The IKEA TV Reviewed: Worse Than Assembling 100 Bookshelves at Once

Uppleva, Ikea's magical TV-cum-entertainment center meatball, won't be arriving in America until next year. Fortunately, we've got an early review fromfriends in Sweden. The bad news: it's really bad.

We had high hopes for the all-in-one Uppleva—after all, if there's a company that can produce a single unit with a TV, Blu-ray player, 2.1 sound system, all wrapped into a piece of furniture, it's IKEA, right? IKEA has managed to build structures the size of aircraft carriers filled with delicious food, childrens' ball pits, and cheap chic furniture across the world. Why not build decent TVs?O, what folly.

The Uppleva is fine as furniture—an LCD TV with typically minimalist drawers and a stand—but a piece of junk as everything else, say the Swedish tech gurus at M3. Although they cite the actual construction of the thing as "smooth," (as relatively simple to screw together as any other IKEA TV stand) and were charmed by the trim options to match other furniture in your pad, the actual electronics part of the TV—not unimportant!—is as appealing as a wad of lingonberry jam left out in the sun. The TV's picture quality is crap: poor black levels, muddy colors, and a noisy image. This is not what you want with a $1000 TV system. The "smart" aspects of the Uppleva are brain dead, too, with a paraplegic-slow, godawful interface, and broken features. Sometimes button presses don't even register. M3 notes that a software update could fix some of this, but ugh—why bother? This is a wreck on the scale of crawling across your bedroom floor looking for that last tiny screw you need to finish your bed frame.

M3 editor Andreas Ivarsson put the whole thing thusly:

This is a really funny concept. An affordable solution for a complete home cinema system where everything is included. You get a TV that can handle internet services (though poorly) and is equipped with a media player.

The picture quality is quite mediocre and the sound system very good. The furniture looks stylish and fits well into our Swedish Ikea homes. With some nice interior this piece can be something you don't have to be ashamed of in your living room. The only thing you have to be ashamed of is if your friends will try the TV's more advanced functions. But as long as they wanna plug in a USB stick with music or watch ordinary TV it is okay. It is a big difference in how we experience the furniture and sound system compared to the TV. The TV is not affordable and to be honest really bad when you can get a better 42-inch for the same amount. I think
that the whole concept will be better with another TV, but the nice integration with the sound system in the furniture really appeals to us.

Overall, Ivarrson gives the whole kit and kaböödle a "5 out of 10." Which is pretty awful, in any language.

And there you have it—the IKEA Uppleva, a $1000 home theater system that appeals mostly for the cheap wood it's packaged in. You can get a damn decent set, a Roku, and some OK speakers for that money. And if you really want the Swedish modernity bliss experience, put the thing on a $10 IKEA coffee table, another $5 on meatballs, lie on your EKTORP sofa, and call it a day.

For M3's full (Swedish) coverage of the IKEA Uppleva, including more photos and video, head here. [M3]