Africa Forum happened on the 20th of February in Antalya, Turkey. Samsung takes the stage to showcase various innovations that will be available in the continent in the course of the year. These range from home electronics like fridges, audio and audiovisual electronics, office equipment like TV printers and TV monitors and last but not least photogtaphy gadgets.
New Curved Tizen Powered Super Ultra High Definition TV
Samsung’s new 88 inch SUHD JSN500 Curved TV took centre stage and promises 64 times the colour reproduction compared to conventional TV. With it’s grand chamfer bezel design the TV has more TV space in a smaller frame making the display the most prominent part of the TV. The display automatically analyses the brightness of images and minimizes power consumption while still producing images with greater contrast, as much as two and a half times brighter than the average TV, and twice the colour adjustment points.
On top of the technology, Samsung has partnered with eNCA to provide users with access to Africa’s latest news and is also working with Supersport to offer sports highlights and live scores on Samsung smart TVs. “Tizen will be the backbone of the 2015 Samsung Hub and the Samsung Smart TVs which going forward will be powered by Tizen Operating system will take centre stage in the internet of things,” said Corrie Labuschagne, Visual Display Product Manager, Samsung Electronics Africa.
On the Audio segment, Samsung introduced the HW-J8500/J8501 curved Sound Bar that compliments the Samsung Curved TV It has a 9.1 channel Audio, centre and side speakers, and multi-air gap speaker unit in the subwoofer.
The WAM7500 and WAM6500 omni-directional speakers, developed in Samsung’s audio lab in California, deliver a 360-degree sound experience thanks to Samsung’s proprietary ring radiator technology. As opposed to conventional speakers, these don’t produce sound in one direction but in all directions, quite convenient for a room. The two are also mobile and you can control more than one from either a smartphone or tablet, each with it’s own independent controls on one interface, connected via Bluetooth.
Samsung NX500 also made a show at Samsung Forum. The successor to the quite convenient mirrorless Samsung NX300 basically brings the professional NX1 announced sometime late last year to the compact camera. The 28MP BSI APS-C sensor is now on board the small frame of the NX500 bringing better low light imaging, better noise reduction and faster autofocus.
The NX500 also has 4k video output and will also use the Samsung NX Lenses from the small one to the big zoom ones. It can’t really compare with the NX1 which puts on a fight against pro DSLRs but can come close, really close. The device is packaged as the device for the average user, as a pro user will want to be more in charge with more physical controls that the NX500 has made digital instead.
Samsung also showcased curved UHD monitors with Curved Quad HD SE790C monitor taking the stage and boasting of optimized curvature that makes the display friendlier on the eye. This is a big bet for gamers and multimedia consumers with it’s rich graphics and eye-friendly build.
Other products include the 4 door Chef’s collector FR9900 refrigerator with it’s precise and constant temperature for food that allows it to be stored as-is, no need for packaging. It also gives optimal humidity control with the Triple Colling system that creates three airflows both in the freezer and refrigerator.
Other products on showcase included Samsung AR9500 air conditioner which promises faster air cooling with wider reach with it’s triangular design and wider inlet. Samsung AX7000 Air purifier is said to enable the purifier reach wider and purify faster with the 3 way air flow, dual-power fan and two step filtration with a clean air delivery rate of upto 773 cu. meters per hour.
The washing machine was also showcased, with activ dualwash which essentially takes the back-aches out of the average clothes hand washing. It features a built-in sink with water jets and a scrubbing machine. Everything is done in one setting from soaking, applying and mixing soap, washing, rinsing and water disposal. Compared to washing using a basin, the washing machine takes care of the harder part of hand washing.
