CES 2018: The 10 biggest highlights from the Vegas tech show

12 Jan 2018

CES 2018 is over – we look back at the best tech launches and announcements

Since 1998, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), has been held in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Nevada.

This year’s event started on Tuesday 9 January and ended on Friday 12 January 2018, kickstarting the year with a slew of the most exciting products, announcements and launches.

But, many tech firms jumped the gun and announced a bevvy of excellent products during the two-day media extravaganza before CES officially opens to the general public. Here’s our list of the best tech products announced at CES 2018.

READ NEXT: Our pick of IFA 2017

Best of CES 2018: The biggest tech announcements

1. Samsung’s Galaxy A8

Samsung, it seems, has wanted to get its phone launches in early. Not only are we getting the Galaxy S9 at MWC this year, the firm has also announced the slightly more mid-range Galaxy A8. Not only is it the first of Samsung’s handsets to come equipped with an all-display front, but it should also undercut this year’s flagships, too. They key word there is should, because Samsung hasn’t announced the price just yet.

Elsewhere, the A8 is equipped with Samsung’s latest 2.4GHz octa-core Exynos 7885 processor, complete with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. As for the camera, you’ll find a 16-megapixel f/1.7 snapper on the back, while the front includes dual 16- and 8-megapixel f/1.9 cameras.

2. HTC Vive Pro

After much speculation, HTC announced a new version of Vive on day 2 of CES 2018, aptly named the HTC Vive Pro. The new VR headset boasts an increased resolution of 2,880 x 1,600 pixels. Essentially, you’ll be able to play games at 3K resolution, rather than the not-so-sharp resolution of 2,160 x 1,200 on the original.

The HTC Vive Pro also utilises dual OLED displays for high contrast images and pin-sharp text that’s much more readable. It’s a slight shame that HTC hasn’t pushed for 4K resolution with the Pro, but even Nvidia’s GTX 1080Ti GPU would struggle to push out this ultra-high resolution.

Read more about the HTC Vive Pro

3. Garmin Forerunner 645 Music

Incredibly, Garmin has never made a watch that lets you store your music on it. Thankfully, that’s all about to change with the Forerunner 645 Music.

The watch isn’t available to order from the UK site just yet, but is due to launch this quarter with a price of £400. If you’re not fussed about the music option, though, you can get one without the feature for £350.

4. AMD’s Ryzen 2

Today, AMD announced its second generation of Ryzen processors – Ryzen 2 – will launch in April 2018. The PC processors are the firm’s first CPUs to be built to a 12nm process architecture and they will bring higher base and overclocked clock speeds, along with something the firm calls “Precision Boost 2” technology for faster performance and a supposed boost in power efficiency.

Read more about the Ryzen 2

5. Razer’s Project Linda

Razer always loves to unveil something unusual at CES 2018. Last year, it was the fantastic triple-screened Project Valerie laptop and a “room scale” projector going by the name of Project Ariana. This year, the company has announced a laptop powered entirely by the Razer Phone, dubbed Project Linda. Project Linda is in an early prototype stage, so Razer is tight-lipped on many of the specifics around Project Linda’s internals. However, we do know it has enough battery to fully charge the Razer Phone three times over, and should last you nearly all day if used like a laptop.
Read more about Project Linda

6. Samsung’s 146in TV

Blimey. We thought TVs were more than big enough these days, but Samsung has done one further at this year’s CES, announcing their massive 146in 4K telly. Called “The Wall” this monster of a TV is designed to transform an entire wall of your house into a screen. it doesn’t have any bezels, meaning the screen can be whatever size you’d like it to be. Which is handy, given my one bed flat would struggle to accommodate.

7. Nvidia’s BFGD gaming TV

That’s a bizarre acronym, isn’t it? No, it hasn’t got anything to do with Roald Dahl’s colossal dreamcatcher, the once GPU-only manufacturer has branched out into gaming TVs. Standing for Big Format Gaming Display (BFGD), Nvidia’s 65in gaming telly is equipped with G-SYNC tech and Nvidia Shield features. Not only that, but the firm has partnered with other manufacturers such as HP, Acer and Asus to produce more displays under the BFGD umbrella.

Read more about Nvidia’s BFGD

8. Sony’s new mid-range Xperia smartphones

Okay okay, this might not be the flashiest of announcements – it certainly isn’t as headline-grabbing as the Galaxy S8 and iPhone 11 launches – but Sony has a trio of new mid-range smartphones worthy of your attention. The Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra are equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 635 chipset, and a 23-megapixel rear-facing camera, complete with ISO 12800 sensitivity. The Xperia L2 meanwhile, is a 5.5in smartphone powered by a MediaTek MT6737T processor and 3GB of RAM.

Read more about the Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra

9. The DJI Osmo Mobile 2 smartphone gimbal

This is an interesting one. Definitely something I never thought I’d say, but one of CES 2018’s biggest announcements was DJI’s new handheld smartphone gimbal, the Osmo Mobile 2. It’s more than half the price than its predecessor – and massively undercuts its rivals – and has a bunch of much-needed new features, including zoom controls and a tripod mount on the base.

10. Kate Spade smartwatch

This was certainly an interesting one. I for one didn’t expect to be writing about fashion at CES, but here I was talking about a new smartwatch from the long-running fashion brand, Kate Spade. it’s all about looks with this one, with a fancy design that looks like it’s been plucked right out of Milan. Not only that, but there’s a special built-in app that allows you to tailor the watch face to blend into your current style.

On the inside, this Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch is powered by Qualcomm’s 1.3GHz Snapdragon Wear 1200 processor and there’s a microphone for Google Assistant, which is activated by pressing the dial.

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