Samsung embraces vertical videos with a $16,000 vertical TV

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  A few wild new Samsung TV designs. We're interested in the "The Sero," the two TVs in the bottom right. [credit: Samsung ]

It's tough to stand out in the TV market, where everyone is shipping beautiful 4K panels in pretty much whatever size you want. Samsung is hoping to turn heads with a few wild "concept lifestyle TV" designs, which it rounded up in a Korean-language press release today. There's the previously announced "The Frame," which looks like a framed picture and displays artwork when not in use. There's "The Serif," which is mounted on four legs, looking kind of like a canvas easel. And then there's the real head-turner, "The Sero," which is a vertical TV.

The Sero isn't vertical all the time. The 43-inch panel is mounted on a rotating stand, allowing you to get up, walk over to the TV, and swing it from landscape to portrait—kind of like working the world's biggest smartphone. Through Google Translate, Samsung's press release tells us it "analyzed the characteristics of the Millennial generation" to come up with the TV design, which is purpose-built for watching the vertical videos you find on services like Instagram. Of course, the entire scourge of vertical videos was created because people couldn't be bothered to rotate their 5-inch smartphones, so I don't know about the idea that people will get off the couch to rotate their 43-inch TV.

Samsung says the TV comes with NFC pairing and a "simple mirroring function" to get your smartphone videos on the TV. Like Samsung's other TVs, this has an ambient mode that can display images, photos, clocks, and more when not in use. There's a microphone with Samsung's Bixby assistant built-in.

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