Samsung Electronics and Loewe have confirmed that the German company’s luxurious new Loewe Stellar OLED television is the first of its TV models to integrate the Tizen operating system, marking the start of an extremely promising collaboration.
Samsung said the agreement with Loewe represents a significant milestone for its Tizen Licensing Program, which began in 2022 as part of an effort to market the Tizen OS platform as an alternative to the likes of Android, Google TV and Roku for third-party TV manufacturers.
Tizen OS is set to debut on one of the most luxurious televisions money can buy. The Loewe Stellar OLED TV was first announced in May, and it’s a high-end OLED television that’s based on LG Display’s second-generation Micro Lens Array technology that pushes more light to the front of the screen to enhance brightness.
But the incredibly stylish look of the TV is what really sets it apart. It features a back-plate made of a luxurious “syno-stone” material, a uniquely smooth and glossy, concrete material that looks and feels like a shiny., polished slab of natural stone.
The Loewe Stellar OLED is further differentiated by its customized panel, which was finished at Loewe’s own facility in Kronach, Germany, by a team of around 200 dedicated professionals.
Earlier this year, Loewe announced that it is the first TV maker in the world that’s opted to purchase open-cell WRBG OLED panels from LG Display, as opposed to the finished article. By buying an open-cell, Loewe gets more scope in terms of being able to customize the OLED panel by integrating its own heatsink and power supply, and optimizing its performance.
However, it’s the Syno-Stone finish that will excite most buyers. The Syno-Stone material was first seen on the company’s Iconic OLED TVs that launched in late 2022, and adds a touch of class and luxury that no other OLED TV set can claim – not even those made by Loewe’s luxury TV brand rival, Bang & Olufsen, which sells some equally stunning OLED TV models. Loewe said customers will be able to choose from a variety of Syno-Stone colours, so they have options for matching the TV with the interior of their living room, in-line with its historic luxury design ethos.
At the time the Loewe Stellar OLED was announced, the company hinted that the Loewe os9 operating system it runs is a rebranded version of Tizen, and now it has finally confirmed that really is the case.
In a press release, Samsung said Loewe opted to go with Tizen OS to “enhance the viewing experience” for its viewers. The Tizen OS platform inside the Loewe TV is said to look and feel much like the original Tizen experience found on Samsung TVs, with the main differences simply being the branding of the platform. As such, users can expect to find the same wealth of applications as is found on every Samsung TV.
These include access to Samsung TV Plus, which offers hundreds of free live TV channels and services providing on-demand content, so users don’t necessarily have to pay for streaming services to find something to watch. The Tizen platform also incorporates the Samsung Gaming Hub, which enables gamers to access video game streaming services such as Xbox and Nvidia GeForce without the need for a console, and SmartThings, which enables the TV to act as a hub for smart home devices.
The partnership is an important one for Samsung, as it strives to bring Tizen to more TV manufacturers. The company is attempting to replicate the success of its rival LG, which claims to have licensed its webOS TV operating system to more than 300 brands. Samsung launched its Tizen Licensing Program just a few months after LG licensed webOS, but to date it has not proven to be nearly as popular.
