CES, The Consumer Electronics Show, is an annual event where various company’s show off their latest and greatest tech. Last year, I wrote an article about the best of CES 2017 alone but, this year, I’d like to welcome Jackson to the CES team. So this year we have some great new tech and I hope you all enjoy!
Best Business Innovation: Toyota e-Palette
It’s seems Toyota, a major car dealer, has decided to support the small business market. At CES, Toyota announced the e-Palette, a customisable van for small businesses. This van can be customized by Toyota to fit the business’s needs. The truck can be turned into a storage van, a food truck, or even a mobile data center. This idea is a prototype a and no price points have been given. The Toyota e-Palette is shaping up to be a very useful asset for small businesses in the future.
Toyota says the e-Palette will be compatible with Amazon, Mazda,Uber, Didi Chuxing, and Pizza Hut and they already showed off the e-Palette at the PyeongChang 2020 Winter Olympics.
Best Smart Speaker: Lenovo Smart Display
At CES this year, Lenovo, popular technology company famous for the Lenovo ThinkPad, announced they would be entering the smart speaker market with their Lenovo Smart Display. This product combines the home assistance speaker from the likes of the amazon Echo or the google Home but adds a small display, increasing the helpfulness of smart speakers. This product received loads of praise from reports and visitors of CES alike. The Lenovo Smart Display comes equipped with a 8-inch incorporated display and a five megapixel camera so it is able to take clear and colorful pictures.
We chose the Lenovo Smart Display as the best smart speaker due to its innovative and clear display and great speakers supplied by popular sound company JBL. The Lenovo Smart Display will go on sale this summer for $200. There is also a 10 inch option for $50. Personally, I’m looking forward to the innovation this product brings to the smart speaker market.
Best VR Tech: HTC Vive Pro
The HTC Vive Pro has been called the best VR tech at CES and we wholeheartedly agree. The HTC Vive Pro has made great strides towards full, uninterrupted, VR experience. On top of increasing the pixel count by 78% from the HTC Vive, according to HTC Vive, the newest headset also has improved audio and color depth to improve the VR experience. The most impressive feat made by the Vive Pro isn’t the improved specs or audio quality, it’s the wireless play made possible by Intel WiGig technology. This means your VR experience won’t be limited by cords and, if you have a large space, the physical world will not limit your VR play.
Best Mobile Device: Vivo X20 Plus
Vivo, a new worldwide smartphone brand, has recently partnered with Synaptics to make an innovative new phone shown at CES 2018. Synaptics is a leading tech company that focuses on sensors for displays. The Vivo X20 Plus features a built in touchscreen fingerprint sensor. We’ve had phones with fingerprint sensors, Face ID, infinity screen display, but never a phone that combines the ease of use on the Touch ID, and the visual appeal of the no dock display. Other general specification for the phone include: 6.43 inch 1080×2160 OLED display, 3905mAh battery capacity, 4gb of ram, a 12 megapixel rear and front camera, 1.8ghz octa-core processor, microSD 64gb storage (expandable to 256gb), a Snapdragon 660, all running on Android 7.1.1. We chose this phone as out favorite from CES 2018 because of its great design and technical innovation. This new mobile phone is making waves in the smartphone field and could be a prominent contender in the near future.
Best Display: Nvidia BFGD
Nvidia announced a 65 inch GSync monitor at CES, because, Nvidia. Their new “Big Format Gaming Display” (or as we like to call it, the Big Freaking Giant Display) is larger than many living room televisions, but this is marketed for gaming. Not only is this a big monitor for gaming, but it proves it, the BFGD monitor has GSync. GSync prevents gaming monitors to deal with artifacts, screen tearing, and stuttering. Nvidia also claimed that the new BFGD monitors will run at 120hz. This monitor will proved more smooth viewing and gaming experience due to the GSync, which will cause less frame skips and stutters, and the 120hz refresh rate providing a much smoother perception of movement on the screen. Overall, if you can afford this expensive beast of a TV, this seems to be a great addition to a living room set up.
Best Unexpected Tech Award: My Special Aflac Duck
Could you imagine a popular insurance company releasing a stuffed toy. Well it turns out Aflac could help you with that. Aflac have released the “My Special Aflac Duck,” which will be given to children suffering from cancer. This plush contains an RFID with a port-a-cath which would help children familiarize with chemotherapy. This is a very small piece of tech but it will much improve the lives of unfortunate and suffering children.
CES this year showed off some great tech and some amazing new ideas. If you enjoyed the article, feel free to comment, if you didn’t, be sure to comment that as well! Thanks for reading!
