What with phones becoming smart (er), tablets providing convenient computing, and even the middle ground ‘phablet’ offering tablet power in a phone, every electronic device seems to be on the path to enlightenment. The next thing you will see is a wall painting coming to life at the sound of your voice. Enter Samsung’s Slim LED TV ES8000.
The ES8000 captures the imagination not so much as a television , but as a very large all-in-one multimedia device. Samsung bills it as
‘the centrepiece’ of a living room that is also a ‘lifestyle partner’. It certainly aspires to become one, offering via its ‘Smart Hub’ interface apps tailor-made for children, gamers, fitness enthusiasts, or for plain
old internet surfers.
Moreover, Samsung has a range of wireless devices such as blu-ray disc players and home theatre systems which, when coupled with the wi-fi compatible ES8000, offer tangle-free solutions to home entertainment.
Remember playing Angry Birds on your smartphone, touching to pull the catapult and fire at the pigs? Well, now you can simply use your hands to show directions and propel the annoyed avians and the Smart TV will use its camera to sense your motion and let you enjoy your game like never before. With over 1,400 other free apps in its TV App Store, Samsung seems to be carrying TV gaming to a different level of convenience. How long before gaming consoles are sent packing?
In addition to the motion detectors, Samsung has also added voice control and face detection to its new TV. These are features that will improve over time and Yantrick predicts you will use the two remote controls – one regular, the other a ‘smart’ touch-controlled – more often because there is always ambient noise in a living room and your hands will get tired of making motions to change channels.
As the leading maker and seller of televisions, Samsung certainly knows what it’s doing. The company has sought to address the problem of television sets getting outdated by providing TV owners with an ‘Evolution Kit’ that upgrades technical specifications and performances every year, without laying the actual TV to waste. Trends across the globe show that new TV buyers have been migrating towards an internet-connected television and the ES8000 is leading the line for hi-end televisions.
YANTRICK’S VERDICT: The ES8000 offers peerless image quality, performance, and connectivity for a television of its kind. But the tax-inflated price tag will probably deter a lot of Nepalis from taking the plunge.
Price: Rs 459,900
Video: 55 inch, 1920x1080 resolution, 800 Hz motion rate, Micro Dimming Ultimate
Audio: Dolby Digital Plus / Dolby Pulse, 3D Sound
Connectivity: Wireless LAN built-in, 3 HDMI, 3 USB, 1 Headphone
Smartness: Built-in camera and video recorder, web browser, Samsung Apps