Samsung Pushes Curved TVs, Connected Home Services At CES

Just about all the major TV manufacturers will be showing off Ultra HD (aka UHD or 4K) TVs at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, but only one of them will have a 105″ curved behemoth drawing attendees like bugs to a huge, expensive bug zapper.

Even though there is minimal content available for UHD, Samsung appears to be going all in with the TV sets that can deliver four times the resolution of current HD TVs.

In addition to the mammoth 105″ beast, Samsung will be releasing UHD sets ranging from 50″ to 110″, including six curved sets that manufacturers hope will deliver a truly immersive home viewing experience. The curved sets start at 55″.

The company also showed off a prototype TV that starts out flat, but converts to a curved screen with the push of a button.

The closest we could get to any of these was the foot of the stage recently abandoned by Michael Bay, so we can’t really judge the image quality or whether or the curved screen adds anything to the viewing experience. However, once we hit the show floor tomorrow morning, we’ll be getting in front of these curved and UHD sets to see if they are indeed the future of home entertainment.

Speaking of home, Samsung is using CES to launch its new Smart Home service, which the company hopes to launch at retail in the first half of the year.

Smart Home will allow users to control certain web-connected appliances — everything from air-conditioners to lights — via an app on their smartphone or Samsung TV. The company says it will not ultimately limit Smart Home to Samsung appliances, hoping to give customers the ability to control other manufacturers’ appliances via phone or TV.

There will be much, much more from Samsung and others when we hit the floor tomorrow. Now, it’s off to try to get into the Sony press conference across town.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist