Alban AmourouxAudio Video SpecialistOctober 31, 2021 at 9:239 pm

It's hard to get more original than this The Sero TV, a real UFO in the current television landscape. Admit that a vertical screen is still quite curious at first glance. Fortunately, it turns into a horizontal screen with the click of a remote control. Let's check who this new proposal is aimed at and how it compares to a classic television. Is The Sero just an ultra-niche TV?

Samsung dares to think outside the box. It is the only one to offer so many original variations of its televisions with The Sero, but also The Frame picture screens and The Serif design televisions. Each time, the reference begins with "The", just to say that these products are unique. Which is really the case, especially coming from a generalist manufacturer like Samsung.

The Sero is the most amazing of this “Lifestyle” series. First of all, by its design, in the form of a modern paperboard. By the colors used that we really are not used to seeing on a television. Or by its mixed format and the motorization that goes with it. It's a 43" which stands alone in its range. If you want this vertical screen, there won't be a larger model, 43" currently being quite a modest image diagonal. For everything else, The Sero incorporates functions and technologies already well known from Samsung TVs.

General technical characteristics

All measurements taken in this test were recorded with CalMAN Ultimate software, an X-Rite i1 Display Pro Plus probe and a Leo Bodnar Input Lag measurement box.

Design: hard to do more original

In developing The Sero, Samsung realized that some consumers were so addicted to their smartphone that they needed a television that was its exact mirror. A large number of TVs already allow you to display the image of a smartphone. The latter being in vertical format, their image is displayed in the center with two huge black areas lost on each side. What if the TV was vertical?

In this case, the phone's image matches the TV format perfectly and fills the image entirely. As if we had cloned and enlarged his smartphone. The latter then becomes the remote control of what is displayed.

The Sero is therefore a 43" surrounded by a wide and thick frame. It's not a problem because it fits rather well with the concept. The choice of color is, however, more strange. A kind of blue-violet not really to fashion We would rather have seen grey, beige, white, wood….

The lower part under the screen serves as a sound box for the audio part. This is good news because it will be complicated to associate a sound bar with this television.

Connectivity: the bare minimum

The connectors are centered at the bottom of the rear face. There are three HDMI inputs including one with eARC. It's the bare minimum. They are complemented by a dual tuner and two USB ports.

There is no audio output, which confirms the autonomous side of the Sero. There is also no network socket. This TV is well planned to be placed and highlighted as a decorative object, rather far from the walls.

So you have to fall back on WiFi. It is completed by Bluetooth, for the remote control but also for other types of accessories.

A cover covers all the sockets. As for the cables, they pass through the foot where grooves are provided to organize them properly. The whole is again covered by another cache.

Installation: originality weighs its weight

The Sero is heavy, and even very heavy: 33.3 kg! You have to have big arms to be able to carry it alone. This must be the only 43" television impossible to remove yourself from the box. Because there is nothing to assemble apart from the rear foot, which is also very heavy.

Fortunately, the foot is fixed via four screws without having to remove the Sero from the box. Then, we are more comfortable carrying it and putting it on the ground without fear that it will tip over.

The motorization and the assembly in general seem rather robust and well built. It's made to last and it shows. It will still be necessary to take care of it and never force manually on the screen.

Samsung clearly warns in the documentation provided to hold the Sero by the fixed lower part and not by the screen. And it should not be moved when the screen is in landscape mode.

Once placed, it is quite easy to move it by making it come towards you and pivoting it on one of its three feet. Samsung has provided an optional base on wheels for the Sero if it is expected to be on the move.

Ergonomics: Tizen universe, SmartThings and voice control

As we said in the introduction, despite its original design on the outside, inside The Sero is a Samsung television almost like the others. The setup phase goes through the SmartThings mobile app. It automatically recognizes the TV and offers its guided installation.

The installation begins in portrait mode, but the Sero rotates very quickly for the rest of the operations. It accompanies us in the WiFi connection, the settings of the TV tuner, physical inputs, artificial intelligence for sound and image or even in the choice of voice assistant.

In this regard, you have the choice between Bixby, Samsung's assistant, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. This can of course be changed later in the settings. The microphone is in the remote control.

The latter is simplified as Samsung is used to doing. It takes us to the essentials, without any numbered or reading keys. All of this can be done by voice if desired. It has a key specific to The Sero: the one that allows you to change the orientation of the screen.

A button on the back of the screen is used to switch the screen on and off as well as to change sources and change the volume. You have to press several times to change the function.

The Tizen interface with its horizontal strip at the bottom of the screen offers quick access to applications. A flick to the left takes you to sources, the app store, the “Gallery” screensaver and full settings. We find the usual applications like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, myCanal, OCS and even Salto recently.

And we come to the long-awaited function of displaying the smartphone in portrait mode. If you have a Samsung model, it will be very easy. In the menu of the latter, the Smart View function initiates screen mirroring.

If you have an Android smartphone from another manufacturer, it's a bit more complicated because nothing is indicated anywhere on how to do this. In the FAQ, Samsung says for these phones to install SmartThings, and then nothing else. This is not enough for screen sharing.

After searching for a long time, we finally found it. You must use the "Screen mirroring" function of the Android menu. Except that on a Sony Xperia model for example, this function is not present by default. You have to find it in the settings for it to appear. Once done, you can finally copy the image from the smartphone to the Sero.

Navigation is immediate, video content is displayed without noticeable latency or bugs. Everything you do on the phone is reproduced identically on the television. However, there is a difference in size between a Samsung smartphone and that of another brand. When turning a Samsung in landscape mode, The Sero rotates in correspondence to always have the same orientation as the phone. With another smartphone, The Sero stays in portrait mode. If we force The Sero in landscape, then the Sony smartphone remains displayed in the middle vertically.

As for the iPhone, you can forget: it is simply not compatible with The Sero!

Image processing: Quantum Dot and Filmmaker Mode

The Sero is a QLED TV with Quantum Processor 4K accompanied by artificial intelligence for the improvement of all image and sound components. The slab is illuminated from behind via different zones, the quantity of which Samsung does not reveal. We were able to notice that the backlighting was of excellent quality, with no vignetting effect or visible blooming.

HDR10+ is there, Dolby Vision is absent, it's Samsung's choice. We find our favorite Filmmaker mode that we will use for our measurements. A game mode allows the input lag to be lowered to the maximum: it reaches 25.5 ms.

The Filmmaker associated with warm colors seems a bit too dark to us by default. While the default mode with artificial intelligence makes the image really too outrageous for our taste, unnatural, too bright, too sharp. It goes on TNT or sport, but it is a priori preferable to return to Filmmaker Mode for cinema sessions.

Measurements: a flawless slab

The passage of the patterns and our measurements confirm the excellent work done by Samsung on this screen. There is no chroma upsampling or overscan problem. However, we notice that the frame around the slab has a slight play which can cause two lines of pixels to disappear depending on the point of view. The anti-jerk is powerful if you want to summon it, almost at the level of what is best today. Solarization effects are practically absent.

Only on luminance where the Sero is a little behind with a maximum peak of 504 nits. It tops out at 150 nits in Filmmaker mode. As for the contrast, it is quite low in reality. At full default, it overwrites blanks. By returning to a correct setting of 30/50 we recover the details in the highlights, but the whole remains behind in the low lights.

The colors are well respected without having to go into the settings too much, even if the color temperature is a little too cold, a corollary of this image with a dark aesthetic. The DCI-P3 is covered at 84% and the Rec.2020 at 62%, very honorable figures. As for the gamma, it comes out at 2.4 still in Filmmaker mode.

Consumption is quite high, especially when a smartphone is connected in screen mirroring. We then go up to 100 Watts on average, while consumption is only 65 Watts in Netflix playback. The configurable screen saver with numerous wallpapers in portrait mode consumes 75 Watts.

Sound equipment: how to do without a soundbar

The large space available under the slab is devoted to the sound system. It comprises four loudspeakers, including two tweeters and two midrange in stereo mode, as well as a flat membrane woofer on the rear panel.

Everything therefore works in 4.1 with a total of 60 Watts of power. Which will be sufficient in any case given that this monolithic television is not very suitable for the use of a sound bar.

There is no immersive decoding, only Dolby Digital+ support. DTS is not recognized. Artificial intelligence automatically adjusts the sound according to the content being played.

Analysis: pleasant, but a flagrant lack of contrast

At first glance, the Sero delivers a beautiful bright image. The colors are beautiful and faithful. In the jungle of Jumanji: Next Level, the lush vegetation emerges with precision and naturalness. In the desert, the cut between the sand and the sky is clear, although one does not have the effect of depth of the most high-end televisions.

As long as we stay on well-lit planes in broad daylight, everything is fine. The shoe pinches as soon as night falls. There is a glaring lack of detail in the dark areas of the image. Blacks are gray and nothing can be done about it. The Filmmaker Mode is ultimately not suitable for the Sero. To get something more lively, you'll have to switch to less natural image modes that will somewhat compensate for this lack of contrast.

It's less serious when using a smartphone, where you don't pay the same attention to the image as when watching a movie. However, you have to stay in front in portrait mode because the viewing angle is narrower in this position than in landscape mode. The dynamic and boosted image is ultimately well suited to the distribution of content and applications from a smartphone.

On the sound side, the Sero is alive. He has power underfoot and it shows. As much as a mid-range soundbar. However, it pulls a little on the treble with a physiological side. Which will go, once again, very well with the applications of a smartphone type online game or video. Smart audio mode is smoother but less dynamic, with less bass impact. The sound is more muffled but easier to listen to over the long term.

Price and competition: the only one in its class

The Samsung The Sero has no competition because no one else has dared to enter this vertical television niche. However, for those who absolutely want a portrait display, there are professional monitors that work in this format. They may not have the wireless screen mirroring feature of the smartphone, but a USB-C to HDMI cable will provide this service.

The Sero finally finds itself in competition with other televisions with an original design, such as the Samsung The Frame or even certain Bang & Olufsen versions with motorized stand and speakers. But we are talking here about functions only, because price level, these products are not comparable.

Clubic's opinion: an ultra-niche TV

Due to its specificities, this television is not for everyone. It cannot therefore be compared directly with conventional televisions. Its processing power is equivalent to that of the best Samsung ranges, but the contrast of the panel is much less efficient here. For purely cinematic use, this will be inconvenient. But since this is not the purpose of the Sero, it is not a major negative argument. In mixed use with smartphone and television, it plays its role very well, it's up to you to see how you use it. It is also a screen with an original design, which will be able to convince those who do not want an ordinary television placed on a piece of furniture. The engine explains the high price for a 43", but it's still acceptable. We just think that Samsung could have gone even further. By providing all the screen mirroring functions with all smartphones, including iPhone, and not only for Samsung models. By offering other colors and finishes. And then the screen could have been touch-sensitive, to push the mimicry of the smartphone to the end. Finally, it does rather very well what it is supposed to do, it's up to you to see if you are in his target!

Samsung The Sero

The Sero is a Samsung television that is aimed both at those who cannot leave their smartphone and at those who are looking for an original television for their interior decoration. Versatile and connected, it lacks the contrast to do well in cinema mode.

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