Samsung SMART TV

I was given the opportunity to have a first hand look at the new Samsung SMART TV recently. Now let me tell you about my exciting experience. This TV was supposed to be a real SMART TV was your end to end entertainment source at home and boy it was just that!

The model that was introduced to me was the ES8000 LED TV. At a glance, it’s a sweet piece of work! You know the previous range of Samsung TV’s had the glossy frame around it? That is gone! The new design is pretty much what i like to call a frame less , not so little beast!

With me to show me around the TV was a Product Manager from Samsung who obviously eats and breathes Samsung so i must say her excitement rubbed off. So i was told to say Hi TV .. So i started blinking, Now what i was doing is allowing the TV to recognize my voice that if could take instructions from me based on my voice that was recorded. So i was thinking, yea yea .. how many voice activated devices have we seen that ends up playing translator and doing something completely different from the commands. I kid you not, this baby … Was SUPERB! It recognized my voice and commands like a slave who is indebted to its master for life!

The Smart TV is connected via Ethernet cable or WiFi, which ever suits your fancy and brings the world to your finger tips .. No actually even to your voice and motion. So you lift up your hand so that in-built webcam can pick up your movement and you can control your TV via motion. Hit up, hit down and grab a function to activate it … Jokes aside and no exaggeration , it works like magic!

Samsung built their SMART TV’s based on 3 pillars  :

• SMART Interaction
• SMART Content
• SMART Evolution

SMART Interaction

SMART Interaction is what personalize the SMART TV in my opinion. This is where the voice, motion and face recognition comes into play. You can create your profiles on the TV and let the webcam take a picture of yourself which will enable you to personalize what you see on the screen.

SMART Content

This for me is a one of the most important factors if the claim to be a true entertainment centre. For me, Samsung is a family brand. The diverse range of products and offerings is something a family can take advantage off. With that in mind, Samsung has done well to provide the content for the family. Education, Health and living are amongst the content that is provided.

Now since we have the family in mind, Samsung has introduced Family Story. This is a network that you can use to add family from near and far to share what has been happening, events and even photo’s in a close loop manner so that it’s not available for anyone and everyone.

Now you are probably wondering are there enough app’s? Well, there are about 1,400 Samsung apps that you can take advantage off and from what i hear, this number will increase very quickly.

Another feature under Smart Content which caught my attention is the All Share Play which is a function that allows you to share content from other Samsung devices over your Internet Connection. I got the Samsung trainer to share some of her pictures that she had on her Galaxy tab and boy it was seemless! Then came the cool part when she streamed a video and an audio track from her tab and it played like was playing from the TV directly – BRILLIANT!

SMART EVOLUTION

This is a very cool feature. How often do you find your self buying a device and having to upgrade it a few years down the road due to various factors? The System chip which drives all these applications and functionalities can be upgraded should you want to upgrade it which means, you don’t need to get a whole new TV! How cool is that?!

The SMART TV comes in Plasma and LED variations in multiple sizes. There are also heaps of accessories that you can check out together with your TV. Head on to the Samsung website to find out more

My Thoughts?

I have never been a fan of having too much functionality on one single device but the SMART TV has got me thinking. The experience, the clarity image, the sound, the way the device looks .. Samsung has done very well. You can check out the TV at Major Electrical Shops, they have entire SMART TV set-up’s which you can experience what I am raving about.