Humility hasn't been Samsung's strong suit lately. Before this year's International CES, the company promised the next true steps in television innovation as well as "unprecedented" design. Samsung then took a couple of swipes at Apple as it unveiled its latest products at Monday's press conference. With one look at its line-up, though, you can understand why. We all know the iPhone maker wants to release a TV; Samsung is letting everyone know it's not afraid.
Dubbed the F8000, the South Korean company's new flagship LED Smart TV comes loaded with features and abilities. Available in sizes ranging from 46 inches up to 65 inches, the television is home to what Samsung calls a redesigned Smart Hub that can be navigated with motions of the hand.
According to the press release, the Smart Hub uses five different panels to "help consumers manage and navigate different types of content, which are displayed as thumbnail images for the first time so it's even easier to select and watch the content on the big screen. With a light hand gesture (flipping), you can discover five totally different experiences in Smart Hub, as if you have five new TV sets."
Perhaps just as important, though, is the TV's S Recommendation feature. Kind of like a Samsung version of Siri, S Recommendation lets you search for TV shows, on-demand content, apps, and more by recognizing natural languages and voice commands. The feature comes equipped with a unique content suggestion system that will be tailored to an individual's specific preferences. Those days of fumbling around between two or three different remote controls in order to figure out which controls the television are over. Just speak and enjoy. The TV can even reply to you.
"As the plethora of apps and content grow, consumers are faced with the overwhelming challenge of discovering quality content that appeals to their interests. They are looking for ways to experience converged content, and they want to do it easily," said Kim Hyun-Suk, executive VP and head of visual display business at Samsung. "We have simplified the process with TVs that offer more intuitive features, endless connectivity and content options, and larger screen sizes with true-to-life picture quality. Consumers can now enjoy the ultimate lean back experience, which is richer and easier than ever before."
In addition to the new Smart Hub and voice detection features, the F8000 supports internet browsing, social networking, and even apps. A quad-core processor powers things behind the scenes, meaning switching between all these different options just got faster.
