LG Display brought the throne of curved OLED screens to this year’s CES.

Could it even be a tech fair without a new throne? 2020 brought us the Scorpion Chair, 2019 brought us “fully immersive” restrooms, and efforts to lock gamers into their own PCs have been something I haven’t done in a while. Okay. But LG Display has a sleeker new idea: a 55-inch rotating curved OLED TV attached to a recliner that helps you position yourself in the perfect spot of those pixels.
Like most LG Display ideas, the “Media Chair” is a concept, not a product – at least for now. LG Display tells us that it is actually working with an unnamed Korean massage chair company to one day market it. “They’re being marketed by them, they’re going to sell it,” said spokesman Matthew Weigand
But while there aren’t any built-in robotic massagers yet, the concept has a lot of vibration going on – speakers in the chair and one in the form of an OLED panel, thanks to LG. Display`s Cinematic Sound OLED (CSO) vibrates the screen to produce sound. (We’ve been covering this technology since 2017 for TVs and phones, and it also appeared on LG Display’s curved-to-flat concept screens last year.)
As for TVs, it’s a 55-inch OLED panel with a curved 1500R, providing “a person’s perfect focal length so they can get the best viewing experience,” explains Weigand. (We have yet to see it for ourselves.) It can also switch between portrait and landscape modes; You do this by pressing a button on the touchscreen control panel on the right armrest. Because it’s attached to the seat frame, the TV is also within your field of vision when you fully recline the chair.
I don’t think there’s any question of that being too far, too far out of my price range, although there’s always the possibility that some benefit of the concept will spill over one day. After all, LG’s mainstream OLED sets recently dropped below the $1,000 mark, and despite being considerably expensive, its astonishing roll-up display design has finally found its way into one. The $100,000 TV even made it through. United States last year. The media chair isn’t the only concept LG Display showcases at CES – it also features a ‘Virtual Ride’, which uses three 55-inch curved 4K OLED screens to create a single, giant wrap-around display for theoretically feel like yourself. outdoor cycling. In addition to being central, LG Display is also touting it as a potential alternative to VR headsets, although it would obviously be a bit more convincing if it had some 3D depth. Or maybe add the screen scrolling to the sides, instead of just vertically.
What might impress you is the curve: the top screen has a section that curves to a radius of just 500 millimeters (500R), which LG Display says is the tightest bend we’ve seen on a display. big screen. For context, the 49-inch Samsung Odyssey G9 monitor I reviewed last year has a 1000R curve, and it’s state-of-the-art. Honestly, what I hope we get out of this is a more curved display. While a curved TV can be a mistake for a household, especially in a well-lit room, I ended up wishing LG had a curved OLED gaming monitor when I reviewed the TV. their 48 inches earlier this month, for productivity purposes only. Done correctly, it’s something that I can see paying off, unlike a television throne for a bike station or station.