Category: Technology

CES 2024 in Las Vegas had all kinds of tech, from attention-grabbing AI gadgets to, uh, whatever this is. There were also a whole bunch of laptops. Like, an endless array of laptops. So many laptops, in fact, that we had a real tough time deciding between them to choose our best of CES award winners.

These weren’t just any laptops with minor spec bumps. The theme of the year was, of course, AI, with many computers adopting dedicated AI chips. OLED displays with speedy refresh rates were also all over the show floor and, of course, there were several unique designs that just about defy description. We’ve gone through them all and come up with a list of the best laptops at CES.

ASUS Zenbook Duo

The dream of a dual-screen laptop isn’t dead! The ASUS Zenbook Duo is a technical marvel, with a dual-screen display and a detachable Bluetooth keyboard. In other words, you can use it in a traditional clamshell mode, with a keyboard in front of one of the displays, or you can balance the screens on top of one another. This is great for those who want the convenience of a laptop, but with added screen real estate.

The aesthetics are on point and the Duo includes high-end hardware like Intel’s Core Ultra chips and gorgeous OLED screens. The price is also fairly reasonable, given the tech, as this laptop starts at $1,500.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16

ASUS strikes again. The ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16 line has gotten a full redesign, with an attractive aluminum chassis and plenty of power underneath the hood. These laptops can run just about any AAA game on the market, thanks to its AMD Ryzen 8000 series processors and the optional NVIDIA RTX 4070 GPU at the high end.

We called it a “grown up” and “sophisticated” gaming laptop because, well, that’s what it is. It’s incredibly sleek and would feel at home in an office and in a basement-turned-gaming-paradise. It’s also lighter than previous generations, making it more portable. Each model ships with a simple LED slash across the front that can be programmed to glow in gray or white, instead of the typical Skittles rainbow of colors found with most gaming laptops. There’s no pricing on these yet.

HP Omen Transcend 14

There’s a new record-breaker in town. The HP Open Transcend 14 is the lightest 14-inch gaming laptop in the world, weighing just 3.5 pounds. Even cooler? HP seems to have hit this milestone without cutting too many corners. Despite being closer in size and weight to an ultraportable than an average gaming laptop, you still get support for the 14th-gen Intel Core Ultra 7 or Ultra 9 processor, up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM, 2TB of storage and an RTX 4070 GPU. This thing won’t struggle to play modern games.

Despite the teeny-tiny dimensions, you still get two USB-A and two USB-C ports (one of which supports Thunderbolt 4) plus a full-size HDMI 2.1 jack on the back. You’ll also have the option to upgrade to Wi-Fi 7 card with Bluetooth 5.4. This laptop starts at $1,600 and goes on sale later this year.

Dell’s new XPS line

Dell has upgraded its entire XPS line, with form factors that resemble last year’s XPS 13 Plus. The redesign covers the new XPS 13, 14 and 16, and there’s no longer a Plus line. Each of these laptops boasts a glass wrist wrest that hides an invisible haptic touchpad. There’s also touch-sensitive function buttons above the keyboard and large key caps for comfortable typing.

The XPS line includes Intel’s Core Ultra chips, which feature NPUs for AI tasks. The ports are on point, with the XPS 14 and 16 boasting a headphone jack, three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C slots and a microSD card reader. The minimalist design here is gorgeous and these laptops nearly made our best of CES list, but not quite. Once these are out in the wild, however, they could wind up on our list of the best laptops in 2024, just like the XPS 13 Plus.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5

We promised unique and funky designs, and here’s one. The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 is a Frankenstein’s monster of sorts, with a design that’s basically two gadgets smashed together. This is anything but your typical 2-in-1 device. At first glance, the ThinkBook Plus looks like an ordinary clamshell, but the display lifts right off and becomes a 14-inch tablet.

Not that big of a deal right? Here’s where things get interesting. Once removed, both components remain fully functional. So you can use the tablet as a standalone Android device, a wireless monitor for the laptop base or a Wacom-like inking display via Lenovo’s Freestyle app. Meanwhile, you can also use the deck as a mini desktop by plugging in an external screen. Now that’s some modular thinking. This thing starts at $2,000, however, which is fairly steep.

Everything else

There were many laptops that just missed this list, but still deserve mention.

MSI 18-inch laptops – The company went big this year, introducing a trio laptops with 18-inch displays. Now you won’t have to sacrifice screen real estate for portability.

Acer Predator Helios 18 – This is another large laptop with an 18-inch screen. However, the Predator Helios 18 also features a uniquely-designed hinge absolutely stuffed with RGB lights.

Acer Swift and Aspire – These are basic refreshes that don’t offer much by way of innovation, but will certainly sell like absolute hotcakes. They are stuffed with AI, however, with Intel’s new Core Ultra processors and dedicated keys that can summon Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant.

Razer Blade line – Razer offered a refresh of its entire Blade gaming laptop line. The biggest news here? The Razer Blade 16 features a glorious 240Hz OLED display.

Alienware m16 R2 – What would CES be without some Alienware goodness? The m16 R2 is a sleek gaming laptop with a large 90 Whr battery, slim bezels and a beefy touchpad – all in a package with a 15 percent smaller footprint than previous iterations.

Lenovo Legion updates – Lenovo announced a slew of new Legion gaming laptops at CES, each featuring proprietary cooling technology and performance-enhancing AI chips. These all ship with Windows 11 and come with three free months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Sightful Spacetop – Well, here’s another funky one. The Spacetop doesn’t have an actual screen. It ships with AR glasses that allow for a 100-inch virtual display. The design is nifty, but the execution is iffy.

We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-laptops-of-ces-2024-174531438.html?src=rss 

Call it love at first sight. Every year, I come across a handful of products that elicit instant joy, a sense of elation that’s so strong I forget about the many ways the tech industry is actively making our world worse. As we wrap up CES 2024 in Las Vegas, I can’t stop thinking about the new ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, the latest edition of one of our favorite gaming laptops. 

As we covered in our initial hands-on, the Zephyrus G14 features the spec bumps you’d expect: new Ryzen 8000 CPUs and the return of NVIDIA’s RTX 4070. But really, it’s the all aluminum case and minimalist aesthetic that I’ve fallen for. When I touched it for the first time, it felt like I was holding a piece of high-grade scientific equipment. The case feels almost too good for a gaming laptop.

Couple that with the cleanest layout ever on an ASUS machine, and you have an evolutionary design leap for the company. (It’s particularly shocking seeing it next to the new ASUS ZenBook 14 OLED, which looks practically ancient in comparison.) We’ve called Razer’s Blade laptops the gaming equivalent of Apple’s MacBook Pro for years — but now the torch may have been passed to ASUS. The Zephyrus G14 more closely resembles the boxier refreshed aesthetic from Apple’s Pro machines. (If you’re looking for an even bigger screen, there’s also a new G16 with the same design and it can hold more powerful hardware, like NVIDIA’s RTX 4090.)

The G14 is more than just a design showpiece, it’s also a far better gaming laptop than before. Its new keyboard, which sports 12 percent larger key caps, makes hours-long Halo Infinite matches feel far more comfortable since there’s more room for my fingers to spread out. Just about everything shines on its new 3K 120Hz OLED screen, which makes colors pop perfectly. And I was even able to hear a decent amount of positional audio from its revamped speakers (20 percent larger than before) when I was too lazy to grab a pair of headphones.

While I can’t divulge any benchmarks from our RTX 4070-equipped preview unit, I can say that Halo Infinite, Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring and the new uber-stylish Metroidvania Cookie Cutter all played like a dream at the G14’s native resolution with maxed out graphics quality. Cookie Cutter, with its fluid and expressive art style, was practically made to be shown off on OLED screens. And in Cyberpunk, the G14’s HDR capability made the neon lights in Night City almost searingly bright.

The Zephyrus G14 also excelled at game streaming, something I like to test to stress a laptop’s networking capabilities. I was able to hop into Forza Horizon 5 in around 30 seconds while I was sitting 20 feet and a floor away from my router. And once I hit the road, I was able to zoom through a few races without any noticeable video artifacts, tearing or slowdown. Anyone walking by might think I was playing the game locally.

Beyond gaming, the G14 just kept surprising and delighting me. Its larger keyboard feels great for typing, with more depth and responsiveness than before. Its touchpad is one of the smoothest I’ve used on a Windows laptop. And I can’t help but love that it has all the ports I want: HDMI, mini-SD and both USB-C and Type A on both sides of the case. I was less enamored with ASUS’ new power connector — it’s a bit stiff, and a slight tug could easily send the G14 flying. It would have been nice to see a pure USB-C charging solution, but the company told our senior reporter Sam Rutherford that the cost and efficiency of using that port for high-powered charging still isn’t good enough for wide deployment.

I’m looking forward to spending more time with the ROG Zephyrus G14 during our review. But until then, we’ll always have CES 2024.

We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/asus-rog-zephyrus-g14-preview-180025962.html?src=rss 

It’s the end of our CES coverage, wrapping up the week with more deep dives from the tech show and introducing our Best of CES 2024 winners.

This year, rather than award specific category prizes, possibly in categories lacking competition (or anything good enough), we’ve announced a group of winners across multiple categories. We still attempted to see as many products and devices as possible, whether it was laptops, mobile devices and smart home gear or cars and accessibility innovations.

You should check out the full slate of winners, but our Best of Show went to GE Profile’s Smart Indoor Smoker. I know: CES is more typically a TV show or car show, but sometimes it’s niche products that win us over.

The Smart Indoor Smoker is a countertop device that makes proper barbecue in your kitchen without filling your home with smoke. It moves air around the food to impart maximum smokiness, without letting airflow out. When your brisket, chicken or whatever is done, a filtration and catalyst system draws the smoke down, eventually expelling it as warm air. It’s not small, but it’s stylish and simple to use, with a low barrier to entry for anyone tempted to try smoking their own food. The device could also impart an impressive level of smokiness in only a few hours.

Make sure you check out all the winners right here. Expect a few more stories from the team today and over the weekend, but for me, it’s time to leave Las Vegas. Until next year!

— Mat Smith

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A little secret: I love the strange gadgets, services and concepts we unearth at CES, more so than all the premium TVs, car tech and beefed-up laptops. There are thousands of exhibitors peddling their wares, trying to find a market for things no one has dreamed up before. Here are a few favorites from CES 2024. Weird doesn’t mean bad. It just means weird.

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It’s a great time to buy a solar generator

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This year’s CES has shown that the solar power industry has moved beyond its old limitations. Cost for solar panels and batteries has fallen dramatically in the last few years, making it an easier sell.

The new EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra, the company’s flagship whole-home backup, can pump out 7,200W. The company claims the unit is strong enough to power a three-ton central air unit, one of the most demanding appliances in the home. Plus, because it’s modular, you can add up to three units to the same home for a cumulative output of 21.6kW — and, with enough batteries, a total storage capacity of 90kWh.

Solix, Anker’s big battery division, showed off its new F3800 portable power station, which can pump out a peak of 6,000W — enough to juice an EV.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-introducing-the-best-of-ces-2024-182306415.html?src=rss 

It’s been a while since we saw over-the-air wireless charging demos from the likes of Oppo and Xiaomi, so CES 2024 caught us by surprise when we came across a new one from another Chinese mobile brand, Infinix. This “AirCharge” tech uses low-frequency magnetic resonance to deliver up to 25W of power wirelessly, and this works across a distance of up to 20cm (7.87 inches) — doubling that of Oppo’s previous demo — and at angles of up to 60 degrees. 

Infinix believes that this use case is ideal for users who want to keep their phones charged while gaming or watching videos, without having a cable getting in the way of either hand. With this improved charging distance, you can also install the AirCharge pad to underneath a table, and then you’ll have yourself a stealthy charging area. Before that, though, Infinix will need to figure out a way to avoid accidentally heating up metallic objects nearby. There are foreign object detection methods for existing “2D” wireless charging solutions, but it’s more complex when the charging space goes from “2D” to “3D.”

Another safety measure to keep in mind is for the case of a sudden drop in distance between the phone and the charging pad — it’s not good to abruptly crank up the voltage on a device like that. As such, Infinix has already implemented (and patented) an over-voltage protection circuit on both ends of the chain. The company doesn’t have a time frame for launching AirCharge on a mass production device just yet, but it hopes to eventually use this tech to push for an industrial standard on over-the-air wireless charging.

Infinix also showed off its “E-Color Shift Technology,” which uses E Ink’s Prism 3 to let you change the color patterns on the back of your phone. This feature supports eight basic colors, which are then expanded by multiple levels of shades, and this can be implemented onto a pattern with over 100 customizable areas. As is the case with conventional E Ink displays, once this Prism 3 panel has been refreshed, the new color pattern remains without consuming power.

Once the company figures out how to tackle the challenges related to thermal performance and thickness, it hopes to bring this funky feature to consumer devices within a year or two. By which point, you’ll be able to customize the color pattern through an app — which we didn’t get to see, as our demo used dummy phones instead. Even Lenovo is considering this display tech for decorating its laptop lids.

Last but not least, Infinix teased its “Extreme-Temp Battery” tech for users who have to brave the cold. While conventional lithium ion batteries will have their capacities drastically reduced or even get damaged in low temperatures, Infinix’s solid state battery will continue to operate even at a temperature as low as -40°C or -40°F. Similarly, when measured at -20°C or -4°F, Infinix’s solution will apparently have a 50- to 300-percent boost in endurance time compared to others. We may see this battery tech on an Infinix phone as soon as the second half of 2025.

We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/infinix-brought-wireless-charging-tech-to-ces-that-can-juice-up-your-devices-from-eight-inches-away-183059546.html?src=rss 

So much of what we see at CES tends to be focused on technological innovation for the sake of innovation, or obvious attempts to tap into whatever trend is gripping the internet’s attention that year. In the last few shows, though, there has been a heartening increase in attention to assistive products that are designed to help improve the lives of people with disabilities and other different needs. At CES 2024, I was glad to see more development in the accessibility category, with many offerings appearing to be more thoughtfully designed in addition to being clever. It’s so easy to get distracted by the shiny, eye-catching, glamorous and weird tech at CES, but I wanted to take the time to give due attention to some of my favorite accessibility products here in Las Vegas.

GyroGlove

Before I even packed my bags, numerous coworkers had sent me the link to GyroGlove’s website after it had been recognized as an honoree for several CES Innovation awards. The device is a hand-stabilizing glove that uses gyroscopic force to help those with hand tremors minimize the shakes. Because the demo unit at the show floor was too large for me, and, more importantly, I don’t have hand tremors, I couldn’t accurately assess the glove’s effectiveness. 

But I spoke with a person with Parkinson’s Disease at the booth, who had been wearing one for a few days. She said the GyroGlove helped her perform tasks like buttoning up a shirt more easily, and that she intended to buy one for herself. At $5,899, the device is quite expensive, which is the sad state of assistive products these days. But GyroGlove’s makers said they’re in talks with some insurance providers in the US, which could lead to it being covered for those in America who could benefit from it. That’s one of the biggest reasons that led us to name GyroGlove one of our winners for CES 2024. 

MouthPad

I did not think I’d be looking deep into a person’s mouth and up their nose at CES 2024, but here we are. Sometimes you have to do strange things to check out unconventional gadgets. The MouthPad is as unusual as it gets. It’s a tongue-operated controller for phones, tablets and laptops, and basically anything that will accept a Bluetooth mouse input. The components include a touchpad mounted onto the palette of what’s essentially a retainer, as well as a battery and Bluetooth radio. 

As odd as the concept sounds, it actually could be a boon for people who aren’t able to use their limbs, since your tongue, as a muscle, can offer more precise movement and control than, say, your eyes. If you’re feeling apprehensive about sticking a device inside your mouth, it might be helpful to know that the battery is from the same company that’s made them for medical-grade implants, while the rest of the dental tray is made from a resin that’s commonly used in aligners and bite guards. The product is currently available as an early access package that includes setup and calibration assistance, with a new version (with longer battery life) slated for launch later this year.

OrCam Hear

Assistive tech company OrCam won our Best of CES award for accessibility in 2022, so I was eager to check out what it had in store this year. I wasn’t disappointed. The company had a few updated products to show off, but the most intriguing was a new offering for people with hearing loss. The OrCam Hear system is a three-part package consisting of a pair of earbuds, a dongle for your phone and an app. Together, the different parts work to filter out background noise while identifying and isolating specific speakers in a multi-party conversation.

At a demo during a noisy event at CES 2024, I watched and listened as the voices of selected people around me became clear or muffled as company reps dragged their icons in or out of my field of hearing. I was especially impressed when the system was able to identify my editor next to me and let me choose to focus on or filter out his voice. 

Audio Radar

If you’re a gamer, you’ll know how important audio cues can sometimes be for a successful run. Developers frequently design the sound environment for their games to be not only rich and immersive, but to also contain hints about approaching enemies or danger. Players who are hard of hearing can miss out on this, and it’s not fair for them to be disadvantaged due to a disability. 

A product called Audio Radar can help turn sound signals into visual cues, so that gamers with hearing loss can “see the sound,” according to the company. The setup is fairly simple. A box plugs into a gaming console to interpret the audio output and convert it into lights. A series of RGB light bars surround the screen, and display different colors depending on the type of sound coming from the respective direction they represent.

CES 2024 saw not just Audio Radar’s official launch, but was also where the company introduced its SDK for game developers to create custom visual cues for players who are hard of hearing. The company’s founder and CEO Tim Murphy told Engadget that it’s partnering with Logitech, with the gaming accessory maker “providing support as we further develop our product and design our go-to-market strategy.” 

Transcribe Glass

Google Glass was resurrected at CES 2024. Sort of. A new product called Transcribe Glass is a small heads up display you can attach to any frames, and the result looks a lot like the long-dead Google device. It connects to your phone and uses that device’s onboard processing to transcribe what it hears, then projects the text onto the tiny transparent display hovering above the eye. You’ll be able to resize the font, adjust the scrolling speed and choose your language model of choice, since TranscribeGlass uses third-party APIs for translation. Yes, it converts foreign languages into one you understand, too. 

The company is targeting year’s end for launch, and hoping to offer the device at $199 to start. When I tried it on at the show floor, I was surprised by how light and adjustable the hardware was. I had to squint slightly to see the captions, and was encountering some Bluetooth lag, but otherwise the transcriptions took place fairly quickly and appeared to be accurate. The TranscribeGlass should last about eight hours on a charge, which seems reasonable given all that it’s doing. 

Samsung’s subtitle accessibility features

Though we didn’t catch a demo of this in person, Samsung did briefly mention a “sign language feature in Samsung Neo QLED” that “can be easily controlled with gestures for the hearing impaired, and an Audio Subtitle feature [that] turns text subtitles into spoken words in real-time for those with low vision.” We weren’t able to find this at the show, but the concept is certainly meaningful. Plus, the fact that Samsung TVs have mainstream appeal means these features could be more widely available that most of the niche products we’ve covered in this roundup.

We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/our-favorite-accessibility-products-at-ces-2024-170009710.html?src=rss 

Nowadays, there are already plenty of choices when it comes to pet trackers, and some can even monitor heart rate, but apparently none could detect atrial fibrillation (AFib) until now. At CES 2024, GPS tracker specialist Invoxia unveiled the Minitailz, the world’s first pet tracker that can keep an eye out for early heart disease symptoms on your cats or dogs. Together with other vital stats and activity log, the companion app then uses conversational generative AI to generate easy-to-read reports on your pets.

According to the French company, Minitailz is able to track respiratory and heart vitals with an accuracy of 97 to 99 percent, thanks to its advanced biometric sensors combined with AI. Using deep learning algorithms, the set of data is then used to spot digital biomarkers that indicate stress, aging and pathologies. The device can also differentiate the types of movements, such as walks, runs and zoomies, as well as alerting you when your pets wander beyond your preset geofences.

The Minitailz module houses a built-in SIM card for LTE-M connectivity, which enables real-time tracking in conjunction with GPS. This can be attached to any pet collar, which is an advantage over many competing devices that are stuck inside a physical neckband, according to Invoxia.

The Minitailz is already available for dogs via Invoxia’s website for $99, followed by a cat version due in March for the same price. You’ll also need to buy a subscription starting from $8.30 per month.

We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-dog-tracker-from-invoxia-can-also-detect-your-pets-abnormal-heart-rhythms-160021010.html?src=rss