LG's OLED R TV is not necessary, but it is a magical piece of tech

After a long gestation menses and appearances at various trade shows over the years; LG's rollable OLED is finally hither. You tin can actually touch it, or better all the same, sentinel actual TV on information technology.

I was invited to the UK launch of the Signature OLED R in Due south Kensington – surrounded by people in attire far better than my hoodie and gainsay trousers – to see a TV that feels like it's been around for ages.

It start popped upwardly at CES 2018 as a concept, so I saw information technology in the mankind at the next CES with several OLED R prototypes all rolling upwards and downward in synchronised grade as people stood around and gawped. And then not much was heard, the Tv quietly receded into the groundwork every bit 8K became the buzzword.

Except the OLED R is now ready for the spotlight to be shone on it. The UK was chosen as the start land in Europe for the OLED R'due south, ahem, roll-out; and for the sum of £100,000, information technology can be yours, too – if you have the financial means of a Premier League footballer or hedge fund director.

While the LG Signature OLED R (to requite information technology its full title) is quite staggeringly more expensive than LG'due south cheapest A1 OLED, the betoken of its existence is not its affordability, but that information technology exists at all.

The OLED R is LG flexing its engineering and design muscles, bending (quite literally) the concept of a Television set and delivering an intriguing showcase from a technical perspective.

TVs can be fairly ho-hum and often samey to look at. Four corners with bezels and some form of a stand to keep them upright – normally. The OLED R is unusual in that it is about aesthetics and infinite, a TV more than concerned with how information technology'south perceived, a TV that's to exist enjoyed partly because it's also not actually a Goggle box.

The display stealthily rises from a case that doesn't really look like information technology could, or should, contain a screen at all. That it rolls out volition have tech fashionistas and pattern gurus salivating, and is only possible because of the flexible display that, at this moment in fourth dimension, only OLED can evangelize – a slight finger in the eye of Samsung's QLED displays.

And the instance the screen rises from? It too functions as a speaker, and so is a TV and sound organisation tidily packed into i unit. I can't say I'd desire to be the person trying to lift it, though.

I suppose what I'm getting at here is the aspirational idea of technology that LG has leaned into. The idea of showing what's possible when you take a vision and the means to behave it out. The Signature OLED R is a novelty, it'south innovative and shouldn't really be a matter. What purpose does it serve and who is it for? It'south a very expensive way of watching Netflix in the same way Samsung's humongous Micro-LED TVs are.

Information technology recalls the explorer George Mallory's response when asked about why he wanted to climb Everest. LG has created the OLED R because they can, and there'southward both a sense of wonder and amusement that someone, somewhere thought, "why don't we create a TV that rolls upwardly from a box" and someone else replied "yes, that'due south a great idea".

The Signature OLED R is a Tv set that'due south not necessary, only on some level is a TV that we do need. It's a Television receiver to expect and curiosity at its formulation and execution, a slice of tech that suggests that, well, whatever idea is possible to bring into being. A TV that could probable spark other's imaginations in pushing what else we tin do with TVs.

And that'southward perhaps that singular purpose about the OLED R, that it proves there are fresh ideas out in that location and that it'southward not nearly necessarily having the biggest screen or the brightest display or the most pixels. Seeing the screen whorl up and down is as much amusement as watching Television receiver on it. Expect how far nosotros've come up from boxy TVs with those agreeable looking aerials, and so think about where else we could go side by side. That's the magic of the OLED R.