Samsung is heading to CES this week with new smart TV features including its Gaming Hub and an NFT platform that integrates the purchase and trade of digital art and assets. The company is also introducing the 4K 32-inch M8 smart monitor, which like the M7 combines computer functionality with smart TV features such as preloaded streaming apps but bests its predecessor by adding a SlimFit camera for video calls and a SmartThings IoT hub that maps smart devices throughout the household and lets you control them from the monitor. The M8 price and release date has yet to be announced.

Samsung has branded its smart monitors “the screens that do it all” — letting you go from work productivity in 4K (starting with the M7) “without switching on a laptop or PC” to watching TV via preloaded apps, built-in speakers and a remote control. The Verge reports “the M8 also has a new feature called Workspace, which gathers work-related web services, like Microsoft 365, into an intuitive hub.”

While Samsung notes the M8 “provides a streamlined all-in-one workstation experience that doesn’t require an additional docking station,” The Verge adds that it can “plug into a computer like normal monitors.” The M8 is 11.4mm-thick, which The Verge reports is “significantly thinner than prior models,” noting the SlimFit camera is “magnetic and moveable” and that “the monitor itself supports video chat apps like Google Duo.”

Another new feature, Game Home, “turns the M8 into a cloud game streaming monitor” that will let users stream from existing game services “and even connect wireless controllers to it,” according to The Verge.

Samsung also also announced the Odyssey Neo G8 gaming monitor, billing it as “the world’s first monitor to feature a 4K (3,840 x 2,160) 1000R curved screen with 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time.” MacRumors says the new Samsung Gaming Hub that will come with 2022 TVs “will allow Samsung Smart TVs to compete with built-in services like Apple Arcade as well as various consoles.”

The Tizen-powered Gaming Hub discovery platform will “allow Samsung TV owners to play console-quality games through integration with streaming services. Samsung is partnering with Nvidia and Google, and the upcoming service will support GeForce NOW, Stadia, and PC game streaming service Utomik,” MacRumors writes.

Part of its Lifestyle TV initiative, the Samsung Neo QLEDs are optimized with a Smart Hub that enables smart content curation among media, games, video calls, management of NFTs and more, according to Samsung, which says its new NFT Platform application “features an intuitive, integrated platform for discovering, purchasing and trading digital artwork.”

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