4K monitors were already sold back in 2001 lol

My friend recently acquired a 22" IBM T221 4K monitor for extremely cheap, and it turns out the thing was released back in 2001!

Wikipedia article on this: IBM T220/T221 LCD monitors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If 4K was already out back in 2001... then why is it only now being marketed as the hot new resolution 12 years later as if it was only invented recently?

 

"On 19 March 2002, IBM announced lowering the price of IBM T221 from US$17,999 to US$8,399."

I lol'ed. For that price might as well buy 4 cheaper monitors.

 

Still, all these years later 4K should've gone mainstream, or at least gotten cheaper than what it is today

 

What are you talking about? That monitor is extremely heavy, extremely expensive, has very low refresh rate, is miles behind colors, brightness, contrast, etc. today.
Also its size is... SMALL.

Now we have gigantic ultraslim beautiful 4k TV's for UNDER 800$: Amazon.com: Seiki Digital SE50UY04 50-Inch 4K UHD 120Hz LED HDTV: Electronics

To highlight:

4K
50 inches
120hz refresh (not 60 or lol 20-something for the IBM)
Slim and light
Beautiful everything
REALLY REALLY CHEAP

What are you crying about?

 

Wow, i think i'm gonna buy the 39 inch one and use it as a monitor

0_0

4k for 400$? Gimme gimme gimme.

 

Same thing I'm thinking. Wish I had the money.

 

What.... only $800 for a 50" 4K tv??? Holy **** I have not seen 4K this cheap, the ones I have been seeing were at least $2000+. Well, this is great, 4K is starting to plummet in prices, finally reaching the affordable price range

However, I have just read the reviews of the TV, if you hook up a pc to it and put it at 4K resolution, then you are capped at 30Hz - the 120Hz is for 1080p resolution. The IBM's refresh rate at native 4K res is 41Hz.

 

SSDs have been around since the late 1980s. Didn't mean that the average person could afford them back then or that they were practical for the Average Joe. Same with 4K monitors. And, iirc, due to the nature of CRT monitors I imagine you could have set one to 4K resolution if you wanted...

 

Crt's are awesome though, shame they don't make them anymore. When blacks were truly blacks, not greyish blues.

 

No one outside Hollywood, Laguna Beach, or Palo Alto/Cupertino can afford a monitor that costs more than my car.

 

Yeah, but they were *heavy*, and *thick*...

But yeah, they were definitely awesome monitors. I remember our old 15" CRT and how I'd screw around with resolutions and how small I could get things to be (I was a child and was easily amused).

 

They weren't made to be portable.

 

Another nostalgic reminiscence here of the glory days of CRT's. LCD's set us back at least 10 years in terms of display quality and CRT's still beat LCD's in many aspects to this day.

Used to live in Cupertino, still can't afford 4K.

Funny how all of these places you mentioned are in California, yet our state is broke. Oh the irony.

 

The only bad thing about CRT's was if they had low refresh rates, you would want to claw your eyes out.

Back in 2000, when my dad bought a Dell L800R, it came with a 1152x864 display, but unless he downgraded to 800x600 the display was unusable due to having the dreaded 60hz refresh rate.

 

I actually blame the idiots who marketed 720 and 1080 as " high definition " for setting us back so far. I have laptops dating back to 2007 that have 2048x1536 displays as well as better gamut ranges than what we had up until the last 2-3 years

 

Let me know when someone starts shipping 120Hz 4k OLED screens for under $1,000. Till then I'll make due with my cheap 1080p led.

 

HDTV's are to blame for the aspect ratio and resolution woes.

 

Oh yes they were

 

Key words: IBM and 2001

Back in those dim, dead days Big Blue wasn't afraid to unleash products just to prove that they could do something, profit be damned.

I'm pretty sure that was about the same time that ThinkPad A30p - a first notebook with UXGA IPS LCD - was released.

In the long run, their strategy failed to survive the challenges of the PC marketplace.

That aspect of the story doesn't take away from the fact that IBM did create quite a few stunning pieces of computer engineering while they were interested in it...