CES officially opened today, and the show floor was absolutely packed with the latest and greatest wares from companies around the globe. Sure, a lot of the big announcements were yesterday, but that didn't stop anybody from rolling out even more new gadgets and services. This is CES, after all, and what's a day of CES without a bunch of new tech? 06 January
HP goes premium
Early in its tenure HP was a pioneering electronics manufacturer, but somewhere along the way they got lost. Well HP has been beating their way back to amazing products, and this year at CES rolled out several impressive new offerings. Take the HP Spectre x360, which got an optional quad HD OLED display panel, and the obscenely-thin HP EliteBook Folio. HP still makes commodity hardware, sure, but the path they've taken to the premium end of the spectrum is resulting in some really great products.
- Hands-on with the 13-inch HP Spectre x360 with QHD OLED display
- Hands-on with HP's impressively thin EliteBook Folio
Netflix Everywhere
As Netflix CEO Reed Hastings took to the stage in Las Vegas for the CES 2016 keynote, Netflix went live in 130 new countries, bringing the video streaming service to virtually every country in the world. Notable new additions for Netflix included Russia, India and South Korea.
- Netflix comes to 130 countries, including India
Samsung Gear S2 Classic 18K rose gold and platinum hands-on
Samsung has expanded its line of Tizen smartwatches with new, shinier models aimed at female buyers. The new rose gold Gear S2 Classic comes with a white leather band, while the platinum model is bundled with a black leather strap.
- Samsung introduces new rose gold and platinum Gear S2 smartwatches
Dell's insane new OLED monitor is only $5,000
Normally we wouldn't spend a lot of time talking about a monitor, but we'll make an exception for this one. Dell today announced a new 30-inch 4K UltraSharp monitor, and it's the first to pack OLED display technology. This brings a few benefits, including narrow bezels and a narrow body, but it's the picture itself that's the big story. OLED brings intense colors and near-infinite black levels to the party, plus a ridiculously-fast 0.1ms refresh rate.
- Here is Dell's astonishing $5,000 UltraSharp 30-inch OLED monitor
- Dell adds new 4K OLED, InfinityEdge and wireless monitors to its lineup
Fossil Q Grant and Q54 Pilot
Fossil has a multi-pronged approach to smartwatches — those with screens, and those without. The new Q Grant and Q54 Pilot land in the second camp: They look like "regular" mechanical watches, but have smartwatch-like features baked into the back.
These watches have mechanical movements and all of the style of the standard Grant and Pilot 54 watches from Fossil, but can also track your steps and alert you of notifications from your phone. A neat balance to strike if you're not all-in with the smartwatch trend just yet.
- Hands-on with Fossil's Q Grant and Q54 Pilot
Alcatel OneTouch comes to Windows Mobile
The Fierce XL is coming to T-Mobile
We've already had Acer jump in on the premium end of Windows 10 Mobile, now Alcatel OneTouch is here to round out the bottom. Their Fierce XL is coming to T-Mobile, and while it's not the most beastly of phones, but at $140 it's damned impressive. We're looking at a 5.5-inch 720p display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 processor, and an 8MP camera all wrapped in a colorful cyan body. The lower end is where Windows Phones have seen the most success, and the Fierce XL is bringing Alcatel OneTouch's expertise in that market to the fore.
- Alcatel OneTouch Fierce XL Windows 10 Mobile smartphone announced, coming to T-Mobile
- Hands-on with the T-Mobile Alcatel OneTouch Fierce XL with Windows 10 Mobile
The Honor 5X is coming to America
$199 for a solid phone from Huawei's sub-brand
Huawei's Honor sub-brand hits the U.S. this year with the arrival of the Honor 5X, a new, affordable handset around the $199 mark that delivers capable smartphone hardware features like a 1080p display, a metal chassis and a 13-megapixel camera with LED flash. On the software side it's still packing Android 5.1 Lollipop, but the Honor 5X has a lot to offer in other areas.
- Honor 5X hands-on
Razer's new ultrabook is thin but mighty
Plus a Thunderbolt 3 dock that brings desktop-class graphics to the party
Razer's a gaming company at it's core, so you'd be forgiven for being confused at first by the new Razer Blade. By all measures it's a pretty typical ultrabook (though with Razer-styling), but plug it into the Razer Core box with a Thunderbolt 3 cable and suddenly you've got desktop-class graphics power. Portability when you need it, a rocking gaming machine when you want it. Oh, and that Thunderbolt 3 cable? It also provides power to the laptop. We're finally at one cable to rule them all.
- The full tour of the new Razer Blade Stealth 12.5-inch ultimate gaming Ultrabook
- The Razer Core adds desktop-class graphics to Razer's slick new ultrabook
The everything else that is CES
CES is more than just smartphones and tablets and laptops and watches. It's put on by the Consumer Technology Association, after all. At CES you can find just about everything that takes an electrical current (and some things that don't). And more than any other electronics trade show, CES defines the trends that we can expect to see in the coming year. And this year, it's all about connecting every facet of your home to you.
