Samsung already offers plenty of connected televisions and Blu-ray players that bring apps to your living room, but now the company is offering up an Android-powered set-top box too. It’s called the HomeSync, and it’s bringing the fight to Apple TV with a 1TB built-in hard drive for storing and sharing digital content across your home network.
It’s a nice two-fer, especially since the HomeSync brings a full-on Android rather than Samsung’s standard-issue SmartTV experience. The system ships with Jelly Bean installed and is powered by a dual-core 1.7GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. There’s also 8GB of NAND storage for speedy start ups, and 802.11 a/ b/g/n WiFi (with channel bonding support) and gigabit ethernet to connect to your LAN.
Samsung has also outfitted the HomeSync with dual USB 3.0 ports for external storage or peripherals — like your trusty cordless keyboard and mouse dongle. They’re not required equipment, however: Samsung is also offering up an Android remote control app that you can use to navigate.
Just like Apple did with Apple TV, Samsung has built the HomeSync to integrate seamlessly with its Galaxy devices. Content can easily be streamed to or from a Samsung phone or tablet in full 1080P HD glory. The HomeSync even supports encryption and multiple user accounts so you can make sure that your private photos and videos aren’t accessed by someone else on your network.
It should be a nice fit for Android media center apps like Plex or XBMC, but we’ll have to wait until April to find out. That’s when Samsung expects the HomeSync to go on sale, though the company hasn’t announced a price point just yet. It’s clear that Samsung no longer feels like it has to compete with Apple by offering up cheaper hardware, so don’t expect this to hit the streets at $99.
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