Built for Africa

Samsung recently hosted its Africa Forum 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya. The event showcased the Korean brand's latest products, giving journalists from around Africa the opportunity to interact with the latest products. Here are our top choices from the Forum.

Samsung Series 9 notebook

First spotted at CES 2011 held earlier this year in Vegas, the Series 9 notebook should grace our shores soon. Powered by Intel's second generation Core processors and equipped with a 128 GB Solid State Drive for speedier performance, the Series 9 starts up in a mere 15 seconds (confirmed by us).

But it's also the notebook's cool design that's a show stopper. Using lightweight duralumin in the enclosure, the flowing curves of the 900X3A weighs a mere 1.31 kg while measuring 16.3 mm when closed.

Samsung Galaxy SII

We actually spent time with the highly anticipated Galaxy SII, not initially believing claims of its 8.5 mm body. But yes, it's true, the SII is actually wafer-thin, about the same height as four matches stacked on top of each other. Featuring a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and Android 2.3.3, it's by no means slow, while one of its big features is its massive 4.27" Super AMOLED Plus display (480 x 800). With 3 milliion pre-orders, expect to see it in SA mid-July. For more on the phone, click here. 

Smart TVs

Forget 3D, the major benefit for couch potatoes is the fact that television, like most other devices, is getting connected to the internet. It's not a new phenomenon, televisions have been able to this for a few years.

The big difference now is how quickly it is to set up. A Wi-Fi dongle is integrated into Samsung's more exclusive series, allowing you to quickly and easily connect to your home router.

Samsung of course also has a number of apps available to download specifically for television, integrating Facebook, Twitter and Flickr alongside a regular web browser. But we wish streaming service such as Netflix (movies) and Pandora (music) were being made available locally.

Built for Africa

It was not just all about high-end devices. Samsung's "Built for Africa" strategy was also on display, with a number of products developed that take into account challenges faced by the African continent.

For example Samsung's range of dual-SIM cellphones allows users to quickly swop networks either for reception or call costs, while there's also a new energy saving phone with standby battery life that stretches up to 25 days.

It's a new solar powered netbook though that got our clock ticking, claiming one hour of operation for every two hours charged in the sun. It's built more for rural areas than hip Newtown cafes, not that this should prevent treehuggers doing their tech part for the environment.