SAMSUNG

A Closer Look at Samsung's The Wall MicroLED TV System

I've been waiting to see more of Samsung's The Wall TV system ever since it was first revealed at CES almost two years ago. Instead of using an LCD or OLED panel, The Wall uses individual LED clusters to form its picture, like much larger (and much more pixelated) video signage. It shows a great deal of promise, but its size and scope has kept it out of reach of consumers. I visited Samsung's headquarters in South Korea and got a closer than ever look at The Wall.
Samsung set up a demonstration and test screen measuring approximately 150 inches diagonal, configured like a 16:9, 4K TV. This would be the most "standard" setup for The Wall, but a modular design makes it remarkably flexible. Every unit consists of multiple modules that measure 17.9 by 31.8 inches, with a resolution of 960 by 540. The 150-inch 4K setup I saw, for example, was made up of no less than sixteen of these modules, each the size of a large computer monitor.



Each of these modules is mounted flush with another, and the LEDs are carefully aligned to produce a seamless picture. When the fully assembled behemoth was on and display something, I couldn't detect the faintest seam between modules. When turned off, however, it's possible to make out each individual panel.

Big Display, (Relatively) Small Pixels
The Wall features a pixel pitch of 0.84mm for each cluster of red-green-blue LEDs. That's pretty big for a TV or monitor (a 65-inch 4K TV has a pixel pitch of about 0.37mm), but it's downright tiny for an LED video wall. Conventional LED video walls used in digital signage have big honkin' pixels measuring several millimeters across, so The Wall dipping below one millimeter is impressive.
Standing a few feet away from The Wall, I couldn't tell the pixels apart. Even getting closer, while I could start to discern them, it hardly looked any different from when I look very closely at my home TV. Packing sub-millimeter pixels into a display wall that measures over twelve feet diagonally produces a surprisingly sharp picture.





Just as important, the LED technology produces a very bright picture. Samsung claims The Wall can produce a peak of 1,600cd/m2, which stacks it up alongside some of the brightest TVs I've tested. Its full-field maximum brightness is rated at 500cd/m2, which is also impressive considering just how many m2 are involved in a video wall this size. And, since the LEDs can individually turn off when displaying black levels, The Wall should be able to produce excellent contrast. That said, I was unable to perform formal tests during my visit.
As for color performance, because the LED modules use individual red, green, and blue LEDs to form colors, The Wall can get nice and vivid. Again, I couldn't test its color performance, but it produced visibly well-saturated colors during the demonstration, and generally looked brighter and more colorful than some other video walls I've seen.



Potential Problems
The Wall has its share of issues, though. First, it produces a lot of heat. While LEDs individually don't get very hot when compared with light bulbs, millions of them being powered at once still takes a lot of electricity, and that generates plenty of warmth. I could physically feel how warm The Wall was getting just by holding my hand a foot away from it when it was powered on.
Second, while the ability to completely turn off LEDs when displaying black should mean excellent contrast and no light bleed, that will probably only be the case in some very limited situations. The Wall's panels have a matte finish that seem to catch a lot of ambient light, and since it's so big and can get so bright, it's easy to envision cases where high-contrast scenes can slightly wash out shadow details just from the light the brighter parts of the frame are putting out. I'll have to spend more time with The Wall to see if this is a serious issue, though.



Then there's the question of price. The Wall is expensive, that much is certain. I've just been unable to find out exactly how expensive it is. Samsung has remained tight-lipped about how much an installation will cost. I would estimate at least $20,000, but for a 150-inch, 4K setup, I wouldn't be surprised to see the price go move up to six digits.
The Wall is available to customers with deep enough pockets, and is available in two forms. The Wall Luxury is the home entertaianment version, letting you set up a massive TV in your probably equally massive house. The Wall Pro is the digital signage version, targeting businesses for more conventional advertising and decorative video wall purposes.
I hope to take an extended look at The Wall in the future during which I can apply my standard test procedures to see how it stacks up against other screens on the market.

by Will Greenwald