Samsung's latest TVs hide in plain sight when not in use
Not content with dominating the TV market, Samsung is on a mission to set itself apart from its rivals by creating absolutely, fantastically absurd TV sets.
The latest? A TV that blends into your home like a chameleon.
Yes, that’s right. Samsung’s newest creation all but disappears when not in use, leaving behind a thin bezel and the time, seemingly etched into your wall. The most impressive thing about this new TV is that it’s not actually a bespoke creation you need to go out and buy, it’s a standard feature on Samsung’s latest range of QLED TVs.
Once you’ve hung your shiny new 4K TV onto a wall, kicking it into Ambient Mode allows it to blend into its surroundings. By taking a photo of the wall it’s hung on, the TV determines what should be behind it and then uses it as a wallpaper to hide in plain sight. You can still use the TV screen to display the news, time or weather and traffic information while it’s “off”, creating a sort of floating wall of information in your home when the TV isn’t in use.
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Samsung has been on a bit of a mission to create TVs that don’t appear to be TVs. Last year, the South Korean company teamed up with designer Yves Béhar to create The Frame, a stunning 55in UHD TV that displayed digital artworks when not in use. On paper, it was an excellent idea, with wooden frames available to help disguise it further. However, in the flesh, it was still rather obvious you were looking at a TV screen instead of artwork.
It also didn’t help that The Frame cost a darn sight more than it should have – £2,000 for a TV with a panel that you can find on a £700 Samsung TV.
After The Frame came, The Wall, another ridiculous idea from Samsung that, like Frankenstein’s monster, really has no right to exist. At 146in, this 4K set is designed to take up an entire wall of your home and can be expanded upon by adding more of its bezel-less sets to it. In examples shown at CES, Samsung used the screen to display a smaller “TV” on a wall while implementing fake bookcases and pictures around it to give it the appearance of a wall in a room. When it comes time to sit back and watch a film, you can expand it to the entire screen and be truly immersed in 4K.
Thankfully, Ambient Mode should have more legs and cost less than both of Samsung’s previous absurd innovations. Not only is it stock for its new TVs, it’s likely to become stock for all of its 4K sets going forward meaning, in time, we’ll all be able to hide our TV in plain sight. Well, if we all buy Samsungs, that is.
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