Tuesday was a big day for Samsung. It made sure everyone knew that it was home to the world's most popular smartphone, took a couple shots at Apple, then announced a voice-controlled, motion-sensing television to a great reception. But it didn't stop at just one home-viewing announcement.
Samsung's new F9500 OLED TV made a splash at this year's International CES through its much-touted, new multi-view feature, which ends fights over what to watch by allowing two people to watch completely different shows simultaneously on the same screen.
So how exactly does that work? To enable this feature, users will have to wear special 3D glasses that come with built-in personal speakers. Notably, each user will be able to view programs in HD as well as in stereo sound.
Powered by self-emitting red, green and blue sub-pixels, the technology removes the need for a backlight so that the picture is created with absolute blacks and pure whites. As a result, the TV sets are thinner, use up 20 percent less energy than backlit TVs, and still produce a crisper picture compared to established flat-panel sets.
Senior Samsung official Joe Stinziano declared that multi-view is "only possible in OLED due to the very fast speed" at which images can be projected onto the screen.
In addition to multi-view, the F9500 is home to much of the same technology found in the F8000, including the redesigned Smart Hub, voice-detecting S Recommendation system, and motion-controlled navigation.
All things considered, the television sounds pretty impressive, and Samsung seems determined to release the 55-inch set this year. The South Korean company actually first revealed the OLED TV at last year's CES to a similarly positive audience, though it ended up delaying the product into 2013. During that time it added many new features, including multi-view.
No price tag or release date was announced, though Samsung would probably like to not wait too long before shipping it to retailers. Its other Korean competitor, LG, has already started taking pre-orders for its own OLED television which will ship in March.
