Our home and work life are now intertwined, but if you want your monitor to be a little more for home than work, Samsung’s latest could suit.
Remember when monitors weren’t the big deal for home anymore because we were working from an office mostly, and that’s where they were? Memories.
These days, we’re seeing more monitors at home, and I think we all know why: thanks, coronavirus.
With the pandemic sending many of our working worlds to the home and really marrying those worlds, it wouldn’t surprise us if you’ve had to suddenly find the space for an office inside your home, which might have meant the addition of a monitor. You might even be using your TV through a Chromecast or an Apple TV, using it to provide a bigger external display, because hey, you already have one of those.
But if you were wondering why your monitor wasn’t a TV, and whether it could be, Samsung’s latest take on the category might be for you.
Set for release in Australia in February, Samsung’s “Smart Monitor” is basically what happens when the Smart TV comes together with the desktop monitor, blurring the worlds by bringing them closer.
The concept is a desktop monitor working off a single USB Type C connection, though supports HDMI ports, as well. If you have Type C, you can charge your laptop through it, supporting up to 65W — the amount typically used in 13 inch computers — with this also being used for data and display connectivity, complete with a USB hub inside the monitor, as well. However if you have an older computer that uses HDMI, you’ll be plugging in through that connection type.
As a monitor, Samsung’s Smart Monitor will work the way other monitors do, showing your computer on the screen.
When it’s time to stop work, however, the Samsung Smart Monitor will connect with Samsung’s Smart Hub, supporting apps and voice control just like Samsung’s TVs, thanks to a similar operating system running on Tizen, Samsung’s own operating system used across its TVs, Galaxy Watch models, and Family Hub refrigerators.
We’re not quite sure whether Samsung’s Smart Monitor is truly a “smart device” in the sense of the world, though it does have WiFi in it, and internet access is really the only definition of a gadget being “smart” in our world, so it definitely qualifies. However it is basically a monitor being given the support of apps like a TV, which basically makes it more of a smart TV made more to work as a monitor.
“The Samsung Smart Monitor has been designed to keep-up with the evolving way that we need our technology to perform in our homes,” said Jeremy Senior, Head of Consumer Electronics at Samsung Australia.
“With the Samsung Smart Monitor, people no longer have to choose between a screen for work and learning and another for enjoying TV, movies and more,” he said.
There’ll be two of these, with the 4K Ultra HD option arriving in the 32 inch Samsung M7 Smart Monitor, while the M5 will be a Full HD 1080p variant arriving in two sizes, 27 and 32 inches.
Locally, they’ll be priced from $399, with the 1080p Smart Monitor M5 sitting at $399 for the 27 inch and $499 for the 32 inch, while the 4K Ultra HD Smart Monitor M7 will cost $699 when they arrive in February.
