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Samsung has unveiled its new flagship control peripherals–the Smart Touch Remote and optional Smart Wireless Keyboard–at an event in New York today.
The new remote will ship with the company’s Smart Interaction televisions, the ES7500 and ES8000 LED and E8000 plasma. The keyboard is an optional accessory ($99).
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Last year, Samsung was one of the few manufacturers to offer a reversible QWERTY remote and despite Samsung’s claims to its popularity at today’s press conference, the company has decided to discontinue the peripheral. Instead, Samsung now offers the $99 Bluetooth Smart Wireless Keyboard, which it says will also work with smartphones and tablets.
Both units feature a touch pad used for navigating the Web browser and the Smart Hub interface–the “home screen” of Samsung’s smart TVs–as well as “hard buttons’ for often-used functions such as channel up/down and volume.
The remote control features an onboard microphone for voice commands, and instead of featuring dedicated playback buttons, the remote’s touch pad features a four-color icon that brings up an onscreen display. Pressing the icon brings up regularly used functions such as Play and Red, Green, Yellow, and Blue.
Hands-on with Samsung 2012 flagship TVs and accessories (photos)
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