The Consumer Technology Association’s annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is only one week away, and boy are we excited! For those who don’t know, CES is the largest consumer electronics show in the world, showcasing more than “3,900 exhibiting companies, including manufacturers, developers and suppliers of consumer technology hardware, content, technology delivery systems and more…with more than 170K attendees from 150 countries.” (CES). At last year’s CES, we were witness to paper-thin TVs, autonomous vehicles, multi-screen gaming laptops, VR headsets, and, of course, every connected device imaginable with Amazon’s Alexa built-in. But what will CES 2018 bring to the ever-changing technology landscape?
Here are a few things we know so far:
Samsung always makes a big splash at CES, and we’re hoping that 2018 is no different. Rumors are circulating that Samsung’s “bendable” smartphone, the Galaxy X, could be debuted during the show, as well as the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9 Plus, and a huge 150-inch TV featuring MicroLED technology.
Judging by their CES 2018 event tagline: “Reality has never been so exhilarating,” it seems that this year, Lenovo is all in for VR. The computer manufacturing company is hosting a launch event the first day of the show, most likely to unveil its standalone Google Daydream VR headset.
In the past, Google has made their presence known at CES through their third-party hardware partners, but this year, the search engine giant will take center stage themselves with a large outdoor booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center. And what will they be showcasing? Most likely the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL, the new Google Home Mini and Google Home Max, and the latest Daydream View virtual reality headset. But this is CES, so there are possibilities for a surprise as well – a new Chromebook, perhaps?
One of the main highlights at CES over the past few years has been the incredible showcase of autonomous, electric, and concept cars. It doesn’t look like last year’s “Tesla Killer,” Faraday Future, will be making an appearance this time around, after a turbulent year for the electric car company forced them to halt production on the FF 91, at least for now. However, it seems that Fisker, an automotive company based out of Southern California, will be taking the reigns from Faraday Future at CES 2018 with the debut of their latest luxury electric automobile, Emotion, with a reported range of over 400 miles. We’re also looking forward to more impressive concept cars from Toyota and Hyundai, which recently announced their “New Mobility Experience” at CES 2018, which will “introduce its vision of the car of the future, new and original future car technologies, as well as disclose its developments in autonomous driving, electrification and cockpit experience, including products that have the potential to be mass-produced within the next one to three years.”
Regardless of what the thousands of CES exhibitors show, we are certain that this year will have one major parallel to last year: and that’s more Amazon Echo and and Google Home product integration. So, what new, connected smart home devices can we expect to see at the show this year? A talking blender? How about an Alexa-enabled toilet? We’ll have to wait a few more days to find out.
CES will descend upon Las Vegas Nevada next week from January 9 – January 12, 2018.