LG’s New StanbyME 2 Max Is a 32-Inch 4K TV You Can Roll Around the House

By DaMarko Webster

There is something immediately unusual about seeing a television roll into a room.

LG has been exploring that idea since it introduced the original StanbyME in 2021. The concept was simple: instead of deciding where a television belongs and leaving it there, build a screen that can move around the home with you.

Now LG is making that idea considerably bigger.

The new StanbyME 2 Max is a 32-inch 4K touchscreen mounted on a height-adjustable wheeled stand. The display can rotate between landscape and portrait orientation, detach from the floor stand and operate using its built-in battery. It can also be placed on a table or other surface with its included tabletop stand.

In practical terms, LG has built a television that doesn’t really have a room.

You could roll it into the kitchen while cooking, move it beside exercise equipment for a workout, bring it into a bedroom for a movie, use it as an additional screen while working or move it onto a balcony for an evening outside. HDMI connectivity also means a game console or other device can be connected without turning StanbyME into a streaming-only product.

That flexibility is still the reason StanbyME exists. But with the Max, LG has upgraded the hardware enough that the screen itself is becoming more compelling.

The previous 27-inch StanbyME 2 has a 2560-by-1440 QHD display. The StanbyME 2 Max moves up to a 32-inch 3840-by-2160 4K touchscreen. Rated battery life also increases from up to four hours on the 27-inch model to as much as 4.5 hours on the Max.

LG has added its Alpha 8 AI Processor Gen3 alongside Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support. Side-firing speakers are built into the display, while AI Brightness Control can respond to lighting conditions around the screen.

The touchscreen remains an important part of what separates StanbyME from simply putting a normal television on a rolling cart.

LG’s webOS platform provides access to streaming services directly from the device, and LG says more than 400 free LG Channels are available. Screen mirroring, touchscreen games and other software features give the display uses beyond sitting down and watching a television show. Mood Maker can turn it into a clock, photo display or ambient screen, while LG Gallery+ provides access to more than 5,000 pieces of artwork.

There is also something refreshingly understandable about the product once you see it being used.

Televisions have traditionally been purchased for specific rooms. You buy the living-room television. Maybe another one for the bedroom. A computer monitor stays at a desk. A tablet handles the places where those larger screens can’t go.

StanbyME doesn’t eliminate any of those devices. It simply offers another option: one reasonably large screen that can serve different purposes depending on where you need it.

There are compromises.

Up to 4.5 hours of battery life is enough for a couple of movies or an evening of viewing, but this isn’t an all-day cordless television. LG does support USB-C external battery charging, which gives owners more flexibility, but the freedom from an outlet remains temporary.

Then there is the $1,299.99 price.

That number changes the conversation considerably.

For roughly $1,300, it isn’t difficult to find a conventional television substantially larger than 32 inches. If the objective is simply getting the largest possible 4K screen for the money, the StanbyME 2 Max makes very little sense.

But LG isn’t really charging $1,300 for 32 inches.

It is charging for the ability to move those 32 inches.

The Max is simultaneously a 4K television, touchscreen, streaming device and movable display. It can roll between rooms, rotate vertically, run without a wall outlet for several hours and detach from the stand when necessary. Whether that combination is worth the premium depends much more on someone’s living space and habits than traditional television specifications.

That makes the StanbyME 2 Max particularly interesting for apartments, studios, bedrooms and other spaces where permanently installing multiple large displays might not make sense. In a traditional living room with a 65- or 75-inch television already mounted to the wall, the Max can look like an expensive luxury. In a smaller home where the same screen might move between work, entertainment and everyday life, its purpose becomes considerably easier to understand.

The jump from 27 inches to 32 inches helps too.

The StanbyME concept has always existed somewhere between a television, monitor and enormous tablet. Giving the Max a larger 4K panel pushes it a little closer to being a genuine personal television rather than an interesting secondary display.

None of that means everyone suddenly needs a television on wheels.

At $1,299.99, the StanbyME 2 Max remains a premium convenience, and much of what you’re paying for is its unusual flexibility rather than raw screen size.

But that’s also what makes it interesting.

LG hasn’t made the biggest television or the cheapest television. It has made a television for moments when the place you want to watch something isn’t necessarily the place where your television happens to be.

Sometimes you don’t want the screen to determine where you sit.

Sometimes you want the screen to come to you.