Samsung unveils enormous 292-inch 8K TV ‘that you never turn off’

Samsung has unveiled a ludicrously enormous 8K television that you probably don't have a wall big enough to support.

The Samsung Wall Luxury measures just 30mm thick – but spans an incredible 292 inches from corner to corner.

In fact, it's named "Wall" because it's effectively supposed to replace a large chunk of your wall, turning it into a television.

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Samsung said it created the mega-telly based on "research into the lifestyles" of the super-rich.

"Throughout the last twelve months, we’ve closely monitored interior design and technology trends to shape the product planning and development of The Wall Luxury," said Samsung's Mark Quiroz.

"We set out to create a product unlike anything else — matching the lifestyle and taste of those looking for the most exclusive and premium visual experiences in their homes."

The TV display is made up of light-emitting diodes that don't require a backlight, producing light themselves.

This means you'll get better contrast and a wider range of colors, with the ability to display true blacks on-screen.

These diodes have a 100,000-hour lifetime, which works out at about 11-and-a-half years of straight usage.

That's handy because Samsung wants you to keep the Wall Luxury switched on 24/7.

"The Wall is designed to never turn off and can change into a digital canvas best matching the owner's interior needs and mood," Samsung explained.

That's why Samsung has included an Ambient Mode for when the TV screen is not in use.

This will display a variety of "curated art", including paintings, photographs and video art, as well as customizable pictures with digital frames.

The TV also has a picture-quality engine powered by artificial intelligence.

This will optimize the quality of every single scene in a movie or TV show, regardless of where you're watching it.

And because there's a significant lack of 8K content out there, Samsung will "upscale" regular telly to near-8K quality.

The super-sized telly will be available to buy "globally" in July 2019, which presumably includes the UK.

However, Samsung is staying silent on pricing for now.

What we do know is that it'll be extremely expensive, and will probably cost upwards of six figures.

For comparison, Samsung's flagship 98-inch Q950R 8K QLED television has an official retail price of £99,999 (but is currently on sale for a positively bargainous price of £69,999).

Oil barons, Russian oligarchs and cash-flush Instagram influencers can likely expect to pay more than £100,000 for the top model.

We've asked Samsung for details on pricing and will update this story with any response.

Samsung started selling its first round of 2019 8K TVs earlier this year, which begin at £5,000.

Most TV models you see today are Full HD. That’s how we describe the number of pixels on the screen – the “resolution”.

The pixels are tiny dots that light up and create an image. The more pixels you have, the more detailed that image can be.

A Full HD TV has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. That’s 1920 pixels along the bottom, and 1080 up the side.

So you end up having roughly 2million pixels on the screen in total.

On a 4K TV, you have four times the number – or 8million pixels.

With an 8K TV, you have a screen resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels – or 33million pixels in total.

However, there's a big question over whether you can actually tell the difference in detail with 8K compared to 4K.

Also, these fancy screens cost extra to build, which is why Samsung charges a premium.

"As with any new technology, it's going to cost an arm and a leg to begin with," said Tom Honeyands, a tech expert who reviews gadgets for hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube, speaking to The Sun earlier this year.

Tom, better known as The Tech Chap, went on: "The first 4K TVs fetched upwards of £4,000 back in 2014. Now they start from £350.

"So you'll always pay a hefty premium for indulging in the cutting edge of tech."

"The other issue is there's nothing to watch in 8K at the moment, aside from a few tech demos and the odd YouTube video," Tom told us.

"Samsung knows this though, which is why its 8K TVs offer AI upscaling, which improves the quality of your 4K, HD and even SD content.

"As with any machine learning, this will get better over time.

"So if you hold off on buying a shiny new 8K TV for a year or two, you'll save a bucket load of money and there will be lots more to watch."

This story originally appeared in The Sun.