Today, Samsung is showing off its newest line of SUHD TVs. If you can believe it, they’re outrageously beautiful. They’ve got some performance improvements and new blah blah connectivity features, but what’s most striking is the way that Samsung’s creeping towards that platonic ideal of a bezel-less design: A television whose picture is hanging there in the air without any frame around it at all.
Indeed, Samsung touts its new 88-inch KS9500 SUHD TV flagship as the world’s first bezel-less television, which—spoiler alert!—is not really true. Here look, a bezel:
But to Samsung’s credit, it is a very impressively small bezel for a TV this size. And if you want to see where Samsung is going with this, the company is showing off a prototype of an “ultra-slim” model. Which is not just beautiful...
It’s practically invisible from the side. (Company reps declined to tell me exactly how slim the thing is, and I couldn’t get close enough to really measure.)
Yes, one day the pixels will just float in the air!
The company has quite a history of impressive industrial design on televisions, and I must admit, I’m sort of enthralled by its relentless pursuit of design perfection. It also makes sense, because the impressiveness of 4K displays is wearing off. Design is a great way to distinguish yourself from an increasingly homogeneous 4K pack.
Oh, and while we’re speaking of distinguishing ourselves, what new stuff is Samsung bringing to the table this year? Two big features: A super-bright 1000 nit display capable of HDR reproduction, and built-in smart home features. With the former, Samsung is trying to keep with other top manufacturers in offering high-dynamic range reproduction. With the latter, Samsung is trying to carve out a niche in the forthcoming internet of things world.
But on TVs, nothing is more exciting than design these days. And Samsung is leading the pack. Death to bezels.
Photos by Mario Aguilar/Gizmodo Contact the author at maguilar@gizmodo.com.