Samsung launches first wave of smart devices and appliances for 2015

My personal favorite at the Samsung launch event are the curved TV monitors.

Samsung showcased many new products here in Bangkok for its annual SEA Forum Conference. The new SUHD TVs took center stage along with a complete line-up of smart appliances. Samsung has been doing this regional launch for the media and its dealers for several years now as its culminating event to introduce the entire spectrum of Samsung products for the first half of the year.

On top of introducing smart TVs, OLED displays and the curved form factor, Samsung is putting its weight on a newly developed technology dubbed as SUHD.

SUHD TV adds better color accuracy, higher brightness and contrast to all of its new OLED and curved TV lines. Powered by Samsung’s very own Tizen operating system, the new series of SUHDTVs (JS9500, JS9000, JS8500) that range from 55 inches to 88 inches in size will be introduced in the Philippine market soon.

The Tizen OS will allow Samsung Smart TVs to become part of a larger ecosystem of devices and services with content coming from a wide range of third-party partners.

There’s an interesting set of speakers that is shaped like a cylindrical tower featuring omni-directional 360 audio. Designed in Samsung’s state-of-the-art Audio Labs in California, the WAM7500/6500 incorporates a proprietary ring technology that allows the sound to flow in all directions. The speaker connects to the router and streams music from the user’s network wirelessly.

In the imaging department, Samsung introduced the NX500 – a compact, mirror-less camera with a 28-megapixel APS-C sensor that is capable of recording 4K videos. The NX500 inherits a lot of its features from the flagship Samsung NX1 and packs it in a compact body that’s similar to the NX300.

With WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC functionalities, the NX500 can pair and share files with any compatible smartphone or tablet. For under $800 (including a 16-50mm power zoom lens), you get a premium, powerful camera in a smaller, rangefinder-like form factor.

Samsung’s Galaxy A series smartphones (Galaxy A3, A5 & A7) were also introduced but we’d already seen these handsets released in the Philippines back in January.

They paired them with a couple of Galaxy E series smartphones – a more affordable yet bigger-sized batch of handsets. The Galaxy E5 has a 5-inch display while the Galaxy E7 has a 5.5-inch display. These mid-range smartphones complement the premium A-series line-up but with a much more affordable price tag.

An autonomous vacuum cleaner (PowerBot VR9000), an activ dualwash top-load washing machine (WA6700), large-capacity refrigerators, new wall-mounted air conditioners, air purifiers and faster printers were also showcased at the event but, unfortunately, our attention was focused elsewhere.

In the software and services front, Samsung also announced the arrival of Milk Music in the Southeast Asian region. It’s the company’s very own music service. The free radio service, which is available on a select number of Galaxy devices including the A series, offers nearly 13 million songs. While the free version is ad-supported, a paid premium plans costs $3.99 a month in other countries.

My personal favorite from the entire launch event are the curved monitors. Included in the line-up is the flagship 34-inch SE790C, which features an ultra-wide 21:9 aspect ratio, quad HD resolution or 3440x1440 pixels and a response time of just 4ms. The almost three-feet wide display is so large that you can actually split it into two screens, each one getting a dedicated signal from two separate video inputs.