Welcome to the fourth day of CES 2022, now feeling a long way since the show kicked off with launches from all the big brands on Monday.
That doesn't mean that the show is drawing to a close though - there's a whole slew of news and analysis to come from the world's largest tech show, setting the scene for the rest of the year in terms of what's going to be 'big'.
While we've heard multiple mentions of 'the metaverse' this year, nobody has really given an idea what it actually is, so we can't call that a trend yet. However, EVs are really front and center, with Chevrolet, Togg, BMW and even Sony getting in on the action - CES 2022 is really igniting the notion that our future is going all-electric.
But there's also invisible headphones, color-changing cars and air-purifying headphones to talk about too - this is still the mad world of CES, after all...
The big announcements so far
- BMW has made a color-changing car… yes, really
- PlayStation VR2 is official, accompanied by new PSVR 2 Sense controller
- Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is official, and now we know how much it'll cost
- Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX is a solar cell-clad EV with huge range and an 8K display
- Sony announces the first (and currently only) QD-OLED TV of CES 2022
- Samsung's 2022 QLED TV lineup offers near pixel-perfect contrast
- New Panasonic 4K OLED ditches front-firing speakers for something even better
- Sony's making its own EV, with a PlayStation inside
CES 2022: Hands on reviews, opinion and roundups
- Forget the 48-inch OLED TV – the 42-inch LG C2 is the true mid-size winner
- Sorry Intel, I’m not sold on folding-screen laptops
- This Alienware ultrawide monitor at CES 2022 makes me happy that mine is dying
- Will the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED actually be a foldable-screen laptop worth buying?
- Hands on: Vivo V23 review - the world's most beautiful phone?
- Hands on: Dell XPS 13 Plus review - if it ain't broke, don't break it
- Hands on: Alienware X14 review - an incredibly luxurious gaming laptop
- Hands on: Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 review - a laptop with a second 8-inch screen
- The best TVs from CES 2022: 8 cutting-edge TVs to keep an eye on this year
- The best phones of CES 2022: Galaxy S21 FE, OnePlus 10 Pro, Vivo V23, TCL and Nokia
The quirky, fun stuff
- CyberPowerPC's Kinetic gaming PC case actually breathes
- This Eufy video doorbell helps solve the problem of lost and stolen packages
- Boston Dynamics once tried to help Sony with AIBO - and envisions a 'Spot Lite'
- This smart dog collar is one of the coolest things we've seen yet from CES 2022
- Invisible headphones are as cool and crazy as they sound
- LG’s Omnipod self-driving concept is actually an entire world on wheels
- Oral-B's new electric toothbrush will stop you going cross-eyed
- Toss the batteries! Samsung's new remote uses Wi-Fi to charge
- TCL's new tablet for CES 2022 is like a Kindle, but it's in color
Let's go again! It's day four of the biggest tech conference on the planet, and we're back live-blogging the event once more.
What will be happening today? Well, a lot it seems - we've got a load of analysis of what's happened so far to pick through, as well as a number of new keynotes and launches that will always change the game in some way.
However, as you're likely here to see what's big, here are a few of the highlights from previous days' live blogs:
Oh man, can you get more CES than a smart dog collar? Smart tech: check. Pet stuff: check. Something like something else but for dogs? Check. This was one of our biggest stories yesterday, and I'm here for it.
This is Invoxia's attempt to bring Apple Watch-esque beauty to your pooch, with the ability to track both respiration and heart rate, using GPs and accelerometers as well as AI (another CES trend: check) to allow you to monitor the health of your pooch as well as making sure it doesn't go missing.
It's funny, the things that, as a child, you think will excite you about being grown up. Late nights, unlimited sugar intake, watching TV all day.
I still do enjoy doing all of these things, mind you - but what really gets me excited these days are the boring adult things like remote controls.
Not just any remote controls - specifically, the freshly announced Samsung SolarCell remote - and this was another of day 2's biggest stories.
Needing no charging base, the remote uses solar and RF energy harvesting to wirelessly charge, meaning even your end-table lamp can be a part of the process. Wild.
The next big innovation in TVs officially arrived yesterday: Sony announced the Sony Master Series A95K. But then weirdly didn't talk about it during its press conference.
Why is it such a big innovation, you ask? Well, let me tell you: inky blacks, better color reproduction and even more impressive contrast ratios - if you thought OLED was good, then Quantum Dot OLED (QD-OLED) is going to blow your mind.
This is the first commercially-available TV using such tech - it'll offer more uniformity to the image without losing the power of OLED, which basically means a better image.
Will this change things massively? No. Will it cost a lot? Yes. But it pushes TV quality on again, and that's a Good Thing to me.
This has been one of our biggest stories over the last three days: headphones that are so invisible that they aren't even there. CES in a nutshell.
This Noveto N1 soundbar will track your head in real time, using facial recognition to stay locked onto you. It will then use beam forming, where it directs the sound, to small audio pockets around your ears, meaning only you can hear the sound.
Is this useful or practical? Probably not - a pair of open-ear headphone could probably achieve the same thing. But it's incredibly cool, and if it works could well be a cornerstone of future offices - meaning instant ability to chat to colleagues with a 'secret' concert going on at the same time.
TCL launched a bunch of stuff at CES this year, which it often does, but the two things that got me interested were the NXTPAPER 10S and the NXTWEAR Air.
The NXTPAPER is bit underwhelming to be honest, but the NXTWEAR AIR isn't - it's two screens placed in a pair of glasses so it feels like you're viewing a 140-inch screen from 13-feet away.
OK, there is some underwhelm - they're only 1080p screens, which sounds a bit like a pixellated nightmare... but let's get them on the face first. And they actually look like glasses, which is a massive win in itself.
This was the big news overnight - the PSVR 2 was shown off in greater detail by Sony and I'm honestly here for it.
I love the notion of VR and I want a system that could just work in my front room - this is what the new option from Sony is promising.
Users can expect the PSVR 2 to boast OLED displays with a resolution of 2000 x 2040 per eye, which is an almost four-fold improvement on the original's 1080p output and will hugely improve the sharpness and feeling of immersion.
The PSVR 2's built-in headphones will also take advantage of Sony's 3D Audio technology that, again, is crucial to getting that feeling of being actually in the game - you can get a sense of what it feels like in the trailer above (although, spoiler: this is mostly a developer talking about how great VR is, rather than showcasing anything).
Additionally, the PSVR 2 will be capable of 90Hz and 120Hz refresh rates with a 110-degree field of view. The headset will also feature built-in six-axis motion sensing (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), along with an IR proximity sensor - all useful ways of tracking motion and improving that feeling of being inside the game.
The controllers, which we already know a lot about, clearly take inspiration from Oculus' versions - while it would be better to be unique, at least Sony as moved away from the 'sticks with light up balls on' that the previous version used.
Uh-oh Dell... the new XPS 13 Plus was supposed to be all exciting, but this opening from US Computing Editor Jackie Thomas tells it all:
"The Dell XPS 13 has been one of – if not the – best laptops on the market for years. A brilliant design and excellent performance made it one of the easiest devices to recommend to anyone. But at CES 2022, Dell took this classic design and tried to transform it into something even more portable and modern – and ruined its best laptop completely. "
Calling it a 'trendy mess' and a (likely) 'nightmare to use day-to-day' this has got me worried - Dell has been making excellent laptops for years, but this could be a step too far.
Dell added a weird touch bar that isn't an Apple Touch Bar (you can't customize it). There's no headphone jack or microSD card slot.
Overall, this doesn't look good, even if the laptop looks good.
Honestly, how has nobody thought of this before? The Eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual (Battery) has a 2K camera with a 160-degree field of view at the top, while the lower-quality Full HD lens, offering a 120-degree field of view, sits on the angled base of the doorbell to capture the ground.
What does that mean in real life? This lets you see a detailed view of the face and body of whoever is at your doorstep, as well as any packages they have resting on the ground.
It's not cheap at priced at $259.99 / £229.99 / AU$449.99 but will go on sale on February 8 in the US and February 16 in the UK - this is a nice idea indeed and I can see it appearing in a Ring model in the near future...
This article from our Fitness and Wellness Editor Cat Ellis had me at the strapline: "Like you're always using the cool side of the pillow".
Yes. I'm in. I don't care what it is. I love the cool side of the pillow. I didn't realize how much until I started writing this sentence. It's so good.
Anyway, I'm clearly tiring so let's talk about this properly: US company Chilisleep has a cooled mattress topper that not only keeps your bed the ideal temperature, but also tracks your biometrics overnight so you can see just how much it's improving your sleep.
It uses water to cool the bed, is quiet enough to be close to light rainfall (a sound I like anyway) and is improved to allow for better coverage of the mattress.
It's also possible to pair it with the new Sleepme+ service, which allows you to pair the The Chilisleep Dock Pro with the Sleepme Insight – a sleep tracker that collects stats on sleep stages and duration.
When the two devices are used together, their machine learning algorithms can automatically change the temperature of your bed to extend deep and REM sleep.
YES. I love sleep data. I love cool nights. This has got me jazzed.
You know when you have that worry in the pit of your stomach that someone has broken into your house? The sound of broken glass is always a dead giveaway, but can be confused by a number of other sounds.
Some brands have found a way to sense that with their tech, but not Ring, one of the biggest video doorbell brands - and now that's been rectified.
The Ring Alarm Glass Break Sensor uses AI to distinguish between the sound of a window or glass door being smashed and false alarms such as keys being jingled or crockery clattering when you’re emptying the dishwasher.
The Ring Alarm Glass Break Sensor is a compact white circular device that can be mounted to a wall or ceiling and can detect the sound of breaking glass from up to 25 feet / 7.5 meters away. If it detects glass being broken it will send an alert to your smartphone and give you the option to trigger both the alarm’s indoor and outdoor siren, if you have these installed, even if the alarm isn’t armed.
The Ring Alarm Glass Break Sensor is priced at $39.99 / £35 (about AU$55) and will go on sale on February 16.
This really happened yesterday: BMW launched a color-changing car. Well, it's a concept, but maybe one day...?
It's properly impressive, with the fully electric BMW iX packing body panels made from E Ink displays - the same technology you find in the screen of a Kindle ereader - in a system it's calling 'iX Flow'.
It's understandably just a concept right now, but the possibilities are high - could the car display charge status from afar? Could it be customized to allow for bespoke art? This is an exciting idea.
John McCann, our Global Managing Editor, said from his demo: "In the virtual demonstration we were shown, the modified BMW iX was switched from white, to black, and back to white. It's a convincing showing, although when white, rather than one clean color, the car has a triangular pattern on the bodywork.
"This is likely due to the physical makeup of the panels on the car, and something which is less obvious from a distance."
It would be amazing to try this in real life - there were moments where, as a tech journalist, you get to blow people's mind, such as the first time I paid for something with a wearable.
This would surely be comparable. And a little like Grand Theft Auto if you were trying to escape the cops...
Woah 🤯 pic.twitter.com/JNd5aDxFzzJanuary 5, 2022
As far as we’re concerned, Sony unveiled one of the only truly next-generation TVs at CES in the form of the A95K QD-OLED TV.
However, that doesn't mean that there weren't a slew of other great sets announced - whether it's the mid-range marvels from Hi-Sense, a smaller 42-inch OLED from LG or just another nice little unveiling from TCL, there's a lot to talk about - so we've rounded up the best TVs from CES.
Have a look through - your next TV could be in there. Or you could be like me and just marvel at how big / thin / colorful they are these days...
It's all kicking off in the EV space - GM had a big ol' launch last night, where it talked up the Chevrolet Silverado EV – and it looks set to go toe-to-toe with Ford's F-150 Lightning in almost every department.
The Ford Lightning truck has been getting a huge amount of love since it was unveiled, and was one of the hottest EVs across TechRadar last year - so seeing a genuine challenger is exciting.
The Silverado will ship in two variants, a basic work truck (the WT) and a fully-loaded luxury model (the RST), some time in 2023. The former will start at $39,900, with the latter set to cost an almighty $105,000.
It's got an impressive 400 miles of range on a full charge, and will segment some power to allow users to charge their home in the event of a power outage. That's useful.
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