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The 2013 Philips DesignLine puts a new slant on HDTV

The 2013 Philips DesignLine puts a new slant on HDTV
The 2013 Philips DesignLine TV is designed to lean against a wall
The 2013 Philips DesignLine TV is designed to lean against a wall
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The 2013 Philips DesignLine is an LCD HDTV in a sheet of glass form factor
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The 2013 Philips DesignLine is an LCD HDTV in a sheet of glass form factor
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The 2013 Philips DesignLine comes in 46- and 55-inch screen sizes
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The 2013 Philips DesignLine comes in 46- and 55-inch screen sizes
The 2013 Philips DesignLine looks like a square sheet of glass when off
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The 2013 Philips DesignLine looks like a square sheet of glass when off
The 2013 Philips DesignLine TV features Ambilight 3-sided XL
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The 2013 Philips DesignLine TV features Ambilight 3-sided XL
The 2013 Philips DesignLine remote control
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The 2013 Philips DesignLine remote control
The 2013 Philips DesignLine TV is designed to lean against a wall
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The 2013 Philips DesignLine TV is designed to lean against a wall
The 2013 Philips DesignLine is opaque black at the top and transparent at the bottom
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The 2013 Philips DesignLine is opaque black at the top and transparent at the bottom
View gallery - 8 images

When it comes to HDTV placement, you’ve generally faced with two options – a stand for sitting the TV in an entertainment unit or on a table, or a wall mount. With its 2013 Philips DesignLine, TP Vision is offering a third option – simply leaning the TV against a wall. When it comes to a modern minimalist look, the new Philips DesignLine takes the cake, with no visible frame or stand, it looks like nothing more than a square sheet of glass.

The Philips DesignLine TV comes from TP Vision, an Amsterdam-based joint venture between TPV Technology and Royal Philips Electronics that was established in April 2012 to develop, manufacture and market Philips branded TVs in Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and selected countries in Asia-Pacific.

Coming in 46- and 55-inch screen sizes, the Philips DesignLine series sees an LCD display sitting behind the front glass sheet. The TV itself features a 1400 Hz Perfect Motion Rate and active 3D technology for Full HD 3D. It is powered by a dual-core processor powering Philips’ Perfect Pixel HD engine and boasts Micro Dimming and Local Contrast, suggesting LED backlighting.

The TVs also pack Smart TV capabilities, with built-in Wi-Fi and a remote control with pointing capability and built-in keyboard. The Wi-Fi also allows wireless streaming to and from notebooks, tablets and smartphones using the Philips MyRemote app, Wi-Fi Miracast and SimplyShare. They can also be upgraded to allow broadcast content to be streamed from a master TV to a secondary TV in the house. Philips’ Ambilight 3-sided XL is also on board, projecting colored light matching the onscreen content onto the wall above and to either side of the TV.

The 2013 Philips DesignLine is opaque black at the top and transparent at the bottom
The 2013 Philips DesignLine is opaque black at the top and transparent at the bottom

But it’s the unconventional styling of the TV that is likely to draw attention – even when the TV is off. Below the black of the lifeless screen, the glass is covered in a gradient black finish that changes from opaque black to transparent where the glass meets the floor.

Our only reservations are the lack of any discernible rubber stops or something similar on the bottom edge of the glass, so users may want to invest in some kind of grip – or carve a groove in the floor – to stop it sliding forward. And although the backward slant of the TV is only slight, we’d guess the viewing angle of the TV might also take some getting used to and has the potential to attract reflections from overhead lighting.

The 2013 Philips DesignLine TVs will be available in Europe and Russia in the second quarter of 2013 at an as yet undisclosed price.

A video news release can be viewed below.

Source: TP Vision

Visual News Release Philips DesignLine 2013

View gallery - 8 images
9 comments
9 comments
Fábio Dias
Hey look a B&O TV -_-'
Nice try Philips...
offthegrid
A sheet of glass "leaning against the wall". Wow. Without a sides or a base, that's amazing. Ha! Apple. Take that, with your patent for round cornered smart phones. You didn't see that coming. Way to go Philips.
habakak
What's the big idea here? Frivolous use of glass? Or a TV that is made to fall over at your earliest inconvenience? How is this better than a wall-mounted TV?
Ed Reed
And the black screen becomes clear on the bottom so you can get a good view of the electric cords and connections.
Mr E
I like the concept but I think I would still like to mount it on the wall. However, that could be problematic if all the connectors are on the backside. They must all be across the bottom of the back.
Maybe they decided to lean it against the wall when they discovered you couldn't bolt it to a wall mount. Hopefully, it's made of Gorilla glass to withstand the falls it will take.
Glen Jacobsen
Where to you put the receiver, power supply, Blu-Ray, Sat, etc? Pointless!
Rain Tree
One misstep from a drunken guest, one oops from a kid or bumped with a vacuum cleaner and its a goner. Nice try but lame idea.
pickypilot
Yeah, I can just imagine when the dog chases the cat behind the TV. As others have said, dumb idea.
Logonmac
Some of the comments above really made me laugh. Hey people, owning an expensive TV like this is no difference than owing an antique vase, or expensive lounge, etc. You gotta look after your stuff! At the end of the day, your untrained dog is still going to scratch or pee on your lounge, your drunken guest is still going to knock off your vase. Also, even if you lean the TV against the wall, you can still secure it to prevent it from falling, a simple hood at the back is all you need to do that. For those people concerning about wires and placements of devices, I can easily think of a few solutions on top of my head, without exposing connections and stuff. Yes, it's not going to be cheap to do, so as the TV, but you are paying the price for aesthetics, if you can't afford to do that, either financially(which is me) or creatively, go buy Samsung or LG, and stop degrading other's idea.