ViewSonic has been a player in the computer monitor and television business for quite a while, and hopes to make it big by making their products big too. Recently, the company unveiled a 4K (4 times the pixel density of normal 1080p High-Definition) with a whopping 84-inch diagonal length. This beastly sized television in not just 4K though, folks; it’s also a smart and touch television, having Android version 4.2, Jelly Bean (originally released in October of 2012, for reference) and 6-finger simultaneous input recognition.
With every 4K television, regardless of add-on features, comes a hefty pricetag, almost if not always with a 5-digit minimum. ViewSonic’s latest is no exception, costing the above-average consumer $19,000 to get a hold of. This seems reasonable for an 84-inch screen with a 3840 by 2160 pixel screen, right? Well, it seems to fit, especially when looking at the ‘internals’.
Because this is an Android-powered television, there has to be some sort of processor, yes? Well, this one has a powerful dual-core processor and 8GB of internal storage. That seems pointless, you may say, to have that price attached to a ‘device’ with those specs, given you could get comparable experiences elsewhere. The extra feature that ViewSonic mentions in passing in its product page for the television? The television also has something called a slot-in option, which is essentially a slot on the side of the unit allowing a user to plug in a compatible (and sold separately for $1,200) ‘slot-in computer’, with the end result being a huge, 84-inch, 4K, dual-operating system monitor, with touch input, as well as a tempered glass screen.
This sounds pretty appealing right? But with the specs and the price being what they are, who in the world is this thing for? Something that ViewSonic makes a point of reiterating multiple times is that this screen is great for collaboration in a workplace. With six-point input recognition, six people can write, with stylus or finger, on the screen to draw or annotate; the slot-in option allows the screen to go from digital whiteboard to full-blown computer, which makes the presenting of ideas or slides/videos greatly improved. Why the low amount of internal storage? The older operating system? The dual-core processor? Answer, this display is not meant to stand alone; it’s meant to become the connected screen for everyone in the meeting at your workplace, where Android version is essentially irrelevant, and most data is stored on the computers or slot-ins that people plug into it. This is essentially an affordable super-whiteboard, and it’s an interesting one at that.