On the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), there’s an itching feeling in the air that this year isn’t a big year for Samsung. The company unveiled (literally) a smaller version of last year’s big TV, the Wall, featuring MicroLED technology at an event in a ballroom. More than one person wondered, what’s the difference? The answer, awkwardly, is everything and nothing.
On the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), there’s an itching feeling in the air that this year isn’t a big year for Samsung. The company unveiled (literally) a smaller version of last year’s big TV, the Wall, featuring MicroLED technology at an event in a ballroom. More than one person wondered, what’s the difference? The answer, awkwardly, is everything and nothing.
Samsung’s hot new TV is a 75-inch MicroLED display that exists as a proof of concept that proves a concept. MicroLED technology is scalable, versatile, and attainable, the company expressed in a four-hour-long showcase at the Aria hotel in Las Vegas. The fundamental technology behind the TV made its debut a year ago in an event space north of the Strip, where Samsung revealed the Wall concept. That 146-inch MicroLED display was billed as a new type of modular TV that could be any size and any aspect ratio because it was made of Micro LED tiles. These tiles, in principle, could snap together to create an endless array of displays, though Samsung didn’t do that demo.
This year, Samsung did the demo. In addition to the smaller version of the Wall, the company revealed tall, skinny MicroLED displays alongside long, fat displays that broke into pieces. Samsung also had a hulking 219-inch version of the Wall, which frankly looks like the highest resolution digital billboard you’ve ever seen. This all served as a compelling illustration of what this new MicroLED technology can do and how Samsung thinks its modular aspiration could unfold—conceptually speaking, of course.
Before we start scratching our heads about why anyone would want a tall, skinny TV, let’s talk more about MicroLED technology.
