Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 is now over, and just like every year this time too it was completely packed with a lot of new product announcements, demonstrations and other cool tech stuff.
To help you get a complete picture of what it was all about we’ve put together a list of all those gadgets which were major highlights of the show. So without taking any further time let’s dive straight into it:
#1. LG Rollable TV and Smart Speaker
South Korean Electronics giant LG might not have launched its G series flagship smartphone at CES, but it had plenty of other stuff to show at CES from its other divisions, which included:
- Rollable OLED TV: Flexible displays are the future of display technology, and LG is going to be among the leaders of this new innovation. The company has shown this by displaying the concept of a 65-inch rollable OLED TV at CES 2018. It was a 4K TV that can be rolled into its base for hiding easily. And while there’s a lot of difference in a concept and a product ready to be launched commercially, the TV displayed by the company showed how far they’ve come in the right direction.
- Smart Speaker: LG also showed a smart speaker at CES, and they’re calling it LG ThinQ. The great thing about this smart speaker is that in terms of sound quality it can give even Google Home a run for its money. With Google Assistant software and Meridian Audio’s powerful sound technology it’s the first of its kind product in the market of smart speakers. It works with high quality lossless files and also has Chromecast built into it. And finally, it’s also pretty sleek and stylish.
#2. Vivo’s In-Display Fingerprint Sensor
Beating Samsung and Apple in the game, it’s Vivo which has figured out before anyone else the process of building a 100% working in-display fingerprint sensor. The company demonstrated world’s first smartphone with this technology at CES, which it’s going to launch shortly. The sensor worked perfectly, just as it’s supposed to. Instead of placing your finger on an actual fingerprint sensor you place it on the screen itself, right over the fingerprint icon. And once your phone has unlocked, the icon goes away and no one can know that there’s a sensor underneath. It’s 100% natural and flawless.
#3. Huawei Mate 10 Pro
Arguably the best smartphone demonstrated at CES 2018, Huawei Mate 10 Pro comes with 6-inch OLED display having 2K resolution (2,160 x 1,080 px), octa-core Hisilicon Kirin 970 chipset, RAM options of 4GB and 6GB, dual-lens 12mp+20mp primary camera, 8mp secondary camera, Android 8.0 Oreo OS, 64GB and 128GB storage variants and a 4,000 mAh battery. It has also got very narrow bezels, and thanks to company’s partnership with luxury camera brand Leica you can expect some pretty good things from its camera as well.
#4. Lenovo Miix 630 Laptop
While technically a Windows 10 tablet powered by Snapdragon 835, Lenovo Miix 630 is awesome enough to work like a laptop too. And that is because it already comes equipped with all required accessories to convert it into a laptop or work with it like a tablet. That’s right: a laptop-like keyboard with trackpad and Lenovo Active Pen stylus come bundled with it. Its portability, connectivity (in-built 4G LTE) and battery life of up to 20 hrs collectively make it arguably one of the best Windows laptops out in the market for 2018.
#5. NVIDIA’s Big Format Gaming Displays (BFGDs)
There was also some pretty awesome stuff for gamers at CES, thanks to NVIDIA, which announced its mammoth 65-inch Big Format Gaming Displays at the conference. The displays will have 4K resolution and G-Sync support for super smooth frame rates. They’ll also capable of showing content at 1,000 nits of brightness and 120Hz frame rate. And they shall be manufactured by HP, Acer and Asus as these companies have partnered with NVIDIA to make these displays. There’s no word yet on the launch details and pricing, but we may hear something soon.
#6. Samsung’s Modular TV, Family Hub Refrigerator and Galaxy X
Samsung was already not expected to launch a flagship smartphone at CES, so it was nothing surprising. But the company showed a ton of other cool technology at the show, which included:
- The Wall: This is a huge 146-inch modular MicroLED TV that can give the current OLED technology a run for its money. It’s modular because according to Samsung it has been built in such a way that you can purchase two and join them together to make an even bigger one. And the MicroLED technology that forms its base is so powerful that this TV can display content at brightness of 2000 nits even. Overall, it’s a product that can change our way of purchasing big screen televisions.
- Smart Family Hub: Samsung is betting big on smart homes, and with its Family Hub refrigerator it has put another step in that direction. It’s a fridge with a giant touchscreen, and it allows you to do some pretty cool things. For example, after you’ve registered yourself as a family member you can see what’s inside your fridge on your smartphone, thanks to the cameras installed in its doors. And your family members can also add items to a shopping list right from the fridge, and that list will get updated on your smartphone. Heck, you can even order things directly from the fridge, thanks to the in-built web browser. Or if you wish, you can also mirror the screen of your Samsung Smart TV to this fridge and enjoy the music, movies or TV shows in your kitchen (or wherever you’ve put this fridge). It will cost $6,000 in US.
- Galaxy X: While Sammy didn’t launch any smartphone at CES, it’s being heard that it showed its much anticipated bendable smartphone Galaxy X to select few clients at the show behind closed doors. The smartphone is being said to be almost finished, so it may be launched either by the end of this year, or sometime early next year.
#7. Sony Smartphones
Sony used the CES to launch its 3 budget smartphones for 2018:
- Xperia L2: Sony’s Xperia L series has been company’s answer to the mid-range offerings out in the market from a long time, and this smartphone is a descendant of that particular family. It succeeds Xperia L1, but it’s not much better than its predecessor. It has got the same 5.5-inch HD display, MediaTek MT6737T quad-core processor and 16mp primary camera. The only notable differences are in RAM, internal storage and front camera departments – RAM has been upgraded to 3GB from 2GB, internal storage has been upped to 32GB from 16GB and front camera this time is 8mp instead of 5mp that’s found in L1. As you can see yourself, despite these changes it’s still a budget device with pretty mediocre specs. God knows who would want to buy it!
- Xperia XA2: This mid-range smartphone will come with Snapdragon 630 octa-core chipset, 3GB RAM, 5.2-inch Full HD display, 23mp single lens primary camera and 8mp secondary camera. The battery of device is 3,000 mAh, and it will cost around 20K INR in India and $270 in US. In the UK it may be launched around £220.
- Xperia XA2 Ultra: As expected from the name, this one is a slightly better version of XA2. It will come with 4GB RAM and 6-inch Full HD display, and 16mp secondary camera. Remaining specs will be identical to XA2. And the price will be around £300 in UK, $370 in US and roughly 30,000 INR in India.
#8. HTC Vive Pro
An upgrade to company’s Vive VR headset, Vive Pro brings a much better audio and video experience. Its resolution has been upgraded from 2,160 x 1,200 px resolution to 2,880 x 1,600 pixels, which is a 78% improvement. The head strap has also been redesigned this time to make it easily mountable.
Final Thoughts
So this is all what CES 2018 was about. Many of these products will be launched later this year, and some are far away from the launch at a concept stage, but overall it was a great experience to see where we’re headed into future. We’ll continue to bring you more details about all these products as they emerge, so keep checking back.