Toshiba has just announced their glasses-free RZ1 today at their event in McKinley Blue Leaf in Taguig today. The new TV breaks all sorts of records here in the Philippines, most notably being the first commercially available glasses-free 3D TV. The RZ1 also holds the distinction of being the first commercial 4K television, which means that the 55-inch RZ1 has a native display resolution of 3840 x 2160, which is two times greater than the Retina display on the new iPad. Micheal Bayot, Chief Product Specialist for TVs for Toshiba, also detailed that the new RZ-1 has smart TV functionality like the ones on the 55-inch, Samsung 55ES8000 and the LG 55LM9600. The Toshiba RZ1 manages to achieve glassless 3D by using a lenticular image sheet in combination with the main display. The TV gives out 9 parallax images in 9 directions to give users the full 3D effect wherever they may be in relation to the display. The RZ1 also uses a small camera that tracks people’s faces and adjusts the 3D effect depending on where users are, which increases the effectiveness of the 3D effect.
We’ve managed to score some time with the RZ1 and let us tell you, we haven’t seen a display as crisp and as clear as the RZ1. To be honest, this one of the few times we’ve been excited about writing an article about a TV. To put it simply, the product is freaking amazing. The colors, the resolution is so friggin sharp, we’re pretty sure that the only limitation to this display is the content that you’re putting in. There’s few (if any) 4K content floating out in the market today – which makes finding the right content for it iffy (call it a first world problem). Though we think it’s not going to be an issue – the RZ1 can upscale images without problems, though we’re not sure if the pictures we saw during the launch is native 4K or not.
So you’re all probably asking what the catch is – well, predictably, it’s the price. While Toshiba Philippines have not released an actual price for it yet, reps from the company tell me that they have the RZ1 pegged at around Php 600,000 to 700,000 – making it one of the most expensive 55-inch sets out in the market today.