets and boasting a resolution four times greater than the standard 1080p sets we are used to.

Equally, there is no doubting that very few of us have the space or budget for one of these at home. Which is why savvy Sony have gone for a standard 40 inch set instead.

Sony has realised that what the consumer wants is a big viewing area but wrapped up in a piece of kit that does not dominate the room it is in. A set that can be hung pretty much anywhere. A flat screen TV that really is flat, in fact.

It has already got the 3mm thick XEL-1, but that's titchy in all regards. The OLED supermodel-thin  option is big enough for the kitchen at 11 inches, but that's about all.

Now the Sony Bravia KDL-40ZX1 enters the picture at, rather amazingly, just 9.9mm deep and weighing in at no more than 12.2 kg.

For an LCD television those are remarkable specs.

Initially restricted to the Japanese market, where it will go on sale in November priced at YEN 490,000 (AUD $5176), it gets our sexiest telly vote because it achieves that size-zero look by piping the video from a separate receiver via a 5GHz wireless link.

This does mean that the set itself only has a single HDMI port, but fear not because there are three more on the wireless box itself along with a LAN socket and USB.

Then there are the white LEDs built into the edges of the TV frame itself and the lack of traditional backlighting, which chisel off the inches and add to the sexiness...