If you've ever stayed in a hotel room that has a particularly terrible TV, you may have sat on your bed wishing you could have brought your own from home. But this isn't like packing your favorite pillow or a bag of coffee in the suitcase, it's television. You can't stow those in an airplane with the rest of your luggage, right?
But what if you could? That seems to be the idea behind the LG StanbyME Go, which I saw at IFA 2023. This isn't just a TV that fits in a suitcase, it's a TV that's also a suitcase. The question is whether you trust an airline with something that costs over $1,000, especially when it contains something as fragile as a TV screen.
Having played with the StanbyME Go for a little while at IFA, durability definitely isn’t the word I’d use to describe it. Sure the screen, and its suitcase, appear to be sturdy enough, but pulling the screen out of its case and adjusting the stand felt a little too wobbly for my liking.
Maybe the screen will be fine for a tailgate or a picnic, assuming you need something bigger than a tablet that still has its own internal power supply. But I know I wouldn’t trust myself to keep it in one piece anywhere else. Seeing as how I accidentally flung my phone across a Berlin S-Bahn carriage earlier today, who knows what might happen with a 27-inch TV screen?
LG may not advertise this gadget as a proper TV, but it didn’t seem too dissimilar to the screen you have in your living room. It’s still powered by webOS, comes with a proper TV-esque remote, and packs in a bunch of the best streaming apps - including Disney Plus and Netflix.
It’s a touchscreen too, which is great for all those times you prefer to stay within arm’s reach of your TV. But considering how I make a point of disabling the touchscreen on any laptop I come across, I’m not so sure we should be encouraging TV makers to incorporate that tech into their products. A good TV is expensive enough as it is, regardless of whether it has its own suitcase or not
It didn’t feel like you were getting particularly good value for money though. The screen has a matte finish, presumably to stop the extra glare you’ll experience outdoors, and that meant the home screen looked like it would be more at home on a Kindle than a smart display. You’re also limited to 1080p with a 60Hz refresh rate, which is not particularly great given the $1,000 price tag.
Then again you’re not paying that money for a stellar TV, you’re paying for the privilege of being able to fold the screen back into the suitcase and carry it around with you. And combined with a weight of 32.6 lbs, that suitcase design should make it pretty easy to lug the thing around, no matter where you wanted to take it.
Just make sure there’s internet when you get there, because it doesn’t look like the StanbyMe Go will be able to tune into traditional broadcast TV signals.
The LG StanbyME Go is available to pre-order now, and will be release on October 16.
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