LG’s Rollable TV is Absolutely Drool-Worthy

Forget about all of the hype that TV manufacturers are trying to drum up around 8K and its 33 million pixels. The biggest highlight that will ultimately come out of this segment at CES 2019 is LG Electronics’ OLED TV R—or rollable. The Rollable TV, which was displayed as a concept product during last year’s show, made its big debut during the company’s press conference in Vegas on Monday and was the centerpiece of LG’s booth in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The display is, to put it simply, drool inducing. LG already bears the mark of being the industry leader and producer of the finest OLED TVs on the market. And they’ve had a knack, over the last several years, of launching impressively impossible display designs with their Wallpaper TV and other stunningly slim OLED sets.

But the Rollable TV takes things in an entirely new and unique direction, placing a greater emphasis of offering a design and aesthetic sales pitch than one that’s simply based on the display technology itself. During the LG press conference ahead of the show’s official opening, CMO David Vanderwaal explained that the product addresses the “very human need” of aesthetic design by “going beyond what a TV could traditionally offer.” The Rollable TV does that by removing the constraints of having to mount a big black box on a wall or leaving it out on top of a TV stand. Rather, the screen elegantly rolls up, as the name suggests, and hides itself in a base that also houses a 4.2 channel, 100 watt Dolby Atmos sound bar audio system.

As for the display, LG explained that the Rollable TV will support three viewing modes: Full View, Line View, and Zero View. Full View is exactly what it sounds like with the TV fully rolled out and available to display content on the gorgeous 65-inch OLED screen. Line View has the TV rolled mostly up, leaving a few inches of the display visible, which allows the area to display content options like music, a clock, a home dashboard, frames, and more. And the Zero View is the TV rolled completely up and hidden from sight, leaving the owner with a product that can still stream audio and act as a meaningful piece of entertainment equipment.

The Rollable TV is powered by LG’s Alpha 9 processor, which uses deep learning and artificial intelligence to take the visual and audio experience to the next level. And the product will ship with support for Amazon Alexa and Apple’s AirPlay 2 and HomeKit services.

A few questions remain around the TV, including pricing and durability—it’s unclear if LG tested how many times the display can go up and down before wearing out or starting to show signs of failure. But the rollable display is here, and LG plans to launch the product at retail later this year. So for now, we’ll just continue to stare longingly at the most unique TV we’ve seen in quite some time.