US TV maker Vizio is taking a gamble on the emerging US phone market, launching three Razor branded LED portable TVs, two of which have a chip for receiving ATSC M/H mobile TV signals.
The move emphasizes just how cheap it is to add a mobile TV chip to any device which already has a processor and screen, and bodes well for the market being well supplied with diverse devices.
The three models have 7 inch, 9 inch and 10 inch displays modeled as the VMB070, 90 and 100 and will be delivered later this year priced $150, $200, and $230 and come with an integrated antenna.
‘From our enormous base of enthusiastic customers, we see a solid set of end users ready to embrace the idea of viewing on the go, and these new mobile Razor LED TVs are the ideal solution,’ says Laynie Newsome, Vizio co-founder. All three devices are less than one inch thick.
They all use the touch screen for control and have no visible controls. The onscreen controls light up when the screen is touched. The 7 inch device is the only one that cannot receive the ATSC M/H signals but instead is a dumb screen for use with a DVD player and has a 3 hour battery. The two larger devices can also receive both the mobile TV signal, ATSC M/H as well as the full ATSC signal and the analog NTSC signals (which have been shut off in the US, so we’re not sure what use this is).
All three devices are driven by LED LCD panels, the new screen technology which uses LCD shutters over an LED backlight, which can turn segments of itself on and off rapidly for reduced power consumption.
The two larger models have a screen resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and Vizio claims high brightness.
They also come with an HDMI 1.4 jack, a USB 2.0 port to connect to PCs a headphone jack for private playback and a 3 hour battery. Delivery dates or retail partners were not announced. Presumably these devices work for the advertised 3 hours by opting for an ATSC M/H signal when it is present, but will perform rather less well, we suspect, with a full ATSC signal. On the other hand the battery may be doing most of its work driving that screen, so perhaps the radio isn’t really the issue on such a large device, more an issue for handsets.