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).