Know what would look good in a living room of the future? The new Samsung LED TV, preferably the D8000. These new LED TV lineup from Samsung is not just a TV but it’s what they call a Smart TV. Before we got to that let’s look at the design first.
These new LED TVs has a slim form which is not really that surprising. What’s different here is the barely visible 5mm brushed metal bezel which looks like your TV is one big solid screen without any frame or borders. This results to a large viewing area without adding to the overall size. They also retained the Quad Stand that was introduced last year and made it more slimmer. A very futuristic look for the modern entertainment room.
So what makes these TVs a Smart TV?
These TVs can display Full HD picture both in 2D and 3D. And it can also convert 2D viewing into 3D at a click of a button. The Samsung 3D glasses are very light and doesn’t do those annoying flickering lights found in old 3D glasses and works mighty well even if you’re viewing the video from different angles.
Aside from that, you can also view online content with its Internet capability. The higher-end models has a built-in wireless adapter while the lower-end requires a separate WiFi dongle unless you can physically wire it to your router. Yep, it’s also an Internet TV. You can check and update your Facebook status right from your couch. You can even use the picture-in-picture while checking your Twitter feeds during commercial breaks.
Unfortunately for Internet TVs out there, our country is seriously lacking access to premium content online (not to mention the slow internet connection that most household have) to make these type of TVs appealing. Samsung said that they’re currently working with local content providers to give Internet goers access to videos that you really want to watch that is not stored in YouTube. Of course, they may only be Samsung-specific content which can be accessed from the Samsung Smart Hub.
The Smart Hub is like the main UI of these new TVs when you want to access online and offline content. It is the TVs media center where you can manage and display content. It is where your TV suggest online video for you based on your search or viewing history. Creepy. Hehehe. At least you can easily check IMDB first before watching a particular movie someone lent you.
You may be wondering, how do you control these Smart TVs. Well for a limited time, if you get the D8000 which is the high-end model you will also get a Galaxy Tab for free. You can use the Galaxy Tab to navigate your TV via touchscreen. Otherwise, you’re stuck with the remote control using it’s arrow buttons to navigate or its numeric buttons as an alphanumeric keyboard. It would be nice if the remote also comes with a QWERTY keypad of some sort.
Another nice feature with these new Smart TVs is their smart eco-friendly design technologies. It seeks to minimize its environmental footprint during its life-cycle and features Samsung’s 3D Peak Algorithm, which reduces average power consumption by about 15 percent, while increasing peak brightness by 20 percent. Its unique Motion Adaptive Dimming algorithm also reduces power consumption up to 20 percent by controlling LED brightness, according to motion vectors in the picture.
So how much does a Samsung Smart TV cost? there are smaller versions of the Smart TV that could go as low as Php60,000 sans some features while the largest 60" LED fully-loaded model would go for Php300,000. *whistle* Maybe wait for a few more years?