CES 2020: Must-read reveals from Las Vegas

All of the biggest reveals of CES have happened at this point, but our reporters in Las Vegas have had valuable chances to get hands-on with some fantastic new tech. We’re keeping this page updated with the latest news, reveals and hands-on verdicts, so stay tuned.

Foldables have been one of the biggest emergent tech trends of the last few months and that trend has continued at CES, with Lenovo, Intel, Dell and TCL all announcing their own foldables.

• Related: All the best foldables from CES 2020

So far our team have seen the world’s first foldable PC, one or two friendly robots and even a sneak peek of the new PS5 logo.

Read on for all of the biggest news coming out of Sin City, or visit our rolling CES coverage here.

Amazon at CES 2020

The big lesson from Amazon at CES this year was that Alexa is going to be everywhere, very soon.

Kohler unveiled their new Alexa-integrated shower head, called the Moxie. If there’s anyone out there who actually wants Alexa in their shower, we are yet to meet them. However, Amazon and Kohler clearly see their being some demand for the product.

Amazon also discussed Alexa integration in a range of upcoming cars, from the electric Rivian pickup truck to a Lamborghini supercar.

Related: Read our full report on Amazon at CES

Go Pro at CES 2020

Go Pro didn’t unveil new products at CES, instead they defended their pricing strategy and hinted at an expansion of the range of mods available for Go Pro cameras.

Founder and CEO of Go Pro, Nick Woodman, told journalists: “Regard for the brand is at an all time high… That’s anecdotal and statistically speaking”.

Related: Read our full report from the Go Pro press briefing 

Audio Technica at CES 2020

Sound specialists, Audio Technica, have unveiled two new products at CES in Las Vegas.

Firstly, the AT-LPW50PB turntable. The fully manual belt-driven turntable costs £379, but if that’s not up your street, then Audio Technica’s other product reveal might be…

Secondly, the ATH-ANC300TW true wireless earbuds are Audio Technica’s most advanced set yet. They’re set for release in May and will set you back £209 but, at first glance, they look fantastic.

After a short hands on test, Simon Lucas wrote: “By the time I’d finished listening to them it was clear the Audio-Technicas are talented enough to a) stand out among the plethora of CES 2020 true wireless in-ears and b) warrant a full review when their on-sale date comes closer.”

Related: Read more about Audio Technica at CES 2020

Razer at CES 2020

Razer announced the Kishi universal mobile gaming controllers at CES yesterday. The product essentially turns your smartphone (iPhone or Android) into something resembling a Nintendo Switch, perfect for gaming on the go.

Our reporter in Las Vegas, Ryan Jones, sees this as the next step in the race towards popular cloud gaming. He said: “These smartphone controllers are designed with cloud gaming in mind, partnering with Nvidia by joining its GeForce Now Recommended program.

“There’s no reason why the Razer Kishi can’t be used with other cloud-streaming platforms such as Google Stadia too, although that service currently only supports Google Pixel smartphones. Most Android and iOS games are supported if you’d rather stick to playing local games.”

Elsewhere, Razer announced a 5G home router and a small gaming desktop system which supports Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super graphics.

Related: For more on Razer at CES 2020, read our full report

Samsung at CES 2020

Take a deep breath, Samsung have had a lot to say at CES this year…

The latest unveiling from the Korean tech giant is the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook. Samsung have broken the mould here, but not in a positive, exciting way. Coming in at $999, this is way more expensive than your typical Chromebook.

Related: Read more about the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook

The strangest of Samsung’s announcements so far has been ‘Ballie’, a tiny spherical robot that looks like a tennis ball. It rolls around your home, following you, and is apparently capable of filming events on request and even cleaning up after your pets.

#Ballie is part of the next evolution of #IoT – patrolling your home, acting as a #fitness assistant, and acting as a remote control for the smart devices in your home. #CES2020 #SamsungCES2020 pic.twitter.com/u1Phkpy3Eb

— Samsung US Newsroom (@SamsungNewsUS) January 7, 2020

Samsung has unveiled its dazzling 8K QLED Q950TS. The 8K TV is pretty much bezel free, with the beautiful display taking up 99% of the TV’s front surface.

It comes with an interesting array of features too. For instance, the new ‘Adaptive Picture’ mode that should automatically adjust brightness and contrast for any viewing environment, for instance a a strongly sunlit room.

Samsung has also revealed that the Samsung Galaxy S20, and possible the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2, will be unveiled at an Unpacked event on February 11 2020.

Interestingly, Samsung has also unveiled the Sero TV, which automatically rotates when vertical video is played through it. The Korean tech giant also revealed more details about Neon AI, a project to create “artificial humans”.

Yet another reveal from Samsung saw the company show of their ‘SelfieType‘ technology, which they claim will allow people to type without the use of a keyboard of any kind. At the moment this is just a concept.

Samsung have not been short of news then, but they also sprung the surprising new Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite on awaiting CES crowds.

Trusted Reviews’ Max Parker, who got his hands on the phone, said: “Launching this S10 phone so soon before the S11 (or S20 or whatever Samsung ends up calling its next flagship) feels like an odd move. Would this not have worked better as the Galaxy S11 Lite? Still, it’s got a big screen, a design Samsung fans will appreciate and hopefully a price that makes it a contender for best mid-range phone.”

That came alongside the reveal of the Note 10 Lite. Initially another confusing reveal, getting hands on with the phone yielded some favourable results.

Parker said: “I first thought having a cheaper Note device might devalue the brand, however after spending a bit of time with it I can see this making far more sense than the Galaxy S10 Lite just because it brings the S Pen to wider audience.”

Related: Read our full early stage review of the Galaxy Note 10 Lite

Intel at CES 2020

Intel’s second-generation AI chip, Tiger Lake, was unveiled on the first day of CES 2020.

We’re expecting the chip to take Intel’s AI offering to the next level, with Intel promising “huge leaks in graphic performance”. It will be exciting to see what Tiger Lake is capable of when we get our hands on a working example.

Related: More on Tiger Lake and DG1

Intel revealed its first discrete GPU during its CES press conference. The graphics card is likely to set competitors, Nvidia and AMD, on full alert as they have dominated the provision of dedicated graphics cards for some time. Now, with Intel dipping their toes, the market is about to change.

Intel also unveiled the new NUC 9 Extreme ‘Ghost Canyon’ modular PC. It’s a small unit and it’s fully upgradeable.

Related: Read more about Intel’s ‘Ghost Canyon’ reveal

Earlier in the week, Intel also teased the upcoming release of its 10th Gen H-series chips. The company revealed the new i7 processors will be able to achieve above 5GHz processor speed while the i9 chips will go even higher.

AMD at CES 2020

So, how did Intel’s competition respond? With both barrels. AMD unveiled, they claim, “the world’s highest-performing ultra-thin laptop processor”.

AMD has made huge performance gains with its new generation of chips, the company claims that this particular chip has a 28% performance advantage over the Intel Core i7-1065G7.

AMD is also boasting about the new Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics card. The company called it “the ultimate 1080p graphics card”. If the performance turns out as good as the specs suggest, this could be a game changer.

Related: Get the whole story on AMD’s CES 2020 reveals 

In less positive news, AMD were forced to defend themselves when part of their press conference seemed to unveil the back of the new Xbox console. As it turns out, this was a mock-up design and not the final version. However, that was only corrected after the social media furore had kicked into top gear.

AMD just gave us a look at the rear of the Xbox Series X. It has ethernet, 2X USB-C and 2X HDMI pic.twitter.com/NV6y40ncGC

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) January 6, 2020

Lenovo at CES 2020

Lenovo has a couple of ‘World firsts’ at CES 2020. Easily the coolest product is the ThinkPad X1 Fold which, as the name suggests, is a foldable PC with an OLED display. There’s also the first 5G laptop in the form of the Yoga 5G.

Dell at CES 2020

Arguably Dell’s most exciting reveal of CES 2020 has been the Alienware Concept UFO. It’s a handheld gaming platform seemingly intended to rival the Nintendo Switch.

At the moment, as the name suggests, it’s in a concept phase, so Nintendo needn’t worry too much just yet. It’s an interesting project though – The handheld device runs Windows 10, so players will be able to use their Steam or Epic Games libraries.

Related: Get the lowdown on the Alienware Concept UFO

Another concept that Dell unveiled at the show was the Concept Ori (above). A 13-inch foldable that’s capable of showing two displays at once.

Related: Read more about the Dell Concept Ori

The Dell Concept Duet is another notable reveal from Dell. It’s an all new form factor that basically sticks two tablets together.

Related: More on the Dell Concept Duet

Dell always goes large at CES, and we’ve had our hands on some of its many CES 2020 products.

Among the highlights is the Dell XPS 13 2020. This fantastic ultrabook starts at $999.99 and is set for a January 7 release.

Related: Read our hands-on with Dell XPS 13 ultrabook

Also noteworthy is the Dell Latitude 9510 2-in-1 laptop. It’s a solid choice of laptop for professionals, the Latitude’s price hasn’t been confirmed yet but it will be released March 26, 2020.

Lastly, the Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor – This monitor will reportedly boast a 240Hz refresh rate. That’s twice the speed of most of its current competitors! Coming in at $499.99 it will be released March 11, 2020.

Related: Read our full rundown of Dell’s CES offerings

LG at CES 2020

LG fielded an impressive lineup of 8K TVs at CES 2020. The company is introducing 65-inch,  77-inch and 88-inch sizes, and will have models using both OLED and NanoCell technology.

More excitingly, LG announced that its TVs have exceeded the official 8K TV Ultra HD definition set by the CTA (Consumer Technology Association). This is bound to heat up the rivalry between LG and Samsung in the TV stakes.

There’s a raft of new 4K TVs, including a new 48-inch OLED model, some fancy thin TVs that are designed to look more like works of art, and some new entry-level models, tool.

Related: Our full rundown of LG’s 202 TV Range

We got our hands on the LG CX 48-inch set. It’s a smaller set but remains big on features and packs a punch as far as image quality is concerned.

Our reporter in Vegas, David Ludlow, said: “The full judgement will come when the TV comes in for review but the first impression is that this TV has the right traits to be a winner. The smaller size opens up the quality of OLED to new people that don’t want a massive television, while the range of features and options show this to be a TV that can keep up with the high end, delivering the quality that those that want the best from games and films demand.”

Also featuring in LG’s CES lineup are a built in air fryer and a washing machine that can detect the fabric of your clothes.

Sony at CES 2020

In Sony’s press conference on day one of CES 2020, the company unveiled the (entirely unsurprising) PS5 logo.

The gaming giants also re-affirmed some of the console’s key features, including hardware-based ray tracing, 3D audio sound and adaptive controller triggers. We can expect release in Q4 of 2020.

Details surrounding Sony’s CES 2020 TV offerings leaked on their website before proceedings got underway.

Sony unveiled the A9 4K OLED TV, the smallest ever 4K OLED TV. Our reporter in Vegas, Ryan Jones, said: “This marks the first time Sony has offered a 48-inch sized television with high-end features such as an OLED panel, meeting the demand for those with smaller living room spaces who don’t want to compromise on picture quality.”

Related: Get the full rundown on Sony’s new small 4K OLED

Panasonic at CES 2020

The most surprising reveal from Panasonic was the all new RZ-S300W and RZ-S500W wireless earbuds and M series wireless headphones. Panasonic became the latest in a long list of brands to venture into the wireless earbud market.

Panasonic unveiled the HZ2000 OLED TV, which promises a higher peak brightness level than other sets.

Trusted Reviews’ David Ludlow got hands on with Panasonic’s latest televisual offering and was impressed.

He said: “It can be hard to differentiate OLED TVs between manufacturers but the Panasonic HZ2000 brings something different to the party with Intelligent Sensing that can make the best of Filmmaker Mode under any lighting condition. Excellent image quality and higher-than-average peak brightness could make this TV the one that home cinema fans will really want.”

Related: Panasonic HZ2000 – Read the full hands-on 

Dolby Vision IQ is also included, which sees the set intelligently optimise the picture quality according to the brightness of the room. So, no more fiddling with the settings and menus on your remote control.

Dabby, Cleer Audio and Mobvoi at CES 2020

Some less well-known tech companies have made waves at CES too. Firstly, Dabby is a gadget that brings together the content from all your different streaming subscriptions. Handy eh?

Related: Get the lowdown on Dabby

Cleer Audio brought an amazing, unique piece of speaker design to CES 2020. The Crescent Smart Speaker is different to anything we’ve seen before in design terms. Read more, and take a look, by following the link below.

Related: The Crescent smart speaker from Cleer Audio looks like no other

Meanwhile, Chinese tech company Mobvoi unveiled the new TicPods 2 and TicPods 2 Pro, wireless earbuds. The TicPods 2 will be available for £85.99, with the Pro version coming in at £119.99. Both sets are available for pre-order right now.

Related: Read more about the TicPods 2 Pro

Yale and Netatmo (Home Security) at CES 2020

Yale unveiled a Smart Safe and Smart Cabinet Lock at CES 2020. The safe can be controlled from your phone using the Yale Access app.

Meanwhile Netatmo unveiled a smart door lock that removes the need for keys. Smart NFC keys take the place of the traditional ones rattling around in your pocket and the locks in your home can be managed from the Netatmo security app.

When and where is CES 2020?

CES takes place on the 7th-10th January in a number of venues in Las Vegas, in the United States, although early access is granted to sites like ourselves, and for companies making announcements ahead of the doors opening. Hence our coverage beginning now.

Most of the action takes place in the Las Vegas Convention Center, with other events occurring at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, plus a number of other hotels and bars around the city.

What is CES?

Launched in 1967, it’s the world’s leading consumer electronics exhibition, where most of the major global manufacturers get together to launch and showcase their new product lines to the wider industry, retailers and the public. It’s also usually a good place to get an idea of the big themes the industry is hoping will captivate us consumers as well – good and bad – whether that’s 8K TVs, foldable displays or drones, as per previous years, or duds like 3D TVs.

The upshot is CES is a fascinating mix of the stuff you’ll probably be looking to buy in the next 12-18 months, plus a glimpse of the top end technologies that will filter down over longer timescales.

In the past, the show was where most major announcements took place, especially around computing and TVs, so if you really wanted to know what was new, CES was the place to be. In recent years, following the example of Apple, brands have preferred to do more of this at their own events, whether it’s Samsung separately announcing its Galaxy devices, or Google doing the same with Pixel.

That said, there’s still no better place to get a sense of the latest developments around TVs, AV, smart homes, drones and some consumer robotics, plus it’s a great place to prospect for companies and devices that may not yet be household names in the UK, but might be soon.

The CES is run by the CTA (the Consumer Technology Association). They provide full details of the show here including a full schedule.

What are the essential keynotes and sessions and who is speaking?

There’s a full schedule of keynotes and press conferences, otherwise the best thing to do is follow our own coverage as it evolves – we’ll filter the news into just the key stuff. But these are our picks at the moment:

CTA

How 5G will change your life

• Who: Qualcomm
• They say: “This new generation of mobile technology will also enable new services and industries we’ve yet to imagine. Learn what’s in store for you as 5G goes mainstream in 2020.”
• When: Wednesday, Jan 8 10.30-11 am PST
• We say: It’s 5G, it’s about more than faster phones, and it’s from Qualcomm, whose chips power a number of 5G devices. Also Livestreamed.

Enter the Quantum Decade

• Who: IBM, ExxonMobil, Daimler Benz
• They say: “Why many believe quantum is the next big thing in technology and how it is about unlock tremendous value — including new drugs and materials, batteries that are 1000x better, efficient supply chains and new transportation systems.”
• When: Wednesday, Jan 8, 3-4pm PST
• We say: Quantum Computing is the next big thing, so let’s find out about the state of the likely art.

Read the full list of speakers and sessions here.

Can anyone go to CES?

Well, yes and no. CES is a trade show so you need to be able to demonstrate some connection to the consumer electronics industry – and be prepared to pay the price, starting at $300. However, media brands like ourselves get full access – in fact, this year Trusted Reviews is an official media partner, so say hello if you see us – and we’re sending a full team to report from the show floor.