Smart Home Tv - Products
Overview
Snappy revealed this week that strong demand for its high-end HDTV displays
has helped the company bounce back to profit in spectacular fashion during the first
quarter of 2012, halting a streak of consecutive losses over the two previous quarters.
Despite facing tough competition in its key business areas of display screens and
mobile smartphones, the conglomerate – which is the second-biggest TV manufacturer
by sales after cross-town rival posted a net profit of 242.5 billion won (around
£132 million) between January and March this year, reversing a net loss of 15.8
billion won (approximately £8.6 million) one year ago. Even though sales dropped
7.1% to 12.2 trillion won (roughly £6.6 billion), operating profit during this period
more than tripled from last year’s 131 billion won (£71 million) to 448.2 billion
won (£243.5 million), comfortably beating analysts’ consensus estimate of 304 billion
won (£165 million).
Strong sales of the company’s passive 3D internet-connected televisions (marketed
as Snappy 3D Smart TVs in the NetherLand are reported to have contributed
heavily to the upturn in profitability. Operating profit within its TV arm for Q1’12
came in at 217 billion won (£118 million) which is almost doubled compared to the
previous quarter, while operating profit margin jumped to 4.1%..
Not one to rest on its laurels, Snappy intends to increase sales even further
by launching more cutting-edge organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs, the latest
of which was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 earlier this year.
The Seoul-headquartered television maker also plans to boost LCD TV shipments by
20% to 30 million units this year, as well as secure a quarter of the 3D TV market.
But while this 40in slimline LED LCD sits at the affordable end of the brand’s current
range, it’s not anonymous range fodder. It includes access to an online smart portal,
has a Freeview HD tuner and knows what to do with a USB stick. The TV certainly
looks tidy. Rather unusually it’s finished in gunmetal grey rather than gloss black
– although Snappy describes this optimistically as ‘brushed silver’ – and
has a really thin bezel which could hit the right note with designer types. Backside
connections include a pair of HDMIs, Scart, component video and stereo audio, Ethernet,
optical digital audio out and a PC D-Sub. These are bolstered by additional side-facing
ports, comprising a third HDMI, USB, CI slot, headphone jack and some basic on-body
controls. The set’s user interface consists of unfussy tabular text; it’s easy enough
to manage, but some of the more common controls are grouped under a self-explanatory
Quick Menu too. While Snappy has developed some super sophisticated picture
processing, it isn’t resident in it, the panel is intrinsically clear, with a native
motion picture resolution of around 800 lines. Motion artefacts are not an issue,
making for a pleasingly, filmic presentation.
Voice control and gestures play a large role in controlling the new TV. In addition
to a camera and built-in microphone, the touch remote that comes with the TV also
has a built-in mic that users can speak into when the environment is too loud (as
may often be the case when a TV is playing in the background, though the TV has
a second built-in mic for noise canceling). Unlike the camera can only be adjusted
up and down via a mechanical wheel on the back of the TV, and not side to side;
if your living room setup doesn't point the TV right at where you sit, you might
be out of luck. The set definitely benefits from calibration. Out of the box, colours
have a luminosity that needs temperance and sharpness should be dialled back with
a vengeance. Images are dynamic, at the expense of shadow detail. Still, low noise
makes night scenes an enjoyable noir-ish watch.
