At CES 2019, Samsung unveiled their first ‘modular’ television.
What is modular television?
Modular TV is essentially a TV with a screen that can change its size and aspect ratio by linking together with other modules.
In the case of Samsung’s modular television, it can transition from a 12” by 12” square with a 1:1 ratio, to an elongated rectangle with a 32:9 ratio, and then back to a traditional 16:9 or 21:9 ratio screen.
What makes modular TV so special?
Imagine you’re unfolding a giant poster. Every fold changes the shape and makes the paper slightly larger. Now, imagine that poster was a giant TV screen.
That’s essentially how modular TV works – you can change the shape and size to suit you, while still enjoying great picture quality!
At its smallest size (12” by 12”), a modular TV is perfect for tight spaces, like the kitchen or bathroom. You can create elongated rectangles that look stunning in hallways. Or expand it to its largest size to turn your living room or bedroom into a home cinema.
What’s the picture quality like?
Difficult to say. The only line we have from Samsung so far is that it’ll be “above 4K”. That doesn’t necessarily mean it will be around the 8K mark, but it doesn’t mean it won’t be either.
Nonetheless, Samsung’s modular television uses a microLED screen to offer the same breath-taking clarity as OLED. Each individual pixel is its own light-emitting diode, so there’s no need for backlighting, no risk of screen burn, and pixels can switch off entirely for the truest, deepest blacks.
Modular TVs are totally flat with no bezel, meaning the image looks like it’s popping right off the wall!
So, in short – it’s pretty stunning!
Any other cool features?
You betcha. Samsung have also hinted at something called ‘mosaic mode’. This will allow modular televisions to fit together like jigsaw pieces to create unique screen shapes – think L-shapes, T-shapes and even S-shapes – to fit whatever creative idea you have in mind.
What makes and models of modular TVs can I buy?
So far, only Samsung appear to be developing modular television, but they’re not available just yet.
They’re working on two versions of their modular TV:
The first is called ‘The Wall’. Why? Because at a full length of 146 inches, it pretty much *is *the size of a wall!
The second is a smaller, equally as powerful version called ‘The Window’. At a maximum size of 75 inches, it still promises to take your breath away.
How much will it cost?
As for price, let’s not kid ourselves: this kind of technology doesn’t come cheap. We could be looking around the £15k mark for the 75-inch ‘The Window’ and perhaps twice as much for ‘The Wall’.
