Consumer electronics show CES is one of the biggest tech events of the year and we expect CES 2018 to showcase a truck load of new gadgets, TVs and initiatives
Consumer electronics show CES is one of the biggest tech events of the year and we expect CES 2018 to showcase a truck load of new gadgets, TVs and initiatives that’ll take your breath away.
The one thing that defines CES is that virtually all the world’s tech manufacturers (except Apple) get together to launch the next big thing in technology, kickstarting the trends for 2018 and showing off all the hot products to get excited about.
We will be covering all the news that matters as it happens, as well as bringing you our first impressions and insights into 2018’s tech at the Vegas show, but for now, here is what we can expect at CES 2018.
CES 2018 runs from 9-12 January in Las Vegas, Nevada. These are the days that the show is open, however the official press day will be 8 January, which is when you can expect to see a lot of the new announcements.
Some companies will be making announcements before this date, so expect the general news to ramp up from 7 January onwards.
Amazon doesn’t attend CES but that doesn’t mean you won’t hear the company’s name mentioned. At CES 2017, Amazon managed to walk in to just about every product thanks to Alexa being behind a lot of the interesting technology that launched.
We’re expecting Alexa to be featured in even more devices in 2018, as Amazon continues to dominate the smart home stage and already we’ve seen announcements bringing Alexa to more devices. For the bathroom, Kohler has an Alexa-powered mirror and more, while Amazon itself has announced at Alexa is coming to headphones, watches and more.
Asus is usually one of the first companies to make its announcements at CES, but it looks like it might be having a quiet show. It has just unveiled the Asus NovaGo – a Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 laptop – so we could expect to hear more about the availability of this new model, perhaps with some other options.
Asus has a showcase scheduled for 9 January.
Yes, BlackBerry is still around and though it is now under TCL for hardware, it teased its first flagship smartphone of 2017 at the show in January and TCL is confirmed to attend the 2018 show.
Exactly what this might result in we don’t yet know: with BlackBerry launching a couple of devices in 2017, we wouldn’t be surprised if there was a tease for a new device launching at Mobile World Congress .
Casio launched an updated version of its rugged outdoor watch, the WSD-F20 at CES 2017. It has been one of the more successful Android Wear devices so we fully expect to see an updated version that’s even smarter.
The company is confirmed as an exhibitor for the 2018 show so we’d expect to see a new wearable appear, perhaps the WSD-F30?
Dell made its first announcement prior to CES in the form of the new Dell XPS 13. This model is slimmer, offers a 4K display and makes a move to USB Type-C.
We’re sure that Dell has more in store, so we’ll be sure to update when more is revealed from the show.
Garmin announced the excellent Fenix 5 sports watch at CES 2017, an adventurer’s watch that promised 24 hours of GPS tracking, with full support for runners, riders and adventurous types. It went on to win the Pocket-lint Gadget Award for Best Fitness Tracker in 2017, but it lacks one thing – mobile payments.
Garmin introduced Garmin Pay on the Vivoactive 3 and it seems odd for the flagship Forerunner or Fenix to offer this function. Garmin also doesn’t offer local music which most of it’s rivals do. We’d expect Garmin to use CES as the chance to update those leading models.
Google doesn’t always make a big splash at CES with its own hardware – that’s normally saved for Google’s own events – but as Google Assistant emerges as a dominant player in the smart home, we’re likely to see some big-hitting Google Assistant-enabled devices.
LG has already confirmed that it’s ThinQ speaker will be GA compatible.
HP used CES 2017 to announce an update to its Spectre x360 notebooks. The gorgeous 4K HP Spectre x360 was an impressive looking machine, and one of the hottest Windows devices to come out of the 2017 show.
HP has also recently announced the HP Envy x2, a Windows 10 2-in-1 powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 platform. We’re yet to hear the price of that model, however, so we’d expect this, at least, to be among HP’s announcements.
HP is also updating its Chromebooks .
Chinese smartphone giant Huawei launched the Mate 9 Pro at CES 2017, which was 99 per cent the Porsche Design version of the Mate 9 but without the hefty price tag.
We’ve already seen the Mate 10 Pro launch in 2017 so it’s not clear what Huawei might use CES 2018 to unveil, if anything, but chances are it will have something smartphone or wearable-related up its sleeve.
Lenovo is attending CES 2018 and Qualcomm has already confirmed that we’ll be seeing something from Lenovo in the Windows on ARM space – expect a Snapdragon powered laptop.
Beyond that, Lenovo has already announced a range of updated ThinkPads for business, but perhaps more interesting is the rumour of the Mirage Solo, a stand-alone Daydream VR headset .
LG is notorious for making pre-announcements before trade shows, CES included. LG has started with CES 2018 announcements already.
It has confirmed that a new range of its LG Gram laptops will be on show. They are smaller than before, thanks to slimmer bezels around the display, and can last an entire day on a single charge.
LG has also announced that LG ThinQ is going to powering many of the devices in 2018 line-up from the company. This isn’t limited to appliances – although there’s a connected air purifier – but LG has also announced a smart ThinQ speaker, which also offers Google Assistant, as well as a new Dolby Atmos soundbar.
LG has also confirmed the new OLED and Super UHD LED TVs will have voice recognition and control through an included remote, but we still await the full details.
Netatmo used CES 2017 to announce plans to future connect your smart home. The first big announcement was a partnership with Velux, the window manufacturer, while the second came in the form of a Smart Smoke Alarm offering HomeKit and IFTTT compatibility.
The company is confirmed to attend CES 2018 so we’d expect a couple of new launches within the smart home sector from it though whether this will be another partnership announcement, a product launch or both is not yet known.
Nvidia announced a new Shield TV set-top box fully-loaded with entertainment potential, offering Android gaming, Android TV, as well as positioning itself as a Google Assistant-power smart hub at CES 2017. It also announced the Shield Spot, a little device that plugs into the wall and connects to the console via Wi-Fi, meaning you can access Google Assistant all around your house.
