While we weren’t able to see tech in-person at this year’s CES, our editors got the lowdown on tons of exciting new products.
The first-ever virtual CES wasn’t without its trials and tribulations, but we have to say we’re impressed with how the industry handled an event the size and scale of CES 2021 without renting out a convention center. It wasn’t perfect, but it was, if anything, pretty memorable. While the lack of an in-person experience stopped our editors from getting as much hands-on time as they usually would with new products, it didn’t stop us from meeting with the biggest names in tech like Samsung, LG, Sony and more to hear what they had to say about their latest and greatest gadgets. From drones and robot vacuums, to new mobile processors, laptops and TVs, the first virtual CES provided us plenty of new tech to keep our eyes on over the coming year. Which gadgets and gizmos won the hearts of our editors this week? Here’s our editors’ picks of the hottest tech of CES 2021. (Editor’s note: the picks below are listed in alphabetical order, not by how impressed our editors are with them. It’s also worth noting that some products are still in their conceptual prototype phase, so some specs or features may change before release.) AMD’s CEO, Dr Lisa Su, delivered a triumphant keynote at CES 2021, where she showed off the much-anticipated AMD Ryzen 5000 series of mobile processors. The new processors are based on the same Zen 3 architecture as the desktop Ryzen 5000 CPUs that launched at the end of 2020 (to much critical and commercial acclaim), and look like they could seriously trouble Intel, threatening its current market-leading position in laptops. When it comes to battery life, AMD claims the Ryzen 7 5800U can last up to 17.5 hours in general usage, and up to 21 hours when playing back movies. We’ll need to verify these claims ourselves, but if they’re even remotely accurate these new processors could be a real game-changer for laptops. If you want more performance, and battery life isn’t so important, then the AMD HX processors could be for you. These are unlocked for overclocking with some OEM systems, and with a TDP of 45W+ they’re designed to really push the boundaries of what a gaming laptop is capable of. To say that we’re excited about them is an understatement. Read more: AMD Ryzen 5000 release date, price, benchmarks and specs The Lenovo LaVie Mini is what happens when a netbook meets a Nintendo Switch – it’s a hybrid low-power laptop that can transform into a gaming handheld. It’d be the perfect solution for emulators and game streaming services on the go (paging Google Stadia) and yet remain versatile enough for browsing the web and streaming music in between gaming sessions. In terms of specs, you’re looking at an 8-inch,1900×1200 touchscreen backed up with a Tiger Lake Intel Core i7 processor with Iris Xe graphics,16GB of RAM, a 256GB m.2 SSD and an optical touch sensor instead of a trackpad. It uses a tiny keyboard and can, perhaps best of all, plug into a dock for 4K60 output to your monitor or big screen TV. The bad news? This one’s still just a concept at this point. It’s not something Lenovo – and its sub-brand NEC that came up with the concept – have any plans to manufacture at this point. That could very well change after Lenovo sees how much interest there is around it, but we wouldn’t toss out your Nintendo Switch just yet. The other bad news? Lenovo has already said that both the Gaming Controller and the HDMI-connected Dock are deemed as “optional” accessories, which means you’d need to shell out extra cash for the accessories that would make the LaVie Mini a compelling product. Bummer. Read more: Lenovo has an answer to the Nintendo Switch and Dell Concept UFO We’ve been hearing rumors of the LG Rollable for a while now, but at CES 2021, LG officially confirmed the name of the phone, while also providing a brief glimpse of it in a teaser. From the teaser you can see something that starts out looking much like a conventional smartphone, but with edges that extend to create a small tablet. This makes it very different in design to a foldable phone then, but the end result is somewhat similar, giving you the option of either a large screen or a smaller one at any given time. We don’t know anything else about the LG Rollable yet, including when you’ll be able to buy it, but sources familiar with LG’s plans told CNET that the LG Rollable will be coming in 2021, and an LG spokesperson just confirmed to Nikkei that it will be “launched this year.” Hopefully you’ve been saving though, because a recent leak suggested that the LG Rollable might cost as much as $2,359 (roughly £1,775, AU$3,130). Read more: LG Rollable finally shown off as a foldable phone alternative at CES 2021 LG is taking the luxury of watching TV in bed to the next level with its 55-inch Transparent OLED Smart Bed concept that smuggles a transparent OLED TV inside the foot of your bed. The concept combines two of LG’s previous prototypes – the LG Transparent OLED that we saw at CES a year ago and the LG Rollable OLED we saw two years ago – into a single product. According to LG, the OLED takes about 25 seconds to fully extend from the foot of the bed, but LG says that you can change how much of the TV rolls up at one time, allowing you to change the aspect ratio of the TV on the fly. This, LG says, can be useful if you only need a small window to check the weather or activate LG’s ThinQ IQ assistant, and is faster than unfurling the whole screen.
