Designed by the Bouroullec brothers, Samsung’s The Serif TV is a work of art that’s designed to change the ambience in your living room (or any room) by removing that black screen. The famous designer duo came up with a rather unique design for The Serif TV, making it blend into any urban and modern interior space. Not only is it a piece of art, it also has a great piece of technology which has a QLED screen.
Design
The Serif TV we got came in Cloud White. It can be placed on a console table, but that would diminish the original style it’s supposed to be presented in, which is with the stylish metal legs. It did take another person to help me lift the TV and to get the legs installed, so try not to attempt setting the TV up by yourself.
Metal Legs For Days
In the box, you also get a cable duct to conceal the power cable along one of the rear metal legs. That way, it would look more seamless when setting up the TV and placing it in your living space. These metal legs may seem thin and weak, but they are far from it. They are sturdy, and can definitely hold the TV up. But, the TV does wobble a little so try not to push it too hard or have the robot vacuum knock into it too often.
Party In The Front And Back
And because this TV isn’t meant to just show off the front, the back also has a magnetic cover plate that covers all the connectivity ports so even the back would look stylish and doesn’t break the design continuity of the product and your room.
‘I’ am Serif.
From the side, the TV frame looks like a huge “I”, as in ‘I Am Legend” that I. It’s made out of hard plastic, and both the top and bottom are flat. Why are they flat? This gives you space to place multiple objects for you to decor it with – photo frames, block letters, plants, anything aesthetic, really. As long as it fits with the room, then the TV truly immerses itself into being a part of your furniture.
Boring Black Screen?
No matter which TV you own, when it’s off, your living room wall just has a black screen just sitting there. Honestly, it’s boring and dull. But with Samsung The Serif TV, the Magic Screen mode changes all that. You can display artwork, personal photos, basically any form of imagery on the TV to liven up the room.
It can be a painting, a photo you took during vacation, a pattern you really like. But one of the designs that impressed me the most apart from the basic selection, was the one designed by the Bouroullec brothers themselves. Dubbed “Palette by Bouroullec”, the TV will show these abstract waves, with the top later showing handy information like the time, weather, and latest news.
Sound
The Serif TV looks really good, but I can’t say the same for its sound performance. The speakers are integrated, so it offers standard sound performance. It has great volume, with minimal distortion at high volume levels, and a nice vocal tone when it comes to dialogues. The improved vocal tone is due to the Active Voice Amplifier, a great feature to add, especially for those Netflix dramas.
But evidently, it lacks bass because it doesn’t have an integrated soundbar. One suggestion is to maybe use the bottom part of the TV to integrate a soundbar, that would be amazing.
Of course, to improve the sound, you can equip the TV by connecting a wireless soundbar that will complement the audio and design aesthetics of your living space. Preferably in white, if your wall and TV is already white.
Remote
Straying away from the usual One Remote design, the Bouroullec Brothers made the remote white instead of black. The buttons have been minimised to simplify and make the remote more minimalistic. You get the Amazon Prime Video and Netflix buttons, along with a Bixby speech Assistant with the microphone button.
Upon testing, it could recognize Manglish (Malaysian English) rather well. I tried my best to not put on a fake English accent, and it worked splendidly, love.
Smart Menu
Powered by TIZEN, Samsung’s Smart Hub menu appears at the bottom of the TV, as per its other smart TVs. From here, you can see all the apps you have installed, as well as connected devices, and settings. The response between the remote and the TV is super fast as compared to the remote on my personal Samsung RU7100 smart TV, which is a bit sluggish when you’re rapidly pressing buttons.
Having an iPhone user at home, Samsung’s decision to include Apple’s AirPlay 2 support is a great addition! This means you can instantly stream music, photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad or MacBook straight to The Serif TV.
Image Quality
Equipped with a QLED screen, The Serif TV comprises of Samsung’s Quantom Dot technology. This allows for 100% colour reproduction, that’s billion plus colours, with HDR10+ support, and the brightness is adjust frame by frame to match the ambiance your home.
Having 4K support, any image or video displayed on the TV will be upscaled to 4K when the media doesn’t have a 4K resolution. Visuals are clear and sharp, but the contrast and colour isn’t as great as the other QLED TVs from Samsung that are offered at the same price range. This is probably due to The Serif TV having lesser background lighting.
When it comes to viewing angles, The Serif TV has limited viewing angles. So if you’re watching the TV from the sides and not straight on, the visuals tend to be darker with slight colour distortion. As for reflections, the TV isn’t very reflective thanks to its fairly matte screen.
The QLED panel also supports Adaptive Picture mode. During the day, the visuals will be brighter to keep up with the bright lights surrounding it. When night falls, the TV will scale down its brightness according to the environment it’s in, allowing for a more comfortable and eye-pleasing viewing experience.
Noteworthy Features
Apart from just letting you watch your favourite shows on Netflix, The Serif TV also has a couple of features that make it stand out from other TVs in the market.
NFC Music. Wait, What?
Since The Serif TV has a great speaker system, it shouldn’t go to waste. On the top of the TV, right in the center is an NFC zone. Just place your smartphone on it, they instantly pair up, and you can start using your TV as a wireless speaker. There’s also an accompanying droplet animation and music screen to show you it’s connected and playing music.
Blending In
If you just want the TV to blend into the wall, you can do so with Samsung’s SmartThings app. Next, just take a picture of the TV and your wall, the app will then copy your wallpaper over onto your TV. The process is fairly simple and although the execution isn’t great, it’s a nice feature to have and hopefully, Samsung can improve on this feature via firmware updates in the future.
Phone And TV, At The Same Time
That’s right. The Multi-View is an excellent feature that lets you watch your TV’s content alongside your smartphone’s screen, side by side. The feature worked well, but the initial pairing process can be a bit confusing. On the same TV screen, you can watch your Netflix shows on one side, and view your photos from your smartphone on the other side.
Tap View
Another feature that’s really interesting is the Tap View feature. If you want to quickly share a video or photo over to your Serif TV, just tap the back of your phone anywhere on the TV, and it will instantly be transferred over and start to display in full screen.
Conclusion
The Serif TV is fitted with some of Samsung’s best technologies, integrated into a wonderful design that can elevate and compliment any home’s design. It will definitely be the center of attention when guests come over for a night (or day) of socialising.
We personally love the QLED panel, NFC connectivity, Magic Screen, and the overall minimalist design. It can really change how a space in your home looks, regardless which corner you put it in.
Priced at RM6,499 for a 55-inch The Serif TV, it may seem a little pricey at first. But if you take into consideration the features it offer and the display quality it has, it will be a great form and function hybrid addition to your living space.
