CES 2008

(Credit: Samsung)

(Credit: Samsung)

Bearing a striking resemblance to Sony's Bravia Internet Video Link, Samsung has announced the Home Digital Media Adapter (DMA). The Home Digital Media Adapter is designed to attach to the back of certain 2008 Samsung HDTVs and streams media from the internet or networked connected PCs. Connecting to your home network is possible either by a wired Ethernet connection or by buying a separate 802.11n module. It also works as a Media Center Extender, which gives you access to Microsoft's user interface and features like an electronic programming guide. The initial list of supported file types is decent, with WMV, MPEG2 and h.264 video support, MP3 and WMA music support, and JPEG photo support.

The $199 list price is considerably less than Sony's Bravia Internet Video Link, and it compares favorably to standalone media streamer prices. Still, we're always skeptical of integrating functionality as complex as media streamer with another product (in this case an HDTV). We'll wait for a hands-on review for our final verdict, but we'll be surprised if it outclasses standalone media streamers. The Home Digital Media Adapter will be available in April.

Samsung SGH-G600

(Credit: Samsung)

Though it was announced earlier this year, the Samsung SGH-G600 made a guest appearance at CES. Like the SGH-G800, the G600 is a 5-megapixel camera phone with lots of photo-editing features. The thin slider design may look like a lot of Moto phones before it, but it has a solid feel in the hand, and the opening mechanism is sturdy.

Features inside include full Bluetooth, a digital music player, a document viewer, e-mail and messaging, a speakerphone, 40MB of internal memory plus a microSD card slot, USB 2.0, a 16-million color display, and personal organizer applications. The SGH-G600 is a quadband world phone, but its high-speed data support tops out at GPRS and EDGE. Check out CNET U.K. for a full review.

Cell phone/PDAs or other iterations of what you want to call the convergence of handheld devices are featured prominently at the Consumer Electronics Show, no doubt. Whether these devices from Motorola or Samsung overtly claim to be iPhone killers is beside the point. The point is that most devices feature cleaner user interfaces and better bundles of applications that access more and more content. Nearly all of these gadgets are touch-based. Nearly all the devices, though, still don't come close in terms of usability and elegance to the iPhone's user interface. You can check out all the performance reviews of the upcoming phones here, but more interesting is the convergence of high-end couture brands with traditionally utilitarian brands like Samsung on display at CES.

From carrying cases to the actual device itself, incorporating couture elements is on the rise. From Case Logic, for example, comes a leather case for an iPod Touch that arguably pays homage to Hermes orange. Case Logic's other designs range from basic to quasi-personal, if you can achieve such a thing on a mass scale, to highlight your own personality.

Does Case Logic's case pay homage to Hermes?

(Credit: Kevin Ho)

Other designers, while not at CES but otherwise available in Las Vegas, are offering high-end phones/PDAs or MP3 carrying cases. (Louis Vuitton's cigarette case, for example, is the perfect iPod Classic carrier.)

As for the devices themselves, Samsung has partnered with Georgio Armani to release a Samsung-made phone only available in Europe. Meanwhile, Bang & Olufsen collaborated with Samsung and has released an updated phone that is GSM-based (AT&T and T-Mobile only). I'm reminded of T-Mobile's attempt to sell a D&G phone or Prada's foray into the cell phone market. Using the B&O phone, however, was not easy. An actual metal click wheel got dirty quick (the clerk at the booth kept wiping it down) and I would question how the sound quality is to be superior given that you're often victim to your network provider.

Armani your phone.

(Credit: Kevin Ho)

B&O's phone comes with a real click
wheel that turns.

While brand fixation and loyalty have been a delight to marketers since time immemorial, it seems that this trend of buying into a brand's exclusivity (the B&O phone retails for $1,600) is on the rise. High-end consumer products from high-end designers are nothing new, either. Increased demand for high-end couture in a credit crunch era, while unwise, is not surprising as many people may be buying into the idea and image of being successful as represented by branded possessions. Combining the designer brands with a utilitarian gadget may not be the newest thing, but, if any indication can be gleaned by the crowds ogling these blinged-out couture cell phones, it appears to be phenomenon here to stay.

Armani anyone?

(Credit: Samsung)

Celebrity sightings of people have been pretty slim so far at CES, but we did get to see a celebrity cell phone. Samsung's Armani handset was sitting pretty in Samsung's enormous booth; most of the time it was behind glass, but we did see it up close. Like LG's Prada model, the Armani phone is all about design, and in this case it's decidedly minimalist. A large (2.6-inch), 262,000-color touch screen dominates the entire front face of the candy-bar device, and a slim profile (0.41 inch) means it casts a slight shadow. The display also features haptic feedback so you know you're actually pressing a control.

Features include a full Internet browser, stereo Bluetooth, a 3-megapixel camera, a digital music and video player, and a microSD card slot. As it's a triband phone (GSM 900/1800/1900), it's better suited for the European market, but you can still buy unlocked in the United States for a wallet-stretching $700. No one said high couture came cheap.

Samsung's Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC

(Credit: Samsung)

Samsung's 2-pound entry into the ultramobile PC category has some faster hardware in the form of a 1.33GHz Intel ultra-low voltage Core Solo U1500 processor.

The Korean electronics giant introduced the Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC on Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The system still splits the QWERTY keyboard onto separate sides of the 7-inch, 1024x600 touch screen, but the keyboard keys now are larger for easier typing, Samsung said.

The model's predecessor, the Q1 Ultra introduced last May, used Intel's earlier-generation 800MHz Ultra Mobile Processor.

The Q1 Ultra Premium costs $1,399, including Windows XP Tablet Edition, and Samsung is lowering the price of preceding models.

Other features include 1GB of memory, an 80GB hard drive, an SD flash memory card slot, a 1.3-megapixel camera, a fingerprint reader, a lithium-ion battery that will last "up to 7.5 hours," and 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless networking.

(Credit: Samsung)

Samsung's newly-announced i8 follows the i85 as the latest in the company's series of digital camera-slash-media players. As a digital camera it seems nondescript, with an 8-megapixel sensor, a 3x optical zoom lens, and a slightly larger-than-usual 2.7-inch LCD screen. It offers a unique SVGA movie mode at least, giving you the option of shooting 800 x 592 video clips at, Samsung claims, 30 frames per second. If you switch the i8 into PMP (Portable Media Player) mode, though, it really starts to stand out.

As a media player, the i8 can play movies, music, and even read text files. It lacks the simple, intuitive interface of dedicated media players like the iPod or the Zune, but it can still play the same files, offering at least the option of enjoying a movie or some music while on the bus without carrying around an additional gadget. To ensure compatibility, the camera ships with Samsung's Digimax Converter software, an application that can convert most MPEGs, AVI,s MOVs, WMVs, ASFs, MP3s, and even WAVs into formats palatable to the i8.

Like its media-playing predecessor, the i85, the i8 also includes Samsung's World Tour Guide feature. By downloading various guides from Samsung's Web site, you can load tourism information for a variety of countries and cities onto the camera.

The Samsung i8 ships in February for a suggested retail price of $300.

(Credit: Samsung)

The 8-megapixel Samsung L100 and L110 and the 10-megapixel Samsung L210 present the latest in Samsung's L-series of style-minded, compact snapshot cameras. Besides 3x optical zoom lenses and 2.5-inch LCDs, all three cameras share a handful of editing and playback features that set them apart from simpler, budget-priced point-and-shoots.

Besides the typical VGA video modes found on most snapshot cameras, all three new models feature an SVGA video mode that can capture 800x592 video at 30 frames per second according to Samsung. Onboard video editing tools let users trim and arrange their video clips on the camera, without using a computer. The camera's optical zoom works while shooting video, letting pocket filmmakers get closer without the detail drop usually found in the digital zoom modes many cameras use for movies.

The three cameras include several still photo options, including face detection and self portrait modes. A Multi-Slide Show feature lets you play back your photos with a variety of slide transitions and your own MP3 music soundtrack. Finally, the L110 and L210 include Samsung's Optical Image Stabilization system in addition to the digital stabilization feature all three models share. Optical image stabilization physically shifts the lens to help reduce camera shake, while digital stabilization usually just increases sensitivity and quickens the camera shutter.

The Samsung L100 and L110 ship in February with suggested prices of $200 and $230. The L210 ships in March, and will retail for about $270.

Samsung's new speakers

(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)

Samsung showed off a series of new cell phone speakers at CES. On the bottom row are the cube-shaped ASP800 (left) and the ASP600 (right), and on the top left is the circular ASP700. The white color scheme is an interesting design choice, but we like the minimalist look.

As they were behind glass, we weren't able to inspect them closely, but we did get a short demonstration. Like the similar products from LG and Sony Ericsson they seemed decent on the whole. No, they won't replace your living room sound system, but they're perfectly fine for broadcasting your music phone's tunes to the world. We don't have pricing information right now but they'll be available for sale early this year.

Samsung's new NV24 HD can capture 720p video in the H.264 codec.

(Credit: Samsung)

It may have taken them a little while, but Samsung has added optical images stabilization to its upscale NV line of compact cameras. As has become a bit of a trend, they are offering it in conjunction with digital image stabilization, which boosts ISO to help keep shutter speeds fast in an attempt to minimize blur due to subject movement, while the optical IS does its best to counteract blur to due to your shaky hands. Samsung has dubbed this combination Dual Image Stabilization and includes it in all of its new NV models, except the NV4, this year. All but the NV4 also sport Samsung's unique SmartTouch menu navigation system.

They seem particularly happy with their 10MP NV24 HD, which uses the H.264 codec to record video at up to 720p pixel resolution at 30fps. While HD is in the name of the product, if you want to output an HD signal to your TV without going through a computer first, you'll need to buy Samsung's HDMI CEC cradle for an extra $50. On the upside, you'll get a remote control with that cradle, so you won't have to get up off your couch to move through your images or videos.

More interesting than the high-def functionality is the NV24 HD's 2.5-inch AMOLED screen. If you've never seen this acronym before, it stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode. OLED technology has been working its way up through other devices for a while now, but we haven't seen it really hit cameras yet. A color gamut chart at the Samsung booth boasts a significantly wider gamut for their AMOLED screen compared to the regular TFT LCDs used in their other cameras, though on the demo units images looked rather oversaturated. We weren't allowed to tinker with the demo units, so we don't know if user menu adjustments might be able to bring the saturation to normal levels.

The NV24 HD also has a 3.6X optical zoom lens covering an equivalent of 24-86.5mm and f/2.8-5.7, as well as face detection and self portrait modes. The face detection can see up to nine faces and use them to set focus and exposure, while self portrait mode can locate one face and won't let you shoot a picture unless that face is centered in the frame. Other features include 14 scene modes and sensitivity settings of up to ISO 1,600 at full resolution or ISO 3,200 if you don't mind that it cuts the resolution to 3MP. Samsung expects the NV 24 HD to be available this March for about $350.

Following up on last year's NV3, 2008 sees Samsung offering the 8MP NV4. Like its predecessor, the NV4 can play back video clips and MP3s, leading Samsung to call it a PMP (Portable Media Player) as well as a camera. There's even a tiny speaker built-in to the camera body, though your headphones would probably give you better sound. This ultracompact has a 2.5-inch LCD, 3X optical zoom lens, face detection and self portrait modes, along with 14 scene modes. The NV4 should hit stores in March for about $280.

Rounding out the new NV offerings are the 8.1MP NV30 and 10MP NV40. Both have 3X optical zoom lenses, 2.5-inch LCDs, 14 scene modes, 640x480-pixel 30fps video capture, and sensitivity of up to ISO 1,600 at full resolution and ISO 3,200 at reduced resolutions. The NV30 should hit stores in February for about $280, while the NV40 is expected in March for about $330.

Samsung's PNA750T plasmas feature color accents on the frame.

(Credit: Samsung)

Unlike the entry-level models in Samsung's 2008 plasma lineup, the more-expensive 1080p versions are not 3D compatible. That's not a big deal in our book, since these sets have plenty of other appealing features that don't require a third-party glasses kit.

Watch the Samsung 1080p plasmas video on CNET TV.