Samsung Forum 2016 was all about connected devices and smart home appliances, and they wowed us!

At the Samsung Forum that was held last week in Kuala Lumpur, the company gave us a glimpse into its new innovations, some being announced for the Indian market. The smartphone maker launched two new phones - Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 2016 editions - but it was the array of connected devices that stole the show. (You can watch our hands-on video with the Galaxy A7 here. )  Samsung reiterates its commitment towards Tizen being the OS of choice for IoT. The new line of SUHD TVs running Tizen highlight the Quantum dot display that aims at better picture quality. The bezel-less curved design and a new, easy and integrated Smart TV experience using the Tizen OS. The company also had the 4K and a mammoth 8K TV on display.  Rishi Suri, Director-Product Marketing Consumer Electronics tells us, “We’ve done a lot of innovation with Tizen. This year the SUHD lineup that has been introduced can offer a lot of flexibility. Firstly, until last year, the voice feature was accessible by only some premium handsets but that’s changed and can be used with all Androids and Windows devices. The scalability has gone up. Secondly, with Tizen, we’ve been able to introduce the concept of one remote using which you can use TV, GTH, PlayStation and so on. Tizen has a whole lot of benefits, and we’ve been investing heavily. Going forward the reality and acceptability of Tizen.”  The company has put forth smarter living with its smartphone-connected home appliances. A connected TV that can talk to your phone or a phone that can control your refrigerator. The innovations simply want you to live smarter along with your home appliances. And, it has ensured to cater to almost every sphere of life, from Add Wash washing machine and Android-enabled printer to air conditioner with built-in stabiliser and everything in between.   As we tip toed into the kitchen, Samsung has introduced the new Smart Convertible 5-in-1 refrigerators priced at the mid-segment for India. It lets you convert the freezer into a fridge when pressed for extra space, vacation mode that turns on only the freezer if required to store something for long, and interestingly a season mode that converts freezer into fridge and switches off the rest.  The refrigerator section is the highlight, but not the 5-in-1, rather the Smart Family Hub that isn’t launched for India. Fortunately, Samsung did showcase the Family Hub refrigerator that features a large 21.5-inch display on the right door, upper side running Tizen. It seemed a delight.  With the smart fridge,leave errand notes, share and update calendars, pin photos using your smartphone. One of the interesting features that caught our attention was called the Morning brief. Push the button, and the fridge gives you a brief about the date, day, weather, and so on. Three cameras installed inside the fridge; capture image every time the door closes to track the amount of stocks inside.  One of the coolest display’was this transparent OLEd display. Its a 55-inch panel with 45 percent transparency and you can easily view the set of necklaces placed behind the display. Its a Full HD resolution and with 100 percent of Adobe’s RGB spectrum.   Right next to it was the mirror display that lets us see ourselves clearly into it. The display apparently recognises if you are man or woman and quickly puts up an advertisement about a certain discount. Both these were put up in the B2B hall, and aim at malls, shopping centers, and so on.   Another interesting product on display was the Gear VR. On wearing, it seemed light and for the limited time we got with it, it was as if we aren’t wearing a headgear at all. While using it, the front black flap snapped out, but was quickly fixed by the team on the floors. A video - not so clear - took us to the virtual world and we could watch around the video by moving our head in all directions, as if we were present right there. The Gear VR is pretty much what we’ve been hearing about it. It is cool, light and very innovative, but content is what Samsung should be focussing on.    Samsung’s focus on smarter living seemed a mix of connected devices and also aimed at helping pull down electricity bills. The company has always given a special mention to IoT in the big tech events in the past few years. And, Tizen only makes sense as company’s own OS doesn’t just promise to be more flexible and would help in revenue stream. After all, how long could Samsung simply strengthen Google’s software profitability. With connected devices making their way into the Indian market, it seems just the beginning of a wider acceptance of IoT in India. However, this leaves us with many unanswered questions such as pricing, standards that could make the technology more accessible irrespective of manufacturer, make or size, and so on.