As a wrap-up to CES 2023, we are listing the best product reveals and announcements from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, held at Nevada Las Vegas from January 5 to 8. After the pandemic years, this is the first big tech event where companies, media representatives, and tech enthusiasts met, nerded-out, and experienced cutting-edge tech in person. We have covered a lot of the tech launches in the past couple of days but here, you will see the best of CES 2023, or the wackiest and most exciting products unveiled at this year’s CES show.
BMW goes all digital and delirious with the i Vision Dee car that changes colours in seconds. Dee stands for ‘digital emotional experience’. It’s one of the prototypes showcased as part of the company’s Neue Klasse platform. i Vision Dee has a monolithic software design and e-ink body panels that allow the user to change and control the colour patterns/animations on 240 various segments of the car’s exterior. Even the headlights can show “facial expressions” thanks to their ability to change shape.
Inside the car also, the Heads-up display (HuD) is digital and the user can choose the different content to appear there. The same goes for the dashboard, door panels and Windshield (that supports Mixed Reality content). Rest, there is a 4-spoke square steering wheel and single-piece seats.
BMW is yet to reveal the technical details, but we have heard of a new cylindrical battery technology and 6th gen powertrain being in the works for these concept car models.
Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is a dual-screen foldable laptop with two 13.3” 2.8K OLED panels with 60Hz refresh rate, 400-nits brightness, 16:10 aspect ratio, 100% DCI-P3 colour coverage and Dolby Vision HDR support. These two displays are stacked on top of each other with a hinge in the middle, giving the laptop its unique look and use case. You can attach a keyboard to the bottom. There is a stylus kept on the back and a kickstand. All 3 things are bundled with the laptop. You need not purchase them separately.
While the two screens are vertically placed, you can “flick” an app window to the other screen, or use a 5-finger tap on the app window to maximize and fill it across the entire top and bottom canvas — called Waterfall mode.
Now, if we want to use it as a regular clamshell laptop, you can do that too, with the bottom screen bringing up a haptic keyboard. As for the rest of the laptop, you have Windows 11, 13th gen Intel Core i7 CPU, Intel Iris X graphics, 16GB LPDDR5x RAM, 512GB/1TB PCIe SSD Gen 4 storage, Dolby Atmos backed stereo speakers, FHD IR webcam, 3 USB-C (w/ Thunderbolt 4), Bluetooth 5.2 aupport, and WiFi 6E.
Withings, a wll-know brand in the health-based wearable space, has introduced a Chromecast-like looking WiFi-connected urine analyzer that you place on the edge of your toilet bowl, in a way that your pee falls on it. It scans the pee in a minute or so and sends the report including stats like pH value, specific gravity, menstrual cycle and nutrition levels to the Withings app on your smartphone. It has light and sound indications about its working.
LG Signature OLED M comes in three screen sizes viz. 77-inch, 83-inch and 97-inch. It is powered by an Alpha 9 processor, is way brighter than the LG B3 displays, and sports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos audio. It supports 4K 120Hz content but the more exciting aspect is that it will be delivered to the screen wirelessly. The LG M3 comes with no ports (except for the power socket), and all the connectivity is handled by a black box called Zero Connect meant to be placed up to 30 feet away from the TV. This cube consists of 3 HDMI 2.1 ports (supporting VRR), 2 USB ports, 1 Ethernet port, 1 3.5mm audio jack, 1 TV antenna coaxial port, optical output port, and a mains plug. The Zero Connect can also wirelessly stream audio to a soundbar.
“To ensure the seamless transfer of data from the box to the TV, the company developed an algorithm that instantly identifies the optimal transmission path,. The algorithm also helps to minimize transmission errors or disruptions as it can recognize changes in the immediate environment — such as people or pets moving around the room — and switch paths accordingly,” tells the LG press release.
https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1610810788817821696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Sony’s Project Leonardo is a gaming controller that has swappable buttons, different-size joysticks, and 4 3.5mm ports to which you can plug in 3rd party buttons, switches, and analogue sticks. You can configure the distance between the joystick and the controller, button mapping, map multiple buttons to the same function, and vice versa. You can store three such configurations, which will be saved in the player’s profile.
Aqara has revealed the FP2 presence sensor that works on mmWave and WiFi to detect human presence (supports multiple people) within a range of 16 to 23 feet, and accordingly trigger various smart home automation like light, and air conditioning, etc. You can also assign various zones in your place to control its functionality even more granularly. It is powered by a USB-C port and is compatible with Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and other leading smart home platforms.
AtmosGear electric skates are powered by a battery kept in an accompanying backpack. The skates stay tethered to the battery through a wire. So, the rider wears the battery backpack while skating. The company claims about 25 km per hour speed and a range of 20 km on a full battery charge.
Breylon Fusion is a 122-inch 8K OLED display that is not wearable but promises a fully immersive VR experience or what the company called an Ultra Reality optical display. It offers 110-degree FoV, 700+ nits of brightness in native HDR, and a 144Hz refresh rate with 4K resolution. The company uses “a combination of optics and computational techniques to give you these virtual images without you having to wear goggles,” says the company.
Samsung Flex Hybrid OLED combines two Samsung Display technologies namely Flex Slidable Solo which expands the display in one direction and then there is Flex Slidable Duet, which as the name suggests, expands in both directions. So, the flexible screen can be used in 10.5-inch (4:3 aspect ratio), 12.4-inch (16:10 aspect ratio), and 17.3-inch screen sizes. It can be folded too.
Aska A5 is an eVTOL (Electric Vertical Take off and Landing) aircraft that can take off vertically (from a helipad or vertiport) or from a runway. It is a 4-seater that can fly up to 250 miles on a single charge. It can be parked in existing parking spaces and charged like any other EV at home or EV charging stations. It comes equipped with a gasoline-based range extender engine (30 minutes reserve) too for a dual energy source. This, along with its large wings capable of gliding for a safe landing, six propellers (one on each wing), and a ballistic parachute should ensure a safe flight experience.
The company is aiming for going commercial by 2026 followed by an on-demand taxi service.
Other than these, some other interesting CES 2023 announcements include Skyted Silent facemask, Qualcomm Satellite-based messaging for Android, Sony Afeela car in collaboration with Honda Mobility, Fluentpet Connect, Google Android Auto, Motorola Thinkphone, Samsung’s 77-inch S95C TV, Samsung Odyssey G95SC0 projector, Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Twist laptop, and Samsung UDR 2000 certified displays.