We’ve seen some pretty flamboyant TV designs in our time, but this is one of the edgiest yet… and better yet, it’s not just for show. This is really on sale.
This is the C SEED N1, and as you can see in the image above, it transforms from a piece of sculpture into a massive, super-advanced 4K TV – and vice versa, when not in use. It comes in 103-inch, 137-inch and 165-inch sizes – so you can imagine the metal sculpture is quite large and imposing on its own, and then unfolds into a screen suitable for a home theater experience to rival the best projectors.
The concertina’s amazing design is based on micro-LED technology, which should be the next big thing in TVs after OLED and mini-LED. Like the best OLED TVs, micro-LED pixels generate their own light, so you get perfect contrast and color accuracy. Unlike OLED, however, micro-LED can be very, very bright, so you get amazing HDR.
But the micro-LED has another trick up its sleeve, which is what makes this foldable design work: screens can be constructed from individual panels that are assembled with no visible seams. That’s the smartest part of the C SEED design here: every part of the display folds into a flat panel and then uses a patented technology called ‘Adaptive Gap Calibration’ to ensure there are no seams in the image.
The screen is 4K in all sizes with HDR10+ support, and the set has auto-rotation built into the design – it can rotate 180 degrees horizontally, which is very rare. It also has two built-in 100-watt speakers, so there’s no low audio power.
It’s made from aerospace aluminum, which helps give something this big and elaborate the strength to work with, and also gives it a clean, impressive look when it’s folded back into its base.
On this topic, C SEED says, “it folds discreetly into its base, an impressive piece of kinetic art.” While we agree with the second part of that sentence (it might not be especially artistic in the sense of communicating an emotion, but we think it’s a beautiful piece of industrial design), we’re having trouble with the idea of being understated. It’s a bank-sized piece of aluminum! Impressive? Clear. Bear a resemblance to Interstellar robots in a way that I find extremely charming? Absolutely. Discreet? Not a lot.
Anyway, here’s a video of it in action.
Now, as you might have guessed from the size and general vibe of this thing, it’s not going to come cheap. C SEED makes luxury products, and the N1 starts from €180,000. We also don’t know in which countries it will be offered, although in a way that doesn’t matter. It’s not like you’re expecting Amazon in your region to get this – if you’ve got that cash and want one, your dealer can probably have a word with the right people.
But we like it for two reasons. One is… you know, look at him! It’s just amazing.
The second is that it’s a great showcase for what micro-LED can do. The technology is fascinating, but there’s still not much imagination about how it’s used in designs – Samsung (which is leading the way in making it available for home use) has offered micro-LED panels that can be connected to a screen of any size. you want, and a long overdue series of normal looking TVs.
This is the first micro-LED TV to take the uniqueness of the technology and imagine something entirely new, and we’re absolutely in love with it.
