Samsung BD-P3600 Blu-ray player includes Wi-Fi dongle

(Credit: Samsung)

The BD-P3600 Blu-ray player includes much of the same basic feature list as the Samsung BD-P2550 released last fall: Profile 2.0 (BD-Live), built-in Netflix and Pandora streaming, and 1GB onboard memory. But the 2009 model includes a few niceties missing from the 2550: an included USB dongle adds 802.11n Wi-Fi (in addition to Ethernet) and the 3600 should support DTS-HD Master Audio decoding out of the box (no need to wait for a future firmware update, as with early purchasers of the 2550). On the design front, the BD-P3600 will also sport unusual topside button placement and Samsung's trademark "Touch of Color" accenting, but the traditional red-on-black color scheme has been substituted with a far more subtle gray-on-black--neither of which are a big selling point, in my opinion. Look for it to hit stores in the first half of 2009 at an as-yet-undetermined price.