Mitsubishi's LaserVue HDTV is finally shipping

It's been a long, long time, but Mitsubishi has finally made its laser-based HDTV, the 65-inch LaserVue, available to the public, for a price that's laser-focused on bleeding-edge types' deep wallets: $6,999.

As you can probably surmise, the LaserVue uses lasers as its light source, an innovation that Mitsubishi claims offers twice the color gamut of typical HDTVs and consumes only one fourth the power plasma TVs require and one third the energy LCD sets need. Of course, the LaserVue is a 1080p HDTV and also features 120Hz refresh rates like higher-end LCDs. It measures 10 inches in thickness, so it can be wall-mounted, and includes stereo speakers, though no one dropping $7k on a set like this is going to bother running audio through those speakers.

Though there have been a number of demo showings of the LaserVue over the last year or two, it's only been in recent weeks that experts like HD Guru have been able to do hands-on testing. His conclusion: "Overall the L65A90 rates in the stratosphere of top displays, specifically the Pioneer Kuro Elite plasmas, the LED backlit Samsung 950 LCDs and the 65” Panasonic Premiere TH-65VX100."

Up next is a 73-inch LaserVue, though its release date hasn't been officially announced. That set will be even more expensive, so who knows when and if this technology will eventually reach a more mainstream price. Will it become the next great display technology, or will OLED TVs scale up in size to win out?