Thinking about Samsung M8 for elderly parents (streaming / MacBook docking)

[Wingsley]

My elderly parents are cord-cutters. They have DSL internet, but they haven't had cable TV in years. They watch alot of YouTube videos, and they use YouTube to get their news. (PBS Newshour, etc.) They are doing this on an aging Intel Core i5-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro, which is getting very long-in-tooth (battery is shot) and will eventually have to be replaced. I have long thought about finding ways to improve their setup. I'm not 100% sold, but Samsung's M8 may be a crucial component. My most important questions are:

1: Can the M8 be wall-mounted like a TV? If it can, what kind of wall-mounting kit can be used?
2: If the M8 is used as a stand-alone computing device, (a: how do you use it to access Microsoft Office without a computer? Does it need a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse added to do this? (b: Can the M8 be used to access social media, such as YouTube and Facebook? (c: Can the M8 connect to a WiFi printer in our home, to print out documents? and (d: Can the M8 be used to view and print PDF files?
3: I my parents wanted to use their laptop through the M8, how does it connect between a Mac and the monitor? Does the webcam work through this connection?
4: If they had an M8 hanging on a wall, how could external speakers be mounted?

 

[TorbenIbsen]

I am in the "elderly parents" age group and so are my friends. I happen to be on a professional IT level, but people I know (including my wife) are not. - Over the years I have helped a lot of those non-IT friends.

All the "elderly parents" I know would run away screaming if they got what you are considering. It would be far too complicated and outright frightening.

My "elderly parents" would get a regular TV combined with an Apple TV 4K box. It works and they can put the remote to the TV away in a drawer. They only need the Apple TV Box's remote. All they want to see can be accessed in a pretty simple way on that Apple TV Box. They would not have to call you all the time for help. - It would not have to be a very "smart" TV because they would never use that part of the combination.

And since I am a nice guy I would also (or perhaps instead) give them two IPad Air. So one could watch Youtube while another watched Netflix or sat reading a book. There would also be a keyboard in the mix if the "elderly parents" write a lot of emails and sms's to all their children and grandchildren

I don't think that my "elderly parents" would have any need for a Mac at all these days. - And I think that the external speakers should be something like the HomePod Minis. Sounds great and provides nice stereo from the TV.

 

[Wingsley]

I am in the "elderly parents" age group and so are my friends. I happen to be on a professional IT level, but people I know (including my wife) are not. - Over the years I have helped a lot of those non-IT friends.

All the "elderly parents" I know would run away screaming if they got what you are considering. It would be far too complicated and outright frightening.

My "elderly parents" would get a regular TV combined with an Apple TV 4K box. It works and they can put the remote to the TV away in a drawer. They only need the Apple TV Box's remote. All they want to see can be accessed in a pretty simple way on that Apple TV Box. They would not have to call you all the time for help. - It would not have to be a very "smart" TV because they would never use that part of the combination.

And since I am a nice guy I would also (or perhaps instead) give them two IPad Air. So one could watch Youtube while another watched Netflix or sat reading a book. There would also be a keyboard in the mix if the "elderly parents" write a lot of emails and sms's to all their children and grandchildren

I don't think that my "elderly parents" would have any need for a Mac at all these days. - And I think that the external speakers should be something like the HomePod Minis. Sounds great and provides nice stereo from the TV.

Interesting opinions. I also just discovered the new LG 32-inch 4K SMART monitor, which seems better and easier to manage than the Samsung.

 

[akash.nu]

My suggestion would be to just get them one of the mid range smart Tv with HDR support and an additional sound-bar to enhance the sound quality. Pretty much all new TVs come with some sort of smart platform and AppStore to download all the required streaming apps.

Don’t see the need of a laptop in this equation at all.

 

[TorbenIbsen]

Interesting opinions. I also just discovered the new LG 32-inch 4K SMART monitor, which seems better and easier to manage than the Samsung.

The elderly parents will never confess to this. But they would probably love to take the iPad Air with them to bed and watch a Netflix with the wonderful spatial audio from the AirPods Pro (with fantastic noice control) or the Airpods 3rd generation (without noice control). - Just sayin'

 

[xraydoc]

My elderly parents are cord-cutters. They have DSL internet, but they haven't had cable TV in years. They watch alot of YouTube videos, and they use YouTube to get their news. (PBS Newshour, etc.) They are doing this on an aging Intel Core i5-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro, which is getting very long-in-tooth (battery is shot) and will eventually have to be replaced. I have long thought about finding ways to improve their setup. I'm not 100% sold, but Samsung's M8 may be a crucial component. My most important questions are:

1: Can the M8 be wall-mounted like a TV? If it can, what kind of wall-mounting kit can be used?
2: If the M8 is used as a stand-alone computing device, (a: how do you use it to access Microsoft Office without a computer? Does it need a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse added to do this? (b: Can the M8 be used to access social media, such as YouTube and Facebook? (c: Can the M8 connect to a WiFi printer in our home, to print out documents? and (d: Can the M8 be used to view and print PDF files?
3: I my parents wanted to use their laptop through the M8, how does it connect between a Mac and the monitor? Does the webcam work through this connection?
4: If they had an M8 hanging on a wall, how could external speakers be mounted?

While the M8 is probably a decent "smart" monitor/TV and will do a fine job of streaming Netflix and YouTube all by itself, it's not replacement for a laptop, so there's no viewing or saving PDFs, Word files, email, FaceTime, etc. -- the apps it does have for this are going to limiting and frustrating.

It's only 32", so really not worth mounting on a wall like one would with a 50+" TV.

One would connect the monitor to the laptop like any other external monitor - either a USB-C cable, DisplayPort cable or an HDMI cable, depending on what port(s) their laptop has.

As for speakers, you'll have to look at the specs and see if it has an audio-out port for external audio support.