Meet Panasonic's 'affordable,' yet wildly expensive AX800 4K TVs

At CES 2014 Panasonic teased two new, more "affordable" 4K television sets.

Apparently, affordable is a relative term. The Japanese electronics firm announced the smaller 58-inch AX800 4K set will start at $3,799 (about £2,216, AU$4,071). The larger 65-inch screen, meanwhile, will set customers back an even more baffling $4,499 (about £2,624, AU$4,820).

Both television sets are available starting now.

Despite the obnoxious price-point, users will get an incredible looking 4K Ultra HD screen with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. The display panel is also backed up by a LED backlight featuring local dimming, which literally decreases the brightness in parts of the screen allowing it to produce deeper blacks.

For all your non-4K media, the screen also has an integrated image processor that up-scales everything from broadcasts to web pages into a quadruple HD picture.

Live smart

As a Life+Screen model Panasonic has also packaged it with smart features including voice recognition software that lets users dictate everything they want to search for.

On top of recognizing users' voices, the AX800 series also come with an integrated camera that can identify its owner's face. Once the television spots the user it can automatically pop up personalized information such as weather forecasts, message notifications, and a clock.

Remote Sharing is another feature that makes it possible to add video memos, messages, and other information to the 4K TV's home screen from a smartphone.

The only thing it seems the AX800 line can't do is Stream Netflix in 4K as Panasonic exclusively confided with TechRadar in June.

• Not ready for the 4K jump? Here are the best HDTVs