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Samsung built a massive touchscreen piano out of 112 tablets, and it actually works

Just because they can.

 

AJ Dellinger

Tech

Posted on Dec 18, 2015   Updated on May 27, 2021, 11:45 am CDT

We’re in the thick of the holiday season right now—a time where things don’t have to make sense as long as they’re festive and joyous. With that in mind, Samsung made a piano out of over 100 tablets, because why not? 

The South Korean electronics manufacturer dipped into its supply of Galaxy Tab S2, the latest in its line of premium tablets released earlier this year, and slapped together a total of 112 of them. Holiday construction is usually reserved for building gingerbread houses, but Samsung used its tablets to construct a rather stunning touchscreen piano. 

Samsung

To show off the creation, Samsung rolled the high-tech creation into Spitalfields Market in London, England. Myleene Klass, a British pop icon with a resume that includes acting and modeling, was on hand to show off the eye-catching instrument. After she unwrapped it in front of a crowd, the classically-trained pianist tickled the tablets’ digital ivories and played some festive tunes.

Samsung

Samsung claims the piano is the “world’s first upright piano made entirely of Samsung tablets”—and it probably is because why would anyone else do this? Just six tablets were required to make up the actual 88-key keyboard—the rest served as a display that flashed holiday animations as the piano was played. 

Samsung

It wasn’t just tablets making the piano tick: the guts of the instrument included a USB interface, equalizer, 200W power amplifier, and two 100W speakers. The speakers were mounted inside the piano, turning the structure into a giant stereo speaker to mimic the sounds of a traditional piano.

We’re all familiar with those cheap-o piano apps that you download, open, play “Chopsticks” on, then realize you have no idea how to play the piano and never use the app again. Unless Samsung rolls out its tablet-made keyboard again in the future, it just might suffer the same fate.

H/T PSFK | Photo via Samsung

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*First Published: Dec 18, 2015, 2:08 pm CST