Samsung's new Smart TV: iPad 2 smart?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 06 April 2011 19:47

Your IT - Entertainment

Samsung's new 'Smart TV' range for 2011 puts a ton of computing smarts into what was once just a basic flat panel, building in as standard what once took a separate PC or advanced set-top box, with even 3D models and glasses very nicely improving over last year's latest and greatest.

Just as telcos don't want to simply offer dumb Internet pipes but want to deliver all kinds of services and experiences, so too do flat panel TV makers want to deliver far more than just a basic flat panel.

Although the earliest flat panels were just that, they soon included analogue and then digital TV tuners, then HD, network and USB ports, digital media playback capabilities, DLNA compatibility, hard disks and USB DVR options.

Flat screens became dramatically thinner, sported ever more stylish design, delivered YouTube, Facebook, BigPond movies, TV shows and BigPond TV channels, built-in Skype video calls and now, from more than one manufacturer, web browsing capabilities built-in as standard.

Naturally you'll need to plug your TV into the Internet first, but that has been the case for a while with movie download services, YouTube, Facebook and other social networking, while many have already plugged their TVs into networks for access to network storage and local digital media.

While Sony uses the very well regarded Opera browser in some of its 2011 TV range, Samsung has crafted its own browser instead.

Its browser offers Flash 10.2 and HTML5 capabilities, and even a new remote control that is standard remote on one side, and mini-QWERTY keyboard on the other.

The remote can be used to move a mouse pointer around the browser, but while it's not as easy (or imprecise) as waving a Wii wand around, it seemed easy enough to pick up to mouse around with much more precision.

There's no download capability for the browser as yet, meaning you can't download PDF or other files, although your web mail service may help you get around some of those issues by being able to display some attachments - I'll have to test this further on a review model.

Although the browser has no download capability, as such, for common attachment types, and instead downloads HTML and associated elements for display, Samsung's Smart TVs with BigPond capabilities does use the flash storage in equipped models for streaming of SD and HD video up to 1080i, depending on available bandwidth.

There's also a 'TV apps store' available, which means more capabilities for your Smart TV in the future as new apps become available. Call 'Samsung Apps' and billed as 'the world's first HDTV-based application store that offers range of apps that help people connect to their various passions - whether sports, entertainment, information, games or social networking. Local apps available now and coming soon include BigPond Game Analyser, BigPond Movies, BigPond TV, a suite of NineMSN apps and ABC iView.'

So, what about that ol' iPad 2 comparison, and the rest of Samsung's Smart TV smarts? Please read on to page two!