Last month, LG held its 2023 TV launch, showcasing a tonne of new screens it’s making available to the Australian market. While the company is focusing a lot on OLED (rightfully so, they’re quite impressive TVs), it also took the opportunity to show off its more lifestyle offerings, which includes the LG Posé and the StanbyME.
The LG StanbyME, named after the fact it can stan(d) next to you, not the song by Ben E. King, was first brought to our attention back in December 2021, ahead of the 2022 instalment of CES.
CES is usually where the wild, quirky, and absurd that’ll never actually get made is peppered throughout actual innovations and impressive tech, but, unfortunately, the LG StanbyME wasn’t just the former – it was an actual product the company was unleashing into the market. And it’s here, in Australia, for the low price of $1,999.
LG StanbyME (ie monitor on a stick on wheels)
The proposition of the StanbyME is an interesting one to say the least. LG reckons the way we interact with TVs is completely different to the sit on the lounge in front of the TV proposition of yesteryear. To LG, since the insurgence of streaming apps and the COVID-induced staying indoors thing, we’re spending less time looking at a large screen and more time looking at the smaller screen that fits in our hands. It’s banking on you ditching that smaller screen for one that sits atop a stick and can move around your home (just to clarify, it’s not autonomous, you have to physically move it yourself).
The company calls it a smart monitor over labelling it a TV, that’s because the 27-inch screen can stand next to your couch, bed, or office desk (it’s on rollable wheels) without the need for mains power (it has 3-4 hours battery, depending what you’re doing on it).
It’s full HD, LED touch screen, and has all the apps an LG TV has. But, failing that, you can always flip it vertical to AirPlay from your iPhone/iPad and because it’s vertical, you’re matching the orientation of the device you’re playing from and the 27-inch screen becomes a larger screen for TikTok doomscrolling.
Huzzah!
You can also use it as a video-calling hub. I really want to put a little motor on it and have it follow my cats around my apartment when I’m not there. The screen can rotate up to 180 degrees, swivel to 130 degrees, tilt to 50 degrees, and move vertically by 20cm.
The Australian LG folk called the StanbyME a “screen Swiss army knife”, but we call it “a tablet on a stick with wheels”. It also sorta reminds me of a Chupa Chup.
The demo LG did on the StanbyME was casting TikTok in all its short video pointless glory, but one useful feature I can see is if you’re in a room without a bench to lean your phone on and you want to follow instructions for something, you can bring the screen-on-a-stick-on-wheels near you to help. But….but you’d have to have one of these already, you wouldn’t just get one for that reason. Surely. In this climate, at least.
I doubt it’s going to be in many Australian homes like you’re expecting, LG.
The LG StanbyME will be available in July for RRP $1,999.