CES 2023 Highlights: Gaming Gadgets, Dazzling TVs and a Flying Car

We’re stay on the CES 2023 present ground in Las Vegas, and there is no scarcity of promising tech to see. There are electronics that’ll hit retailer cabinets this yr, devices which are just a few years off, and loopy ideas which will by no means change into a actuality. There is a new gaming handheld to tackle the Change, wi-fi TVs and sure, a flying automotive. CES is an effective mixture of hype and dazzling new tech, and we’re sifting by way of all of it to carry you the highlights: the must-see reveals and most revolutionary new tech we spot. 

We have gotten an excellent look into what firms like Samsung, LG, Intel, Nvidia and Dell have in retailer for 2023: beastly gaming rigs, an 8K projector and a futuristic idea machine or two. Past this yr, we have gotten the large information that Sony is making its personal automotive, scheduled to hit the roads in 2026. 

CES rolls on till Sunday, and we’ll replace this listing with all the foremost reveals. Think about this your TL;DR. Should you learn just one CES recap, make it this one. 

A flying automotive is definitely taking place, for actual this time 

We have been ready on flying automobiles since at least the Jetsons, and we now seem on the precipice of realizing that dream. And by “we” I imply an organization known as Aska, which revealed its A5 flying automotive at CES 2023. It is greater than an idea: Aska has opened preorders for the $789,000 car. At CES 2023, Aska cofounder Man Kaplinsky mentioned FAA approval for the A5 might occur “inside a month.” Aska hopes to make use of the A5 to begin a experience sharing service in 2026.

Learn extra: This $789,000 flying automotive might get off the bottom sooner than you suppose

Cost your laptop computer when you pedal

Treadmill desks are nice, however the stationary bike desk is the place the way forward for work-from-home calorie burning lies. Acer takes it a step additional with its new desk-bike combo that additionally powers your units as you go, making it the primary bike desk of its form to experiment with powering a complete workstation utilizing kinetic vitality. This gizmo is both an ingenious feat of multitasking or the unironic fruition of a Black Mirror episode.

Nothing however screens

Lenovo’s Yoga E-book 9i is a triumph of display screen actual property. That includes two screens and a number of configuration choices (stacked vertically or side-by-side with the Bluetooth keyboard, turning one display screen into its personal haptic keyboard or touchpad, and many others.), the shapeshifting laptop computer additionally comes with its personal origami-style stand and energetic pen for taking full benefit of the twin shows.

Learn extra: Finest Gaming Laptops From CES 2023 So Far

Transfer over, Change and Steam Deck

There is a new handheld gaming machine on the town. Coming Jan. 26, the long-teased Razer Edge might give the Nintendo Change and the Steam Deck a run for his or her cash. It is extra tiny Android pill than Steam Deck copycat, however the specs are spectacular, and the $400 price ticket ain’t unhealthy both. We’re protecting our eyes on this one.

Samsung’s 8K projector turns your 

Large TVs are cool, however huge projectors could also be cooler. At CES 2023, Samsung demoed its Premiere projector, an ultra-short throw projector that may create a picture up 150 inches diagonally in your front room wall. Extremely-short throw, or UST, refers back to the distance from the wall. As an alternative of putting it behind the room, you set the Premiere proper up in opposition to the wall, because the shot above reveals. There are built-in audio system and Dolby Atmos to fill a room with sound in addition to mild. Learn extra about it right here.

Sony’s first automotive is coming in 2026

EVs are huge enterprise, and Sony needs in. The electronics large is teaming up with Honda on a brand new model of electrical car known as Afeela. The Afeela emblem seems on a slim display screen, or “media bar,” on the car’s entrance bumper. This could additionally work together with folks outdoors the car and share data such because the climate or the automotive’s state of cost. 

In contrast to the automotive Sony confirmed off at CES 2020, all these years in the past, this one is definitely hitting the market. No phrase but on pricing, however Sony mentioned its Afeela automotive will hit North American roads in 2026. Japan and Europe will comply with. 

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Sony, Honda Show Afeela Concept Car at CES 2023

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This foldable also slides

Samsung gave us a look at a tantalizing mobile device concept, the Flex Hybrid. As the demo above shows, the left side of the Flex Hybrid can fold, like the Galaxy Fold, while the right side can slide out to extend itself. It’s wild. 

The concept comes courtesy of Samsung Display, not the Mobile arm of the South Korean megacorporation responsible for making and selling phones. But the press release touting the concept promised it’ll bring to CES “innovative OLED products of all sizes, small, medium and large, to provide a glimpse into the future of displays.” Samsung isn’t the only company tinkering with the future of phones — see TCL’s 2020 scrolling display — so watch this space for more flipping, folding and scrolling devices.

Read more: Why We’re Excited about Foldable Phones Again 

A laptop in (glasses-free) 3D

Images leap off the screen of this Asus laptop — not literally, but close. Its OLED screen produces a 3D experience sans glasses, much like competitor Acer’s similar IPS version. The OLED screen matters because the technology promises a visibly crisper 3D rendering. Asus’s 3D panel, aimed at creatives, uses eye-tracking to produce the 3D experience.

The TV that puts all others to shame

It’s the world’s largest OLED TV: LG’s 97-inch model was actually unveiled last year, but in 2023 it’s gone wireless. That means the world’s largest screen with the best picture that technology allows is now free of that ugly jumble of cords. We’ve been covering TVs at CES for years, and even we were surprised — CNET TV guru David Katzmaier was so impressed, he says LG is putting all other TVs to shame with this one.

Read more: Best TVs of CES 2023

$200 and under phones are getting really, really good

Between TCL’s 40 Series phone lineup and Samsung’s Galaxy A14 5G, CES 2023 is shaping up to be a breeding ground for affordable smartphones. Samsung’s $200 newbie is only a modest upgrade to last year’s A13, but it’s even less expensive and features an improved selfie camera. Meanwhile, the TCL lineup starts at $129, launching initially in Europe before coming to the US, and all three variants include a 50-megapixel main camera. All signs point to increasing manufacturer interest in the budget phone market.

Smartwatches want to know if you’re OK

Smartwatches to track heart rate, sleep quality and blood-oxygen levels abound, but Citizen takes it a step further with its CZ Smart watch, which also measures fatigue and alertness levels. It’ll even tell you your chronotype — that is, whether you’re a night owl or an early bird. It’s another sign that smartwatch makers are focusing more and more on measuring the way sleep and stress impact overall wellbeing.

BMW’s concept car doubles as your buddy

Technology can be so impersonal. BMW’s i Vision Dee hopes to fix that. Using sophisticated AI, this concept car ditches the servant schtick of Siri and Alexa. Instead, it hopes to double as both your car and your friend. The i Vision Dee is an EV sports car with an exterior of 240 E Ink panels. You can use those panels to program a digital face into the car’s grille — because it’s an EV, the ventilation that grilles typically provide isn’t actually needed — or change the car’s colors at the click of a button.

The BMW i Vision Dee is for now just a concept, but some of its features will trickle out to BMW’s actual cars. BMW CEO Oliver Zipse said, for instance, that the AI-powered HUB technology the company put into the i Vision Dee will come to real cars in 2025. 

The thinnest gaming laptop in the world

Alienware surprised us with four new laptops ahead of CES, including the Alienware x14, which the company said is the thinnest 14-inch gaming laptop in the world. Featuring a 2,560×1,600-pixel display with a 165Hz refresh rate, it’ll sell from $1,799 when it ships this winter. A bigger version, the Alienware x16, starts at $3,099. These laptops are for people who are willing to sacrifice some power for slicker designs.

Read more: Best Gaming Laptops From CES 2023 So Far

Invisible laptop touchpads

LG showed off its new Gram Style laptop, which features a hidden touchpad that presents itself only when you touch the palm rest. The stealthy haptic touchpad lights up under your fingers when touched, showing you where to tap and drag to navigate the screen. It’s a neat detail we didn’t know we wanted.

A giant leap for PC gamers who also use consoles

Dell’s Concept Nyx gaming controller looks at first glance like just another third-party Xbox controller, albeit with some fancy lights. Alas, it’s more than that. The Nyx controller is tricked out with a bunch of hidden inputs, which multiply the functionality of the controller.

The idea seems to be to bridge the gap between a gamepad and a keyboard. PC gamers are able to use hotkey setups to have dozens of inputs, far more than the typical gamepad, which is often limited to the options presented by a d-pad. That means they can use a wider range of attacks in an MMO, for instance, or cycle between six or seven guns in a first-person shooter rather than the two or three that console gamers are often limited to.

Roku has entered the chat

Roku announced it’s expanding into TVs, essentially competing with its own partnerships with more established TV makers such as TCL, Hisense and Sharp. The move has long been rumored and makes a lot of sense for the streaming device maker. Roku TVs will come with the brand’s Voice Remotes, which include the popular (and ever-useful) “find my remote” feature. Looks like LG and Samsung have some new competition.

Upgrades coming to your laptop’s brains

Sleek displays and dazzling screens are nice, but often it’s the tech you don’t see that matters most. Intel unveiled a boatload of new 13th-generation processors, which will power a huge range of products and improve performance on a wide range of laptops.

Less abstract than chip performance are the upgrades they can yield. The new generation of Intel CPUs bring with them Unison, which lets iPhone and Android devices send and receive texts from your PC, as well as Thunderbolt 4, which among other improvements will set as a standard the ability to run two 4K external displays. Expect to see these features in product announcements over the next few days. 

Then there was AMD’s press conference. Much of what the company touted was its pro-grade tech, like the AMD chips that were used to build Avatar 2’s visual effects. As far as products you can actually buy, AMD has partnered with HP for the Dragonfly Pro, a laptop designed for freelancers, and Lenovo for new Legion Pro gaming laptops. For PC gamers, AMD’s high-end Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 7950X3D processors are coming this year. 

Cloud gaming, now in your car

Chief among Nvidia’s announcements are improvements to GeForce Now, its cloud gaming service, which allows you to stream games on laptops, phones and more. In short, the power of Nvidia’s GeForce 4080 GPU is coming to the cloud. If you subscribe to the premium tier of GeForce Now — henceforth known as GeForce Now Ultimate — you can now stream games at 240Hz, utilize ray tracing (which significantly improves how light is rendered in-game) and DLSS 3 (which uses an algorithm to boost frame rate while retaining image quality).

Plus, GeForce Now is coming to… cars. If your car has a screen on its dash, you can play while the car is in park. If there are screens behind the driver or passenger seats, those sitting in the back can game on the go. For starters, Nvidia is partnering with Hyundai, BYB and Polestar.