CES 2024 live: Latest tech, weird gadgets and our Best of CES awards
It's Day 3 of CES — time to announce our favorite products of this year's show!
It's the Engadget team's last full day in Las Vegas for CES 2024. We've already published over 160 articles about the event, and we'll have plenty more to come today.
Today we'll be bringing you more first looks at new devices from across show's many locations. There are over 4,000 exhibitors here at CES, and we've still got plenty of products to bring you impressions of. As we did yesterday, we'll be running a liveblog through most of the day to bring you the biggest news, some commentary and lots of images and videos, along with some links to our more in-depth coverage. We'll also be announcing our annual Best of CES awards this afternoon, with 12 awards to come in total.
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That's a wrap!
That's a wrap on our CES liveblog for this year. Thanks to everyone who tuned in over the past few days — it's been a blast writing as a faceless Engadget avatar. We hope you've been entertained, informed and ocassionally horrified by what we've put out this week.
While our blogging marathon is at an end, Engadget's CES coverage will continue, with plenty of previews and analysis to come tomorrow! You can keep up with all the news from CES right here, and while we have your attention, you can sign up for our newsletter to get a daily dose of tech in your inbox right here.
XOXO, the Engadget CES liveblog team.
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What is Bluetooth Auracast and why should you care?
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4
One of the key advantages of Bluetooth LE Audio is Auracast: a way to broadcast content to connected devices in public settings. It will also allow you to easily connect multiple wireless speakers to each other with diving into an app. Perhaps most importantly, the barrier to entry is going to be very low since a dedicated Auracast app will be built into mobile platforms like iOS and Android. What's more, you'll select available channels like you would a Bluetooth device or a Wi-Fi network. It's simple, and it's presented in a way that people who've used a smartphone are familiar with. Auracast has been mentioned constantly by companies announcing their new audio gear at CES 2024, so here's what you need to know about it.
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Touring LG's high-tech camping trailer at CES 2024
A woman standing next to a high-tech concept trailer from LG at CES 2024. There are camping chairs to the side of the trailer.
LG's Labs department often takes technology and existing products and spins them into lifestyle-heavy ideas and notions. LG Labs was responsible for the Dukebox, a vacuum tube-driven speaker with a transparent OLED screen, an LG Gram with two displays, and several other projects. But the LG Bon Voyage concept trailer is a little more involved, packing so many of LG's CES "greatest hits," retooled and restyled for near-future camping that's both incredibly comfortable and... unlikely.
The trailer is 2 meters by 3.8 meters, measuring up to a height of 2.2 meters. LG's explanation suggests you'd be able to pick and choose which appliances and features are included.
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Jackery's rooftop solar tent makes overlanding more environmentally friendly
Image of Jackery's Rooftop Solar Tent from the tent entrance
The Jackery Solar Generator for Rooftop Tent is equipped with 1,000W solar panels (with a 25 percent efficiency rate). Unlike the flimsy panels you can currently buy, these are rigid slide-out units that should offer a sturdier canopy under which to sleep. Once you've parked up and opened the tent, the panels are wired up to an Explorer 1,000 Plus generator. That'll hold 1,264Wh of power and can output at rates up to 2,000W, enough to power a 900W cooker for an hour. Plus, you can daisy-chain other batteries alongside to increase the storage further for longer trips away from an outlet and/or civilization.
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Current Backyard's electric smart grills bring outdoor cooking to more places
Current Backyard Model G electric grill
Gas, charcoal and pellet grills are great for taking your cooking outdoors, but a lot of people live in apartments and other spots where open flames aren't permitted. At CES 2024, Current Backyard debuted two all-electric grills that can be used in those places since the heating element for both isn't much different than an oven or stove. And because grilling has entered the modern age, both of these are Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connected, so you can monitor progress and adjust temperatures from your favorite comfy chair.
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This moss terrarium doubles as an air purifier and humidifier
Moss Air
Years ago, some genius decided to build Las Vegas in the middle of a desert, so for me, any sight of unique humidifying tech at CES is a much welcomed sight. It just so happened that a Korean company showcased a device dubbed Moss Air which, as the name implies, uses real moss to purify air. It's also built with a humidifying feature that can shoot outwards or rehydrate the plant internally. In short, you're getting an air-purifying humidifier that doubles as a mesmerizing miniature foggy terrarium on your desktop.
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The best of CES 2024
A crowd shot from CES 2024, with an Engadget Best of CES logo overlaid.
Thanks for tuning in to our awards! You can find all of the winners right here. In the meantime, there's more news and impressions to catch you up on. Let's get back to it!
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Best in show: GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker on a crowded kitchen island surrounded by stacks of bristket and burger buns.
CES 2024 is often described as a TV show or car show, but sometimes it's more niche products that capture our imagination. GE Profile's Smart Indoor Smoker is a countertop device that makes proper barbecue in your kitchen without filling your home with smoke. It's designed to move air around the food to impart maximum smokiness inside, without letting airflow out. When your brisket, chicken or whatever is done, a filtration and catalyst system draws the smoke down, eventually expelling it as warm air.
Typically smoking food requires constant adjustments and vigilance, but the Smart Indoor Smoker has six preset cooking modes, while you're able to adjust the degree of smokiness between five different levels. The wood pellets' only function is to add flavor and not fuel the actual cooking process, so only a handful are needed per smoke session.
GE included a smart probe with the Smart Indoor Smoker too, so you can monitor the cooking process from a companion app and its Smoke and Hold feature can cook and smoke foods and keep them at food-safe temperatures for up to 24 hours. It's not small (it's around the size of a mini fridge), but it's stylish and simple to use, with a low barrier to entry for anyone tempted to try smoking their own foods. The device was also able to impart an impressive level of smokiness in only a few hours — we can't wait to see what low-and-slow smoking could do.
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EcoFlow Delta Ultra
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: EcoFlow Delta Ultra displayed in a home environment against a wall with a living room on the left side of the split image.
A whole-home battery and inverter system is far from the funkiest bit of hardware we saw at CES, but it's likely one of the more useful. The EcoFlow DELTA Pro Ultra can take in and store power from your rooftop solar panels then use the stored energy to power your home. The DELTA Pro Ultra can even suck up juice from the grid when it's cheaper, and feed it back when energy prices surge.
A base configuration goes for $5,800 and includes one 6kWh battery and inverter, but you can stack up to five batteries per inverter and chain up to three inverter-and-battery stacks, amounting to a 90kWh capacity. That's a beastly amount of power that could keep a McMansion humming at full tilt for a few days — or run essential appliances in a more moderately sized home for a month or longer.
The DELTA Pro Ultra can also hook into an existing transfer switch if you have one, but for deeper integration with your home's power system, the subpanel-like Smart Home Panel 2 gives you features like app control, weather and power grid monitoring, and instant switchover to backup when the power goes out. As more solar panels are installed on rooftops, a sleek and powerful all-in-one battery solution like this can give people more control over how their power is used. If you're intrigued, you don't have to wait — it's one of many CES 2024 gadgets already on the market.
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Micron LPCAMM2 laptop RAM modules
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: Micron LPCAMM2 laptop RAM, which is a small circuit board add-on seen against a black background.
If you've ever been annoyed that you couldn't upgrade your RAM in an ultraportable laptop, Micron has a potential solution: LPCAMM2 memory. It's a new form factor that's 64 percent smaller than standard SODIMM RAM sticks, and it's also potentially far faster and more efficient. Best of all is that it's a self-contained unit that can easily be removed and upgraded down the line.
LPCAMM2 RAM won't get as much hype as AI PCs, but it's something that could transform what's possible with future laptop designs. And if it means laptop makers stop soldering RAM directly onto motherboards, we'll call it a win.
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Samsung Ballie
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: Samsung Ballie robot, a rolling yellow sphere, which projects a wildlife scene on the ground between it and a golden retriever who's watching the video.
CES was a little light on notable robots this year, but Samsung revived one we loved when we first saw it way back in 2020. Ballie is an adorable, bowling ball-sized robot that rolls around your home, following you around like a robotic pet that's eager to please. Ballie is a lot bigger than it was when we saw it in 2020, and it now has a built-in 1080p projector so it can both show you things and speak to you when you ask it for help. Think of it like a Nest Hub on wheels.
We only got to see Ballie in a tightly-plotted demo at Samsung's booth, but it was simply delightful to watch Ballie roll around projecting workout routines, calendar updates and recipe videos on the walls. As with most smart home gadgets, there's a little bit of "solution searching for a problem" here. But it feels like Samsung nailed the form factor judging by how smoothly Ballie navigated its way around the demo area. And while many companies show off products like this that have no chance of actually reaching people in the real world, Samsung says Ballie will go on sale this year.
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Kia Platform Beyond Vehicles (PBV)
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: Kia Platform Beyond Vehicles as a lineup of four van-style vehicles in a large paved outdoor area with large-scale modern architecture behind them.
Kia's PBV, or Platform Beyond Vehicles, concept is the rare car concept (or concepts, plural) that seems like it might actually be a real thing in the relatively near future. The PV5 is likely to be the first to make the leap. It's a small modular van that can be equipped with a taller roof for extra headroom, or turned into a pickup by swapping out the back two-thirds. It can also be turned into a taxi with extra seating for passengers.
One of the more interesting things is how the members of the PBV family, including the larger PV7 and the smaller PV1 are expected to work together. For instance, Kia imagines a rail system that can connect a PV7 directly to a PV1, transferring cargo to the smaller vehicle for last mile deliveries.
Most importantly, PBV isn't some fantastical dream vehicle that will never be heard from again: Kia is already building a dedicated factory in Korea that's expected to be ready to pump out 150,000 vehicles in 2025.
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Gyrogear GyroGlove
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: Gyrogear GyroGlove being worn on the right forearm and wrist by Engadget editor Cherlynn Low who has her hand extended.
The number of accessibility and aging-related products that were good enough for us to consider for awards at CES 2024 was encouragingly high. We saw a tongue-operated touchpad, a hearing aid-like system that can isolate individual speakers in a noisy crowd and a visual radar for gamers with hearing loss. But GyroGlove stood out for a few reasons.
The device uses a sophisticated gyroscope to help those with hand tremors (say, Parkinson's patients) stabilize their movement, but one of the deciding factors in picking it as a winner is the fact that it's actually available. The company said it's already in talks with the chief medical officers of several insurance providers in the US, and has registered the GyroGlove as a medical device with the FDA and Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration. It's certified by various international standards organizations, to boot.
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Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 earbuds which are both loose next to their fabric-covered charging case.
Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless series has consistently earned the accolade of the best-sounding earbuds in our best of list for a while now. However, the company never really had the complete package to knock Sony's 1000X series off the top spot. At CES this year, Sennheiser debuted the fourth-gen version of its flagship earbuds, which bring a host of upgrades. They still sound excellent, ANC and transparency mode are also improved.
The Momentum True Wireless 4 did a great job blocking out the noisy Las Vegas suite, allowing us to focus on the selection of jazz we used to demo the earbuds. Transparency mode also sounded more natural, which will be a big help for calls and tuning into your surroundings. What's more, Sennheiser figured out a way for active noise cancellation to not drain the battery nearly as much as it typically does; the ANC here only cuts listening time by half an hour.
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GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker on a crowded kitchen island surrounded by stacks of bristket and burger buns.
When it comes to smoking meat at home, your options are usually limited to outdoor grills that burn charcoal, pellets or wood. If you live at a place where your landlord doesn't allow open flames, like apartments, then you're pretty much out of luck. The GE Profile Smoker ditches the flames for electric heating elements and brings low-and-slow smoking indoors.
The GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker is no gimmick either. It's capable of infusing significant smoke flavor via wood pellets as we experienced first hand this week. There won't be any smoke wafting around your kitchen as the unit captures all of that with its filtration system. If you need to cook while you're away, a unique feature does that and then holds your food at a safe temperature until you're ready to serve. Toss in Wi-Fi for remote cooking and monitoring, cooking profiles and guidance, plus the Clear Smoke tool for when you need to open the door, and the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker has a lot to offer a range of skill levels.
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Withings BeamO
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: Withings BeamO device which is similar in shape to a TV remote control standing on its end against a beige background.
There's never a shortage of health and fitness tech at CES. This year Withings stood out with its $250 BeamO "multiscope." It combines a body temperature sensor, an electrocardiogram, an oximeter and a digital stethoscope into one surprisingly light consumer device that promises to make it easier to collect basic health metrics at home. The company's Health Mate app collects all of that data, which can then be sent to doctors with a few taps. Withings is also seeking FDA approvals for the BeamO to be able to detect atrial fibrillation.
BeamO impressed us not only with its versatility and fairly affordable price, but also for the potential impact it could have on telemedicine. Providing your doctor with key metrics ahead of a call or visit could make it easier for them to give you sound medical advice. And those with chronic conditions could use BeamO to keep track of health data over the long term.
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ASUS ZenBook Duo
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: ASUS ZenBook Duo laptop with a dual monitor on top of the normal laptop version on a white display table at the event.
ASUS has been chasing the dream of dual-screen notebooks for a while, but this year's ZenBook Duo appears to be its best attempt yet. It consists of two separate components: a dual-screen display unit and a detachable Bluetooth keyboard. You can use the ZenBook Duo in a typical clamshell mode, with the keyboard in front of one of its displays. But when you have more room, you can open up the display to have two screens sitting on top of each other (balanced on a built-in kickstand).
The ZenBook Duo also feels incredibly polished, and it has high-end hardware like Intel's Core Ultra chips and gorgeous OLED screens. It also starts at a reasonable $1,500, making it a dual-screen laptop for the masses.
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TCL NXTPAPER 14 Pro
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: TCL NXTPAPER 14 Pro tablet-like device with two models overlapped. One tablet shows its display and the rear version showing off the back side of the device.
With its third-generation NXTPAPER display, TCL's latest 14-inch tablet combines the best things about LCD displays and e-readers. You get a sharp 2.8K-resolution panel with bright colors plus a special nano-coating that not only reduces glare, but also cuts down excess blue light while providing a lovely matte texture. And for those who prefer a more traditional newspaper-like reading experience, there's a monochrome mode that makes the NXTPAPER 14 Pro look like it has an e-ink screen. So while its specs aren't all that impressive (MediaTek Dimensity 8020, 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage), TCL's new tablet is one of those rare gadgets that appeals to both hardcore tech nerds and traditionalists that still remember a time before everything went digital.
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LG Signature OLED T
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: LG Signature OLED T in a high-rise apartment building with floor-to-ceiling windows with the transparent display showing what appears to be a Kandinsky painting.
OLED TVs are great. An OLED TV you can see through — well, that's just wild. The LG Signature OLED T isn't the first transparent display we've seen at CES, but it is the first that will actually be sold to consumers (unlike Samsung's similar transparent MicroLED concept).
This is a 77-inch set with an retractable contrast screen. Keep the filter up, and it looks like one of LGs standard, excellent OLED sets. Bring it down, and the image almost looks like it's floating in mid-air. Like Samsung's Frame TVs, the Signature OLED T is designed for ambience — when you're not watching a show or movie, it can display little animations (a digital fish tank, for instance). To help it feel less obtrusive, the TV also uses LG's wireless Zero Connect tech, which relegates most of the set's I/O (and thus cables) to a separate box that can be tucked away elsewhere.
The TV does lack the microlens array tech found in LG's absolute best OLED TVs and LG isn't sure if it will come with the furniture you see in the image above. The company says it will ship sometime in 2024, though there's no firm release date yet. But whenever it does arrive, it will almost certainly be prohibitively expensive for most people.
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Samsung Music Frame
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: Samsung Music Frame, a several-inch-thick square frame structure on a small stand against a grey gradient background.
Samsung's line of Frame TVs, first introduced back in 2017, do a great job of disguising a large-screen TV as a piece of art. The Samsung Music Frame does the same thing, but for wireless speakers. Instead of a screen, there's a place to display art or album covers that you swap pretty easily.
This wouldn't be noteworthy if the Music Frame didn't sound good — but in our demo, it did. The Music Frame includes two woofers, two tweeters and two mid-range drivers and supports Dolby Atmos. It's also quite the flexible speaker, working on its own, in a stereo pair or connected to a TV as part of a bigger home theater setup. It's even wall-mountable. We have no price or release date, but given Samsung's success with the Frame TVs, we imagine they won't wait long to get the Music Frame on the market.
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ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 laptop on a white table display at the event.
Not only is the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 powerful enough to run the latest blockbuster video games, but it's also incredibly sleek. The ROG Zephyrus G14 has an aluminum chassis with clean lines, crisp edges and a thinner, lighter design than previous models. A simple LED slash runs across the lid and can be programmed to glow in gray or white, rather than the garish rainbow favored by other gaming laptops. The ROG Zephyrus G14 looks sophisticated, and it can also run any title on the market, thanks to its AMD Ryzen 8000 series processors and optional NVIDIA RTX 4070 GPU at the high end. Top-of-the-line specs and a minimalist design make the latest ASUS line stand out in a sea of other game-focused devices at CES. This is what gaming laptops look like when they're all grown up.
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Presenting Engadget's CES 2024 awards
A crowd shot from CES 2024, with an Engadget Best of CES logo overlaid.
It's time for Engadget's annual CES awards. We'll start with a preface from our Editor-in-Chief, and then announce our winners individually with a word from one of our editors.
"Hello and happy new year! Once again, team Engadget has set up shop in Las Vegas for CES, living out of suitcases so that we can scour the massive show floor and occasionally injure ourselves in the process. For CES 2024, we expected to see AI everywhere, and we were not disappointed.
We saw more than a few laptops with AI-powered chips inside, not to mention multiple references to Microsoft's Copilot assistant. Volkswagen built ChatGPT into its in-car system, while BMW teamed up with Amazon to improve its own in-car assistant. Qualcomm announced an AI Snapdragon chip. Walmart came to CES for the first time to announce its building generative AI into its online shopping experience. Even SAG-AFTRA struck a deal for AI and voice acting at CES (not that the actors themselves consider it a good deal).
Meanwhile, The Rabbit R1, a device co-designed by Teenage Engineering, was the surprise hit at this year's show — so hot we haven't been able to see it in person ourselves as of this writing. And then there were the oddballs: a grill that uses AI to help cook a steak in 90 seconds, and a cat door that automatically locks when it knows your pet is about to drag in a mouse.
Then there were not one, but two transparent TVs: one from Samsung and one from LG. Remember when rollable TVs were the thing? Oh, and GE kindly fed us beef tenderloin cooked with an indoor smoker. It was delicious.
Notably, too, there was a lot less pee on the show floor this year. (But we did find some.)
Today is our team's last day on the ground, which means it's also time for us to announce our annual Best of CES award winners. You may notice an obvious difference this year, which is that we've gotten rid of categories. From our point of view, we still attempted to see as broad a range of products as possible: laptops, mobile devices, gaming gear, smart home stuff, cars and items meant for people with disabilities. When it came to choosing winners, though, we saved time not having to debate amongst ourselves whether something was a laptop or a gaming device, a wearable or an accessibility device. A good product is just a good product.
Without further ado, we present our winners for CES 2024. But don't mistake this for the last of our coverage: We have other stories, recaps and roundups in the pipeline for you to read over the coming days. Keep following along." — Dana Wollman, Editor-in-Chief
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Xreal Air 2 Ultra: Next-gen AR glasses in need of killer apps
Xreal Air 2 Ultra
Even though Apple didn't have an official presence at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, the trade show still had a whole area dominated by mixed reality tech. One of the most popular booths there was none other than Xreal (formerly Nreal), which decided to ride on the Apple Vision Pro hype train and unveil its latest AR glasses, the Xreal Air 2 Ultra, in Las Vegas. The Chinese firm claims that its latest headset makes "an affordable alternative to" the likes of the $3,499 Vision Pro, though it's currently priced at $699 — a tad more than the $499 Meta Quest 3 — as Xreal attempts to lure developers into its ecosystem.
Unlike the rest of the Xreal Air 2 series, the Air 2 Ultra finally brings back 6DoF (six-degree-of-freedom) tracking — a first since the Nreal Light. In other words, you can physically walk around a virtual space, rather than being stuck in one spot. The 6DoF tracking is mainly handled by the two front-facing 3D environment sensors which, according to Xreal founder and CEO Chi Xu, are an advancement over prior models, and are less physically obtrusive compared to the ones on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. As with the Light, the Air 2 Ultra also supports hand tracking for interacting with virtual objects directly.
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The MouthPad turns your tongue into a mouse for your phone
A down-up look at the MouthPad inside a person's mouth.
Deputy editor Cherlynn Low checked out this very promising accessibility device over at the Eureka Park startup area:
"You can one day use your tongue as a mouse for your laptop, tablet or phone, thanks to a new product that made its first public appearance at CES 2024. The MouthPad (an obvious spin on the word "mousepad") is what its makers call a tongue-operated touchpad that "sits at the roof of your mouth" and can be connected to your devices just like a standard Bluetooth mouse. I got to see the MouthPad here in Las Vegas, where it's making its first public appearance since its announcement last year, though, to be clear, I did not put it in my mouth to try out for myself. Instead, I watched as the company's co-founder Tomás Vega used the device to navigate an iPhone and open the camera as we took a selfie together."
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The Monokei Systems keyboard has a gorgeous design with magnetic faceplates and a lovely gasket sock dampening system.
The Monokei Systems low-profile keyboard in Cupertino Silver and an optional Spy X Family faceplate.
Senior writer Sam Rutherford appears to be sold on this fancy low-profile keyboard:
"No offense to the mechanical keyboard community, but I just don't love traditional setups with tall keys. But when it comes to high-quality low-profile alternatives, pickings are slim. The best known options are Logitech's MX Mechanical line, along with more recent entries from the likes of Keychron, Nuphy and Lofree. But none of them quite hit the spot. But at CES 2024, I may have found what I've been searching for in Monokei's Systems."
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It's a great time to buy a solar generator
Lifestyle image of the Delta Pro Ultra on the floor of a posh house, with a wire leading up to the Smart Home Panel 2, indicating that the home is able to use battery backup. To the left, a window highlighting a lightning storm.
Senior reporter Daniel Cooper writing on why now's a great time to invest in solar:
"I've been interested in solar generators for a long while, but very few of them ever felt worthy of specific comment. Many of them historically boasted of running laptops, TVs or coolers, but their constrained outputs made them incapable of powering kettles, washing machines or air conditioners. CES 2024 has shown that the industry has moved beyond those limitations, with newer units capable of fulfilling the promise inherent in their names."
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Swarovski's smart binoculars identify the birds you're looking at
Image of Swarovski's AX Visio smart bird-identifying binoculars on a wooden picnic table.
Swarovski has turned up at CES 2024 in Las Vegas with its first ever pair of smart binoculars that will identify the bird you're looking at. All you have to do is point the gear at a bird and make sure the view is in focus, and then press down an action button. Within a few seconds, the system will overlay a bird's name over your view, using data pulled from the Merlin Bird ID database. That has over 9,000 species tagged, and will even let you know the degree of certainty it has if the bird in question is in an unexpected location. And if this was the only feature these binoculars had, it'd be enough to justify the purchase, but that's only the beginning of what these things can do.
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'Teach' your dog to 'play' this 'piano'
Image of both Zoo Gears' dog pianos, TheButter, as well as its forthcoming musical instrument and pet feeder, TheBiscuit.
Look, we can all sit around debating wether it's worth teaching a dog to play the piano, or if that's even something they're capable of doing. But it's also too late since, here at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, a Hong Kong-based startup has actually developed a device to do that. Zoo Gears was at the show demonstrating TheButter, a four-key instrument with light-up pads your pup can "play."
Essentially, the pooch has to follow along the sequence of lights, each one triggering another few notes of whatever song you've equipped it with. Once done, you should reward their effort with a treat or some other form of encouragement, much as Dr. Pavlov would have done. The hope is that eventually, your beloved friend will get the knack of accompanying you during your next jam session.
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Meet the CPR dummy of the future
Image of the Adam-X medical training robot, an artificial human body laying on a white dais with the shirt open.
On the fringes of each and every CES, there are products worthy of attention, even if they can't be called "consumer electronics." A prime example is Adam-X, a medical training tool that takes the idea of a CPR dummy and dials it up to eleven... thousand. Unlike the dolls you learned basic CPR with, Adam-X is a fully-featured robotic patient used for a wide variety of medical training.
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Walmart makes a rare CES appearance to promote AI-powered shopping
Walmart shopping
When Walmart announced it would be holding a CES keynote for the first time, we were admittedly a little skeptical. Now it all makes sense, though: America's largest retailer came to CES 2024 in Las Vegas to talk about AI. In a joint announcement on Tuesday, the company said that it's teaming up with Microsoft to build what it bills as AI-powered shopping experiences. In his keynote, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon described how the integration of AI across its website and apps will be used to study shopper behavior and suggest future purchases.
As you might expect, given Microsoft's involvement, the artificial intelligence underpinning these experiences will be powered by large language models made available through this partnership with Microsoft.
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Welcome to Day 3 for CES 2024!
It's the Engadget's sixth day covering CES in Las Vegas, but somehow only the third official day of CES. The newsmill may have died down, but we'll be bringing you a bunch of news and impressions from the show floor, along with the winners of our annual Best of CES awards. Buckle in!
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Gyroglove is a hand-stabilizing wearable for people with tremors
A woman wearing the GyroGlove at the CES 2024, holding her hand out.
A busy, stimulating convention like CES can exacerbate hand tremors for those living with Parkinsons. For Roberta Wilson-Garrett, however, a new wearable device has been helping keep the tremors at bay. Wilson-Garrett has been using the GyroGlove, which launched here at CES 2024. It's a hand-stabilizing glove designed to "counteract hand tremors by utilizing advanced gyroscopic technology," giving wearers more control over their mobility.
In the few days she has been wearing the GyroGlove, Wilson-Garrett says she's been able to perform certain tasks more easily. Things like buttoning up a shirt, moving a cup of coffee around or writing down a note had become easier with the device. One morning, she had forgotten that she didn't have the glove on and grabbed her coffee, only for her hand to shake and and the drink to spill over.
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Next-gen MEMS ultrasonic solid-state earbud drivers will deliver the bass
xMEMS CES
MEMS drivers may be the next big thing in true wireless earbuds, the first models with the solid-state components still require a hybrid setup. These products pair a MEMS speaker with a dynamic driver to ensure proper bass performance. The current-gen driver from xMEMS, a California-based company that develops the audio components, is called Cowell and it's already available in earbuds from the likes of Creative and Noble Audio.
The next-gen MEMS driver is called Cypress, and while it won't arrive in new products until 2025, we got a change to hear the difference been it and Cowell at CES 2024 — and it's quite striking.
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Hyundai shows off its updated S-A2 air taxi at CES 2024
A gray and blue aircraft.
Hyundai has debuted its new air taxi concept, the S-A2, at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. The electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle is a follow-up to the S-A1 model it introduced at the same event back in 2020. Hyundai still envisions the S-A2 as an every day transportation solution for urban areas, one that could get passengers from point A to point B a lot more quickly than if they'd traveled by car or bus and had to contend with traffic.
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Gaming inside Sony and Honda's Afeela concept EV at CES 2024
Mat Smith just took a stationary ride in the Sony-Honda Afeela EV:
"A year since Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) announced its debut EV concept, the Afeela, the company is back at CES 2024 to offer more details, more collaborations and a driving simulator.
The name of the concept vehicle hasn't changed since last we saw it. What is new, however, is the car's ability to be driven around with a PlayStation controller. I didn't get to do that — it was a stunt operated by one of the company's employees — but there was a DualSense controller involved in my demo."
You can read the full story here, or see it for yourself in our YouTube video:
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The $2,000 ASUS ZenScreen Fold solves the biggest issue with portable monitors
At CES 2024, ASUS announced the ZenScreen Fold, which the company claims is the world's first foldable OLED portable monitor.
Sam Rutherford has just checked out ASUS' ZenScreen Fold, an exorbitantly expensive portable monitor. Here's what he has to say:
"When I'm away from home and don't have access to my big desktop displays, it feels like I'm missing a limb. Unfortunately, there's a limit to how big a portable monitor can really be. After a certain point, it's not going to fit in a reasonably sized bag. ASUS's ZenScreen Fold solves that problem through the use of a bendy OLED panel.
Measuring 17.3 inches across, the ZenScreen Fold is still a far cry from the 27-inch monitors I have at home, but it's a huge step up from typical 14 or 15-inch portable displays. And thanks to the fact that you can bend it in half, it can collapse down to something not much larger than a hardcover book and just 0.38 inches thick."
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A Volkswagen with ChatGPT told me a story about dinosaurs at CES 2024
A Volkswagen in-dash tablet display shows an example of the ChatGPT integration announced at CES 2024.
Earlier this week, Volkswagen announced plans to augment its in-car voice assistant IDA with ChatGPT. I'll admit that I initially didn't quite understand the point, but I got a chance here at CES 2024 in Las Vegas to hear about the vision for this integration from Cerence, the company that already powers the back-end of VW's voice assistant. As usual, it's a bit of a rough demo, because it's hard to exactly see how ChatGPT will help you out when you're on the road when you're instead sitting in a stationary car inside of a convention center.
But conceptually, the idea behind bringing ChatGPT into a car is all about avoiding a "dead end" when you ask IDA something, Cerence told us. Drivers don't need to do anything different — you just say "Hello IDA" or press the voice assistant button on the driver's wheel and start talking. And if there's something that IDA doesn't know, it'll check with ChatGPT. When the voice assistant hits ChatGPT, you'll only know because the response says "According to ChatGPT" at the beginning of it.
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Sennheiser's Momentum 4 and Momentum Sport sound excellent
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4
Billy Steele tested out Sennheiser's latest earbuds and came away mighty impressed:
"There's no need to mince words here: The audio performance on the Momentum True Wireless 4 is outstanding. I only listened to them for a few minutes, but I had a hard time walking away. The jazz demo tracks the company selected played to the earbuds' strengths with excellent clarity and pleasant, inviting tuning. Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) also seems to be improved as I was able to silence a noisy hotel suite at the press of a button."
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Urtopia's Fusion e-bike has fully integrated ChatGPT
A grey, white and black Urtopia Fusion e-bike rests on its kickstand on the blue-carpeted CES 2024 showfloor.
Engadget editor-at-large James Trew has tested a couple of Urtopia's high-tech ebikes, most recently the Chord. At CES 2024, the startup is back with the Fusion, a bike that has ChatGPT integrated.
What's new is what the company calls "Jarvis" technology enabled by a smart ring (the company didn't say which one) to power the bike on, play music or activate the other tech feature, ChatGPT. You can also converse directly with ChatGPT through the built-in speaker. You may reasonably ask what ChatGPT is doing on an e-bike — the answer is that it can help you "explore new routes, get real-time information, and even engage in entertaining conversations," according to Urtopia.
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Clicks is a charming keyboard that's relying on more than just nostalgia
Clicks is a new physical keyboard for iPhone that attempts to make typing a bit more tactile.
Here's Sam Rutherford on Clicks, a case for iPhones that adds a physical keyboard to your device:
"The original iPhone convinced me (and many others) that typing on touchscreens was the future. So the last thing I expected to test out during CES 2024 here in Las Vegas was a mobile accessory that's trying to bring back the physical keyboard. And, while I wanted to dismiss Clicks as a thing for people who can't let go of yesteryear, what I found was a gadget that's solving some modern problems by taking cues from the past."
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Don't call 'em skates, because they're Moonwalkers
Image of Shift Robotics' Moonwalkers on a black table.
Shift Robotics, a startup spun out of Carnegie Mellon, made a splash last year with its Moonwalkers, shoes with built-in wheels that speed up human walking. The company rocked up at CES 2024 in Las Vegas with the existing Moonwalkers and its new model, the Moonwalkers X, for us to have a play with. You can read the full story here, or watch senior reporter Daniel Cooper rolling around for a few minutes in this video:
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We tried meat from the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker, and it was delicious
GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker
Here's Billy Steele on what meat prepared in the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker tastes like:
"After just a couple of hours in the Smart Indoor Smoker, the beef had noticeable flavor from the wood pellets. McGarity was also preparing a pork butt, but it still had several hours to go before it would be ready. Given my experience with outdoor smokers, even just one bite gave me a sense of what the GE Profile model was capable of. My main concern was the amount of smoke flavor it would impart, and it was great to see that the device managed infuse an ample amount in a limited time period. That bodes well for an 8- to12-hour low-and-slow smoke session."
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The ASUS AirVision M1 is a wearable display for multi-taskers
Eyewear on a stand.
ASUS has introduced quite a lengthy list of products at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, including a high-tech eyewear called the AirVision M1. It's not really a competitor to the upcoming Apple Vision Pro and the mixed reality headgears other companies debuted at the event, though. The AirVision M1 is a wearable display with the ability to generate multiple virtual screens, supposedly so that users can juggle several tasks at once. It's equipped with an FHD (1,920 x 1,080) Micro OLED display that has a 57-degree vertical perspective field of view.
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This ring lets you whisper to your phone, because sometimes we need to use our inside voices
Image of the VTouch Whsp Ring, in dark grey, sat on a blue to pink ombre table.
If there's a problem with the world of ambient computing we're all expected to live in, it's that you can't really be discreet. Most commands to your voice assistant of choice have to be spoken at a volume slightly higher than you would speak to another person. That's the societal ill VTouch, a South Korean company, has chosen to tackle with its WHSP Ring. It's a ring with a proximity sensor and microphone that activates when you raise it to your mouth. So when you want to talk to your assistant, you can simply mutter toward your knuckle and have it understand you.
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Welcome to Day 2 of CES 2024
The Engadget team has been in Las Vegas for CES since January 6, but somehow this is, officially, only Day 2 of the show. Today's all about Qualcomm, which will be holding its annual keynote at 5PM ET. Before then, we've got a bunch of news and impressions to bring you.
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Watch Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger talk about the future of AI
We're rounding out our day with a good ol' fashioned CES keynote. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger will take the stage to talk about all sorts of things, but mostly, we imagine, AI. Unfortunately Intel doesn't seem to have heard of YouTube, so you'll have to head to the Intel CES website to watch it.
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The Perfecta grill uses AI to help cook a steak in 90 seconds
Seergrills Perfecta
CES has increasingly become a grilling show, with companies constantly finding ways to bring more tech to your deck or patio. One company that's added a dash of AI to its spice rack is Seergrills. Its flagship model, the Perfecta, can cook a one-inch-thick ribeye steak in 90 seconds.
Inside, dual vertical infrared burners cook both sides simultaneously, which not only expedites the process, but it also eliminates the need to flip. Seergrills says the burners top out at 1,652 degrees Fahrenheit and the unit can even ensure edges are crisp thanks to 360-degree heating. A built-in AI chef takes the desired doneness and sear level into account, calculating the proper cooking time and temp based on the food. Sensors detect the thickness of things like steak and chicken to prevent over or undercooking and the burners automatically move toward and away from foods as needed during the process.
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Squad Mobility's tiny solar-powered EV is a dream for crowded cities
Image of the Squad Mobility Car, a small solar-powered electric car, at CES.
Senior reporter Daniel Cooper has been wandering around Eureka Park evaluating the many, many startups here at CES, and found this gem of a microcar. Here's what he has to say about it:
"EVs, like me after the holidays, have a tendency to bloat at the slightest provocation, which is why I can't fit into those size 34 jeans. The big issue for electric cars is heavy batteries force cars to grow in size to accommodate them. Of course, the heavier the load, the more power is needed to keep going, forcing you into a vicious cycle. Even a small city car like the original Smart has, in its latest electric version, grown into a grotesque parody of its predecessor. Which is why there's a lot of hope riding on truly small EVs, like Squad Mobility's solar-powered car that's designed not to grow too big to fit inside a city.
The company was founded by Chris Klok and Robert Hoevers, who met while working on the Lightyear solar car. Klok was chief vehicle engineer of that project, while Hoevers was previously involved with NIO's Formula E team. But they left Lightyear to help develop a small, solar-powered car that would offer affordable and clean mobility for dense cities. And while it's just got a few prototypes to show off, like the one here at CES 2024, it's expecting to begin production in 2025. Even better, many of its existing pre-order customers are based in the US, given the need for a car like this in those communities that exclusively rely on golf carts to get around."
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Rabbit R1 is an adorable AI-powered assistant co-designed by Teenage Engineering
Rabbit R1
One of the few genuine surprises at CES 2024 isn't even an official exhibitor. The Rabbit R1 is an adorable little device completely dedicated to running an AI built on what the company calls the Large Action Model (LAM). Where a Large Language Model (LLM) can understand you and reply to you, LAM is able to learn your actions and perform tasks like whipping up recipes, booking a vacations or finding out who sampled a song. It's definitely interesting and its Teenage Engineering design pedigree and reasonable price of $199 certainly help. Though we're still waiting to get our hands on one in real life before we get too excited.
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The Spacetop is a laptop that really wants to swap your screen for AR glasses
While the bottom half of the Spacetop looks like a traditional notebook, the top half relies on tethered AR glasses to provide a 100-inch virtual display.
Right now there are a bunch of companies trying to figure out new and better ways to work on the go. Lenovo made a laptop with two displays and a detachable keyboard to help give owners additional screen space without too much added bulk. And there are headsets from Meta, Apple and others that offer a way to create a completely virtual workspace without the need for a tethered PC. But with the Spacetop, startup Sightful has come up with an in-between solution that uses the bottom of a laptop, but instead of a traditional display, it's attached to a pair of AR glasses.
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BMW shows off automated valet parking at CES 2024
Contributor Tim Stevens has just remotely driven a BMW around a parking lot. Why? You'll need to watch the video below for the full story, but here's how the company describes the demo:
"The teleoperator uses sophisticated technology and live camera images to guide and move the vehicle so that it can be parked and retrieved again in a carefully controlled manner. Possible future applications for this technology could include parking at events, at airports or in the logistics sector."
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OrCam Hear hands-on: A surprisingly effective voice isolation platform for those with hearing loss
A pair of black earbuds on a person's palm, with their other hand holding up a phone with the OrCam Hear app on its screen.
Imagine being at a crowded convention or noisy bar and trying to have a conversation with someone across from you. It's tough enough for people with hearing to focus on what the person is saying, not to mention those with hearing loss. Assistive technology company OrCam has rolled into CES 2024 with a host of new products including a set of devices and an iPhone app designed to help those with hearing loss deal with auditory overload. The platform is called OrCam Hear and after a quick hands-on at the show in Las Vegas, Deputy Editor Cherlynn Low came away pleasantly surprised.
OrCam Hear consists of a pair of earbuds and a dongle that plugs into any phone, and you'll use the app to control who you want to listen to. The system listens to voices for a few seconds (via the dongle) and uses AI to create speaker profiles for each person that then allows you to "selectively isolate specific voices even in noisy environments." This targets the issue sometimes known as the "cocktail party problem" that's a challenge for hearing aids.
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Honda debuts two futuristic 0 Series EV concept models at CES 2024
Honda concept EVs
Today, at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, Honda revealed two concept EVs — a sedan dubbed the Saloon and the minivan-esque Space-Hub. Honda said it will develop a model based on the Saloon concept car for North American markets in 2026, before it eventually reaches other buyers in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South America and Africa. Additionally, the carmaker debuted a redesigned H logo that will be exclusive to its EV lineup.
The Saloon, which is its flagship concept EV, has an aerodynamic design and rides low to the ground. While the Space-Hub is quite a bit boxier and renders show it with seating that has passengers facing each other. Besides touting a spacious cabin, Honda did not share much about when or if it plans to actually manufacture a car inspired by the Space-Hub concept.
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Samsung's Ballie robot didn't do much at CES 2024, but it sure is cute
Samsung Ballie robot demo
Samsung's Ballie robot is one of the more delightful things we've heard about at CES 2024. The spherical robot was a surprise from Samsung yesterday, though the company first showed off a version of it back in 2020. Ballie's now a lot bigger, growing from a tennis ball to a bowling ball, and it has a built-in projector.
Unfortunately, Samsung isn't letting us get any one-on-one time with Ballie here in Las Vegas, but the company did show off a demo at its booth. It was obviously tightly scripted and controlled, but at the very least it gave us an idea of how the company envisions Ballie being used.
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LifeSpan's Ampera charges your phone as you pedal
Senior reporter Daniel Cooper checked out this stationary bike for standing desks that charges your phone as you pedal:
"Unlike some desk bikes, Ampera is designed to capture your energy and use it to charge your phone via its 15W Qi charging plate. And, if you feel your legs have more power in them, you can re-juice your laptop via the 65W USB-C port."
You can read the full story here, or watch a video of Dan testing it out in person:
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First impressions of MSI's Intel-powered gaming handheld
We already told you about MSI's attempt to compete in the gaming handheld space, but now you can see the Claw in action, and get some thoughts from Sam Rutherford on how it's shaping up so far:
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LG Display's next-gen OLED panels address the tech's biggest weakness
LG Display's next-gen OLED at CES 2024
This year, LG Display came to CES 2024 with something to prove. It had multiple sizes of transparent OLEDs (the show's theme appears to be transparent displays) and a gaming monitor capable of 480Hz refresh rates – double what we're used to seeing. Perhaps the most interesting things at its showroom were LG Display's most advanced OLED panels yet, featuring its META technology 2.0. While it sounds like promotional fluff (and there's some of that here), the company is trying to address arguably OLED's biggest weakness.
While the company revealed its META technology last year, version 2.0 features advanced microlens arrays (now called MLA+). These are micrometer-sized lenses with a Dragonfly eye design that improves the viewing angle of OLED displays up to 160 degrees. These lenses (and there are 42.4 billion of them in LG Display's 83-inch 4K prototype), combined with new algorithms result in an OLED far more brighter than its predecessors – 42 percent brighter than conventional OLEDs, according to the company.
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Grilly Steele on... The Weber Summit and Searwood
Guess it's video hour over here. Join our resident cooking tech expert Billy Steele for a first look at Weber's latest smart grills:
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First impressions of BMW's AI-infused personal assistant
We brought you the news of BMW's new AI push earlier, but since then Tim Stevens has taken a closer look. You can see the system in action, and get his first impressions, right here:
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SAG-AFTRA strikes deal for AI voice acting in video games at CES 2024
The SAG-AFTRA logo is displayed outside of the National Headquarters on Wilshire Blvd during the actors strike in Los Angeles, California on October 24, 2023. SAG-AFTRA members walked off film and TV sets in July, over terms including pay and the use of artificial intelligence. The strike has surpassed 100 days, and a series of high-level talks abruptly collapsed in acrimonious fashion. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
SAG-AFTRA, the union representing thousands of performers, has struck a deal with an AI voice acting platform aimed at making it easier for actors to license their voice for use in video games. Under the deal, which was announced during a press event at CES 2024, SAG-AFTRA members will be able to work with Replica Studios to license their voice to game studios.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union's top negotiator, said that the agreement "paves the way for professional voiceover artists to safely explore new employment opportunities for their digital voice replicas." The agreement comes as Hollywood is still grappling with the use of AI. Last year, SAG-AFTRA reached a deal with Hollywood studios that included AI protections following a months-long strike. As a result, studios are now required to pay actors (and obtain their consent) before using an AI-generated version of their likeness.
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The EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra is a home battery that can harvest power from 42 solar panels
Lifestyle image of the Delta Pro Ultra on the floor of a posh house, with a wire leading up to the Smart Home Panel 2, indicating that the home is able to use battery backup. To the left, a window highlighting a lightning storm.
EcoFlow has arrived at CES 2024 in Las Vegas to show off its largest and most useful home battery backup solution, the Delta Pro Ultra. It's calling the hardware a "smart hybrid whole house battery generator and backup" that will draw power from a wide variety of sources. You'll be able to charge it from either high or low-output solar panels, from the grid, or even juice it up from a gas powered generator. (But also, don't do that unless lives are on the line, please, the planet can't handle it.) The Delta Pro Ultra also vastly increases how much power you can keep on hand at any one time. The existing Delta Pro can scale — with additional batteries — up to 25kWh but, if your wallet is thick enough, you can equip the Ultra with 90kWh of batteries, which the company says should be enough to keep your home's essentials running for up to a month.
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Amazon and BMW are replacing the driver's manual with AI
A ground-level front-right view of a grey prototype BMW coupe parked indoors on display.
Vehicle-based voice assistants are the next great frontier, incorporating artificial intelligence into the driving experience. At CES 2024, Amazon and BMW announced a partnership to significantly improve the pre-existing experience, marrying a large language model (LLM) with Alexa and the actual driver's manual. The end result? You can ask the Alexa-powered chatbot anything about your car and receive accurate real-time information. That's right. That thick and unwieldy manual can stay in the glovebox, for good.
Amazon says this tool offers a "more natural way of getting to know your new car." You can ask how various features work, like the parking assistance system, and get conversational answers. Both companies suggest that this voice technology will "strip away complexity and minimize distractions in the car."
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The ASUS Zenbook Duo is a stunning dual-screen laptop with seemingly no compromises
At CES 2024, ASUS is finally launching its first true dual-screen laptop in the Zenbook Duo.
Between the Zenbook 17 Fold, Project Precog and previous Zenbook Duo machines, it feels like ASUS has been working towards building a true dual-screen laptop for ages. And now at CES 2024, that time has come with the arrival of the simply named Zenbook Duo.
Similar to Lenovo's Yoga Book 9i, the Zenbook Duo features two separate screens and a detachable Bluetooth keyboard that can be stashed inside the system for traveling. The difference is that ASUS' OLED panels look even better, as they are slightly larger at 14 inches, while also offering a 3K resolution, 120Hz refresh rate and stylus support. Plus, with a starting price of $1,500, it costs $500 less than the Yoga Book and not that much more than your average high-end ultraportable.
Read the full story here, or watch our video preview:
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Google apps are coming to select Ford, Nissan and Lincoln vehicles in 2024
A computer render of a car with an entertainment console showing Google apps.
Google has teamed up with more automakers to offer vehicles that come pre-installed with Google apps, the company revealed today at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. Nissan, Ford and Lincoln are rolling out select models with built-in Google Maps, Assistant and Play Store — among other applications — this year, while Porsche is expected to follow suit in 2025. They're the upcoming addition to the growing list of auto brands embracing tighter Google integration, which includes Honda, Volvo, Polestar, Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac and Renault.
The company has also announced new features for cars with built-in Google apps. One of those features rolling out today is the ability to send trips users have planned on their Android or iOS Google Maps app to their cars.
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Watch Honda unveil a new EV live at CES 2024
Honda has the first big press event of the day, where it promises to showcase an all-new EV. Watch along from 1:30PM ET.
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Android Auto will soon let Google Maps see EV battery levels and tell you where to charge your vehicle
Google display on compatible cars
Much of the auto news out of CES 2024 has focused on EVs, and Google is no exception. The company has announced that Android Auto will share real-time battery updates with Google Maps. The update should initially roll out to the Ford Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning in the coming months before expanding to other Android Auto-compatible EVs in the future.
With this new feature, Google Maps will give you suggestions of charging stations along the route without you having to pull over and search. It should also update you on the car's battery level once you arrive at a destination (something your EV should already do) and provide an estimate of how long it will take to charge. The latter is more novel and could help when you're in a rush.
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The Intel-powered MSI Claw is challenging AMD's handheld gaming monopoly
The Claw will be available with two Intel Core Ultra chips: a Core Ultra 5 model priced at $699 or a Core Ultra 7 version that starts at $749.
Between the ASUS ROG Ally, the Lenovo Legion Go and the Steam Deck, AMD has a virtual monopoly over the chips powering high-end gaming handhelds. But for the Claw, MSI is partnering up with Intel to bring a little more balance to the portable PC performance wars.
The Claw is powered by either an Intel Core Ultra 7 or Core Ultra 5 chip. And some people are probably wondering if Intel's first foray into high-end gaming handhelds can keep up. Especially since, in addition to a new chip, developers will be relying on Intel's integrated Arc graphics and a library of drivers that simply aren't as deep or as well tested as AMD's. It's also unclear how much the NPU inside Intel's latest chip will help with things like XeSS super sampling, which is sure to play a big part in the Claw's capabilities.
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Amazon will adopt Matter Casting instead of Chromecast or AirPlay
An image showing an Amazon Fire TV home screen.
Amazon is the first big company to add support for the Matter open casting standard, it announced at CES 2024. Matter Casting is an open protocol that lets you send videos and related content from an app to a hardware device, just like Apple AirPlay and Google Chromecast. The feature just launched for the Prime Video app and will allow casting to various Amazon hardware devices.
For now, you can only cast to the Echo Show 15 smart display, but the company says it'll soon offer support for Fire TVs, including Panasonic models with Fire TV built in. As for content streaming partners, it's just Prime Video for now, but the company promises more options later this year, including Plex, Pluto, Sling TV, Starz and many more.
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Audio Technica ATH-TWX7: Great audio from a compact design
Audio-Technica ATH-TWX7
Billy Steele has been testing a bunch of headphones here at CES, and this new set from Audio Technica seems like a winner:
"At CES 2024, the company is launching its latest entry, the AT-TWX7, which offers active noise cancellation (ANC) in an all-new AirPods-like stickbud design. Audio-Technica combines 5.8mm high-resolution drivers capable of 24-bit/96 kHz LDAC audio with a compact design and a number of conveniences for $199.
...In terms of sound quality, those 5.8mm drivers offer the clear, warm audio I've coming to expect from the company. It's quite pleasant to listen to across genres, and the great clarity means you'll pick up on finer details — like string noise in Charles Wesley Goodwin's country tunes and the texture of the upright bass laying down the rhythm."
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Jabra debuts listening mode quick toggles for the Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active earbuds
Black wireless earbuds sitting on a desk. One bud is out of the case, sitting on its own, while the case (with the other bud) sits next to it. Glasses and a smartphone are nearby.
Jabra announced on Tuesday during CES 2024 that it will roll out new features and enhancements for its Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active wireless earbuds, which launched in late 2023. The updates, which will roll out in two waves, include improvements to switching listening modes, call clarity and performance in windy conditions (among other tweaks).
The first wave of updates, due this month, will add an on-off toggle to quickly activate or deactivate Jabra's Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), HearThrough (hearing your environment while listening to music) and Sidetone (the volume at which you hear your voice) features.
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Micron LPCAMM2 RAM module
New laptop RAM might not seem like the most exciting news to come from this year's CES, but it's actually a pretty big deal. Senior editor Devindra Hardawar explains:
"Laptop RAM is facing a conundrum. The SODIMM standard — which is basically a shrunken form of desktop RAM modules — is almost 25 years old and facing an upcoming speed wall. With the demand for thinner machines, laptop makers have also started soldering LPDDR RAM directly onto motherboards, or bundling it into mobile SoCs like Apple Silicon, both of which make upgrades impossible. At CES 2024 in Las Vegas, Micron says it's the first to market with a compelling alternative: LPCAMM2 RAM modules using LPDDR5X.
Sure, it's an acronym salad, but there's a chance that Micron's technology, along with other CAMM2 offerings, could be a huge memory upgrade for laptops."
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Nanoleaf does smart outdoor lights now
Nanoleaf reveals its first smart outdoor lights
Nanoleaf, the company best known for its modular wall lighting tiles, is now moving outside your house. As part of CES 2024's avalanche of smart home news, the company unveiled its first exterior lights designed to bring extra visibility to your home. It also announced the Orchestrator app that creates a light show synced up to your playlists and songs.
The new Outdoor String Lights and Permanent Outdoor Lights are the company's first exterior lighting products.
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Weber reveals its more affordable, more versatile Searwood smart grill at CES 2024
Weber Searwood 600 XL
Weber has two new grills here at CES: the $899 Searwood 600 and the $1,199 Searwood 600 XL Here's Billy Steele on Weber's growing presence at the tech show:
"I'm convinced that CES is a grilling show now, and Weber is the primary reason for that. In 2020, the company demoed its SmokeFire pellet grills and Smart Grilling Hub, both of which are powered by its Weber Connect platform. The Wi-Fi-enabled tech brought remote monitoring, step-by-step guidance and other conveniences to the company's product lineup. Weber has since expanded those smart features to some gas grills, and at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, it's adding two more models to the Connect roster."
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Formlabs shows up at CES 2024 with more realistic 3D-printed teeth
Image of some Formlabs Tools on a blue table, next to which is a steel medical tray with some 3D-printed implant dentures on a teal cloth and a silver screwdriver.
Formlabs has rolled up to CES 2024 in Las Vegas with its customary bundle of announcements for its class-leading 3D printers. The company unveiled several new tools and materials at this year's show, but the most interesting has to be its Premium Teeth Resin, yet another foray into the dentistry world. It's intended to be used to create 3D-printed dentures as well as for temporary restorations that sit on implants like All-On-X. The company says it's already been registered with the FDA as a Class II biocompatible material, and has had its longevity validated.
This isn't the first step the company has made into the dentistry space and already offers the tools to make dentures. It's a natural venue for 3D-printing, and Formlabs, given the need for customization and its work in building a wide variety of materials for use.
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Welcome to Day 1 of CES 2024
It's just after 7AM in Las Vegas, and Engadget's on-the-ground team is back at it again, ready for the things to kick up a gear as the show floor opens in a couple of hours. In the meantime, there's plenty of news already to fill you in on, so settle in for a busy morning of updates.
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Sony namechecked Microsoft and Nintendo during its CES press event
Sony at CES 2024
Sony didn't have new TVs, new cameras, new soundbars or even new headphones during its CES presentation, which was weird. It did have a mixed-reality head-mounted display for creators and lots more details on its car collaboration with Honda.
And while it didn't have any major PlayStation news, Sony's CEO mentioned both of the company's console gaming competitors. Sony boss Kenichiro Yoshida mentioned the movie adaptation of Nintendo's Legend of Zelda, which is happening in collaboration with Sony Pictures. Moments later, Yoshida then introduced a spokesperson from Microsoft on stage to discuss their collaboration on Sony Honda Mobility. And yes, it was a little heavy on the Azure chat.
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Sony teased a 'spatial content creation' headset
Sony at CES 2024
Sony's CES 2024 presentation didn't have much news for the first 25 minutes, then it revealed a new virtual reality creation headset with... no name so far, aimed at "spatial content creation." With a matte gray finish, the headset looks like a stripped-down PSVR2, and there appears to be two cameras facing out from the front. There is also a controller-wand and a smaller peripheral similar in size to a ring. The new hardware is apparently aimed at creators and artists who manipulate and craft products in virtual spaces.
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Sony drove its Afeela EV onto the CES stage using a PlayStation controller
Sony / Honda Afeela concept car
Sony's partnership with Honda around a new concept EV called the Afeela has been a highlight of CES for several years now. And while we're not any closer to finding out if and when this car will become a reality, Sony had a fun way to show off the latest iteration of the vehicle: they drove it onto the Sony CES stage with a PlayStation DualSense controller. Sure, it was just a fun gimmick rather than any evidence of a PlayStation-controlled vehicle coming down the road, but CES is all about the spectacle.
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The new ROG Phone 8 from ASUS finally puts a good camera in a gaming phone
ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro
For years, ROG Phone users had to put up with average camera quality for the sake of mobile gaming experience, and ASUS blamed it on cost reasons. To put it bluntly, it was either ROG Phone for gaming, or Zenfone for photography. Now that we've entered 2024, the Taiwanese tech giant finally has a change of heart. Announced at CES 2024, the ROG Phone 8 and 8 Pro essentially blend together the best of both worlds, featuring the usual trove of gaming aids in — at last — a brand new design, along with a set of significant camera upgrades derived from the Zenfone line.
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Kia announced a fleet of cute, modular vans at CES 2024
Kia Concept
Kia is back at CES after five years and just announced a new modular EV platform called Platform Beyond Vehicles, or PBV for short. These vehicles are still in the concept stage and aren't the kind of cars you're going to go out and buy to get around town or go on vacation — at least, not yet. Instead the PV5, the first vehicle Kia is planning, will focus on business utilities like ride-hailing, delivery and other business utilities.
Probably the coolest thing about the PV5 is how modular it is. Kia showed off four different configurations. The standard is a small van, but you can swap in an extended roof if you need more space. You can also swap the back two thirds out entirely and have it in a pickup truck configuration, and finally there's a taxi configuration focused on transporting passengers. As you might guess, the inside is completely modular to enable these transformations.
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Watch Sony's CES 2024 press conference here
Our last show of Day 0 is Sony's, which, well who knows what to expect? Watch along with us, and we'll bring you some updates along the way. It kicks off a 8PM ET.
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ASUS debuts its first homegrown NUC at CES 2024 with Core Ultra 9 chips and RTX 4070 graphics
ASUS just announced a brand-new mini PC at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. The ROG NUC mini gaming PC comes after Intel revealed it would stop making first-party NUC systems, and ASUS was taking over the brand.
For the uninitiated, NUC stands for Next Unit of Compute and refers to a line of ultra-portable desktop PCs and barebones computer kits. These are complete systems that you can hold with one hand, and the ROG NUC is no different. This mini PC, originally codenamed Scorpion Canyon, comes with your choice of Intel Core Ultra 7 or 9 processors and NVIDIA RTX 4060 or 4070 GPUs, allowing for four simultaneous 4K display outputs.
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The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16 offer a more sophisticated take on gaming laptops in 2024
For 2024, both the Zephyrus G14 and G16 got complete overhauls featuring refresh specs and a new aluminum chassis.
Due to the lack of new GPUs from NVIDIA at CES 2024, ASUS could have refreshed the processors in its flagship gaming laptop line and simply called it a day. But much to my delight, ASUS still went and completely redesigned the ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16 and it feels like the company may have struck the perfect balance between performance and a more sophisticated take on the gamer aesthetic.
The biggest change is the new CNC-machined aluminum chassis with a somewhat boxy frame and clean minimalist lines. Not only is this construction stiffer and more durable than before, both new models are smaller (up to 4mm thinner) and lighter (by up to 0.3 pounds) than the previous generation. Keycaps are also 12 percent larger and on the inside, there's enough room for 20 percent larger speakers. Meanwhile on the outside, instead of a bunch of RGB lighting, there's a single white LED strip arranged in a slash across the lid. It looks bold without being too in your face, and you can choose from two colors: Eclipse Gray or a stunning Platinum White. It feels like ASUS has made a stylish machine that adult gamers don't need to be embarrassed about whipping out in public.
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Philips' smart deadbolt will unlock a door by looking at your palm
Wi-Fi Palm Recognition Smart Deadbolt
At CES 2024 this week, Philips teased its first-ever smart deadbolt that works using a touch-free palm reading system that allows homeowners to unlock their front doors. The Philips 5000 Series Wi-Fi Palm Recognition Smart Deadbolt, will go on sale in the US early this year and will retail for $360.
The deadbolt will join the Philips home security smart lock product lineup and will integrate with the Phillips Home Access app where users can remotely control the lock system through smart home assistants like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. It'll also have built-in Wi-Fi that makes it easier to pair and link to other smart devices.
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Alienware teases a 32-inch 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor
A gaming display front and back.
Alienware is following up its 34-inch ultrawide QD-OLED display with a pair of upgraded models that promise to deliver enhanced in-game visuals: 4K QD-OLED and 360Hz QD-OLED monitors. The company unveiled them at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, and is touting each as a "world's first" in some regard.
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MSI is going big with three new 18-inch gaming laptops at CES 2024
The Titan 18 HX, Raider 18 HX and Stealth 18 AI Studio headlined MSI's new gaming laptops for 2024.
CES often sets the tone for all of a manufacturer's products that year. And apparently the theme for MSI in 2024 is "big." It's kicking things with three new 18-inch gaming laptops at CES 2024, plus one of the best-looking budget systems around.
As usual, MSI's roster of gaming notebooks is headlined by the Titan series, in this case the Titan 18 HX. For those familiar with the previous generations, you may notice a lack of a two-letter tag in front of the system's names (e.g., GT, GE, et cetera), a move MSI is making across all of its laptops to simplify its naming scheme.
For more on the Titan 18 HX, Raider 18 HX, Stealth 18 AI Studio and the Cyborg 14, read our full story.
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Alienware m16 R2 hands-on: A sleeker gaming laptop design for CES 2024
When put side-to-side next to last year's model, it's clear how much extra bulk Alienware shaved off on the new m16 R2 (right).
Alienware's m16 has been on a diet. Unlike the 2023 m16, which could accommodate RTX 4090 cards, the M16 R2 tops out at an RTX 4070. In return for lowered top-end performance, you get a sleeker and lighter laptop with a larger 90 Whr battery, slimmer bezels, and a larger touchpad – all in a package with a 15 percent smaller footprint.
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The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 is the funkiest gadget mashup at CES 2024
It's the Rutherford hour here at Engadget. Here he checks out Lenovo's new ThinkBook Plus Gen 5, which is a Windows laptop and also an Android tablet and also a mini desktop with a built in keyboard, kinda like a very modern Commodore 64. Confused? I don't blame you. Here's how he describes it:
"At first glance, the ThinkBook Plus looks like an ordinary clamshell. However, if you pull up on the display, it lifts right off and becomes a 14-inch tablet while the bottom contains everything needed to power a traditional Windows PC (well, aside from a screen). From there, you can use the tablet as a standalone Android device, a wireless monitor for the laptop base, or a Wacom-like inking display via Lenovo's Freestyle app. Meanwhile, you can use ThinkBook's deck as a mini desktop just by plugging in an external screen."
You can read the full story here, or watch the video below to see this weird thing in motion:
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The Acer Predator Helios 18 has the most mesmerizing hinge on a laptop
The Infinity Mirror hinge on the Acer Predator Helios 18 is the most mesmerizing hinge on a laptop at CES 2024.
Sam's back again, this time looking at Acer's new Predator Helios 18, which has a very fancy hinge that definitely won't make you look like an idiot at the coffee shop:
"Compared to last year's model, the outside of the Helios 18 doesn't look that much different. It features a familiar matte black chassis and, at 7.17 pounds and 1.14 inches thick, it's about the same size and weight as well. But then you get to the back where its new hinge is waiting to dazzle you with a seemingly endless series of RGB lights to gawk at. It's a cool effect that Acer has dubbed the Infinity Mirror lighting bar, and while I'm not sure that alone would cause me to buy one, it's certainly fun to stare into. All hail the hypno hinge."
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Razer's Blade laptop lineup shines bright with stunning screens
At CES 2024, Razer announced big refreshes for the Blade 14, Blade 16 and Blade 18 including two world's first displays.
We'd already heard a little about Razer's new Blade lineup before CES, but now we've seen them for ourselves. Sam Rutherford checked them all out, and came away impressed. Probably the most interesting of the lot is new Blade 18:
"This display is so new, the model we saw at CES has a placeholder lid, so the system I saw was significantly thicker than it will be at launch. The other big claim is that the Blade 18 will feature a Thunderbolt 5 port, which is the first time I've heard any company pledge to include this connector. Unfortunately, that's all we know about the Blade 18 for now, as it's not scheduled to launch until sometime later this year."
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Intel's 14th-gen CPU family includes a powerful 24-core laptop chip
Intel 14th-gen chips CES 2024
While Intel is leaning heavily on AI PCs with its Core Ultra notebook chips, it still has plenty of new products for gamers and speed demons who demand power above all. At CES 2024 in Las Vegas, Intel revealed its complete 14th-generation CPU family, which includes powerful "HX" series chips like the 24-core i9-14900HX, as well as new mainstream desktop CPUs. And for the other end of the power spectrum, Intel also unveiled the Core U Processor Series 1, which balances performance and efficiency in thin and light notebooks.
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Watch Kia show off five new EV concepts at its press conference
Kia is returning to CES for the first time in five years and the company is set to take center stage for a spell by hosting a press conference. You'll be able to watch all the Kia CES 2024 announcements on January 8 at 6PM ET by checking out the livestream below. The company says it will offer interested parties a closer peek at several of its concept models including the EV3 and EV4, as well as the EV9 and EV6 GT. Kia is also promising a look at its first so-called "platform beyond vehicle" (PBV) that's scheduled for mass production in 2025.
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Samsung's Ballie robot ball showed up at CES 2024 with a new look and a built-in projector
A screenshot from Samsung's video introduction of Ballie, with the yellow robot ball on the right projecting an image of green leaves onto the floor. Across from it sits a golden retriever looking intently at the leaves.
It wouldn't be CES without Samsung showing off a strange and strangely lovable robot, and this year is the same. At its CES 2024 press conference today, the company showed off a robot named Ballie that has a projector built in. Interestingly, though, according to a report from The Washington Post, Samsung said the robotic sphere will actually available for sale within the year.
In four years, Ballie appears to have grown up. It's now "bowling-ball-size" and has a spatial LiDAR sensor and a 1080p projector. The latter has two lenses and allows the robot to display movies, video calls and "greetings" on its surrounding surfaces. In a video shown during the keynote, Ballie greets a user who returns to their home by projecting the word "Welcome," as well as displaying a conference call, workout video and the contents of a nearby PC, like a secondary screen. In an adorable scene, it also showed the robot projecting a video of greenery on to the floor for a golden retriever sat across from it.
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Ballie is back
Samsung Ballie
Remember Ballie? It was a projector-robot concept that Samsung debuted at CES 2020. It's back, and it's bigger than ever. We'll have a full story on it soon.
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Samsung's CES 2024 press conference is upon us
Samsung's CES show starts at 5PM ET, and you can watch it here.
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Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds bring heart rate and body temp sensors to your workout
Sennheiser Momentum Sport
There are earbuds aplenty at CES 2024 and today Sennheiser revealed its two latest models in Las Vegas. The company has updated its flagship Momentum line with a new premium model, the Momentum True Wireless 4, while also debuting its first tech-filled set of fitness earbuds in the Momentum Sport. Both sit at the top end of the company's lineup and will cost you $300 or more when they arrive later this year.
Sennheiser says it took over three years of work to build the Momentum Sport, combining fitness tech with its trademark sound quality. Inside, a photoplethysmography (PPG) heart rate sensor and a body temperature sensor can send workout biometrics to apps like Apple Health, Garmin Connect, Strava, Peloton and Polar Flow. The earbuds only send body temp info to that last app though. Sennheiser says the Momentum Sport marks the first time ever that a non-Polar product will be able to leverage the data analytics of Flow for real-time analytics. What's more, the Momentum Sport's stats work with the Polar Vantage V3 watch and you can have training audio (Smart Coaching) sent from the company's app to the earbuds.
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Sennheiser Accentum Plus headphones swap buttons for swipe touch controls
Sennheiser Accentum Plus
Sennheiser just introduced its more affordable Accentum noise-canceling headphones in September, aiming to offer some of the best parts of its pricier Momentum cans at a lower price. At CES 2024, the company is already adding a second Accentum model, the Accentum Plus, that carries much of what made last year's installment an attractive alternative to flagship headphones. Sennheiser has spilled all of the details in Las Vegas, and thankfully, the 50-hour battery life remains from the previous version.
While the design is still inspired by the Momentum line, the key difference on the Accentum Plus is the addition of touch controls. Gone are the physical buttons that adorned the 2023 model, for better or worse depending on your preference for sorting playback and calls. Taps and swipes now handle media, volume and transparency mode.
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ViXion01 glasses reduce eyestrain by doing the focusing for you
ViXion01
Senior Asia reporter Richard Lai has a knack of finding odd-looking gadgets, and this year is no different. Here's what he has to say about these glasses:
"CES is the type of show where one is likely to come across all sorts of dorky, Geordi La Forge-esque smart glasses, but some do manage to include some practical features — like ViXion's auto-focus eyewear. The company, which is a spin-off of Japanese optics specialist Hoya, showed off its the ViXion01, at CES Unveiled 2024, and it's aimed at people who struggle to focus their eyes due to strain, old age or the time of day. After a quick demo, I could also see myself benefitting from it on a daily basis. I even dig the futuristic look on these glasses, which are the work of Japanese design firm, Nendo."
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I'm far too excited about Myrow
Image of the Myrow 22-inch touchscreen tablet bolted onto a ConceptD RowErg
One of the most delightful things about CES is, no matter how hard you prepare, you can stumble across something amazing. At 2024's CES Unveiled last night, I did a double-take after spotting Myrow, a company making a third-party display for Concept2's rowing machines. No, come back, please.
Long story short, Concept2's rowing machines are great, but their user interfaces — standalone units known as Performance Monitors — are the bad kind of retro. Myrow's founder, like a lot of Concept2 users, feels it's high time the company offered something better.
It's the sort of product that I had given an afternoon's thought to building myself before realising I lacked any of the necessary skills. I'm both delighted that someone else decided to take the initiative and, more importantly, is selling it for the relatively affordable price of $499.
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Sennheiser's CES announcements are almost here
We're 10 minutes away from Sennheiser announcing a bucketload of new headphone and earbud models. Our headphone expert Billy Steele is at the show now, feel free to try to spot him in the livestream above.
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Our first press conference supercuts
While our writers have been running around Las Vegas for your pleasure, our video team has been hard at work producing some bite-sized cutdowns of today's big press conferences. So if you weren't around this morning for any of the big shows, and don't feel like watching three hours or so of awkward CEO banter, we've got a fun way to spend the next 26 minutes and change.
Here's AMD's keynote in under 7 minutes:
Here's NVIDIA's keynote in under 10:
And last but not least, LG's show in 9 minutes and 41 seconds:
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NVIDIA is bringing day passes and G-Sync to GeForce Now
NVIDIA GeForce Now key art including text reading
NVIDIA had more news up its sleeve at CES 2024 beyond a bunch of new GPUs. The company announced a bunch of updates for its GeForce Now cloud gaming service, including the addition of G-Sync tech and day passes for its paid subscriptions.
Cloud G-Sync support, which is coming soon, will work on displays with variable refresh rates as well as monitors that are compatible with G-Sync. GeForce Now will adjust the display's refresh rate to match the streaming rate, in the aim of minimizing latency and stutter to deliver smoother gameplay.
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TCL's NXTPAPER 14 Pro is part tablet, part giant e-reader
TCL NXTPAPER 14 Pro hands-on at CES 2024
TCL is going for different with its new pro tablet, revealed at CES 2024. There aren't that many premium tablets beyond the annual updates from Apple and Samsung, and TCL plans to make its new 14- and 10-inch slates stand out with their display tech, featuring its next-gen NXTPAPER 3.0. It's aimed at striking a middle-ground between e-readers and tablets. It's not about them being sharper or faster, but gentler on our very human eyes.
The TCL NXTPAPER 14 Pro's display features heavily focus on eye comfort, with a new VersaView interface that can switch between a black-and-white reader mode and the standard tablet views. The 14-inch 2.8K display (2,880 x 1,800) features the company's new NXTPAPER 3.0, aimed at better reflecting, literally, how the human eye reads natural paper, but on a digital display. NXTPAPER is TCL's display tech that tries to offer a tablet experience with a paper-like reading surface. We've written about earlier iterations found in devices like the NXTPAPER 11 tablet and even some of its recent budget smartphones.
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TCL came to CES 2024 with a 115-inch MiniLED Quantum Dot TV
TCL QD Mini LED
Today is all about "the world's" — this time not the first, but the largest. TCL just announced what it says is the largest MiniLED TV with Quantum Dot technology. Yay for hyper-specific PR claims! At least it's easier to figure out what it's for than those new transparent models.
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TCL's CES press conference is happening right now
Another hour, another press conference. TCL is a huge company that manufacturers a wide range of devices across multiple product categories, though it's most famous for its TVs. The company promises to showcase over 100 "cutting-edge products" throughout CES, including QD-Mini LED TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, mobile devices, commercial displays and much more.
More specifically, TCL plans on unveiling "one of the world's largest" QD-Mini LED TVs during the press conference. It already announced a 115-inch behemoth at IFA back in September, so this one would have to match or exceed that size.
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Samsung and LG brought transparent TVs to CES
We saw a couple of transparent TVs from Korean giants Samsung and LG, announced within hours of each other.
LG's is a 77-inch model, the OLED T. The company says it's the first wireless transparent OLED TV, with 4K resolution and LG's wireless transmission tech for audio and video. The unit also features a contrast screen that rolls down into a box at its base that you can raise or lower with the press of a bottom. You can read all about it here.
LG OLED T
Samsung's model is another world first — this time "the world's first transparent MicroLED display." MicroLED is an exciting technology that is already on sale, but manufacturing troubles have kept prices in the six-figure range. Samsung showcased the transparent MicroLED display side-by-side next to transparent OLED and transparent LCD models to really highlight the differences between the tech. According to senior reviews writer Sam Rutherford, the MicroLED panel was significantly brighter and also featured a completely frameless design and a more-transparent glass panel that made it easier to see objects behind it. You can real all about that display here.
At its First Look event during CES 2024, Samsung showed off three different variations of the world's first transparent micro LED display.
One thing neither company talked about is why exactly people would want a transparent screen in their house. They've probably got a few years before this display tech is anything close to affordable to figure out the answer to that one.
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VW is going to add ChatGPT capabilities to its in-car voice assistant later this year, and even though there's no word on if / when it is coming to the US, we can get a demo of it at CES. I'm hopefully checking it out tomorrow — if there's anything ridiculous you think I should ask a VW, @ me on Threads.
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Exobrew is the latest machine trying to make homebrewing beer beginner friendly
An Exobrew sitting on a messy table at CES Unveiled 2024 next to Get to the Hoppa beer.
Exobrew is latest in a long line of companies to try and make homebrew beer as compact and beginner friendly as possible. Everyone from startups like Picobrew and Brewie, to major corporations like LG and Whirlpool have taken a stab at an all-in-one brewing systems with varying amounts of success (or lack there of). On the surface the Exobrew doesn't seem to stray too far from those who have gone before it, other than the eye-catching keg in a lovely shade of orange.
That keg is the heart of the system, it handles heating, cooling, fermentation and serving. During the actual brewing process it pumps hot water out the top and circulates it over the grains for the mash. When time comes for the boil, water is redirected to avoid over extraction. Above the grain hopper is a rotating dispenser for hop additions that drops them (in adorable little muslin bags) straight into the keg.
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Panasonic's CES 2024 press conference starts now
Sustainable energy will be a main concern of Panasonic's showcase, according to a statement the company put out ahead of the show. The brand also plans to discuss its "circular economy initiatives designed to optimize the use of natural resources." There's always a chance that Panasonic may have some consumer-focused wares to reveal as well. We could see some of the company's latest cameras during its press conference, as was the case last year. Panasonic may also divulge more about its efforts to make batteries for electric vehicles, including Tesla models.
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Even though I mostly think of Victrola for cheap, entry-level turntables, I really like what they've been doing with the Stream series. I reviewed the first one, the Stream Carbon, in late 2022. As a Sonos nerd who also loves vinyl, it was pretty great if expensive. But it feels like a premium device and sounds excellent as well.
So this new one, the Stream Sapphire, will also probably be nice. And I had never heard of Roon before, but now I'm curious. That said, I don't quite get the wild $1,499 price point. Hopefully I can check it out later this week and find out what's going on there.
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Mojawa put an AI running coach in its bone-conducting headphones
Image of four versions of the HaptiFit Terra in a variety of colors on a background where white and purple lines are ululating.
Mojawa, maker of bone-conduction headphones, has turned up to CES 2024 in Las Vegas with its new HaptiFit Terra. Unlike many other bone-conduction bands, it comes with a built-in AI sports trainer that, the company promises, will help you meet your goals. The AI can cook up custom exercise plans and tracks your heart rate, step count, pace, calories burned and distance. If you're a swimmer, it'll also monitor your swimming lap and distance, offering haptic feedback to keep you aware of how you're doing.
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Victrola's latest streaming turntable, the Stream Sapphire, debuts at CES
Victrola Stream Sapphire turntable
Victrola has made a somewhat surprising move into high-end, streaming-capable turntables over the last few years, and it's showing off the latest in the lineup at CES 2024. The Victrola Stream Sapphire is a $1,499 turntable with "premium" components and materials that can connect to Sonos and Roon streaming systems and also supports the Universal Plug and Play protocol (UPnP). It can also output up to 24-bit/48kHz lossless FLAC audio.
Getting beyond the jargon, this means that the Stream Sapphire can output your vinyl to a Sonos system once it's set up on the same network as your Sonos speakers.
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Hisense's CES press conference starts now
Did you know that Hisense is the official television manufacturer of the NBA? Exciting! We love them tall boys. You can hear all about its 2024 TV models right now at its CES press conference, which tips off at 12PM ET.
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Tech innovation at CES: AI-powered cat doors
Flappie cat door
This has nothing to do with either NVIDIA or LG, but in case you weren't following our coverage from the show last night, I do want to draw your attention to this random piece of smart home gear we saw at CES Unveiled. Flappie is a cat door that uses a camera and AI to detect if your pet's attempting to bring a dead animal in the house and keep it out. It's these ridiculous gadgets that make coming to the freezing Las Vegas desert every January worthwhile.
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NVIDIA reveals RTX 40 Super GPU series, including the $999 4080 Super
NVIDIA RTX 40 Super GPUs
After rounding out its RTX 40 GPUs in 2023 with the RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti, NVIDIA has brought the inevitable follow-ups to CES 2024: slightly faster Super cards! In Las Vegas today, NVIDIA has unveiled the RTX 4080 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super and RTX 4070 Super GPUs, upgrades over its previous GPUs which aim to compete directly with AMD's cheaper high-end cards. And of course, NVIDIA can't help but tout how useful they'll be for on-device AI tasks.
The RTX 4080 Super will sell for $999 when it arrives on January 31, while the RTX 4070 Ti Super will go for $799 on January 24th. AMD's Radeon 7900 XTX and XT launched at $999 and $899 a year ago — now NVIDIA has high-end options that don't involve shelling out $1,199 for the original RTX 4080 or an eye-watering $1,599 for the RTX 4090. For most buyers though, the mid-range $599 RTX 4070 Super may be the most compelling value when it lands on January 17.
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ChatGPT on wheels
Volkswagen ID.7
NVIDIA and LG's conferences are underway — the streams are embeded below — but Volkswagen doesn't need a press conference to announce... ChatGPT is coming to its vehicles. As part of its CES 2024 announcements, the automaker says that its existing IDA voice assistant will work with ChatGPT across a range of its newer models. VW isn't the first to try this — Mercedes-Benz announced ChatGPT integration in June of last year, so it seems like this is certainly a thing we're all going to have to get used to.
Specifically, VW says that ChatGPT will be enabled in these specific models with the latest generation of the company's infotainment systems: ID.7 (pictured above), ID.4, ID.5, ID.3, the new Volkswagen Tiguan, the new Passat and the new Golf. It'll roll out ChatGPT as as "standard feature" in "many" production vehicles in Q2 of 2024; the company didn't say in which regions, but notes that the feature is only currently "being considered" for the US market.
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Pick your poison: LG or NVIDIA
We've got our first dueling press shows of CES, with both NVIDIA and LG starting their addresses right now.
Here's NVIDIA's stream of its conference:
And here's LG's:
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LG S95TR and SG10TY first look: Two takes on wireless Dolby Atmos for home theater
LG SG10TY soundbar
While we wait for LG's press conference to begin... here's something new from LG. Billy Steele has been checking out the company's new home theater tech for 2024, which includes an adorable (but sadly non-functioning at CES) projector and a pair of Dolby Atmos soundbars. You can read the full story on the soundbars here, or check out this video for some sultry tones:
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AMD brings powerful built-in GPUs to Ryzen 8000G desktop chips
AMD Ryzen 8000G
It's been a long time since we got fresh "G" CPUs from AMD. These are the company's socketable desktop chips that contain on-board graphics. The fastest model of the new series, the Ryzen 7 $329 8700G, is an eight-core chip running between 4.2GHz and 5.1GHz, sporting Radeon 780M graphics.
According to the company's benchmarks, the 8700G is four times as fast in Hitman 3 in 1080p compared to the Intel i7-17400K's UHD 770 graphics. The 8700G apparently averages 90 fps in Baldur's Gate 3 in 1080p with low detail settings and the company's Hyper-RX and Fluid Motion Frames features turned on. (The latter is a bit controversial, since it can make gameplay look smoother and deliver higher fps counts, but it's also early technology and it's interpolating even more frames than AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 3.0.) Without any of those extra features, the 8700G still hits a respectable 58 fps in Baldur's Gate 3.
Sure, it's not going to get close to using a standalone GPU, but it is a great way to get a gaming PC build rolling on a tight budget.
Even if you're not interested in the Ryzen 8000G Series' graphics potential, senior reporter Devindra Hardawar explains that the built-in AI smarts still make them unique desktop chip:
"Much like the NPUs we've seen on AMD's recent mobile chips, as well as Intel's new Core Ultra hardware, it'll let you speed up AI tasks without hitting your CPU or GPU. At the moment, NPUs enable features like Windows Studio Effects, which can blur your background during video chats, as well as media editing in Adobe and DaVinci software. NPUs are more compelling on laptops now, as they can help systems be more efficient and potentially save battery life. But having an NPU on your desktop chip today could be a smart way to future-proof your build."
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AMD's 7600 XT is an entry-level 1440p GPU
ASRock Radeon RX 7600 XT
AMD just dropped the Radeon RX 7600 XT in Las Vegas. It's a slightly souped-up version of last year's entry-level RX 7600 with higher clock speeds and 16GB of VRAM. While that earlier card was laser-focused on 1080p gameplay, Engadget's resident GPU expert Devindra Hardawar explains that AMD is positioning the RX 7600 XT as a potential upgrade for entry-level 1440p gaming, as well as a better card for running AI tasks. The 7600 XT will be available on January 24 from third-party GPU manufacturers, but there's no pricing information available yet. Devindra thinks it'll be at least $329.
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JBL covers the headphone gamut with six new models at CES 2024
JBL Live 770NC
While we're waiting for AMD to stop vamping about AI being the future and announce some products, here's some headphone news from JBL. The company has six new sets of headphones in Las Vegas, including the more premium JBL Live range with on-ear and over-ear options, and four affordable options in the Tune lineup starting at $49.95. All of the new models will be available in March.
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AMD's CES 2024 press conference starts right now!
If you're looking for news on the latest processors and graphics cards, AMD's CES press conference kicks off right now, at 10AM ET. We'll be bringing you all the news from it here as well.
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HP unveiled the lightest 14-inch gaming laptop in the world at CES 2024
Weighing just 3.5 pounds, HP claims the Omen Transcend 14 is the lightest 14-inch gaming laptop in the world.
Our first piece of early CES news today comes from HP. Senior reviews writer Sam Rutherford explains:
"Sometimes the never-ending quest to shave an extra gram or millimeter off a new laptop can become a bore. However, when a company can do it without cutting too many corners, that deserves some attention. And that's what HP has done with the new Omen Transcend 14, which is making its debut at CES 2024 as the lightest 14-inch gaming laptop in the world."
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The Apple Vision Pro goes on sale in the US on February 2 for $3,499
A person smiles while wearing the Apple Vision Pro headset.
Although Apple doesn't attend CES, it does ocassionally enjoy loudly shouting from 500 miles down the road. This morning it announced that its first new platform in years — the Vision Pro headset — will debut in the US on February 2. Pre-orders for the $3,499 headset will open on January 19. The device will be available at all US Apple Store locations as well as through the company's web store.
Those who require vision correction will be able to snap up Zeiss optical inserts and attach them to the headset magnetically. Readers will cost $99, while prescription lenses will set you back $149.
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Welcome to Day 0
It's bright and early in Las Vegas, but we're already counting down the minutes before our first press conference. In the meantime, we've got some overnight articles to catch you up on, including one giant piece of news expertly designed to take your attention away from CES.
We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.