Introduced in the late winter of 2008 the 40ZX1M stands alone in Sony's lineup, not part of a "Series" and similar to the limited edition Sharp XS-1 series combines two of the biggest bullet points for 2008: LED backlighting, and thin design. Using a technique called "edge lighting" the frame of the TV is a miniscule 9.9mm, which is about the thickness of a CD jewel case. The natural compromise for this extreme design is the inclusion of 1 HDMI video port, which is the same as Sharp's offering, but Sharp includes the "input box" as standard.