Many strange things have happened in 2020, so it's probably the perfect year for Chinese tech company Xiaomi to announce the world's first completely transparent TV. And if you're wondering that the point of it is, we're here to tell you that you're not alone.
Available in China from from 16 August, the snappily named Xiaomi Mi TV LUX OLED Transparent Edition will cost ¥49,999 ($7,200/£5,500), offering “an ultra-immersive viewing experience” in which “images seem to be suspended in the air”. That is, we assume, as long as your TV isn't positioned against a wall. Check out our best 4K monitors for some brilliantly opaque displays.
In a blog post on its website (adorned with several images of women in extravagant ballgowns standing behind transparent TVs, because why not?), Xiaomi calls the TV "a new way to consume visual content previously only seen in science fiction films". Unlike traditional TVs, the Mi TV LUX Transparent Edition "creatively embeds all the processing units in its base stand". The TV sports a 55-inch OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and 150000:1 static contrast ratio.
(Image credit: Xiaomi)
Transparent OLED displays have actually existed as a niche item for a little while, sometimes used for signage, for example. But Xiaomi is the first mass-producer of the tech, and the first to pitch them at consumers. According to Gizmodo, transparent TVs are pretty useless for anything with dark colours, so it hardly sounds like an adequate replacement for your existing TV.
Technological advances aside, why the fuck would you want something like this?August 11, 2020
Xiaomi even seems to acknowledge this somewhat. Confusingly, towards the end of its announcement, the company says the Mi TV LUX is "not a TV but an art piece" (despite having 'TV' in the name), suitable "not only for homes, but also for galleries, museums, shopping malls, and theatres".
Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles.
