The way we enjoy content today is more fluid and personal than ever. While the living room TV remains the heart of shared entertainment, everyday life is filled with individual moments that call for a different kind of screen.
LG Electronics (LG) recognized that screens needed to evolve alongside changing lifestyles. Instead of simply sizing down a conventional TV or scaling up a mobile display, LG set out to pioneer an entirely new product category: the movable personal screen. That vision became LG StanbyME.
To understand how LG StanbyME evolved from an idea into a new category of personal screens, we spoke with the people who helped bring this vision to life: Park Ho Sung, leader of the Next Experience Department; Cho Hyunpo, leader of the Display Product Planning Department; and Shin Jina, team leader of the PRM Advanced Design Team, all from the LG Media Entertainment Solution Company.
A New Category Born From Empathy
The StanbyME story began in 2020 with an internal initiative known as the “Dream Task,” which brought together a dedicated team of researchers, designers and engineers to create an entirely new kind of product for evolving lifestyles.
The development team first examined how people consumed content in daily life and the inconveniences they encountered along the way. TVs offered immersive viewing but remained fixed in one place, while smartphones were always within reach but could become uncomfortable during extended use.
Inspired by these everyday experiences, the team envisioned a larger screen that could move with users while supporting hands-free, comfortable viewing. It could bring entertainment into the bedroom, assist with cooking in the kitchen, move out to the patio, or rotate into portrait mode for vertical content.
The result was a standalone lifestyle screen equipped with an internal battery, a smooth wheeled base and an ergonomic articulating stand. Large enough to deliver an immersive viewing experience, yet agile enough to follow the user anywhere in the home, StanbyME was designed from the ground up to fit around life, rather than asking life to fit around it.
Created With Our Customers, for Our Customers
Customer collaboration was not a validation step at the end of development. It was part of the process from the very beginning.
From the earliest stages of development, the StanbyME team incorporated consumer feedback across multiple rounds of testing and refinement. By the time the first unit reached the market, LG had conducted research and testing with nearly 500 consumers across a dozen rounds of prototype evaluation. This hands-on feedback helped refine critical design elements, from the optimal balance between screen size and mobility to stand stability and rolling smoothness.
That collaboration continued after launch through an active online community for StanbyME owners, where customer posts helped the team identify potential improvement.
“When customers posted about something that was inconvenient, our team would investigate, make improvements if needed, and return to the community a month or two later saying, ‘We have addressed the issue you raised,’” recalled Cho. “Team leaders even engaged directly in the comment sections to explain how feedback was being implemented.”
Through this open channel, customers shared that they loved the 27-inch model but wanted a StanbyME with a larger, higher-resolution screen for close-range viewing. While the concept had been explored during initial development and remained in the product roadmap, it was this direct feedback that accelerated the creation of the 32-inch StanbyME 2 Max.
Developing the larger model required a substantial redesign. Expanding to a 32-inch display shifted the center of gravity, requiring a re-engineered base to maintain stability without taking up excess floor space. The team also integrated a higher-capacity battery delivering up to 4.5 hours* of playback and simplified the assembly mechanism to make setup easier.
After StanbyME 2 Max entered the market, the team noticed an unexpected pattern: many existing StanbyME owners added the larger model to their homes, placing the original unit in the bedroom and the larger Max in the living area or study. “There are a lot more repeat StanbyME customers than we expected,” noted Park. Shin attributed this loyalty to the convenience owners had already experienced, which made adding the larger Max model a natural next step.
What Sets StanbyME Apart
Today, the idea of movable personal screens is gaining broader attention across the industry. For the StanbyME team, this growing interest reflects a broader recognition that content experiences are becoming increasingly personal, flexible and space-independent.
“Seeing others enter the space affirms that our original vision addressed a genuine lifestyle shift,” said Shin. “The market may continue to grow, but the experience reflects years of design refinement, structural safety testing and purpose-built platform optimization.”
From the original StanbyME to StanbyME Go, StanbyME 2 and StanbyME 2 Max, each generation has explored new ways to build the viewing experience around the user and their daily lives. That difference is anchored in two areas: spatial design and a platform optimized for personal use.
Harmonizing With Living Spaces
From the very beginning, StanbyME was conceived not just as an electronic appliance, but as an aesthetic element of home decor.
“Early word of mouth focused on how naturally the screen blended in with home furnishings and elevated the surrounding living spaces,” Shin explained. “Designing a product that delivers that level of harmony requires immense cross-team collaboration. Beyond its seamless style, the compact wheeled base had to support smooth mobility, structural stability and a minimal footprint.”
Safety was equally important. The team tested the product against real-world household scenarios, including accidental bumps and children leaning on or shaking the stand. For StanbyME 2 and StanbyME 2 Max, it also developed a one-click mechanism that allows the display to detach easily while remaining securely locked when docked. Once removed, the screen can be placed on a table or hung on a wall using a strap, extending the experience to spaces beyond the stand’s reach.
A Platform Designed Around Personal Viewing
StanbyME differs from many movable displays because it does not rely on a scaled-up mobile operating system. Powered by LG’s proprietary webOS platform, it offers 4K streaming across major entertainment services, along with advanced picture and sound optimization.
StanbyME’s webOS interface allows close-range viewing and touch navigation, while retaining the option of traditional remote-control operation.
“Creating a dual-input experience that feels equally intuitive by touch and remote is exceptionally complex,” said Park. “StanbyME was designed to deliver both close-up touch interaction and comfortable control from a distance.”
Different Countries, Same Personal Freedom
Following its debut in South Korea, StanbyME expanded into markets across North America, Europe, Taiwan and Türkiye, revealing new use cases shaped by different homes and lifestyles.
“Regional housing structures and lifestyle habits vary significantly,” explained Cho. “In North America, for instance, homes are often multi-level, featuring basements and second floors. The detachable screen allows users to easily bring StanbyME downstairs to a home gym or golf practice area.”
Delivering a design fit for a truly global audience demands meticulous engineering and attention to detail. The team spent three months conducting on-site field testing in the United States, evaluating how the product’s concealed wheels maneuvered across different flooring surfaces, from polished hardwood to carpeting.
As StanbyME continues to evolve with new features and webOS experiences, the team remains guided by the same human-centered philosophy: shaping the future of personal entertainment alongside its customers.
“There is a profound difference between hearing about StanbyME and using it in daily life,” Park concluded. “The true value only becomes apparent once you experience it for yourself.”
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* Actual usage time may vary depending on usage conditions.
