LAS VEGAS—Portable televisions have come a long way since the cinderblock-sized CRTs of the 20th century. Displace is a modern take on the take-anywhere TV in the form of a battery-powered, completely wireless OLED panel.
I checked it out at CES, and at first glance, the Displace looks like a simple, shiny black slab with sharp right angles and no discernible frame or bezel. Activate it with the included touchpad controller, and it lights up like any other TV, ready to stream video from online services no matter where it’s placed. Displace has its own web-based smart TV platform with an AI assistant and support for most major streaming apps, so there should be no shortage of things to watch on the TV. There’s also a built-in drawer where you can plug a stick-sized media streamer to use your platform of choice without marring the TV’s flat, untethered profile.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
As for where you can put the Displace, that’s where the TV gets really clever. To start, it has a pair of short, built-in legs that pop out of the bottom. These legs are standard on all Displace models and are suitable for setting up the TV on a table or counter. The Displace Pro model has another option: tool-free wall mounting. A suction mechanism on the back of the Displace Pro securely attaches the TV to any surface that’s hard and smooth enough, like a glass window or even a refrigerator. The mounting process is automated, with on-screen alignment guides to help you level the TV level before the suction engages and sticks it to the wall in 10 seconds.
Do You Trust the Suck?
The suction system kept the Displace Pro models I saw at CES securely attached to their plexiglass demo panels, and the mounting and unmounting process looked simple and easy. Of course, you’re still counting on a big motorized suction cup to keep an OLED panel from crashing to the floor and breaking. What happens if the battery dies and the vacuum mechanism can’t maintain? Displace promotes a “landing gear” system that kicks in as soon as it detects a battery failure. The system slowly lowers the TV to the ground on a set of unwinding cables, but I wasn’t able to see it in action, and it seems to be a long-running and questionable gimmick. Even with landing gear, I’d probably recommend keeping the TV off the wall when not in use.
According to Displace, the 55-inch version of both the Basic and Pro versions of the TV have a 10,000 mAh battery that can last 40 to 60 hours between charges (both models are also available in 27 inches, but the company has only offered an estimate for the 55-inch screens). That’s just for the screen, though, and the Pro also comes with a soundbar and a pair of satellite speakers that add an additional 40,000 mAh of total power when directly connected to the TV for up to 150 hours of viewing.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
The convention show floor isn’t the best environment for evaluating picture quality, but the Displace screens I saw at CES certainly seemed to have the vibrant colors and deep blacks expected of an OLED TV. They’re good-looking TVs, though we won’t know exactly how wide and accurate their colors are, and how bright the panels can get, until we get them in the lab for testing.
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Ready for Prime Time
Displace first appeared at CES two years ago and has been showing off its wireless TVs since then, but the Basic and Pro models I saw this year seem to be significant redesigns that are nearly ready for buyers. Earlier Displace versions used multiple hot-swappable batteries, which have been replaced by built-in cells that can be charged directly through USB-C and free up the pop-out sections where the batteries could be removed for connectors and device storage instead. The Displace smart TV interface is new, too, though whether it’s really needed is questionable; multiple smart TV platforms are already available and fully developed, and creating one from scratch doesn’t seem to offer much benefit, whether it has an AI agent or not. The landing gear isn’t new, though; Displace has been promoting its funky wall-rappelling safety feature for almost as long as it’s been showing off its TV concepts. Whether or not it’s reliable remains to be seen.
The TVs are available for preorder now with retail prices starting at $2,499 for the 27-inch Displace Basic up to $5,999 for the 55-inch Displace Pro. Displace expects to begin shipping in March.
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About Will Greenwald
Lead Analyst, Consumer Electronics
