The Consumer Electronics Expo in Las Vegas is home to a lot of cool toys. Two companies that grabbed our attention from the trade show floor are Samsung and LG Electronics.
On one hand, you’ve got a company that makes everything really pretty and on the other hand, you’ve got a company that does the pretty stuff too. The question is, which Korean sibling does it better? Both Samsung and LG had some rather massive booths at CES 2008, so let’s just provide a few highlights of the most interesting products we saw at this year’s trade show.
LG Electronics
Contrary to popular belief, LG does not stand for “Life’s Good”. At least, it didn’t originally. The “LG” in LG Electronics is derived from Lucky-Goldstar, the two brands that once fell under the Korean manufacturer’s banner. Over at their giant booth in CES 2008, LG Electronics had everything on display from killer televisions to funky multimedia players. They also had a handful of items that are still in their concept stages, so let’s have a look-see at what LG had to offer.
Televisions with 3D capabilities aren’t exactly new, but they all require some sort of special glasses or goggles in order for them to work. I know that’s the case with the Samsung offering. LG wants to eliminate this cumbersome hurdle, and they’ve managed to do it with their 3D monitor. Apparently based on conventional LCD technology, this television is capable of displaying a three-dimensional image and you don’t need goggles for it to work. What they’ve done is placed three panels on top of one another, giving you the impression of depth. The image becomes very blurred when you’re the wrong distance or angle away from the screen, but it looks pretty amazing when you’re in the optimal location.
Wireless HDTV is getting that much closer to reality. So many folks are mounting their plasma and LCD TVs on their walls, making it incredibly challenging to reach the connectors on the back. LG addresses this issue with their interesting wireless HDTV solution, reproducing the various connectors in a set top box that can be placed anywhere in the room. From here, you can hook up your Blu-ray player, Xbox 360, or whatever other AV device you want to connect to your TV. The television still has all of its own connections on the back as well.
You’ve got flip phones like the Motorola RAZR, smartphones like the Apple iPhone, and slider phones like the Samsung U600. LG is taking a stroll off the beaten path with their LG Watch Phone concept. In a nutshell, it shoehorns all the functionality of a standard mobile phone into a form factor that sits on your wrist. It’s got Bluetooth, so you can chat without having to yell into your hand. There are also limited controls for navigating the phonebook and other features.
For more pictures from our booth tour, check out the CES 2008 LG Electronics Photo Gallery. Now let’s go check on LG’s Korean sibling…
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Samsung
Samsung always has a huge honking booth filled wall to wall with people and this year was no different. This year though, it seems that the number of truly new products was down to a minimum. When instructed to show us what was actually new at the show, our guide could only muster up the following products…
There was a lot of buzz around OLED screens at the Samsung booth. Although this product is still a ways off from entering the marketplace, it was easy to see what benefits the technology will provide the consumer. The super thin profile along with a bright and vibrant picture give it the cool factor it needs for TV applications. The only problem is the longevity which the Samsung reps were careful to continually reiterate when talking about the product. Samsung showed off a few 31 inch units that got quite a bit of attention from the crowd. I guess we’ll only be seeing this technology in cell phones for just a little while longer.
Like LG, Samsung has been dabbling with 3D Television as well. Last year, they introduced a 3D capable DLP HDTV set that was upgradeable to 3D for about $200. Unlike the LG concept, the Samsung TV’s require a kit which includes two pairs of glasses and some software to update the set to display the 3D picture which is picked up by the glasses. At CES, Samsung brought the technology to their plasma products, and once these 3D Ready sets hit the market, you should be able to order a similar kit to upgrade them to 3D. You can see above that the intended target market is definitely gamers.
Also interesting at the Samsung booth this year was how much Web and Media integration was taking place inside the TV sets themselves. The picture above shows off what looks like a full scale media center built into one of their flat panel TV’s. The set is connected to the web and updates its content online. Along with the usual media stuff, you can also download new Yoga Poses to fine art, making the TV set more useful, even when you’re not watching TV. They also showed off a set with a custom RSS reader built in that retrieves content like stock quotes and weather from USA Today. Unfortunately, you only get USA today so it’s definitely a gift for those state side.
The last truly new thing from the Samsung folks was a portable media player boom box. Where things should be getting smaller and more portable, it seems that Samsung went the opposite direction with this puppy. It does plugin to your TV set…but so do other media players about a tenth of its size. However, it is also a DVD player with built in bluetooth and a hard drive.
For more pictures from the Samsung Booth, check out the CES 2008 Samsung Photo Gallery.
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