Technofart

***EDIT/UPDATE: Amazon.com has the new Panasonic Z1 in stock and is shipping it, plus they’re offering a discount off the $5,999 MSRP, but they won’t tell you the price unless you add it to your cart, which I’m not about to do, check it here: Panasonic Viera TC-P54Z1 Ultra Thin 54 Full HD 1080p Plasma TV
The wonderful (and wonderfully expensive: $6000) new Panasonic Z1 plasma TV has been officially spotted by a friend of mine on sale in a San Jose Magnolia store. There are several reasons that the Z1 is a big deal:

it’s wireless, it’s HD plasma, and…it’s ONE inch thick . The wireless receiver box can be anywhere in the same room as the Z1, and the remote included is an RF remote, as opposed to infra-red, so that it will still work without requiring a line-of-sight shot at the TV, it’s got a 54 inch screen, it has a native contrast ratio of 40,000:1, low

energy consuming Neo PDP panel technology, a swivel table stand (comes with), Digital Cinema Color gamut, THX Certification, 1080 lines of motion resolution, 24 Hz Cinematic Playback and an HDMI wireless receiver. The only thing that could possibly kill this top of the range plasma is its’ little brother, the TC-P5410: it’s going to cost $2,699, but it’ll be a whole TWO *gasp* inches thick–now, especially in this economy, is it just me or does anyone else think people aren’t really going to be inclined to pay an additional three grand to shave an inch off the thickness of their plasma TV? Amazon also has this in stock and is shipping it…AND offering a discount on it: Panasonic TC-P54V10 54-inch VIERA 1080p Plasma HDTV. A little birdie tells me that this will be the last super high-end large ultra-thin plasma produced for a while due to severely decreased demand and the necessarily outrageous price tag (it is very new technology, hence the early adopters have to pay the premium to be the first on their block with the latest n’ greatest).

Additional Resources and Further Reading

C|NET: Panasonic Z1, world’s sexiest TV?

Official Panasonic web page for the Z1

The HD Guru himself is in love with this TV, and has actually said it “may be the hottest HDTV for 2009″