Sharp announces an 8K TV now that you’ve upgraded to 4K

Now that you’ve upgraded to a shiny new 4K TV, Sharp has revealed its latest screen to stoke your fear of missing out: a 70-inch Aquos 8K TV. That 8K (7,680 x 4,320) resolution is 16 times that of your old Full HD (1920 x 1080) TV. Sharp calls it “ultimate reality, with ultra-fine details even the naked eye cannot capture,” which doesn’t seem like a very good selling point.
 
Keep in mind that having a screen with more pixels doesn’t buy you much after a certain point, because those pixels are invisible from a distance — while an 8K panel would be beneficial as a monitor, where you’re sitting close, it won’t buy you much when leaning back on the couch watching TV. HDR, however, is something else entirely, and fortunately, Sharp’s new 8K set is compatible with Dolby Vision HDR and BDA-HDR (for Blu-ray players).
 
The lack of available 8K HDR content is also a problem. But there is some content floating around; last year Japan’s public broadcaster NHK began the world’s first regular satellite broadcasts in 8K resolution. Sharp also plans to develop more 8K products to form an ecosystem that includes broadcast receivers and cameras.
 
Sharp plans to roll out the TV later this year in China and Japan, and then Taiwan in February 2018. Sharp is repurposing its 70-inch 8K TV as an 8K monitor (model LV-70X500E) for Europe, which will be on sale in March. Sharp hasn’t indicated how much its 8K models will cost yet but a source told the Nikkei Asian Review that they’ll start at about 1 million yen, or about $9,000. The company had previously released an 85-inch 8K monitor in Japan that cost over $100,000.
 
There’s no detail about a US release, despite Sharp’s parent Foxconn announcing plans to build a $10 billion LCD factory in Wisconsin.

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