LeEco enters US market with all-new 85in TV

It has been a few months since LeEco announced it would acquire US TV maker Vizio, but the company has finally made its splashy introduction to the US market with an event that, by some estimates, is enough to make the giants of Silicon Valley blush. The company, which is already well-known in China, wants to become a household name in the US, unveiling a number of products that it hopes will capture the attention of Americans looking to upgrade some old hardware. One of these announcements was for an 85in 4K TV that will sell for $5,000.

Vizio has traditionally dealt in affordable televisions that maintain high specifications in certain areas. It is a strategy that many China companies, including LeEco, are familiar with. This means the new uMax85 TV, which is being released under LeEco's brand name, has an LCD screen instead of OLED to help keep costs down. It makes up for this in other areas. The device supports both HDR10 and Dolby Vision, which is a nice perk since Dolby charges for the privilege of using its technology. Some TV makers have contemplated leaving out Dolby's format because of this.

Like most TVs these days, the uMax85 is a smart TV that is effectively a large computer. It has 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and a quadcore processor. LeEco seems to be following Vizio's lead in using Google services as the new TV runs Android TV. Vizio has released previously televisions that use an Android tablet as a remote from which the TV can stream content.

A television this size might be excessive for many consumers, so LeEco is offering cheaper options as well. Its new televisions start at 55in for $900.

Televisions are only part of LeEco's strategy in the US, but using a known brand as a gateway to the market is its safest bet. LeEco also unveiled its Le Pro 3 smartphone, a mobile VR headset, an Android-powered bike and a cloud servicesplatform that will give users up to five terabytes of cloud storage. LeEco's fortunes in the US might be unclear, but at least it knows the advantage of marrying hardware with software and services.