Hands on with People of Lava's Scandinavia Android TV: a glimpse into the future of TV

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Posted on 2 Jun 2010 at 18:00

Indeed, Svantesson described Google’s announcements as a "confirmation that we did the right thing to dare to press ahead" with plans to build a connected TV. Our discussion came to an end at this point and we were led down into the company’s product development lab to see an early Scandinavia prototype.

The TV uses an edge-lit LED LCD panel from LG, which delivers sharp and very detailed pictures. Colours did seem a little muted, lacking some punch, but the prototype we saw wasn’t mounted in its final casing. The company said that the panel will be mounted behind a high-contrast glass cover – this should increase contrast and vibrancy, but it’s something we’re going to have to reserve judgement on until we’ve seen a final model.

We’re quietly confident that picture quality will be good, though, as People of Lava is in the business of building high-quality TVs designed to compete on quality with big-hitting luxury brands like Bang & Olufsen and Loewe. Indeed, we also spent some time with the firm’s Northern Star range of "non-compromise" TVs and its picture quality was, indeed, very good.

After we'd finished testing the TV, we also saw a mock-up of the casing, sans speaker mounts and contrast glass. This was to give us a good idea of how the Scandinavia would feel to touch, as it uses an unusual material for its casing.

It's made from a material similar to Corian, which is commonly used in kitchen and bathroom surfaces, and will be only available in a white finish. It's composed of acrylic polymer and alumina trihydrate, making it a very hard, but soft-feeling material.

The speakers weren’t attached in place on the prototype, as there were an earlier set of speakers in their place on the prototype unit we saw. Once the sound had been pushed through the actual speakers which will be on the final model, we were very impressed by the audio quality. The speakers are very slim and use a pair of drivers per cone, allowing better range and sound quality in a decent form factor. What’s more, there’s even talk of building a small sub-woofer into the back of the TV, but that’s yet to be finalised.