CES2014: Best Booth in the Show

TOPICS:

No we don’t have any fancy award ceremony, but the first ever Solid Signal Blog award for best booth of the show goes to….

Samsung.

In fairness, we must of course disclose that Solid Signal is a DISH dealer. We really should award the Best In Show to DISH as others have, but we have to be fair. Samsung took their excellent 2013 experience and got rid of all the nonsense, all the dancing TVs, and focused on showing that they want to provide you a really good experience whether you are using a mobile device, watching TV or just using an appliance.

Samsung’s 13″ Galaxy Tab Pro and Galaxy Note Pro are every bit as good as an iPad and for most people they are capable laptop replacements. Their Galaxy phones and Galaxy cameras work together well, too. All in all they make a great case for buying nothing but Samsung products.

In a year, Samsung’s Smart Home has gone from being flashy but unnecessary to where you could actually see it working. While Sony has a connected home initiative, it seems like Samsung does it better. Smart Home is still far from being an easy proposition but it looks like Samsung is moving in the right direction.

Samsung is focusing this year on the stuff you can actually buy. There’s a full line of 4K and curved devices, but most of the products will actually be in stores in the next few months, and they booth was focused overall on production-ready items. Yes, there was a so-called bendable TV, and probably the only 110″ 4K TV that you’ll ever see, but those “halo” projects weren’t front and center, they were off in a corner. What was front and center? A washing machine that lets you put in a massive load and get your laundry done faster. They weren’t talking a lot about the washer’s app-enabled features (although it has them) preferring to instead talk about things people care about like getting more time in the day.

One more thing: Samsung debuted the “DIRECTV Ready” branding for its new TVs previously known as RVU-capable.

Well done, Samsung. The blog team was really worried that manufacturers at CES wouldn’t “get it.” You do.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.