Haier unveiled a range of new products and – as always – concepts for the future. The company has shown wirelessly-powered and thought-controlled TVs in the past; this year, it demonstrated the U9000 modular TV.
Similar to Samsung’s Evolution Kit, Haier’s U9000 (42″ – 84″) provides a way for owners to benefit from the latest technologies as they become available, without needing to replace their TV(s). The module on the back of the screen (accessed via a removable panel) can be switched out for a newer model with more features, such as 3D or high dynamic range. Haier also claimed that a new module could increase the resolution from 1920 x 1080 to UltraHD – which would need an entirely new panel, of course! When we questioned this, the representative said that the TV would upscale content “as much as possible”.
Accessories can also be added to the modular TV to enable it to keep track of a viewer’s health (whether that’s a little too intrusive when you want to relax and watch a film, we’ll allow you to decide!). A camera can tell if you’ve been watching too long and advise on your seating position, while wristbands can track blood pressure and heartrate. There are even scales to keep tabs on an owner’s weight!
A short-throw projector was the next item to be seen, although this one actually has a rough release date; it should reach the market some time in Q1’15. Able to throw a 60″ – 150″ image from 0.05 – 1m, the product uses an LED light course and has a quoted 5,000 lumens of brightness. Image resolution is 1920 x 1080 and the contrast ratio is 2,000:1. Haier has built Android 4.2 into the projector, turning it into a Smart model.
The final ‘future’ models were a curved 65″ LCD TV (65Q8000) with UltraHD resolution and a 55″ OLED set with 1920 x 1080 resolution. While the OLED is still a concept, Haier will bring the LCD model to market in Q1. It features 3D; Smart and DLNA functionality; HEVC decoding; HDMI (one that can support UltraHD content at 60fps and three that cannot) and VGA ports; and two 10W speakers.
Moving on to TVs to be introduced this year, Haier had 15 new models, including the UltraHD H6600 range (42″, 50″ and 65″). The 42″ and 50″ have DVB-T, -C and -S2 tuners while the 65″ (also available with 1920 x 1080) has DVB-T and -C.
The rest of the sets were powered by Android 4.2 and had 1366 x 768 (32″ models) or 1920 x 1080 resolution. They were the M7000 (39″, 48″, 55″); M6000 (50″); B8000 (40″, 50″); B7000 (32″, 40″); and K5000 (32″, 40″) series.
Haier will introduce both 3G and 4G smartphones this year; all with IPS panels. The 3G units will go on sale in October and the 4G models by the end of September. They run Android 4.3 or 4.4.
First is the A6, an ‘easy-to-use’ 4″ smartphone with large icons and an SOS button. Pressing this sends a repeating message to favourited contacts until someone responds. The phone has a charging dock, rather than a cable. A stylus can also be used. The phone will cost
