WTF?! Do you ever look at your TV and think "I really wish it rotated 90 degrees so I could watch smartphone content in its native portrait mode?" The answer is almost certainly no, but that hasn't stopped Samsung from unveiling a television that caters to this unusual desire.
Part of its 2019 TV lineup, the Sero is a 43-inch quantum-dot TV that's part of Samsung's Serif and Frame QLED family. The company claims it came up with the idea by studying the habits of millennials, who it says love their smartphones.
The idea is for users to view standard TV content on the Sero in a landscape orientation, but they can flip into the vertical mode and mirror their smartphones to watch portrait-aspect videos from the likes of Snapchat, Instagram Stories, and TikTok.
Samsung added that the TV's portrait mode could also be suitable for viewing photos and visiting "shopping sites with comments on the bottom." The company also argues this orientation might improve web browsing in general.
"Samsung will continue introducing screens that respect personal consumer tastes," said display president Han Jong-hee.
Other Sero specs include 4.1 channel audio, a built-in 60-watt speaker system, and a microphone for operating Samsung's AI assistant Bixby and issuing voice commands. It's also likely to be 4K. Like The Frame, The Sero can show images, widgets, and other information when in standby mode.
The Sero is set to launch in Korea next month for 1.9 million won, which is around $1,600 (not the $16,000 some sites reported). No word on whether it'll ever make its way to the US.