CES 2018

CES 2018 was concluded recently and it has been quite an eventful affair. From robot pets to concept electrical vehicles, there were many things that want to lead us into the future. Here are a few things that I think would be of great importance going forward.

Mercedes Smart Vision EQ

CES was always a prime destination to show off electric vehicles. This year was no different and there were quite a few products that deserve attention. Byton concept SUV captured everyone’s attention with a stylish concept and a relatively affordable starting price of $45,000. However, it is Mercedes Benz Smart Vision EQ that captured my attention. Though it was announced at Frankfurt motor show, it made a lot of noise at CES.

This is how Mercedes envisions the future of transport. A completely autonomous vehicle which will be part of our everyday life by 2030 if everything goes according to the plan.

Project Linda from Razer:

Our cellphones are becoming powerful. How powerful? Qualcomm’s next flagship processor, Snapdragon 845 is set to be part of many laptops from HP and Asus in 2018. This same processor will be part of almost all Android flagships in the year 2018. With so much power packed into our mobiles, it only makes sense to transform it and use it as a proper computer.

Samsung Dex and Windows Continuum tried to make this happen in the past but the solutions they have offered always left something to be desired.

At CES 2018, Razer introduced us to ‘Project Linda’, a laptop that is powered by your smartphone. It is the execution where Razer scores points where others failed to impress.

The laptop enclosure has a slot which can fit a Razer phone perfectly and uses it as a track pad and a second screen while powering the larger display. This concept definitely has merit as the mobile processing power increases over time.

The Wall:

Televisions were always a big part of CES. This year, all the major television manufacturers impressed us with their latest offerings.

Samsung with its ‘MircoLED’ technology is planning to make a big splash in this area. At CES they showcased ‘The Wall’ a 146 inch 4K LED TV based on the Micro LED technology. This technology allows screens to be as big or as small as required. Definitely interesting.

Sony’s 8K offering has brightness up to 10,000 nit. Why is this impressive? The brightest commercially available HDR content around right now tops out at 4,000 nits. This means that the Sony’s concept TV can be twice as bright as the highest brightness TV that is commercially available. With 4K content being common place, the stage is properly set for someone to take leadership in the 8K market place and Sony plans to do just that.

Voxel:

Though Intel is not a company one thinks of when talking about consumer electronics, most of the computing in the world is powered by Intel.

At CES 2018, Intel showcased how the future of entertainment is going to change with the ‘Voxels’. VR gained a lot of momentum in 2017 and Intel wants to take charge and lead the way for VR in 2018. ‘Voxels’ which are similar to pixel but can capture the depth information when shooting a video is set to change the landscape of entertainment. With this technology, Intel aims to provide a more immersive VR experience and a view from the perspective of your favorite player or from the perspective of your favorite character.

Watching your favorite team play or binge watching your favorite show is going to be a lot more interesting if Intel can reach its goals. Here’s a video from Verge where Intel showcases their technology. If you have time, watch the entire video but if you are short on time, the fun starts at 2:40.

In-display Fingerprint scanner:

Finally, I want to end with a technology that will come to fruition in the near future. Buy this, I mean products with this technology that will be available to a wide range of consumers in this calendar year.

An In-display fingerprint scanner is something that people have been expecting for a while. At CES 2018, it was Vivo who is taking a lead in this area. Vivo is using a newly announced Synaptics optical sensor to achieve this feat. It uses the gaps between the pixels for scanning the fingerprint and hence cannot be implemented on LCD screens.

However, 2018 is going to be the year where many smartphone manufacturers will release smartphones with this or another variation of this technology. This allows devices to have almost zero bezels which is most welcome.

What was your favorite item at CES this year? Comment below and join the discussion.