Why Loewe Is Ditching Samsung Tizen for Hisense’s VIDAA — and What It Really Means

German luxury TV manufacturer Loewe is moving its entire product line to Hisense's VIDAA smart TV platform, walking away from Samsung's Tizen OS barely a year after adopting it. The company's 2025 stellar OLED range and the newly announced Vega LCD series both run VIDAA, rebranded as "V Home OS" with Loewe's own OS9 interface layered on top.

On the surface, this looks like a straightforward platform swap, but it isn't. The story behind it reaches back more than a decade. It involves bankruptcy, a Chinese partnership that shaped the very platform Loewe is now returning to, and a technical limitation that made Samsung's Tizen untenable for a premium OLED brand.

The Hisense Connection Runs Deep

In 2013, Loewe was in serious financial trouble and entered into a strategic partnership with Hisense. The deal covered purchasing, production, development, and sales — but critically, it also gave Hisense access to Loewe's proprietary smart TV software, known internally as "LeOS."

That software became the foundation for what Hisense would later develop into VIDAA. Spun out as a standalone company in 2019, VIDAA is now a market-leading smart TV operating system powering devices across more than 180 countries, used by Hisense, Toshiba, Sharp, and dozens of other OEMs. It claims to have over 30 million connected devices globally and was the fastest-growing TV platform in 2023, according to Futuresource Consulting.

So when Loewe adopted VIDAA in 2025, there was an irony at play: the platform's origins trace directly back to Loewe's own code. This is not a case of a luxury brand reluctantly slumming it on a budget OS. The DNA is shared.

UX Design Awards Loewe TV interface from 2016

The Tizen Problem

When Loewe launched its flagship stellar OLED range in July 2024, it debuted with Samsung's Tizen OS, a move framed as a prestige partnership. Samsung marketed it as momentum for its Tizen Licensing Program, and on paper it made sense: Tizen powers over 270 million Samsung Smart TVs, offers an established app ecosystem, and carries the weight of Samsung's brand.

But there was a problem hiding in plain sight. Samsung's Tizen does not support Dolby Vision and, based on Samsung's long-standing position, never will. Samsung has pushed its own HDR10+ format instead, and has shown no indication of changing course.

For most Samsung TV buyers, this is an accepted trade-off. For Loewe, building premium OLEDs around LG Display panels (panels engineered to deliver their best with Dolby Vision), it was a fundamental mismatch. A luxury brand selling TVs in Europe at €6,000 and above cannot easily explain to discerning buyers why they're missing the HDR format that the rest of the premium OLED market supports.

By mid-2025, Loewe had moved. The updated stellar range, now featuring LG Display's META 3.0 OLED panels, shipped with VIDAA and full Dolby Vision support. The 97-inch stellar flagship was first, followed by the rest of the lineup. The newly announced Vega LCD series, targeting smaller living spaces with 32-inch and 43-inch models, also runs VIDAA.

Beyond Dolby Vision, the switch offers Loewe several practical advantages. VIDAA's open licensing model gives OEMs significantly more control over the user experience than Tizen's program allows. Loewe can skin the platform heavily with its OS9 overlay, maintaining the premium interface its buyers expect without being constrained by Samsung's UI framework. The lightweight Linux-based architecture also demands less processing overhead, which matters when your business model centres on engineering and build quality rather than silicon.

Loewe's Strategy Today

It is worth noting where Loewe sits in 2026. The company went through a second insolvency in 2019 before being acquired by Skytec Group Ltd, a Slovak investment firm. Under CEO Aslan Khabliev, Loewe has repositioned as a luxury electronics brand with serious ambitions. It has just entered the US market for the first time, partnering with Texas-based premium AV retailer Starpower. In Australia, Loewe is available from specialist audio retailers, and The Good Guys chain of electronics stores.

The product range spans the stellar OLED series (42 to 97 inches, with MLA+ technology, concrete and lava stone rear panels, and pricing from US$4,995 to US$45,000), the new Vega LCD TVs (from €1,500), and a growing ecosystem of soundbars, multi-room speakers, and headphones. All TVs are designed, engineered, and manufactured in Kronach, Germany, Loewe's home since 1948.

The VIDAA move is less about choosing a platform and more about recognising a strategic dead end. Tizen's lack of Dolby Vision support was always going to be a problem for any brand building around LG Display OLEDs, and the fact that Loewe reversed course within roughly 12 months suggests the market feedback was clear.

Aslan Khabliev, CEO and owner of Loewe Technology GmbH

VIDAA does not carry the same platform prestige as Tizen or Google TV; it is still widely associated with Hisense's mid-range and budget sets. But for Loewe, that may not matter. Most buyers at this price point are choosing the TV for its panel, its build, and its design. The operating system is the means, not the end. With OS9 sitting on top, few Loewe owners will interact with VIDAA's native interface at all.

VIDAA's app library remains smaller than Tizen, Google TV, or webOS, and some local catch-up and streaming services may be absent depending on territory — an external streaming device is worth considering.

For a brand that helped pioneer television technology in the 1920s, survived two insolvencies, and now competes in the ultra-premium segment against the likes of Bang & Olufsen and Samsung's own luxury offerings, the platform beneath the interface is a detail. Getting Dolby Vision on those OLED panels is not.

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