Las Vegas: Following months of speculations, Samsung has finally revealed more details about its Chromebook and gaming laptop.
Samsung reduced its focus on notebooks some four years ago but it is making a big comeback.
The biggest problem with Chromebooks was that they had no apps but they are history now.
Samsung’s new Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro can run Android apps on the Google Play store.
Both the devices have a 12.3-inch display with 2400 x 1600 resolution and have 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.
The Chromebooks have a stylus integrated into the body that can be used to mark up the touchscreen display and the device can be turned into a tablet with a 360-degree hinge.
The Chromebook Plus will be available in February for $449 and the Pro will arrive later this year.
The processor inside the Plus has an ARM-based chip, while the Pro uses an Intel Core M3 processor.
Samsung said that the stylus can be used to take notes in Google Keep, which are then instantly synched and available for search through Google’s optical character recognition technology.
Samsung also launched the Notebook Odyssey, its first-ever gaming laptop, with two variants — 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch models.
Both versions of the Samsung Notebook Odyssey work with light-up keys, a “HexaFlow Vent,” and seventh-generation Intel Core i7 Kaby Lake processors.
Tim Baxter, president and COO of Samsung Electronics America, said at the beginning of the press event that the company will release its report on the Note 7 investigation soon and 2016 was a challenging year.
“We will continue our intensive efforts internally and with third party experts to understand what happened and to make sure it does not happen again. Despite the setbacks, we will not by no means, stop innovating,” he said.
He said that Samsung has market share in wearables, TVs, smartphones and home appliances. Last year, Samsung has sold more than 5 million Gear VRs powered by Oculus and consumers viewed more than 10 million hours of video.
Major paradigm shift
Samsung, the number one in TV sales globally for the past 11 years, have taken the Quantum Dot TV technology to a new level with its QLED series.
Joe Stinziano, executive vice-president for Samsung Electronics America, said that 2017 will mark a major paradigm shift in the visual display industry, usher in the era of QLED.
“The new TV technology will provide industry leading true-to-life picture, stunning design that can redefine any room and intuitive innovation to help the consumer get closer to the on-screen content they are passionate about by improving brightness and image quality,” he said.
The consumer demand for large-sized TVs is growing fast, especially above 65-inches. He said that demand for UHD or 4K TVs have surged more than 70 per cent globally in 2016, which means two UHD TVs are sold every second.
He said the TVs are thin and light enough to be mounted on a wall, including a special gapless mount. Samsung even teased a TV in the style of photo frame but did not give more details, and said that the TVs will be displayed at its booth.
Along with the living room appliance upgrade, Samsung showed off a new washer and dryer set — Flex Wash and Flex Dry. Both machines have an extra compartment at the top for washing or drying smaller loads or for doing multiple loads at the same time.
Samsung also announced a second-generation version of its Dolby Atmos TV sound bar, along with a new 4K Blu-ray player that streams directly to your mobile device and the smart fridge that plays music by adding apps like Spotify and iHeart Radio and allowing users to open and close fridge apps with your voice.
