Samsung, Dell, Panasonic at CES 2013: What you Need to Know

CES 2013 has just finished and there are still interesting things that you probably didn’t hear about. During these days we’ve witnessed smart and helpful technology being staged, and in various cases, it is coming from rather young but promising names, such as Huawei and Asus. We’ve seen advanced television sets, smartphones that can be mistaken for tablets and gaming gear to rival seasoned console makers. But the best is yet to happen, as these products will try to win our hearts in 2013.
Speaking of interesting, today we’ve gathered the most note-worthy gadgets of three important companies, Samsung, Dell and Panasonic, in a short but descriptive collection featured below. In the following words you will be presented with the best products introduced by these companies in Las Vegas this year, and even with some projects which should arrive on the market soon.

Samsung

Samsung at CES 2013

The first and without question, the most important player in this region is Samsung. As a short introduction, Samsung has unveiled several important wonders at CES 2013 but we cannot go without saying that when it came to the mobile segment, all the goodies were held for Barcelona.

The World’s first Curved OLED

Samsung has a clear history when it comes to flexible screens, regardless of the technology used for bending and for the final form of its products. A world premiere took place in Vegas, where the first Curved OLED TV was introduced. Pictured in the image below, this state-of-the art piece of technology will allow purchasers to consume intensive images and be integrated in immersive content.
The main advantage of the curved OLED technology can be seen in the vast viewing angles and in the sheer feeling of realness, given by the embracing form. The second flexible item on Samsung’s list also makes use of curved OLEDs and it will be introduced in smartphones of the future generation. At this moment, a project called Youm exists, and the first member of this future line can be seen in the presentation video above.

iWatchLife with SmartCam System

Samsung shook hands with the notorious equipment firm iWatchLife and one of the first products launched after the deal is the iWatchLife Home Monitoring System, which embeds the Samsung SmartCam SNH-1011 and the cloud based server of the first company to provide home security. The system features motion-detection systems, intelligent recording (you ca survey and be alarmed on distinct areas) and perhaps most appealing, simple set-up. Simply connect the cameras to a network, set the angles and you’re done.
Price: $150 per camera and 5$/month for accounts.

DA F60 Speakers with NFC and Wireless Charging

While Near-Field Audio technology seems to be out of the question for important manufacturers, NFC and Bluetooth pairing is still in trend. This time, Samsung debuts a speaker set that connects to a mobile wirelessly and charges it in the same time. Moreover, the product is on the same time Bluetooth compliant and can enhance sound quality through the use of several tweaks, such as a bass-boost option. The battery lasts around 8 hours and has a nice juice-preserving option that lets the system wake up from standby using the phone.

Others important mentions:

• Galaxy Grand Duos – budget phablet unveiled one month ago
• Exynos 5 Octa chip – the new generation comes with eight cores
• T9000 Smart-Fridge – take Twitter and Evernote in the kitchen
• White Series 9 Ultrabook – the white version of the popular series, but with a slightly modified design
• Series 5 Ultrabooks – a refresh that should arrive in February for $750
• Point and shoot cameras – six models to be used by photography enthusiasts
• New LCDs and Plasmas – TVs with quad-core CPUs, new menus and more

Dell

Dell’s appearance at CES this year cannot be described by the word “lively”, but this does not mean that the manufacturer has been absent. As Dell’s tradition has accustomed us, the company aimed primarily at laptops and on accessories.

Project Ophelia

 

Project Ophelia is a genuine evidence of Dell’s innovation and spirit, which takes a step further the PC evolution ladder. A project started by Dell Wyse, a cloud segment of the entire company, Ophelia aims at security and mobility by introducing an Android 4.0-powered stick which can transform any HDTV or monitor into a full-sized computer display. Although not many details were released, the project should be presented in essence this summer, but we do know that it will work through cloud and it will allow owners to play games and watch their unfinished movies, from anywhere.

Refreshers

Several laptop models have been refreshed and improved, in order to maintain Dell in the top mobile computer segment this year, even though tablets are rather new for the company. Here are the most important announcements:

• XPS 13 Ultrabook – a move which Dell finally chooses to make is to enhance the display of the XPS 13 with a Full HD screen resolution (1080), as an optional variant. The advanced laptop will start selling at $1.299 from next month, and it will contain also a color gamut improvement.
• Mainstream Inspiron R – the lower budget segment of the Dell line, widely known as Inspiron R, will receive an optional touchscreen panel and a slimmed form factor. This panel will be available for all size factors and it will be charged accordingly.
• Dell Latitude 10 – the price of the work-specialized tablet from Dell will be heavily subsized, scaling down from $650 to $499. Unfortunately, this offer will be available for a 64GB version that lacks the active digitizer and the removable battery.

Panasonic

Panasonic has been quite an active presence this year at CES, where the manufacturer has released several TV models, a lot of digital cameras and more than a handful of interesting projects.

Toughpad Tablets: FZ-G1 and JT-B1

Panasonic just launched two rugged tablets with modest to advanced specifications, which are aimed for people with both taste and the need to do some work while traveling in dangerous environments.
The first member of this small family is the Android 4.1 running JT-B1 tablet, which measures 7-inch in diagonal and comes with a dual-core OMAP silicon chip which has proved to run smoothly during testing. Unfortunately, the quality of the display leaves us wanting for more, as the JT-B1 has reduced glare at the cost of muting colors.



FZ-G1, the other tablet presented this year, comes with Windows 8 on-board and has a brighter, more vibrant screen. Its Core i5 processor performs better than the Android variant and the larger, 10.1-inch wide screen consumes the battery in no more than 8 hours.

4K Tablet Prototype

LG, alongside Samsung, came up with the 4K OLED TV since the past year as a project, and this seasone, they’ve managed to already launch the project. While the price of this technology is absolutely whopping, Panasonic thought of introducing the first tablet capable of 4k resolutions. Presented as a 20-inch wide device, the 4k tablet runs Windows 8 and has an Intel Core i5 processor underneath a beautifully designed glossy body. Considering this is just a project, it’s wonderful that Panasonic has managed to introduce a wide range of work-related features and that the slate itself was almost towards the end.

My Home Screen

Smart TVs are without doubt the item in trend and as smart seems to migrate towards pixel granulation and towards the variety of options embedded in the operating system of the TV. Panasonic is up with technology, and the latest feature called My Home Screen will allow owners to tweak the system settings in multiple ways. For instance, each member of the family can have one different setting file and accounts can be identified using the built-in face recognition feature, or through voice.

Other technologies

• Electronic Touch Pen – a concept similar to the tablet-used S-Pen, this will let users draw on TVs and share the work-art
• Bone Conduction Headphones – Panasonic is looking to switch AA batteries for brain-waves when charging a pair of Bluetooth headphones
• HX-A100 wearable camera – a wearable camera that is tethered to a controller can capture images, in stealth mode
• Powerlive Max speakers – a classical speaker set with a ton of power behind
• New Lumix and Camcorder models
• New home theater system with wireless speakers
• More than a dozen LED and Plasma TVs