28 August 2008

By: Alex Vochin, Technology Editor
Meet Sony's KDL-40ZX1, The World's New Thinnest LCD HDTV
With an LCD panel that's just 9 mm thick
The title of world's thinnest LCD HDTV seems to have changed hands once again. After Hitachi held on to it for almost half a year, along came Sony and launched the incredibly thin KDL-40ZX1, whose panel is just 9 mm thick (while the device itself reaches just. 28.8 mm) but still capable of displaying high-quality images at full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution.   First and foremost, let's see what the most important features of the LCD panel are. Beside providing a total viewing area of 88.6 x 49.8 cm and a diagonal size of 101.6 cm (40 inches), the panel has some pretty OK viewing angles as well, namely 178 degrees on both horizontal and vertical directions.   The contrast ratio is of 3000:1, and the device also comes equipped with a LED backlighting system and 120Hz MotionFlow technology, as well as BRAVIA Engine 2 image processing. And just in case you were wondering, yes, this thing works with just about any type of video signals, whether we're talking about 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p or 480i.   The audio department is also pretty well represented, since the LCD HDTV from Sony has been equipped with two 5W speakers and one 10 W subwoofer, which will probably prove to be quite enough for most users (although true audio/video addicts will most likely add a Blu-ray home cinema as well).   The connectivity options of the KDL-40ZX1 are also extremely impressive. Thus, the device has several HDMI slots, Component video input, S-Video input, audio inputs and outputs, a USB port and, even more interesting, a built-in Ethernet interface (10 BASE-T/100BASE-TX) and a built-in modem (up to 2400 bps). As you've probably guessed already, the latest two options are designed especially in order to allow users to connect to the Internet and access various types of content from online services.   Sony's new ultra-thin KDL-40ZX1 will arrive in Japanese stores at some point in November for an estimate retail price of around 4,500 US dollars, but it's quite likely that the rest of the world will have to wait until early 2009 in order to be able to enjoy this technological wonder. We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is.
Sony's new KDL-40ZX1 - lateral view Sony
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