The detailed specs for the UN55B8500 from Samsung:
The UN55B8500 is a 55-inch LCD TV from Samsung sporting edge-lit LED backlight technology to make it really thin, just 1.6-inch. If you are thinking of putting a large LCD TV on the wall and making it as flush as possible to the wall, something like Samsung’s UN55B8500 is a must. The resolution is a requisite 1920 x 1080 with a motion-blur-busting 240Hz frequency called Auto Motion Plus. The 55-inch ultra-thin LCD TV has a lot of connectivity options, but I would like to see Samsung work with Netflix and others instead of doing its own thing. Four HDMI connections should help connect all of your digital video sources. The dynamic contrast ratio is rated at 7 million to one but that’s just marketing. The best way to see if it is any good is to go to a store where they have it installed in a dark room. It will be hard to find but well worth it since the dark environment will show you how good the UN55B8500 really is in terms of contrast. Although the MSRP is a sky-high US$4,499.99, Amazon is selling the UN55B8500 for just $4049.
Source: Samsung
Tiny Sensor During the sixth annual Samsung Mobile Solutions Forum that was held at the Westin Taipei Hotel on September 21, 2009, Samsung announced its S5K4EA, a quarter-inch optical format, 5 megapixel system-on-chip (SoC) image sensor targeted at high-end mobile phones. The S5K4EA combines a CMOS image sensor and an image signal processor. Samsung used its advanced pixel shrink technology called Samsung Enhanced Energy Steering (SEES) to achieve a tiny, ultra-sensitive 1.4-micron pixel size in the S5K4EA allowing for integration into slimmer mobile phones.
Better Photos One of the interesting features of the S5K4EA is its “regionally adaptive dynamic range expansion” that brightens shadowed areas of a picture and intensifies the clarity of brighter regions. Expect better photo quality straight out of future mobile phones without the need for much post-processing. Additional features include:
Samples are currently available and mass production is expected in the first quarter of 2010. Keep reading to find out what impact Samsung’s S5K4EA might have on future Apple products. (more…)
65 Inches The LN65B650 is very big with a 65-inch S-PVA TFT LCD panel sporting Auto Motion Plus 120Hz motion blur-busting technology. Combined with a 4ms response time I think you’ll enjoy watching sports on the LN65B650. It’s not the best technology out there. That would be a RGB LED backlight, local dimming and 240Hz. But the LN65B650 should be good enough for most sports like… golf. The resolution, of course, is 1920 x 1080. The Touch of Color design theme has been applied and although it still looks nice, I think it’s getting a bit long in the tooth, in other words, old. Dynamic contrast ratio is rated at 100,000:1. Connectivity options are a plenty: HDMI (4), composite, component (2), USB (2), Ethernet, VGA. Now for the price: MSRP US$5,999.99. Amazon is selling the LN65B650 for $5,399.99 with free shipping.
Source: Samsung
Wireless TV During the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) EXPO 2009 on September 10, 2009, LG introduced its first series of wireless LCD TVs: the 55LHX with a LED backlight and the LH85 series in 47- and 55-inch sizes. A media box external to the TV transmits an uncompressed 1080p signal with virtually no interference or delay up to 30 feet. Is LG using WirelessHD technology? Sounds like it from the technicals and from the fact that LG is a promoter of WirelessHD. WirelessHD can transport an uncompressed 1080p A/V wireless stream within a room at a distance of ten meters, or 32.8 feet. WirelessHD makes use of 7GHz of spectrum in the 57-64GHz band in the US. (Source: WirelessHD)
Full-Array LED Backlight with Local Dimming The 55-inch 55LHX makes use of LED backlight technology for a thickness of less than 1-inch at its thinnest point. According to LG, the 55LHX makes use of a “full-array LED backlighting system with local dimming technology” providing a dynamic contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1. The 55LHX also makes use of TruMotion 240Hz technology to virtually eliminate motion blur. My question is how do you make use of a full-array LED backlight and get the thickness down to less than 1-inch? (more…)
Rubber is Better There are two things that I really like about Samsung‘s Rogue: the keyboard and the display. The keyboard’s keys are made of a rubbery substance (instead of plastic) that should make it more comfortable when you are texting away. I also like the modern and techie look to the fonts used on the keys. There’s even a dedicated smiley face key (Fn+Space). These small but important choices should make texting on the Rogue a pleasant experience.
Beautiful OLED The display is next. Samsung seems to be blazing the road toward incorporating OLED displays into its phones. The Rogue sports a 3.1-inch AMOLED display with a 800 x 480 resolution in landscape mode: that’s a lot of pixels! The iPhone‘s LCD is a bit larger at 3.5-inch but the resolution is paltry in comparison: 480 x 320. Compared to LCDs you get really great contrast on OLED displays and they are generally thinner. With the proper UI where the background is largely black a phone with an OLED display should last a bit longer too: when it is black the pixel is turned off and does not consume power. LCDs in phones on the other hand consume power regardless of whether the pixel is black or white.
Price is Good Other features include a 3 megapixel (2048 x 1536) camera with flash, a microSD slot (you can use one with a storage of up to 16GB), visual voicemail, a full HTML browser, and the ability to view Microsoft Office documents like Word and Excel. The price is excellent for an OLED phone with a lot of pixels and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard: you can get Samsung’s Rogue for US$99.99 with a 2-year contract with Verizon.
Source: Samsung, Verizon Wireless via Engadget Mobile
Lucky Taiwan Samsung’s XL2370 is a 23-inch 1080p LCD monitor but with a LED backlight. The company introduced the XL2370 in Taiwan. More LCD monitors with LED backlights from 19- to 27-inch in size are expected to be hitting the market in 2010.
White & Edge The LED backlight makes use of white LEDs and are edge-lit. A 5,000,000:1 dynamic contrast is stated but that is nonsense. The 2ms response time is very fast. The retail price of the XL2370 is NT$13,990 (about US$430). Market sources expect LCD monitors with LED backlights to capture just 10% of the entire LCD market due to their higher prices. Speaking of higher prices, Apple’s LED Cinema Display is US$899. Samsung’s XL2370 undercuts the expensive Apple monitor by a significant amount and prices should continue to decrease.
“LED Monitor” Samsung has made a big mess out of its “LED TV” marketing implying that its LED TV is different from that of a LCD TV. The only thing different is the use of a different light source: CCFL versus LED. The same goes for this new LCD monitor. I have a feeling that Samsung will further confuse the market by marketing this new LCD monitor with LED backlight technology as a “LED monitor”. Let’s not be fooled.
Source: DigiTimes
DigiTimes is reporting that industry sources are expecting 2-3M LCD TVs to be sold during the National Day holiday in China. This optimism is based on large LCD TV sales during previous holidays. Here are some facts:
And then some expectations:
42-inch LCD TVs are already around US$650. An example is LG‘s 42LH20, a 720p 42-inch LCD TV, selling for just US$649.99 at TigerDirect at the time of this writing. On the same site you can also find a Sylvania LD320SS8, a 32-inch 720p LCD TV, for just US$349.99. If major TV brands aggressively drop prices during China’s National Day holiday to lower than even these mentioned, not buying a LCD TV might be hard to resist for Chinese consumers.
Lenovo‘s IdeaCentre C100 is an all-in-one sporting a 18.5-inch LCD. Intel’s Atom (Core 230 or Core 330) powers the unit, which should make you pause: this is not your all-purpose PC but instead a lightweight machine good for surfing the Internet, checking your email and doing word processing work. Other features include a DVD burner, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB 5400RPM hard disk (means it is slow), Intel GMA950 integrated graphics (don’t even think about playing first person shooters), and four USB connections. Lenovo smartly installed Windows XP instead of Vista and the best thing about this all-in-one is the price, starting at just US$399. My recommendation would be to increase the RAM to at least 2GB and change out the slow-moving 5400RPM drive for a faster 7200RPM version or a SSD. That should speed things up enough to make the IdeaCentre C100 useful for other tasks that require a bit more oomph.
Source: Engadget
Wired: David Pogue spent some time with Steve Jobs (Steve is eating a lot of ice cream… lucky him!) after Apple’s iPod Show that was held in San Francisco on September 9, 2009. David asked Steve Jobs why the new iPod nano can record video but can’t take still photos. Steve said the reason was technical: sensors that can record video are very thin and can easily fit inside a device like the nano. On the other hand, image sensors with enough resolution for stills and autofocus like the one found in the iPhone 3GS are thick–too thick to cram into the Nano that is only 0.2 inches thick. iFixit confirms…
Kyle Wiens, iFixit CEO (check out the tear down of the new iPod nano), confirmed the explanation:
The camera in the iPhone is thicker than the entire nano. The AF lenses really bulks it up.
So although you can take 640 x 480 (VGA) videos at 30fps on the nano, you will not be able to take still pictures. My guess is that the next major development in lens technology will be to make an AF still-image sensor much thinner without any quality degradation. When that happens you can also expect even thinner devices that may sport two of them: one facing forward and the other facing backward for video phone calls and taking pictures or videos. I think within the next 6-9 months the AF still-image sensor will become thinner. And the next generation iPod nano and the iPod touch will have capabilities to take pictures and video.
I like black electronics and the ENVY 15 Beats Limited Edition from HP looks pretty good… except for the HP logo on the lid, the glossy LCD and the glossy lid. Other than the logo and the black, it is basically the regular ENVY 15, which isn’t regular at all with a powerful i7 CPU. The surface of the bottom half looks to be matte but the rest is too glossy. If you’re going to do a Beats Limited Edition, you have to make it at least look exceptionally cool. And that means lose ALL the gloss. There’s a way to do it: call the folks at Colorware.
HP, since you’re copying left and right, might as well check out what Colorware did with the last-generation MacBook Pro: Stealth MacBook Pro. This one has been sold out for quite some time and there’s a good reason: it is extremely cool. It uses the company’s SofTouch technology that adds a soft matte paint job and a zero gloss custom matte screen. HP, you should copy some of that too.
DisplayBlog is written and produced by Jin Kim. Subscribe via RSS.
