Last two weeks ago, I was invited by Samsung to spend a night at Hotel H2O to try their Smart TV. I was pretty excited and flattered that they included me in their list of invitees: 1. I've been curious why it is the "smart" TV; 2. I've been having a hard time booking a stay at Hotel H20 for our son---I was even planning on spending his 2nd birthday there last June but it was sooooo fully booked!
You can read about our stay in Hotel H2O here and here. For this post, let me talk about the Samsung Smart TV, which I have definitely fallen in love with ;)
First, you just gotta love how thin and slim it is:
Next, the frontal view. Notice that you can hardly see the bezel (or what we call the TV frame).
Kang Yunje, Vice President of Samsung’s TV Design Group, perfected an aesthetic that bears tremendous purpose. “We wanted to remove the barrier between the real world and the TV that is visually distracting: the bezel,” Mr. Kang said. “The design concept centered on the television. If we see the real world in three dimensions, and the TV offers three dimensional images, then everything we see has the potential to be in three dimensions. Designing a slim bezel was about removing the frame that limited our view of the three-dimensional world.”
Since Mr. Kang joined the company in 1994, it has been his dream to create a television without a bezel. In 2008, Samsung embarked on a journey towards this goal. In two years, they managed to whittle down 54 millimeters to 28 millimeters. After Yoon Boo-Keun, President of Samsung’s Visual Display, set out a mission to create a bezel-less TV in 2010, it only took them a year to turn the dream into reality.
“We were told that reducing the bezel slimmer than 7 millimeters would be impossible, and that the image quality would be lost as the bezel became thinner,” Mr. Kang said. “We ran numerous trials to see what worked and what did not but eventually pulled ourselves through the toughest period.”
After much trial and error, the development team was slowly inching its way to the ultimate goal. In 2011, the creation of the LED D8000 proved that an ultra-slim bezel was indeed a possibility. The LED D8000 appears slimmer, yet it maintains a superior viewing experience—the perfect marriage of design and technology.
Now, the test! We tried watching regular TV shows first, and we love how even if the show isn't in HD yet, it feels like it already is! The LED has MicroDimming technology that works on playing the cleanest whites, the darkest blacks, and the most vibrant hues.
We took it up a notch by trying out their featherweight 3D glasses.
These glasses, along with the LED's built-in 2D to 3D conversion system, can make flat 2D movies or pictures appear life-like in real time! Amazing, isn't it? Not only that, we are amazed with the stock sound system that comes with the Smart TV's 3D Sound Effect and 3D HyperReal Engine. No need to buy and install those extra speakers ;)
It's so smart, right? And there's more! We tried tinkering what else this baby has to offer and went to this screen. See the small screen on the top right? That's your TV/movie screen, which means you can still watch while you surf the net ;)
The Samsung Smart Hub is a media portal to the world wide web. It's could be overwhelming at first glance, but it's pretty easy to use.
Samsung Smart TV is, no doubt, the start of what future TV's will become. More than just your TV, its offerings include what computers/laptops offer---making it the smartest TV indeed! Mr. Kang and the rest of Samsung's TV Design Group are definitely cooking up even better smart TVs. “Samsung believes in pushing the company to its limit, if there is one,” Mr. Kang said. “We innovate and change paradigms. From the top executive to our engineers, we take risks for good design and befitting quality products.”
Read more about Samsung Smart TV here.
We had a great time staying at H2O hotel, most especially with the Samsung Smart TV in the room for us to play with :D I've already told hubby that this is part of my holiday wish list ;)
Thank you, Ms. O of Samsung and the rest of the Samsung PH team :D
