Private Tour Of Samsung's Gadget Collection

In May of this year, Samsung offered to fly a handful of tech press and analysts to tour its LCD manufacturing facilities outside of Seoul, South Korea. I was one of the five who ultimately attended. Soon, you’ll see the this LCD tour over on Tom’s Hardware. But our group hit a few other sites of interest, as well, including the d’light tech showcase in Seoul and the DigitalCity (an odd name for a tech museum) in Suwon. After taking in both of these sites, I had many impressions, but above all else I was stunned by the breadth of Samsung’s innovation and coverage within the consumer electronics space. It really is a microcosm of the entire market. Within this view, one can see where we’ve been, where we are, and perhaps get a glimpse of where we’re going. I’m going to try and show you what I saw as I saw it, starting with this view of the d’light facility’s three-storey exterior, which feeds (appropriately enough) into a large, very urban shopping mall.

Lest any sceptics think otherwise, no, neither Tom’s Guide nor I were paid in any way for this article. We decided to do this photo story because we love gadgets and tech history and because, after all, how often do you get the chance to travel half way around the world to see stuff like this? Beforehand, I wondered if Samsung would give its small band of guests any cameras, displays, phones, or anything else from the galaxy of products you’re about to see. Know that, aside from the insanely delicious hotel buffet, Samsung made no effort to positively bias me in any way. I went home with nothing more than a set of cuff links and a tie clip showing off (presumably faulty) Samsung flash memory chips. Now, if the cuff links had used actual working flash storage, like 4GB on each arm, that would have been cool.