Hands-on with Samsung 2012 flagship TVs and accessories (photos)

Samsung has unveiled its redesigned Smart TV platform, which, on the flagship PNE8000 plasma and UNES8000 and UNES7500 LCDs, includes the new Smart Interaction voice/gesture control system.

The physical design of the ES8000 TV has also received an upgrade with the introduction of a U-shaped stand. Note also the small bump at the top of the bezel, you'll need that later.

The Smart Hub interactive TV interface, available on numerous models, has had a small tweak from last year with a less cluttered look, though the prominent tiles in the middle--including the new Family Story social app--probably won't get as much use as the smaller Netflix tile. The only area of the screen you can customize, to leap to oft-used apps for example, is the bottom section. This year you can move or change any of the shortcuts therein.

The E8000 plasma now features an all-black design with a black quadropus stand. The bezel is thicker on the plasma than the LCD but that allowed the designers to seamlessly integrate a camera and microphone.

The E8000 is still relatively slim for a plasma.

The flagship remote features a touch pad and built-in mic for voice control.

Instead of featuring dedicated playback buttons, the touch pad features a four-color icon that brings up an onscreen display.

Pressing the four-color icon brings up regularly used functions such as Play and Red Green Yellow Blue.

There's a convenient a History function that remembers your last 10 over-the-air channels and apps.

Last year, Samsung's premium TVs featured a flippable QWERTY remote, but this has been nixed for 2012. Instead, Samsung will sell a full-size keyboard with integrated touch pad, similar to the Logitech Revue keyboard (price TBD, but we're expecting about $99).

The touch pad works the same as the one on the remote.

Last year's TVs were great, but the controls were hard to use. Now, instead of a series of seemingly arbitrary buttons, the new TVs feature a four-way thumbpad, which also functions as a power button.

On the ES8000 this little hump houses microphone(s) and a video camera, which are used for voice and gesture commands, aka Smart Interaction.

Say "Hi, TV," and a series of contextual voice commands appear. During our demonstration with a preproduction unit, it sometimes failed to recognize commands--even in a silent room.

Want to know which controls work with gestures and/or voice? Here's Samsung's full list. Note that "May" indicates the time frame, not the likelihood.

Selecting an item in gesture control mode involves "grabbing" it as opposed to the Xbox Kinect's "hover" method.

Samsung includes at least two pairs of 3D glasses with every 3D TV this year, and high-end models will get four. Update Samsung will offer additional pairs for the low price of $19 each.

The glasses do work with your existing glasses, though.

Samsung's vanilla remote now features a Smart Hub icon.

The evolution kit is Samsung's attempt to introduce upgradability to its high-end Smart TVs. If your 2013 app requires a quad-core CPU, for example, you can upgrade your TV's hardware (and software) for an as-yet-unknown price.