- You can’t afford it
- You don’t have space for it.
- It’s probably pretty nice, though
When we saw Samsung’s world’s first 130-inch RGB TV in person 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 rumors that it could happen.
But now a new report suggests that if it is available to buy, it will be very, very expensive.
Huge television with ‘expensive’ surprise, I know. But there is a significant jump in production cost between the current 115/116-inch panels and a 130-inch one, so there is likely to 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 cost of a 130-inch LCD panel is almost 1.5 times the cost of a 115-inch one.
It’s tempting to grab the calculator and multiply the cost of the Hisense 116UX by 150%, but the panel is only part of the cost of a TV. While it’s an important part of the overall bill of materials, there are other factors at play, including the processor, the sound system (in Samsung’s case, 14 built-in bass units), and the cost of engineering and building the frame for such a large, heavy panel. Some of them may cost more than a 115-inch TV, others may cost the same.
(If you’re wondering what the raw value proposition is here, a 130-inch screen is 27% larger than a 115-inch screen in terms of area, so a 50% higher price for 27% more screen.)
It’s clear that the first 130-inch LCD TVs will be out of reach for most of us, but their role isn’t really to sell in large numbers: the first flagships are there to showcase new technology and burnish the brands’ reputation as market leaders, so they’re only really bought by the wealthiest early adopters.
As we said about Samsung’s 130-inch prototype, “it is a great eye-catching showcase.” Each new generation of television technology started with sky-high prices and then became much cheaper in a relatively short space of time as manufacturing improved and became more efficient.
Assuming you’re even looking for one of the new TVs, there’s also the question of performance. The advice to “never buy a 1.0 product” is an old technology principle and also applies to TVs: for example, when we reviewed the Hisense 116UX we noticed that it had screen uniformity issues and struggled with some dark scenes.
With each new wave of TV technology, we’ve seen the panels and the TVs that contain them get better over time (and prices drop), and the same is very likely to happen with these even bigger flagships. So at first a high-end 130-inch screen may cost between $40k and $45k, but then who knows? You might only pay a bargain $20,000. I’ll take two!
Are you thinking of buying a new television?
Try our TV size and model finder! You tell you how far you sit from your TV, we’ll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from picture quality experts, and we’ll recommend our three best TVs in that size at different prices.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and tiktok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
