Via Android 2.1: Panasonic Adds Web Browsing To Their Japanese Mini TVs

Serkan Toto

Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide. Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. → Learn More

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Japan is probably one of the biggest markets for portable TVs in the world, but because the digital standard used in those devices (1Seg) has only been adopted by Japan and a few South American countries so far, I usually don’t cover new models coming out. But Panasonic’s SV-ME970, announced [JP] today, is different: it has Android 2.1 on board and lets users surf the web.

The 7-inch device still looks like a typical Japanese portable TV and comes with a 800×480 touchscreen, 4GB of internal memory, an SDXC slot, a USB port, DLNA support, IEEE 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, 300mW×2ch speakers, and YouTube connectivity.

The TV is waterproof up to 1m depth and also lets you play music (MP3/AAC/WMA) and view pictures (JPEG).

Panasonic will start selling the SV-ME970 in Japan on July 30 (price: $555).