The television has spent decades getting bigger, thinner and smarter, but Samsung thinks the next trick might simply be making it easier to move.
The Samsung Movingstyle has landed in Australia, a 27-inch portable Smart TV designed to follow you around the house rather than permanently occupying a wall or entertainment unit.
And according to Samsung’s latest Australian consumer insights, there may actually be an audience for it.
One in ten Australians surveyed say they want fresh TV designs that are rollable, flexible or portable, while 63% want technology that better suits their personal style and lifestyle needs.
More tellingly, Australians are already increasingly treating screens as something that should come to them.
Samsung says 26% of Australians reach for a laptop, tablet or smartphone when watching a major broadcast event rather than necessarily heading for the television.
At the same time, the humble TV isn’t being used purely for watching television anymore.
Samsung’s research found 42% of Australians use their TV for gaming, 24% for listening to music or podcasts and 16% for fitness workouts. TVs are also increasingly being used for displaying art and supporting work from home.
It creates an interesting problem for a device traditionally bolted – sometimes literally – to one location.
According to Simon Howe, Director – Visual Display at Samsung Australia, Australians aren’t necessarily watching less television. They’re simply using their screens differently.
“The TV has traditionally been designed around the room it sits in and has undergone various transformations over the years to help the TV elevate and optimise those spaces. But Australians aren’t living room by room anymore and the content they’re watching isn’t always shot in landscape formats,” Howe said.
“They might be working in one space, streaming vertical social content in another, bonding with family somewhere else, and switching between other activities throughout the day. It’s time to rethink the assumption that a TV has to stay in one place or compromise full-screen experiences to support family life.“
A TV That Moves With You
Samsung’s answer is the Movingstyle, a 27-inch portable Smart Touch Screen TV capable of rotating between landscape and portrait orientations.
Rather than having another fixed screen for the kitchen, bedroom, home office or workout space, the idea is that Movingstyle can travel between them.
Samsung envisages it displaying a vertically filmed workout in the morning, becoming a recipe screen in the kitchen, serving as a portable workstation during the afternoon and then returning to entertainment duties later in the day.
The portrait orientation is particularly interesting as our viewing habits increasingly collide with content designed primarily for smartphones.
It also makes Movingstyle something of a hybrid between a traditional television, oversized tablet and portable smart display.
Samsung believes that flexibility reflects where television design is heading.
“Looking at these insights, the Movingstyle is a signal of where household screen design is heading, truly made for Australians and how they live,” Howe said.
Samsung has plenty of history experimenting with what a television should look like. Its Lifestyle TV range already includes products such as The Frame, while the company recently marked its twentieth consecutive year as the world’s number one global TV brand.
Movingstyle takes a different approach. Instead of trying to make the television disappear into the room, Samsung wants you to take it with you.
Whether Australians are ready to spend $1,999 on a 27-inch portable TV is another question entirely, but the idea of the television no longer being permanently tied to the lounge room is an intriguing one.
The Samsung Movingstyle is available now through Samsung’s Australian online store and leading retailers for RRP A$1,999.