Samsung has unleashed its bendable 105-inch TV on CES 2015 and has confirmed that the flexible 4K Ultra HD panel will actually go on sale.
The Korean company is keeping tight-lipped about prices and availability for the time being but you can be sure that the flexible telly – which can either pose as an inwardly curving TV or a flatscreen – won’t come cheap.
Although the TV was first shown at IFA last September, Samsung had added a number of tweaks to make the experience even more eye-popping and mind-blowing.
The Samsung UN105S9B features a 21:9 aspect ratio, wider than the average TV, 4K Ultra HD resolution, quantum dot technology for improved colour fidelity. It’ll also boast Samsung’s new Tizen-powered smart TV platform.
The rationale behind the current vogue for curved screens is that such a shape creates a more immersive, amphitheatre-style experience. The concave shape supposedly allows for more photons to be thrown at your peripheral vision, creating a more cinematic experience in the home.
For this to work, you’ll need to be sat in the focal point – the sweet spot – of a TV’s curves. With one or two people watching telly and sitting in the middle of the couch, this is fine, but if you’ve got a group of people round to watch a football game or a movie, the effect is ruined.
Enter the bendy TV. It can be curvy or flat depending on what you’re watching and how many people are round. This is possible thanks to Samsung’s investment in flexible LED panels, which led to the development of curved TVs in the first place. Tiny motorised gears bend and flex the TV at the touch of a remote control button.
The 105-inch flexible monster we got to see at IFA 2014 in Berlin was said to cost around $260,000 (£170,000), so unless you’re a shipping magnate or a recent lottery winner, you probably won’t be buying one of these.
This time last year Samsung melted faces with an 85-inch flexible TV before going one better in September. Korean rivals LG have also been dipping a toe into the world of flexi-screens; it’s developed a bendable 18-inch OLED that can be rolled up like wrapping paper and it’s aiming to have a 60-inch bender ready by 2017.
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