One of the most talked about pieces of office equipment emerging in the last couple of months has been All-In-One stations. While surging in development and distribution, these machines still have a way to go.
Samsung’s Central Station CA 550 very much resembles an All-In-One station with the same functionality and impressive looks. But, the great thing about it is, it’s not an All-In-One station. We are not bearing a grudge however…
The Central Station is in basic terms a 23” widescreen LED monitor mounted on a Samsung MagicAngle swivel. The monitor’s quality is crisp and LED clear. The 23” is probably too big for the standard office, unless you are the boss of course. With a 1920 x 1080 resolution and an aspect ratio of 16:9, you would have to be blind to miss a thing.
The MagicAngle swivel allows you to tilt and adjust the screen on two separate hinges, allowing for various viewing angles. The horizontal viewing angle with the swivel is set at 170°, while vertical is 160°.
At the base, it features four face buttons for different connections, adjusting colour and visual settings and power. The left side of the base hosts two Super Charge USB ports, which allows for extra fast charging of USB devices, a HDMI-in connection and headphones through a 3.5mm jack. The right-hand panel sports two USB 2.0 connections.
The Super Charge USB ports support USB 3.0, allowing super-fast data transfers and creating a connection with any device. Just to give you some context, the ports transfers a 276GB file in 1 minute and 10 seconds. It also makes it the world’s first monitor with USB 3.0 ports.
Samsung Central Station from charlieuniformtango on Vimeo.
The back panel of the Central Station is where the magic really happens, featuring a RGB-in, a LAN port and a PC-in USB connection. If users’ notebooks do not support HDMI-out, they can use the PC-in USB connection or the RGB-in to make use of the monitor. You will be covered either way.
The Central Station is great for keeping your desk free of cluttering cables and is easy to set up. You simply switch on your notebook, plug in the visual cable, and connect a mouse and keyboard to the USB ports.
The device truly is a central station for any equipment you want to use, as everything plugs into the USB ports and is freely accessible. Using the base’s Hub button, switching between devices is a breeze.
While the screen is a bit bulky in a small office, the Central Station is a great solution to reduce clutter, bringing an extra screen to the notebook and connecting external devices without hassle, which could be anything from a printer, camera or a cellphone. It looks good, works great and will provide for an excellent experience.
Charlie Fripp – Online editor
