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Samsung thinks millennials want vertical TVs

Samsung thinks millennials want vertical TVs

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And Samsung might be right

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Photo: Samsung

The latest addition to Samsung’s TV range is the Sero, a 43-inch TV that was designed with the millennial generation in mind and therefore pivots between horizontal and vertical orientations. It’s a much smarter idea than the phrase “vertical TV” would lead you to believe. Acknowledging that most mobile content is vertical, Samsung says the Sero is designed to encourage young people to project more of their smartphone stuff onto the TV by allowing it to go vertical. Throwing in 4.1-channel, 60W speakers along with an integrated navy stand and a minimalist rear design, Samsung seems to hope this TV will function as both a music streaming hub and a handsome piece of furniture.

When it’s not used as a conventional TV or a phone enlarger, the Sero can also serve as a huge digital photo frame or a music visualizer, and Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant will be on hand, too. Samsung intends to put the Sero on sale for 1.89m KRW (around $1,600) in its home market of South Korea at the end of May.

The Sero occupies a weird middle ground between a concept and a real product. Opening a pop-up store in Seoul today and showing off the Sero alongside its existing Serif and Frame TV lines, Samsung is adding to its so-called lifestyle TV lineup. It is putting a price and release date on the Sero. But the company also calls this new TV a concept, and its efforts will surely include close monitoring of consumer feedback to the entire premise. Will millennials warm to the expanded flexibility, or will they feel subtly attacked for the Sero exposing the intensity of their (okay, our) smartphone addiction?