The company improves its already excellent Smart TV system with an app for easy setup and smart home control, as well as the Bixby voice assistant.
While pretty much every TV maker is working with Amazon or Google (or both) to add voice capabilities, Samsung is sticking it out alone with Bixby.
And here’s Bixby in @Samsung ‘s 2018 smart tvs. #CES2018 #CNETatCES pic.twitter.com/GIGVnNtR3W
Pushing a button on the remote will summon Bixby and allow interactions similar to other assistants, such as searching for TV shows and movies, asking for a weather report, turning on the lights, playing a song from Spotify, showing photos from the cloud and even doing trivia.
Meanwhile rival LG and Sony TVs use Google Assistant for voice capabilities (and can also work with Alexa). Vizio TVs work with Google Home, and Element and Westinghouse sell Amazon Fire TV Edition sets that have Alexa built-in. Compared to those systems, Bixby is a relative newcomer, with fewer compatible devices and capabilities.
Beyond voice, Samsung is putting a few other new strings to its 2018 Smart TV:
