By the end of Fall 2012, most of Europe will have the option of purchasing a 400Hz Smart LED backlit HDTV from Swedish furniture giant, IKEA, designed specifically as an all-in-one solution for the living room, incorporating a Blu-ray / DVD player, audio speakers with wireless subwoofer, and a matching cabinet to hide cable clutter, continuing the trend of bringing home electronics that much closer in alignment to home decor.
"UPPLEVA brings beauty and functionality to the living room, solving the problem of cable clutter and miss-match between TV and furniture."
Note, the UPPLEVA HDTV is only an IKEA television in name/branding, with the components manufactured by China-based TCL, the same company behind RCA/Thomson brand televisions. IKEA is offering a five-year warranty behind the sets to allay concerns about quality compared to their Japanese and Korean counterparts; the main sell here won't be specs, but the seamless design integration between design and technology, a concept which many analysts believe Apple will soon enter themselves with their own HDTV brand.
Unfortunately, there's no further details when American consumers might have the option of purchasing the UPPLEVA at this time. But there's little doubt with the competitive market in the HDTV category shaking up, there's room for outliers like IKEA and Apple to shake up the home electronics, where decor-friendly options have been marginal at best.
Via IFA
(Images: IKEA)
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OMG...so cool! I heart IKEA and I don't care what anybody says!!
Too bad DVDs will be obsolete by the time it finally comes out....!
Game-changer.
@seawhitney - DVDs are far from obsolete in Europe - but even so, the post says it incorporates a Blu-ray / DVD player
I dont buy sofa's from LG, why would I buy a TV from ikea?
€1,100 for a thompson TV with a bit of wood around it is way way overprices
i work at IKEA in the UK, June this year 5 countries in Europe will launch the Uppleva range, then the rest of Europe will have the range by December, then the rest of the world in Spring 2013.
it looks very, very promising already but you didnt hear that off me ;)
I wouldn't buy one, but I love the ad.
My instant reaction was "Meh"
Then I watched the ad and began to reconsider the basement built-ins that I was planning....
Now it's "Meh-by"
OK, AM I GOING TO HAVE TO BUILD THIS? THIS $417 BETTER COME ASSEMBLED.
@jcar078 I highly doubt that.
So purdy.
TCL is already selling their TV's here through discount resellers, so it will be interesting to see the disparity in price between what just the TV sells for versus the kit IKEA sells. Think tier 3 or tier 4 level TV's, below Vizio, more like Insignia or Dynex, and other "store brand" names as far as picture quality is concerned. I'm not sure where the 400Hz processing number comes from, maybe it's calculated differently on European models. Figure it will be marketed here as a 480Hz set, which means it's actually a 120Hz set after marketing jargon is broken down, which is at least respectable. I don't want to be a picture quality snob, but I hate to think that people are going to spend what is likely to be a lot of money based on something just how it looks when it is turned off, as opposed to what it's going to look like when it's turned on. The other problem? You'll likely never be able to test this next to another TV side by side to make an educated picture quality comparison. That's probably the plan though....
The embedded DVD player etc. doesn't look very nice on the minimal grey white front.
I think it's quite funny that the first TV's were designed to be like huge pieces of furniture, in huge wooden cabinets and now it's come full circle.