Samsung Reveals 'The Wall,' a Massive 146-Inch Video Wall

LAS VEGAS—For a TV, 65- and 85-inch sets are considered very big. Here at CES, though, Samsung unveiled a massive display: the 4K, 146-inch MicroLED Wall.

CES 2022 bug art Aye, it'due south really chosen The Wall past Samsung, and it'southward by far the largest TV to be appear for consumer release.

The cost of manufacturing LCD and OLED panels, the ii chief TV technologies, becomes much higher the larger you lot scale each panel by a certain point. That's why a spring from 42 to 55 to 65 inches for TVs tin be a few hundred dollars for each pace, but moving from 65 inches to 75 inches tacks several thousand dollars onto the price. An 85-inch Television can cost as much as a car, and y'all won't likely meet any LCD or OLED larger than that. The manufacturing procedure for a panel that size is just unfeasible for a consumer product.

Instead of LCD or OLED, The Wall uses MicroLED. Colored lite-emitting diodes—which are effectively very tiny, self-independent light bulbs—combine to form each pixel on the MicroLED assortment. Each pixel emits light on its ain, making the MicroLED array function closer to an OLED panel or a plasma Idiot box than a conventional LCD TV that requires a backlight to illuminate the image formed past the liquid crystal layer.

Samsung The Wall

You've probably seen this applied science before, in less micro a format. Very large video billboards and displays are often constructed out of like LED arrays. They form a big, moving picture you can recognize from across the street, but when you become up close you can see each cluster of LED "bulbs" brightening and dimming to form the picture.

The MicroLED array on The Wall isn't quite equally obvious as the huge arrays of LEDs on these larger commercial signs. Each pixel on the 146-inch screen is only over 0.8 millimeters, or small plenty that you won't exist able to see them individually unless you're a foot or ii away (which isn't recommended for a TV that'due south over 11 anxiety across, diagonally). I couldn't see the pixels of the TV from about half-dozen feet abroad, which is probably the closest comfortable watching distance.

Samsung has non announced pricing or availability for The Wall, and those details won't likely be revealed until March. However, the visitor has confirmed that The Wall is a consumer product, non a prototype or proof-of-concept model (which is a much more common sight among huge TVs at CES). The 146-inch TV will still probably cost as much as a small automobile, but information technology will be bachelor for purchase at some bespeak this year.

Samsung besides showed off two 8K TVs, which are proof-of-concept models. The new 85-inch 8K LCD Boob tube, the Q9S, demonstrated a new upconversion engine that tin take SD (720 by 480), HD (i,920 by 1,080), or 4K (3,840 past 2,160) video and process it to appear crisp at 8K (7,680 by four,320) resolution. The other model on display, a 65-inch Telly, showed off native 8K content, which displays four times the pixels of 4K video.

Don't fret about these 8K TV, though. 8K video is still a largely theoretical format with no significant studio, distributor, or manufacturer adoption for consumer use. Your 4K Tv set isn't obsolete, and won't exist for a while.