Expanding the Boundaries: Review of Samsung's New Products and Technologies at CES 2012

With the first post-holiday Friday, Khabrovites! We hope that everyone was able to survive workdays and recover.

For us, Samsung, the end of the New Year’s holidays already means only one year — the beginning of the long-awaited CES Consumer Electronics Show (or, as it is called correctly) in Las Vegas. It is to her, and to be more specific, that our review will be devoted to the innovations and technologies presented by Samsung in the framework of CES 2012 .


Traditionally, for all manufacturers of electronics (and we are no exception), CES serves as a kind of mouthpiece that allows consumers to be told about the direction of the company for the coming year. Samsung’s plans were succinctly and at the same time multifacetedly described by the motto “Expanding the borders”, with which the company appeared at the exhibition this time. This motto implies not only the traditional “faster, higher, stronger”, but also the fact that the new Samsung devices have become an order of magnitude more intelligent, and have also learned to better interact with each other, with other devices, with a variety of content and, most importantly, , with a person.



However, let's move on to the latest news.
CES 2012 for Samsung began with a special press conference hosted by Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics' US headquarters. Broadcast from the event was carried out worldwide on the official pages of Samsung Electronics on the social network Facebook.



It was at this conference that Samsung first talked about its new products of the 2012 model year, among which two real show-stoppers can be distinguished - the flagship Smart TV ES8000 and the first Super OLED TV, also related to the Smart TV cohort.

Without too much pathos, it’s worth saying that these devices can hardly be called simply “smart” TVs: the abundance of new technologies and capabilities allows them to occupy a central place in the home of the digital age. It seems that these devices are sharpened for almost everything that a modern person needs: the Internet, communication, games, entertainment and family vacations, health, news, YouTube with cute cats and other streaming services, information search, content sharing, and as a nice addition - an opportunity watch your favorite Futurama 2x2 or a new action movie from a connected Blu-ray player :)



Samsung ES8000 LED TV, among other amenities in the form of a traditionally high-quality screen and wide multimedia features, has a pleasant, slightly futuristic appearance, and, most importantly, a dual-core processor that provides full multitasking.

“Multitasking on TV” - just think about these words, for which ten years ago you would be looked at as a person who celebrated the New Year too well.



Samsung’s second “new product of the year,” an advanced 55-inch Super OLED TV, launched into serial production, opens up a whole new category of devices. Introducing him, Tim Baxter said the following words: “We were one of the first companies to switch from tube to flat TVs, from analog to digital, from conventional to Smart TV. Now we do it again, introducing the new TV, which has made a giant technological breakthrough in the television industry. ”

What pleased users with the high quality of images on mobile devices now opens onto large screens: Samsung's proprietary technology of OLEDs, based on organic LEDs, eliminates the need for color filters, as OLED TVs use RGB subpixels located directly on the display , each of which emits its own light. Super OLED is far superior to traditional LED TVs in color accuracy and response time. According to the latest indicator - 1000 times. In addition, the use of this technology made it possible to achieve record levels of weight and thickness of the device - only 7.6 (!) Mm. One article on this Super OLED TV said it was less than the thickness of a Galaxy S II smartphone.



In general, all new Smart TV devices introduced by Samsung this year will be in line with the three pillars of the Smarter Life concept: “Smart Interaction”, “Smart” content and “Smart Evolution” .

Let's take a closer look at them:
Smart Interaction- The fact that 20 years ago it was possible to meet only in science fiction films, and what today is considered a trend for mobile devices, Samsung came to the TV market with a light hand. Smart Interaction technology allows owners of Smart TV to interact with the TV using voice control, motion control and face recognition technologies. Thanks to the built-in HD-camera and dual directional microphones, the user just needs to say: “Hi TV” to activate the voice control function, for example, say “Browser” to go to your favorite Habrahabr, and then scroll through the feed with a simple hand movement in the air.



Smart Content - this direction, as the name implies, is responsible for providing users with first-class content, due to the work of services such as, for example, Samsung Apps or Allshare.
More than 1400 different applications and games are now available in the Samsung Apps Smart TV app store, and the number of daily downloads exceeds 50,000. And, of course, the Angry Birds game, adapted by Rovio and Samsung specifically for the new Smart TV features, will be the best seller of the 2012 season.



The improved AllShare service, called AllShare Play, allows users to access personal content, regardless of their (users) location, the main thing is that a compatible device is at hand.

Smart evolution- This is a real joy for fans of the upgrade, as well as for prudent buyers who want their device to remain appropriate for the time as long as possible. The first of its kind, the Samsung Evolution Kit, consisting of hardware and software, thanks to Samsung's proprietary technology system-on-chip, will improve the technical characteristics of your TV, similar to how we do it with our personal computers. Even easier: just replace the special board in the slot on the rear panel, so that for example your TV turns from a dual-core to a quad-core one.



Of the mobile innovations, at CES 2012, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note smartphone tablet well-known in Russia in our country ...



... and the Galaxy Tab 7.7 with support for Verizon wireless LTE networks. Today it is one of the thinnest, lightest and most portable tablets on the Android Honeycomb platform. The device has similar characteristics and performance as the recently released and critically acclaimed Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus (link to release), featuring a high-quality screen created using Super AMOLED Plus technology and support for 4th generation networks.



The main innovation was the new generation of premium laptops of the 9th series. The device is 21% thinner and 28% smaller than its predecessor. Designed for connoisseurs of premium products, the 9 Series laptop with a unique case design will be available in versions with a SuperBright Plus screen with a diagonal of 13.3 inches and 15 inches. Both laptops will be equipped with second-generation Intel Core processors and solid state drives.



Also at CES 2012, Samsung introduced its first ultrabooks - the 5 Ultra series. Enclosed in a thin and lightweight case, with an Intel Core i5 processor, these ultrabooks should appeal to those who do not want to choose between performance and mobility. The line of ultrabooks includes models with screen sizes of 13.3 and 14 inches, the last of which has a built-in DVD drive. Notebooks are equipped with a unique 500GB hard drive, which is complemented by a 16 GB ExpressCache SSD system, for quick access to data.



Well, among the “desktop” solutions, the unconditional flagships are the new 27 ”9 Series monitor and the Samsung Series 9 All-in-one all-in-one.

The 9 Series monitor boasts a proprietary professional-grade matrix created using PLS (Plane Line Switching) technology. Combined with Natural Color Expert technology, it provides accurate color reproduction of over a billion colors, a rich palette and wide vertical and horizontal viewing angles. The monitor has an ultra-high resolution QHD (2560 x 1440), four times the performance of an ordinary HD monitor. Agree, this is more than just a good combination for working with graphic programs. On the back of the monitor are interface ports Display Port, Dual Link-DVI and HDMI. It also comes with 7 W stereo speakers and a Mobile High Definition Link (MHL) port for connecting smartphones and tablets.

From the traditional professional monitors, the 9th series compares favorably with the “expensive” minimalistic design of the case, in the construction of which aluminum and glass are used.



Add to this the second-generation Intel Core processor, AMD graphics, 3D support, plus an even more non-standard asymmetric design, but take away the professional PLS matrix, and you end up with the Samsung Series 9 All-in-one, a all-in-one PC able to compete for the love of buyers with more "experienced" competitors.



Due to the ever-growing popularity of social networks and the associated increase in demand for cameras with a built-in Wi-Fi module, Samsung's large portfolio of cameras introduced at CES 2012 was created with an emphasis on support for wireless networks. Such devices, for example, allow users to post photos they have just taken on Facebook or Picasa, or save them in a cloud service.

In particular, the company introduced the WB850F - a camera with a telephoto lens, Wi-Fi support and 21x zoom, the best Samsung has to date. The advanced BSI CMOS 16Mpix sensor reduces noise and distortion in pictures even in low light conditions. The camera guarantees the shooting of high quality photos that can be viewed on a bright and clear 3.0-inch VGA AMOLED screen. Additional functions, such as GPS and Live Landmark, make the camera a must-have companion for travel, providing the user with maps and information about the area with the click of a button.



And finally ... Perhaps one of the most interesting combinations of the exhibition is the WF457 washing machine with Wi-Fi support. You can hardly connect it to a torrent tracker (although we are waiting for bold experiments in the DIY section), but thanks to the Smart Control system and a special application for smartphones, you will be able to monitor the current operating mode of the machine and the remaining time, as well as receive notifications about the completion of washing.



Thanks for attention.