Samsung doesn’t exactly know how the TV of the future will look like — but the South Korean consumer electronics giant wants to be prepared for every possibility. That’s why Samsung is doubling down on modular MicroLED displays that can be freely combined to all kinds of shapes, and screens of up to 219 inches in diameter.
The company first introduced these modular display units at the CES 2018, at the time branding them as “The Wall” to emphasize the ability to assemble previously-unknown screen sizes.
Fast forward one year, and “The Wall” is back, complete with a new sibling: Samsung showed off a new configuration dubbed “The Window” at a press event in Las Vegas Sunday night, where company representatives also emphasized that the modular displays at the heart of both “The Wall” and “The Window” could be assembled to any size, shape, resolution and aspect ratio.
“This screen with transform the traditional idea of a TV,” said Samsung’s visual display division president Jonghee Han. “This screen is customizable and can be placed anywhere in the home.”
Want a square TV, or maybe a really long video strip? It’s all possible, according to Samsung. The company showed off 12*12 inch display modules at the event that could be easily snapped together to build out bigger displays. It also showed how these same displays could work together with speaker elements, effectively creating new kinds of home entertainment devices on the fly.
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All of this is powered by Samsung’s MicroLED technology, which promises wide viewing angles, strong colors and energy efficience. “MicroLED will soon become a fixture of your everyday life,” said Samsung Electronics America vice president Andrew Sivori. “MicroLED will give you the power to create whatever you want, and to place it wherever you want it.”
However, company executives kept mum on the commercial availability of these kinds of modular TVs. A Samsung spokesperson told Variety that the company was still “evaluating the market,” and didn’t want to commit to shipping any of the MicroLED-based modular TVs this year. Another spokesperson said that the company may also ultimately decide to ship modules in not measuring 12*12 inches.
The company also announced during the event that Samsung TVs will be controllable with Amazon Echo and Google Home smart speakers later this year. And earlier Sunday, Samsung revealed that it was going to bring an app for Apple’s iTunes Movies and TV Shows service to its 2018 and 2019 TVs.