A touch pad remote will ship with three series of Samsung TVs this year.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Samsung has unveiled its new flagship control peripherals--the Smart Touch Remote and optional Smart Wireless Keyboard--at an event in New York today.

The new remote will ship with the company's Smart Interaction televisions, the ES7500 and ES8000 LED and E8000 plasma. The keyboard is an optional accessory ($99).

Last year, Samsung was one of the few manufacturers to offer a reversible QWERTY remote and despite Samsung's claims to its popularity at today's press conference, the company has decided to discontinue the peripheral. Instead, Samsung now offers the $99 Bluetooth Smart Wireless Keyboard, which it says will also work with smartphones and tablets.

Both units feature a touch pad used for navigating the Web browser and the Smart Hub interface--the "home screen" of Samsung's smart TVs--as well as "hard buttons' for often-used functions such as channel up/down and volume.

The remote control features an onboard microphone for voice commands, and instead of featuring dedicated playback buttons, the remote's touch pad features a four-color icon that brings up an onscreen display. Pressing the icon brings up regularly used functions such as Play and Red, Green, Yellow, and Blue.