Here come the bendable TVs and monitors that no one asked for
Enlarge / LG's OLED Flex LX3 TV won't pick a side. (credit: LG)
If you've been watching display tech lately, you may have noticed an interesting feature: bendable displays. Yes, monitors and TVs that you can bend to be either flat or curved are purportedly coming out soon. The feature is meant to appease those who can't settle on flat or curved, and most upcoming products feel similarly indecisive, exhibiting identity crises that make it hard to see where they fit... literally. Does something like this belong in a living room, office, or gaming den?
In the case of the LG OLED Flex LX3 4K TV announced Wednesday (no price or release date), the most obvious answer is the living room. It's a 42-inch TV with a tuner, LG's webOS, and even LG Display's OLED Evo technology used in the LG C2 TV. The primary difference from every other TV is that this one has buttons (including buttons on the remote) for changing the screen from flat to a 900R curvature across 20 steps. That provides the potential for an extremely curved TV.
The thing is, you probably don't want to watch curved television. Vendors tried making this a thing years ago, but as we wrote back then, curved TVs mostly accommodate people sitting pretty close to and directly in front of the TV. That's not how most people gather 'round the heart of the living room. Living room TVs are frequently shared, with people sitting at various distances from the screen and at varying angles. But up close and centered sounds awfully similar to how most people use monitors.