From TVs to smartphones: Key takeaways of CES 2018
Barely into the second week of the New Year, the date for the calendar's biggest tech conference is finally upon us. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 will officially open its doors to the public on January 9 and wrap up three days later on January 12, but many big names from the industry are also holding events for the press today (January 8).
With more than two lakh attendees and 4,000 companies heading to the conference in Las Vegas, the three-day long event will prove to be of great significance as it will help set the tone for the year. Many of the tech giants have lined up big-ticket products announcements including consumer products such as TVs, smartphones, smart cars, headphones, drones and refrigerators.
With CES 2018 all set to begin, here are all the major announcements from the event.
Nvidia Big Format Gaming Displays
“BFGDs” integrate NVIDIA G-SYNC and SHIELD to deliver the world’s first giant screen #PCgaming experience: https://t.co/dPZG5zn8kG #CES2018 pic.twitter.com/2nQ6oKMPk0
— NVIDIA (@nvidia) January 8, 2018
During its pre-event press interaction, GPU manufacturer Nvidia let slip information about the interesting products that it will showcase in the coming days. Nvidia announced that it will unveil what it calls the Big Format Gaming Displays (BFGDs) at CES 2018.
The displays, like the name suggests, are massive – 65 inches – and will be manufactured by its partners such as Acer, Asus, and HP. This will be Nvidia's first attempt at entering living rooms, and will majorly target gaming PCs, but will also appeal to high-end console owners such as the Xbox One X.
These giant gaming monitors with G-Sync will also support 4K HDR and will be able to process frame rates up to 120Hz. The company has revealed the price of these giant 65-inch gaming displays, but considering the technology behind it, expect it to be very expensive.
Apart from the display, Nvidia has also announced its next step forward in the world of autonomous vehicles, Xavier – an AI chip made for self-driving vehicles. The company will initially be extending this new technology to Uber and VW.
Sony's trio of mid-range phones
Embrace your inner creative. Capture the world in magnificent detail. Discover borderless beauty with #Xperia XA2, Xperia XA2 Ultra and Xperia L2 - our latest innovations from #SonyCES: https://t.co/VA47sBwz0T pic.twitter.com/NUvia2PpWJ
— Sony Xperia (@sonyxperia) January 8, 2018
Another industry giant that has gone ahead and made some key product announcements even before the show has kicked off is Sony. The smartphone division of the company has promised to unveil during the show three new mid-range smartphones with above-par camera modules.
First up is the Xperia XA2, which brings with it Qualcomm's Snapdragon 630 chipsets and 3GB of RAM and a 5.2-inch display running at 1080p. There's a 23-Megapixel sensor on board with hybrid autofocus and support for 4K video recording plus 120fps slow-motion shooting. On the front, the device has been equipped with an 8-Megapixel wide angle camera with a 120-degree wide-angle lens.
Second, is the XA2 Ultra that uses the same SOC found in the first phone but bumps up important specs – 4GB of RAM, either 32 or 64GB of internal storage and a bigger 6-inch, Full HD screen. The phone also brings what looks to be a powerful dual camera module at the front – 8-Megapixel wide-angle camera and a 16-megapixel sensor with optical image stabilisation.
Last but not the least is the Xperia L2, which has been announced with a quadcore chipset clocked at 1.5GHz, along with 3GB RAM and up to 32GB of storage. It also sports a display that may be slightly bigger in size than the XA2's, but only runs at 720p and comes with a modest 13-Megapixel rear camera.
For now, there are no details on the pricing and availability of the phones but expect more on that front in the coming days.
Samsung's 146-inch modular TV
Even as OLED TVs are finally making way into our homes, Samsung has decided to bring to the table a new class of technology to power the televisions of the future. The company has announced a massive 146-inch modular television set with support for up to 4K resolution.
The tech giant is calling it The Wall, one that it claims is also “the world’s first modular TV”. This uses MicroLED technology to produce its picture. For now, The Wall is more of a concept product, but if reports are to be believed, Samsung has very real plans to commercialise it in the coming months.
Intel 8th Gen Core CPUs with integrated Radeon RX Vega graphics
In what will come as great news for those looking to game on their laptops, Intel has unveiled its 8th generation Core CPUs integrated with AMD's RX Vega M GPU. With the new line of Core i5 and i7 CPUs, processor manufacturer Intel is bringing together its fastest mobile processors with top-of-the-line mobile graphics capabilities.
With the new i7 chipsets, Intel claims laptops will become much slimmer and lighter, but still produce enough power to outrun a machine fitted with a Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU.