CES 2024 - New Tech That You Can Actually Buy!
I went to Las Vegas for CES 2024 and I saw tons of prototypes and concepts but here's my roundup of the top products that you'll actually be able to get your hands on in 2024.
LG: Let's start with LG’s Signature OLED T. This isn't the first time we've seen a transparent TV at CES but when LG told me that it will come out sometime later this year my ears perked up. We have no price point on this yet but they have made some obvious improvements to fine-tune the concept that we first saw a few years ago. The display is very crisp and their demo showed me how you can control the black background layer by making it drop down out of sight and draw back up so it looks like a traditional display. At one point I was able to walk behind the TV and you can't really see what's being displayed on it while you're behind it and when the black backdrop is pulled it's like looking at a curtain from behind. The display is bright enough that vibrant scenes make everything behind the TV sort of disappear from view even without the backdrop. We may see some final adjustments to this product design before it hits the market later this year.
Govee: Next I stopped by Govee's Booth. Since I own a bunch of their devices already I was very excited to see how they are improving upon their smart lighting categories. First we have Govee AI. One of the ways that Govee is using AI is with Govee AIGC or Artificial Intelligence Generated Content. In this demo I asked the app via voice command to create a lighting effect that was inspired by my favorite anime which is called Sailor Moon. It generated this ethereal moonlit design with blues and starry sparkles that fit the aesthetic that I was thinking of. Govee AIGC uses data training and AI algorithms to take user input and create a design to fit that idea. This will be available in the Govee app after a software update and it will be integrated into many Govee products.
Using the Govee AI TV Backlight 3 Pro I also saw Cogni Glow in action, which recognizes visual and audio signals from scenes and generates more dynamic and immersive AI lighting effects. This was very cool to see in person especially during a scene with a bunch of fireworks on the screen. The AI functionality works locally instead of transferring data to the cloud for user privacy.
In their gaming room Govee introduced the new Govee Gaming Wall Light with a mecha theme in collaboration with Evangelion. Now they are Matter compatible with a lot of customizable display options and swappable face plates. The new curtain lights too are also Matter compatible and IP65 waterproof. Now these curtain lights can have three sets plugged into one adapter and they have 10 canvases for much more options in terms of patterns.
Lastly I wanted to shout out Govee Life Smart Appliances which are bringing affordable Smart Home Appliances to the mix. Govee is making everything from heaters to electric kettles, smart plugs, air purifiers, and more. The smart plugs in particular along with many of their other lighting options are Matter compatible as well which will include better coverage, interconnection with other devices, and operability.
Razer: Razer also showed me their newest laptops starting with the Blade 18. This is the world's first 18 inch 4K 165 HZ display in a laptop. It features Thunderbolt 5 and it will be available later this year.
The one that's available now is the Razer Blade 16. This is the first and the fastest OLED at 240 HZ. It's a 16 inch display at a 0.2 millisecond response time with the 40 series Nvidia GeForce gpus and Intel's core i9 processors. This one again is available now it will start at $3,000 USD.
Next we have the Razer Blade 14. This is the smallest option in the lineup with an AMD Ryzen option and RTX 40 series graphics. This will have a QHD plus 240 HZ display and it is available for pre-order later this month. Now all three of these are lighter than I'd expected and they all feature upgraded specs for Wi-Fi, ports, storage and RAM.
Corsair and Elgato: Corsair had their 6500x mid tower dual chamber PC case. It features two tempered glass panels for dual chamber designs, and it's very clean and compatible with the new reversible connection motherboards. They also had their Corsair 2500x Micro ATX dual chamber PC case. This one also has those dual glass panels and it has that smaller form factor for your smaller builds. Both of these are going to be available in February.
Elgato had some really cool new tech including their 4K X external capture card. This one features HDMI 2.1 and it's capable of recording up to 4K 144 OR 240 FPS at 1080p. You can also play at HDR10 while capturing SDR including VRR Passthrough. This will be available in February for $230. They also had an internal option that is called the 4K Pro. This one also has HDMI 2.1 and if you have the tech for it you can do up to 8K passthrough with simultaneous 4K 60 recording or 240 FPS at 1080p. This one will also be available in February for $280.
ASUS: We have a couple of phones - the ROG Phone 8 and the ROG Phone 8 Pro. First is the Phone 8. This one features Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platforms with Ray Tracing Hardware Acceleration, 16 Gigs of RAM, 512 gigs of storage and the Republic of Gamers game cool 8 thermal system with rapid cooling conductors, and the display is a 6.78 inch Samsung AMOLED display at 2500 nits brightness. On the back of the phone you will see the AURA RGB lighting. This is an IP68 waterproof phone and the price will start at $1100.
The Phone 8 Pro also features the same CPU from Snapdragon, and 2 TB of storage. This one also features the same thermal system with rapid cooling conductor, pro level camera, and the same display. The back of this one features a programmable mini LED display which you can use to promote your YouTube channel, for example, and the price on this one will start just slightly over the phone 8 at $1200. No release date on these yet in the US but they will be available in the UK in February.
I'm a big fan of the ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16. The G16 has an Intel Core Ultra i9, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, 32 gigs of RAM and it only weighs about 4 pounds. The display is at 240 HZ refresh rate and it's a 16:10 aspect ratio, plus it's a 2.5k OLED. I love that it has an SD card slot that'd be great for content creation. It's got this big glass covered trackpad as well. Then we move over to the G14 which is the AMD Ryzen 8000 option with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU. This one also has 32 gigs of RAM and it only weighs a little over 3 pounds. The Republic of Gamers nebula display on this one is a 3K OLED display at 120 HZ refresh rate. No price point yet on these but they will be available from Q1 2024.
ASUS also featured the Zenbook Duo during CES. This one features dual 14 inch 3K OLED touchscreens, it is very responsive and it has multimode usage so you detach that full-size keyboard and touchpad you can still use a keyboard on the screen itself. There's also a kickstand on the back of the displays so you can use them in a couple of different modes. you can use it as an extension of the original display so you can scroll really easily through content, you can set it up sort of like a book, or you can mirror the display to present information to somebody sitting in front of you or play a game back and forth. No price or date of release on this one yet.
Lenovo: First is the ThinkBook Plus Hybrid Tab and the Thinkbook Plus Hybrid Station. So the tab is a tablet with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 with Android 13, 12 gigs of RAM, 256 gigs of storage, and it features a 14 inch 2.8k OLED display which is stylus compatible and it only weighs 1.73 pounds. The station is the bottom part and has an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, Windows 11 is built in, 32 gigs of RAM, a 1 TB SSD, and it weighs 2.14 pounds. So the way you use this is by combining the two pieces and the start button switches it between Android and Windows. It's very responsive, the keyboard is backlit and there's this really cool hybrid folder that allows you to access content that you've saved on one of those operating systems with the other through your regular pc file system. There's a magnetic spot on the back for a stylus and this will be coming out in Q2 for $1999.
Lenovo also had their Legion 7i. This gaming laptop features a 14th Gen Intel Core i9, specifically the 14900 HX, Windows 11, up to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 laptop gpus, 32 gigs of RAM, up to 1 TB SSD storage, and a 16 inch 3.2k IPS display at 430 nits brightness. This one only weighs 3.97 pounds and is coming out in March for $2099.
Acer: Acer had the Swift x14 laptop which was designed with creators in mind including the updated Intel Core Ultra H series processors, up to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 laptop gpus, and this one features a 14.5 inch 2.8k OLED display. The refresh rate on this one is 120 HZ and this will be available in North America in February starting at $1399.
Their other laptop that really stood out to me was the Predator Helio 16. This one will have a little bit more higher end specs like the Intel Core I9 processor and you'll have your RTX 4090 laptop GPU. There's a couple of different options - there's a 16 and an 18 in and there's an option to do a mini LED panel.
I am a big fan of RGB lighting and they have that Dynamic RGB lighting effect on the laptop's Predator logo. The backside has this beautiful infinity mirror lighting bar and the keyboard is really cool. Not only does it have that mini LED backlit keyboard which is very interesting but they also have these patented mag key 3.0 swappable mechanical keyboard switches and it also features Wi-Fi 7 support. This one will be available in January starting at $1899 in North America.
I was also able to see their brand new Predator z57 which is the biggest in their new group lineup of gaming monitors. This one is a 57 inch DUHD display at 120 hertz. That means it's 7680 x 2160 and it has a 1000r curvature and of course it is VESA Mount compatible. This will be $2499.99 coming out in Q2.
Clicks: Clicks, which was also announced here at CES 2024, is an iPhone case developed with creators in mind so if you constantly feel like your keyboard is taking up a whole bunch of space on your screen when you would rather see what's going on on the screen as opposed to whatever you're writing you can get one of these keyboard cases called Clicks. It allows you to take full advantage of the display on your device while using a traditional physical keyboard right below the screen itself. The size of this really reminded me of my very first smartphone, a Palm Centro, back when I was still in college so of course I thought this was very cool. My short time with it showed me that my longer fingernails did make it a little bit tougher to type on the buttons however if you do have shorter fingernails and you already know the QWERTY key lineup then you could type away without really having to look at the keyboard itself. Clicks is going to start shipping in the spring for a starting price of $139.
Apex Storage: For my friends in the audience who run their own businesses you may be interested in Apex storage. Apex storage gives you the ability to host a whole bunch of NVME Storage off of one PCI-E slot. It's really interesting how they built this. First we have one called the x21 - this one lets you host 21 M.2 storage devices and then we have the x16 which allows you to host 16 of them. This would be best used by somebody who needs lots and lots of space for development like if you're creating a whole bunch of servers, if you need a whole bunch of backup storage solutions, if you're a content creator you may want a whole bunch of storage like this in your home PC. Here's the pricing without the SSDs on them: first we have the x21 which is shipping now for $2800, then we have the x16 which is available for pre-order and will ship in mid 2024 for $1824.
TCL: I got to see the newest in their lines for the Q6 Pro Series of TVs, along with the QM7 Series, then we have the QM8 Series which would be the higher end version of these. They also showed me their brand new TV model, the 115QM891G Series TV. This one also has a QD-Mini LED panel with up to 20,000 plus dimming zones and it is gigantic at 115 inches.
The TCL 50 XL NXTPaper 5G phone features a 6.78 inch NXTPaper display at 120 HZ refresh rate. The cameras include a 50 megapixel hybrid camera - on the front there's an 8 megapixel, and on the back is a 50MP camera. It packs in 6 gigs of RAM with 128 gigs of storage. This phone ships with Android 14, you have dual speakers, NFC, and the battery is really big at 5,010 mAh hour battery and 18 watts of charging. On the tablet side is the TCL NXTPaper 14 Pro. This one does feature the NXTPaper technology and it's really beautiful. It is a 14 inch 2.8k 120 HZ display which includes a 13 megapixel front camera and a 50 megapixel rear camera, with a 12,000 mAh battery, 12 gigs of RAM, and 256 gigs of storage. It's a pretty nice tablet with Android 14, Wi-Fi 6 and this one is supposed to come out in spring of 2024.
The last piece of tech that I had so much fun with and I really wanted to share with you was the RayNeo Air 2. So the idea with this is that you have a 201 in screen at 6 meters away but it's built into this pair of glasses. It features a Next Gen low power micro OLED display with custom color effects and whisper mode 2.0 for privacy. The display also has eye protection built in and a 120 HZ refresh rate. Compared to the previous RayNeo this one is very very ultra lightweight. It does have this really nice adjustable design which I felt to be very useful as I don't have a tall bridge on my nose so I did have to adjust this so I could see the display really well. I had fun with this because I was playing the Nintendo Switch. I was playing Zelda right in front of my face through this Joy Dock. So the joy dock gives you gaming on the go through the RayNeo Air 2 glasses which means you're not going to have a whole bunch of neck pain by looking down at your Nintendo Switch the whole time if you're traveling with these on. It connects to the Nintendo Switch, it has a 10,000 mAh hour battery built in and it gives you portability with your Nintendo Switch without the switch dock set. The bundle is available right now on Amazon for $429.
That is everything that I saw at CES 2024 that is supposed to come out this year. Subscribe for upcoming reviews!
