Samsung is thinking outside the box with their new TV boxes

I will always remember this running gag from my childhood about how a kid’s favourite toy was the box that it came in. I always saw it as a way of describing the unbridled imagination of a young one’s mind while also lamenting at how when adults grow up they trade all of that in for shallow material possessions. But the reason I think I’ll always remember it is because I don’t think I ever had that experience growing up. Well, that and Troy and Abed’s spaceship dogfight at the end of episode 4, season 2.

Then again, I don’t really remember much about my childhood which sometimes causes me to think that I’m trapped in some kind of Inception-like dream leading to brief bouts of existential crises. And then I remember that I’ve gone off on a tangent in this story and what I really wanted to tell you about is the fact that Samsung’s taken an interesting approach to “recycling” the gigantic cardboard boxes their televisions tend to come in.

Yes, in a world where TVs are getting bigger and bigger, the boxes that they come in have also grown to accommodate that, which as you can imagine is not great for the environment. While many feel that recycling is the best solution, reducing and reusing is actually just as if not more important. With that in mind, Samsung’s new TV boxes will now not only come in “eco-friendly” packaging, but it can also be re-purposed into a whole bunch of functions.

While they haven’t explained exactly how they’ve made their new boxes eco-friendlier, Samsung says that each box now comes with a dot-matrix design on each side of its cardboard boxes that will allow their customers to cut them up and transform them into stuff like cat houses, magazine racks and even shelves to store stuff.

Each box that’s used to package Samsung’s “Lifestyle TV” lineup—that’s The Sero, The Serif and The Frame—will come with these dot-matrix designs as well as a QR code that customers can scan to get detailed instructions on how to convert these boxes into something more. All you need is something sharp and some elbow grease.

Honestly, I’m totally down with this idea. It can be a fun DIY project to do with like your kids or something—assuming you can tear them away from their iPads and smartphones—and can actually be functional. Plus, if you’re someone who’s spent all their money on a high-end Samsung TV, you won’t need to buy a cat house, magazine holder or small shelf, you can just use the box it came in! This plus a beanbag and you’re set.

Perhaps the only thing I’m not a fan of is how much these things have been designed to show off Samsung’s branding, and how OK the company is with turning their customer’s living rooms into a Samsung billboard. I guess, it is to be expected to justify the increased cost of this endeavour, but it’s nothing some gaffer tape won’t fix.

In Malaysia, we just got news that Samsung’s new TVs will be making their way into our market “soon”. I’m not exactly sure if we’ll get the same kind of boxes, but let’s just say that for the first time in probably ever, I’m actually more excited to see the boxes that the TVs come in than the actual televisions. Interesting, how life works out huh?

[SOURCE, VIA]