Samsung unveiled the new Gear Fit and wow, it’s impressive. Not just its features, but its design. It’s a fitness tracker, so the now-standard movement, heart rate and sleep patterns will be recorded. More than that, the Fit is water-resistant and includes phone notifications, timer and stopwatch all on a curved OLED screen. It forgoes all the Dick Tracy-type wizadry in favor of functions people actually need and use, all included in a stylish band that they will actually wear.
One of the tech lover’s ultimate goals in life is to reside in a wireless house. While we all anxiously await the first mainstream cordless toaster, lets focus on the increasing wireless home audio options, shall we? While Sonos may be the king of the hill right now, Samsung is ready to take a crack at it. The Shape M7 speaker ($399) features a funky wedge design and can sit horizontally or stand vertically. Each speaker plays nice with Bluetooth, NFC, and dual-band Wi-Fi, and when paired with Samsung’s Hub ($49), you can fill multiple rooms with the sweet sounds of say, the 20 worst songs of the ’90s.
Sure no one under the age of 19 even knows what the term “cursive” means, but to the rest of the country, handwriting is still a skill to be maintained. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 pays homage to ye old pen and pad with the S Pen and its big 5.7 inch full HD Super AMOLED display. With the phone’s “Action Memo” feature you can whip out the pen, jot down the phone number of a hot girl or guy, and the Note will somehow recognize that chicken scratch and dial them up when you circle the digits. This Note has a bigger screen than the last one, and yet it’s thinner and lighter with a stronger battery too.
Perhaps the most alluring thing about wearing a smartwatch is the freedom to keep your hands out of your pockets. Clearly society will appreciate your manners and label you a fine citizen if you’re not digging into your jeans for glances at your phone every 11 minutes, right? If you’re a Samsung guy or girl, you might wanna set aside $299 for the Samsung Galaxy Gear. Boasting a 320 x 320-pixel, 1.63-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 1.9 megapixel camera for pictures and 10-second 720p video clips, and the ability to communicate with your other Galaxy devices, this metal-faced, rubber-strapped time-teller is due on US shelves in October. We’re hearing battery life will only be about 24-hours with regular use, so odds are your lonely pockets will still get some love.
There’s something about the scratch of sugary soda going down your throat that’s just hard to give up–no matter how many Men’s Health editors say the stuff is public enemy #1. And if you can remove the shame from having to purchase gallons of soda on a weekly basis by having it now flow magically out of your refrigerator door, well damn–maybe pop’s got a brand new bag! Samsung has teamed up with SodaStream on a new four-door refrigerator ($3,899) that delivers cold, filtered carbonated water through a replaceable CO2 cylinder. You’ll even get to choose from three levels of fizziness. Perhaps… perhaps life is worth living now.
I don’t even wanna know what goes on in the men’s room at CES, because out on the showcase floor, the battle over who has the biggest TV is fierce. After Sony dazzled the world with their new 84″ 4K TV, Samsung just had to go and up the ante by a mere inch, just to claim the title of world’s largest Ultra High-Definition TV. The 85-inch UN85S9 also features a unique, um, frame I guess we’ll call it, that keeps the huge screen suspended in the air. That frame also holds a 120-watt 2.2 speaker system, so there’s that. This giant goes on sale for rich people in March, so you know what that means: Panasonic will bust out an 86″ set in April.
Despite those pesky allegations of price-fixing, Samsung has been on quite a roll in recent years. From their slick TVs to the iPhone-beating Galaxy S III, Sammy’s soarin’. But when it comes to cameras, Samsung has been stuck in the back of the bus. Maybe that changes with the bold new NX300, a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera with a redesigned 20.3MP sensor, ability to shoot 3D and 2D stills and video, and a very cool 3.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen. The funky retro styling also should be noted, and as evidenced by this sentence, it has.
The Samsung Series 7 Slate ($1,199) has undergone a makeover in preparation for its partnership with Windows 8. It’s kinda like when you meet a girl at the laundromat in your shorts and raggedy T, then you show up at her house in a damn near tux. (The girl was Windows 8 in this lame analogy). A Core i5 processor, detachable keyboard dock, and pressure-sensitive stylus are the standout new offerings here. Also – we can’t confirm this yet – but we believe that the Series 7 will also come with access to the Internet. Just a rumor at this point, but we’ll keep you updated!