IFA 2011: LG PZ850 Gets Shown, Represents One Of The First Of Its Kind

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I do love electronics trade shows, folks; IFA, MWC, CES…it’s where you see all the newest stuff come out to play. And the LG PZ850 is a terrific example of what can happen when you decide to do something few, if any, have ever tried before.

The LG PZ850 is, by itself, a reasonably solid interpretation of the plasma television concept. It comes in a variety of flavors, including a 60 inch version with 3D video capability selling at $2199, a non-3D version for $1699, and a surprisingly value-priced 50 inch model (also without 3D from what I can tell) selling for $1099. And these by themselves wouldn’t exactly be terrible (though home theater buffs are somewhat divided, in general, on the concept of plasma televisions), but LG’s selling them with a nifty extra feature called Pentouch.

Pentouch is, essentially, a stylus that allows you to literally draw on the surface of your LG PZ850. So if you’ve ever, for example, wanted to play John Madden during a football game and circle the various plays and show lines of force, well, you’ve got your opportunity right here. But it’s the productivity angle that’s got people really looking twice at one of these. For instance, you’ll be able to surf the web with this one, and hand-write URLs instead of typing them in. You can make margin notes on Word documents on the screen.

And of course, you’ll have access in the fullest sense to that greatest of all business tools, Angry Birds.

When you start hooking this up with other peripherals like a computer and printer, you get access to other features as well, like printing out the stuff you draw, write or otherwise modify, or saving it directly, which is great if you decide to bring it home to the family and let the kids have at it.

So what do you guys think of the LG PZ850? An interesting new idea in home theater display? A valuable business tool? Or a way to waste a couple grand and not have much to show for it? Either way, we want to hear from you, so hit the comments section and tell us what you think!