Samsung’s vertical TV gives social media addicts a big screen

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Samsung vertical tv
The 43-inch Sero should curb your over exposure to small screens.
Photo: Samsung

Samsung has a new vertical TV made for social media browsing, a design the Korean electronics company says is aimed at millennials.

But will even the most voracious social media consumers pay $1,600 to get their fix on a bigger screen?

The 43-inch TV, which rotates to the conventional horizontal format, will go on sale in Korea at the end of May. Samsung doesn’t say whether the Sero, Korean for “vertical,” will be for sale in the U.S.

The Sero was one of three new lifestyle TVs Samsung announced on Monday. To put the $1,600 price in perspective, a conventional 43-inch Samsung TV at Target costs about $300.

The TV uses a mirroring function so that watchers can synchronize their mobile phone display with the larger screen for browsing social media, such as Instagram, Facebook or shows launched on Snapchat.

Samsung vertical tv
The Sero and two other stylish Samsung TVs go on sale in South Korea at the end of May.
Photo: Samsung

“The use case for the Sero, beyond that of a regular landscape position TV, is limited, especially with a relatively high price tag,” Matthew Ruben, an analyst with the market research firm Futuresource told the BBC. ”It is telling that the TV will initially launch in South Korea, which is a market with very high mobile phone usage, so the likely success can be gauged quite early.”

When the television is off, photos or artsy wallpaper can be displayed to add to the aesthetic of a room. It has a microphone so users can give voice commands to Samsung’s digital assistant, Bixby.

In a news release about its new TVs, Samsung said it will open a pop-up store in Seoul on June 2 to show off the new sets.

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