Samsung The Sero smartphone-friendly TV is finally available to buy
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
You'd be excused for forgetting about The Sero considering Samsung's dozens of TV models but you'd also be excused if its image was burned into your memory. First revealed at the end of 2019, The Sero debuted in the public's eyes at CES 2020. Almost six months later, the TV is finally up for grabs so that you and your family can enjoy all those tall, portrait videos and photos without having to turn your phone or your head.
TVs have long had the ability to mirror or receive content from smartphones but smartphones, ironically, aren't really designed for the big screen. Netflix, YouTube, and other videos are fine but there will be apps and content like Instagram that are made exclusively for a certain handheld orientation. You can display those on TVs, of course, but those result in scaled-down images and plenty of letterboxing at the sides.
Samsung's The Sero TV solves that by making the TV swivel and change its orientation to match exactly what's on the phone screen. In fact, it will automatically rotate the screen to match your phone's but you can also do it manually by voice, app, or remote control.
With a portrait orientation, you can mirror and use your phone's screen exactly as how you see it in your hand, except larger. This allows you to maximize every pixel on your TV and perhaps avoid the disorientation of seeing a portrait UI on a landscape screen. Of course, you can still do that but what's the point of paying for this "unique" TV then?
And pay for it you will to the tune of 1,599 GBP or $1,999. That's still mostly within the range of Samsung's 4K QLED TVs so you might be paying only a little extra for a party trick that could get old really fast.