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Samsung will shrink The Wall TV for your home in 2019

And if you've got the budget and the space, The Wall enters mass production in September.

Lori Grunin Senior Editor / Advice
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
Expertise Photography, PCs and laptops, gaming and gaming accessories
Lori Grunin
2 min read
Samsung The Wall MicroLED

The Wall, Samsung's 146-inch MicroLED-based TV, goes into mass production in September.

David Katzmaier/CNET

All you fans of cutting-edge TV tech, it's almost time to start clearing a 6-foot-wide spot on your wall for Samsung's  "miniature" version of its MicroLED-based The Wall TV, which made a massive splash at CES 2018. 

A 73-inch-or-so "luxury" model is slated to debut in 2019. The more commercial 146-inch model, which began preorders in June, enters mass production in September, according to President Han Jong-hee, head of Samsung's Visual Display business.

Han also said that prices wouldn't be as high as you'd expect, and that with a consumer-focused model Samsung can achieve economies of scale that will allow prices to come down, ZDNet reports.

MicroLED is the company's new technology for creating any size array from tiny modules of LEDs. Usually, the panels are created from a single sheet, which is one reason they tend to come in a standard set of sizes. 

Watch this: Samsung's huge 146-inch TV is called The Wall

The smaller size fits with what Samsung told us at CES: That its next step after The Wall would be to produce a 75-inch size at 4K resolution. It's tricky because a smaller size requires smaller, more closely spaced LEDs, and Samsung estimated that it would take two to five years to hit the market. Either Samsung's way ahead of schedule, or it won't actually ship for a while after the official launch. 

The smaller model will only be 1.2 inches (30 millimeters) thick, compared with the big model's 3.1-inch (80 mm) depth. 

Image quality sounds promising. When he saw The Wall in action at CES, CNET's TV expert David Katzmaier said this:  

Black levels looked perfectly black, and combines with the searing light output delivered superb pop and contrast. From any normal seating distance (well, I was standing, but whatever), the image was perfectly sharp, and I couldn't really see any "seams" of the individual modules. So yes, it looks as good or better than OLED, which can't get as bright, based on my limited time viewing it.