The Sero Hands-on: Samsung’s rotating AirPlay-enabled 4K QLED display [Video]

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The Sero from Samsung in mid rotation

With today’s content mixing in more and more vertical video, one of Samsung’s latest displays has you covered to get the most out of whatever you’re watching. The Sero, a 43-inch 4K display, will rotate from a horizontal to a vertical orientation to fill the screen when viewing vertical content. Following our announcement of its availability, we knew we had to get our hands on it. Head below to watch the video and see The Sero in action.

Coming in at $2,000, The Sero isn’t the best deal when it comes to displays, but it has a lot more to offer than normal panels. The Frame, also from Samsung, offers a similar picture and runs about ½ that price, but The Sero also packs a powerful sound system and can stand on its own.

Design

Part TV, part work of art, design on The Sero is meant to look like a piece of your decor instead of a large TV panel. It won’t mount on a wall, but the stand keeps it at a good viewing angle. Being a rotating screen, the support and motor are all built into the stand. Its stance is tilted back to be almost like an easel.

While it isn’t the smallest I’ve seen, the bezel around the edge of the 43” screen is discrete and isn’t overbearing.

One main feature to take advantage of the vertical setup is an ambient mode where you can select from a wide variety of backgrounds to make The Sero more attractive in the room. From a dashboard of information via SmartThings to repeating cinemagraph videos, it can be informative or an art piece to fit the rest of the setup.

Rotating Screen

Of course, its most notable feature is the rotating screen. In today’s content world, it’s common to go back and forth between vertical and horizontal video quickly. Normally, when viewing vertical content on a horizontal screen, there are massive black bars on either side of the image reducing the overall size of the picture. In some situations that still happens with The Sero, but viewing vertical content on The Sero is pretty incredible.

The Sero: Video

SmartThings

Being a Samsung product, The Sero also has some built-in controls for SmartThings enabled devices. Match that with the ability to connect with different voice assistants and The Sero can be a handy way to control or monitor your home as well.

Apple Connectivity

For Apple fans, The Sero is a bit of a mixed bag. While it does have Apple TV built-in and supports AirPlay 2, which is also great, during my time of testing I couldn’t get any media to play in a vertical format when sending it from my iPhone 8. There are a couple of disclaimers on the website that mention functionality could change on The Sero in the future and to keep on the lookout for updates.

Picture

At the heart of The Sero is its incredible 3,840 x 2,160 QLED display with Quantum HDR. Together, the resolution and color range provide a beautiful display that also sports a wide viewing angle. Music videos, YouTube videos, and movies all looked incredible on this display with some backlight from the windows I had it positioned in front of.

Upscaling and adaptive picture brightness

To fit different lighting conditions and types of content, The Sero also automatically adjusts the picture to lighting conditions in the room. Additionally, it can upscale lower resolution video to enhance it on The Sero’s detailed display.

Audio

To make The Sero even more of an all-in-one solution, it has 4.1 sound built into the bottom of the TV. Hidden behind the attractive cloth cover is a 60-watt system which sounds pretty good, especially for a TV. Of course, this isn’t your standard TV. Most modern displays don’t put much focus on built-in audio, but The Sero holds its own.

Wrapping Up

All-in-all, The Sero is a specialty display. If you don’t see the need for a rotating screen, you can pick up The Frame from Samsung and get just as good of a picture for about ½ the price. But, let’s be honest, The Sero is pretty cool. And if you have the space for it and find yourself consuming vertical media, then The Sero is a beautifully designed unique display with an equally beautiful picture and impressive sound.

Buy The Sero

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