Samsung CES 2016 news: new TVs, laptops, and weird home gadgets – The Verge

You can preorder Samsung’s first-ever 4K Blu-ray player today

2016-01-05T17:00:02-05:00

With friends like Panasonic and Samsung, the 4K / UHD Blu-ray format might stand a chance of being successful. Or, at least, maybe eventually being as "successful" as regular Blu-ray. This morning Panasonic announced it's launching a 4K Blu-ray player in 2016, and now Samsung is trying to jump ahead of the whole industry by revealing that its own player is going up for preorder today.

An increasing number of studios are already pledging support for the discs, so it wouldn't be an ill-advised purchase if you're looking to upgrade your home theater before everyone else you know. Twentieth Century Fox will release "more than 30" 4K discs this …

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Samsung’s CES TV event was bizarrely normal

2016-01-05T17:00:02-05:00

Three years ago, at Samsung's CES TV event, the company imprisoned women in metal dresses equipped with cupcake and champagne stands.

Two years ago, at Samsung's CES TV event, the company suspended women from the ceiling and got them to pour attendees glasses of champagne upside-down.

One year ago, at Samsung's CES TV event, the company gathered reporters to a glitzy Las Vegas hotel's rooftop swimming pool to look at women floating and dancing in weird, glowing donuts.

This year, the biggest surprise at Samsung's CES TV event was that nothing weird happened at all. It turns out that Samsung is, in fact, entirely capable of putting on a re …

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Samsung’s Notebook 9 laptops take ‘thin-and-light’ to a beautiful extreme

2016-01-05T17:00:02-05:00

Before Intel coined the term "ultrabook" to describe thin, light, and yet powerful mobile PCs, the category was generally defined by the spliced adjective of "thin-and-light." That came to mind today as I encountered Samsung's Notebook 9 laptops for the first time. Much like LG's Gram lineup, these new Windows laptops from Samsung are all about shaving off the last millimeter of thickness and last possible milligram of weight. The 13.3-inch variant weighs just 0.84kg / 1.85lbs while the 15-inch Notebook 9 rises to 1.29kg / 2.84lbs. If those numbers aren't doing a good enough job of conveying exactly how light these machines are, just take a …

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Samsung’s new TVs are sleek hubs for your smart home

2016-01-05T17:00:02-05:00

It's another year, and Samsung is back with the second generation of its SUHD TV lineup. Yes, the curved screens remain, and Tizen is still the underlying platform powering Samsung's TV software. But there are a number of upgrades coming to the 2016 line; first, all of them will support HDR for brighter, bolder, and more vivid picture. (Like LG, Samsung is talking up its certification as "Ultra HD Premium," a new label the UHD Alliance is giving to TVs that meet its top standards for picture quality, standards support, and so on.

Samsung says it's made improvements to the quantum dot technology in this latest round of SUHD TVs, optimizing …

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Samsung’s Galaxy TabPro S is like an Android tablet running Windows 10

2016-01-05T17:00:02-05:00

After an extended absence, Samsung is getting back into the world of Windows tablets. Today it announced the Galaxy TabPro S, a Windows 10 tablet that bears more than a passing resemblance to Samsung's line of Android tablets. It's also the first Windows product from the company to bear the Galaxy name, which is usually reserved for products running Google's platform.

The TabPro S is similar to Microsoft's own Surface line, with its detachable keyboard case and stylus input. It's thinner and lighter than the Surface Pro 4, thanks to its fanless design, but it doesn't provide much in the way of ports or expansion compared to Microsoft's tabl …

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Samsung’s new fridge can order Fresh Direct groceries from its humongous touchscreen

2016-01-05T17:00:02-05:00

Samsung is really, really eager for you to know about its new smart refrigerator with a ridiculously large touchscreen integrated right into the door. It put up posters early, it posted images early, and finally it even put up some PR early. But now it's officially official, and despite the fact that it looks nothing so much like a huge Android tablet super-glued onto a fridge, it's actually one of the best implementations of a smart fridge we've seen.

The headline feature is a shopping app that's been created by MasterCard. It lets you buy groceries right from the door, and the intelligent part is that it can combine carts from multiple st …

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Samsung’s Gear S2 Classic now comes in platinum and rose gold

2016-01-05T17:00:02-05:00

Samsung is adding a dash of style and luxury to its Gear S2 smartwatch line today with new platinum and rose gold options for the S2 Classic. The new finishes are more upscale than the black metal on the S2 Classic released earlier this year and will come with a higher price tag. But don't expect them to be too much more expensive: Samsung says the 18k rose gold and platinum finishes are platings on top of the S2 Classic's existing stainless steel, unlike the solid gold Apple Watch Edition.

Functionally, the new models are no different from the first S2 Classic, though Samsung notes that they will soon have the ability to use Samsung Pay vi …

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