Samsung Smart TV Lineup Upgrade Connects Seamlessly With Mobile Devices

A day after showcasing its 146-inch modular TV “The Wall” at a pre-CES 2018 event, Samsung announced the improvements it did to its Smart TV lineup to ensure that its new products that are coming out this 2018 will be better connected than their predecessors.

On Tuesday, Samsung explained via its online newsroom that its 2018 Smart TVs are designed to connect seamlessly with mobile devices. The difference between the connectivity solution of the new and upcoming displays from the one that came with Samsung’s previous releases is the improved interconnectedness. This means the new Smart TV models are capable of quickly and seamlessly connecting with mobile devices and share content with them.

Facilitating the smooth connection between the 2018 Smart TV lineup and mobile devices is Samsung’s new SmartThings app. The app gets rid of the cumbersome process of setting up a Smart TV in order for it to connect to a mobile device. With just a few taps in the mobile app, consumers can set up their television quickly. That’s because the SmartThings app enables upgraded Smart TVs to instantly recognize a user’s Samsung account, Wi-Fi connection, set-top-box and even the user’s favorite apps.

Samsung designed the SmartThings app in such a way that consumers wouldn’t need to re-enter login details to access certain apps. For instance, if the user has already logged in to a video application using his or her mobile device, Samsung’s new Smart TVs would no longer ask the user to re-enter login details provided the mobile device is connected to the Smart TV.

SmartThings also does more than establishing a connection with Smart TVs. Samsung said its new TVs will feature the SmartThings dashboard, so that the electronic machine could act as the central hub for all smart home appliances. Through this dashboard, users can control the lights, adjust thermostats and even check what’s inside their connected fridge.

Samsung also tweaked its Universal Guide for Smart TVs. The improved version still works by recommending movies, TV shows, sports and other content that might interest the user. The difference now is that the Universal Guide can retrieve its recommendations from your cable provider, VOD and streaming services and present them onto a single consolidated page.

The Samsung One Remote has been enhanced as well. The new remote now has the ability to control AV products connected to the Smart TV via an optical cable. Thus, consumers may now use a single remote to control their TV and the devices connected to it such as a cable box, Blu-ray player and other AV devices.

The South Korean tech giant also did not forget to grab the opportunity to incorporate Bixby into its Smart TV platform. The 2018 lineup has the intelligent assistant built in. The inclusion of Bixby means users will now have control over their Smart TV using just their voice. They may interact with the new Smart TV to play a movie, search for a particular song and ask for the weather update. They may also command Bixby to make adjustments to the smart home appliances connected to the TV. Samsung is launching Bixby for its Smart TVs in South Korea first before rolling out the service to the U.S. market.