X

Samsung The Wall Luxury Micro LED TV coming in July for rich people

Samsung still hasn't said exactly how much it will cost, but it won't be cheap. Especially at 292 inches and 8K resolution.

Eli Blumenthal Senior Editor
Eli Blumenthal is a senior editor at CNET with a particular focus on covering the latest in the ever-changing worlds of telecom, streaming and sports. He previously worked as a technology reporter at USA Today.
Expertise 5G, mobile networks, wireless carriers, phones, tablets, streaming devices, streaming platforms, mobile and console gaming,
David Katzmaier Editorial Director -- Personal Tech
David reviews TVs and leads the Personal Tech team at CNET, covering mobile, software, computing, streaming and home entertainment. We provide helpful, expert reviews, advice and videos on what gadget or service to buy and how to get the most out of it.
Expertise A 20-year CNET veteran, David has been reviewing TVs since the days of CRT, rear-projection and plasma. Prior to CNET he worked at Sound & Vision magazine and eTown.com. He is known to two people on Twitter as the Cormac McCarthy of consumer electronics. Credentials
  • Although still awaiting his Oscar for Best Picture Reviewer, David does hold certifications from the Imaging Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology on display calibration and evaluation.
Eli Blumenthal
David Katzmaier
3 min read

Samsung's The Wall TV is finally going to be available for consumers to purchase. At least those wealthy enough to afford its still unknown, but likely insanely expensive, price tag. Available globally in July, The Wall Luxury is Samsung's first consumer Micro LED display. The scalable, modular technology can be configured and customized to a variety of sizes, from 73-inches in 2K (a.k.a. 1080p) resolution all the way up to 292-inches in 8K resolution -- assuming your room and budget can support adding the additional panels. 

Meet Samsung's modular and massive MicroLED TVs at CES

See all photos

The Wall Luxury incorporates design-centric features from other Samsung  TVs . Like the Frame , The Wall isn't meant to be turned off. Instead, Samsung says, it changes "into a digital canvas best matching the owner`s interior needs and personal mood." The display runs a version of Samsung's Ambient mode found on its 2019 QLED TVs that shows curated art, photos and videos, complete with optional digital frames.

Samsung says the product will be sold through its "Custom Installer Network" and those looking for pricing information should contact them. For context, Samsung's QLED-based TVs max out at $70,000 for a 98-inch 8K version, so it's safe to assume that The Wall Luxury will cost well into six figures, at least for the larger 4K and 8K sizes.

the-wall-luxury3

Instead of powering off, Samsung's The Wall Luxury television can turn into a digital picture frame when not in use. 

Samsung

The first new screen technology in a decade, MicroLED utilizes millions of tiny, inorganic LEDs packed together to create the image. It has the potential for the same perfect black levels as OLED with no danger of burn-in. It can deliver higher brightness than any current display technology, wide-gamut excellent color and doesn't suffer the viewing angle and uniformity issues of LCD

The Wall Luxury features a brightness of 2,000 nits, higher than all but the brightest LCD TVs available today, for improved HDR image quality. Samsung mentions a "120Hz video rate," although it's unclear whether that's the same as the 120Hz refresh rate used by high-end 4K TVs. Samsung's AI Upscaling is also present through what the company calls its "Quantum Processor Flex," which uses machine learning to calibrate the picture regardless of The Wall's modular screen resolution.

The Wall Luxury has a panel depth of 30mm, an improvement on the 80mm depth of the earlier version of The Wall that was only available for the commercial market. Despite the depth improvement, however, a Samsung representative told CNET that The Wall Luxury doesn't use the next-generation version of MicroLED tech shown at CES 2019. That version uses even smaller LEDs, managing to eke 4K resolution out of a 75-inch size. There's no word on when Samsung will bring that version to market.

Compared to OLED and LCD, one disadvantage of current MicroLED technology is resolution. At 73 inches and 2K/1080p resolution, the individual pixels of The Wall Luxury are significantly larger than those of a typical 75-inch 4K LCD or 77-inch 4K OLED TV, so the image won't be as detailed with 4K TV shows and movies, in particular from relatively close seating distances. The same goes for higher-resolution; Samsung sells QLED TVs with 8K resolution as small as 65 inches, while to get that resolution in MicroLED you'll need, yes, a 292-inch TV.

Update June 13: Added more pricing information.