CES 2022 Day 1: Drink Robots and Smart Glasses?
The Consumer Tech industry just wrapped up the media day of the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and it’s taken the world by shock. I don’t think we’ve had such an eventful CES in 5 or 6 years. Today brought a lot of announcements, so let’s jump in!
The day started with AMD’s press conference, where they announced their all-new 6000 series mobile CPUs and GPUs for laptops. Let’s start with the CPUs; they feature AMD’s Zen 3 Plus architecture, they’re built on a 6nm process, they have WiFi 6E, and USB-4. AMD 6000 series mobile also features 12 RDNA 2 compute units with hardware ray-tracing for integrated graphics (it’s a 50% larger graphics engine), providing 69% faster video editing (Lisa Su’s words, not mine), 1.3x faster overall performance, and 2x faster graphics performance. Better yet, because of the 6nm process and hardware optimization + “new power management features”, AMD touts 24 hours of video playback. Is that very useful information? No. I mean, we don’t even know what laptop that was tested with. But, is it impressive for an x86 architecture power-hungry chip? Uh, yes. I’m super, super impressed with these chips. If you are too, they’re available starting February, But that’s not all team red announced today; they also announced 8 (yes, that’s not a typo) new mobile 6000 series GPUs. Now, these graphics engines are INSANE. All of the SKUs range from 12 to 40 compute units and sport at least a 10% increase in compute power compared to their predecessors, with some going even as high as 13%. You simply just don’t see year-over-year improvements like that in already established product lines cough Intel cough. These discrete mobile GPUs will be expected to fully launch in Q1 2022. AMD finally also teased the next generation of Desktop Ryzen, with Ryzen 7000. The chips are to now use LGA AM5 instead of AM4 sockets and should be built on Zen 4 instead of the previous Zen 3. But, other than those slight tidbits of information, we’re yet to know anything else until this Spring. And that’s it for AMD!
After AMD, LG took the stage to talk about its innovations. They started off the presentation with a rather interesting skit talking all about the new LG OLED EVO. This TV comes in 2 sizes, 45 inches, and 97 inches, and gets brighter than the previous models. LG didn’t give us an exact year-over-year comparison (like most things at CES), but safe to say, it’s a solid upgrade. Next in the keynote was the LG Ultra Gear, which is a 144hz gaming monitor. It boasts a 1ms response time (great for gaming), and a 1000 nit HDR display that’s VESA mountable. After the monitor and boring TV, they announced yet another boring update to another boring product. The washer. The washer and dryer also receive an OTA update that enables the washer to adjust wash motions and for the dryer to extract moisture. Then, LG announced a plant grower, and for reason, it won a CES award. A plant thing. Winning an award. Welcome to 2022. The Tiiun plant grower makes plants grow, by adding fertilizer and water when needed. Okay, last uninteresting thing; LG made a new Air Purifier called the LG PuriCare. This thing is pretty cool — it sports a fan, air purifier, and heater all in one. It also uses LG’s proprietary UV nanotech to kill 99.9% of bacteria in the air. Okay, now the cool stuff; The LG Omnipod. The Omni-what? Yeah, the Omnipod. LG describes the Omnipod as an “extension of your living space…” What is that supposed to mean? Well, it means that it’s designed like your living room, near your living room. But, it’s self-driving, and it moves. LG wants transportation to be more like home, so they’ve built this floating pod that moves and is designed to make you feel like you’re at home. Interesting concept. We’ll have to see if this ever comes to fruition, and if so, where and how this would be used. Hotel rooms, maybe? I digress. But, LG also debuted some other things that move, too. The CLOI GuideBot, Delivery Robot, and ServeBot — 3 robots aimed to make your life easier. The GuideBot is aimed at conventions and movie theaters. You know those people who guide you to your seat at a restaurant or event? Well, GuideBot is supposed to take that role. Yet another job lost to AI. Speaking of jobs lost to AI, if you’re a waiter or waitress, the ServeBot’s taking your job. ServeBot, like its name, is designed to serve drinks and food to people. It can identify people, navigate its surroundings, and has a plate on the top to hold items. These 2 robots are supposed to mitigate the need for manual labor and are business-oriented. But, there’s also one more robot LG previewed; the delivery bot. This is my favorite robot. It’s designed to assist with last-mile delivery, the slowest and most expensive part of package delivery. Delivery bot aims to help with that. It’s got a locked container that can hold a box and autonomously drives to locations to deliver packages. It’s cool, and I feel that delivery robots and delivery drones alike will make package delivery cheaper, and faster. In addition to all the robots, LG showed off a pretty cool smartphone app that could change many lives. It’s part of their Digital Cockpit, and what it does is that it measures the distance between everyone’s phones, then alerts a pedestrian and driver as to when a collision is about to occur so that both parties can act immediately. It can save lives, and that I think is amazing. LG’s press conference had a lot of ups and downs, but most of it was fun and I can’t wait to see these ideas come to fruition.
Next up was Nvidia’s press conference, and they announced a couple of new GPUs that you’ll never be able to buy. Thanks, scalpers! Nvidia announced the new RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti laptop GPUs. Nvidia claims that these new discrete laptop GPUs can play games at 1440P with Ultra settings at 120 frames per second. Now, that’s impressive for a laptop GPU, and definitely for a 3070. Keep in mind that these are LAPTOP chips that are meant to run on battery power. That’s… insanity. Nvidia did some magic here. But as impressive as those numbers are, that’s not even remotely close to the exciting stuff. These chips ship with 4th Gen Max-Q which is an absolute game-changer. Why? Because it gives the GPU power over the CPU. This is AWESOME and is so, so cool. Because of 4th gen Max-Q, the GPU can control the power delivery, and performance to make games run smoother. This is probably the biggest deal of the Nvidia press event — it’s massive. Other than the mobile GPUs, though, Nvidia also announced a new desktop GPU — the RTX 3090 Ti. As mocked by The Verge, practically nobody knows how to pronounce the name of this GPU, but I digress because the performance games are in another league. The RTX 3090 Ti looks the same as the 3090, sharing the same pin layout and includes the same amount of vRAM, but now, the vRAM runs at 21 GBPS, which is 8% faster than the 3090. This is a pretty substantial improvement for PC gamers and content creators. I mean, any improvement to the 3090 is largely unnecessary for most, but regardless, it’s an improvement. But that’s not all, because Nvidia also says the RTX 3090 Ti includes 40 teraflops of compute power — which would put the GPU at 10% faster than the 3090. Again, marginal improvements, but they’re… improvements! Look, I’m not in the target demographic for this GPU, but for the people who are, this will be a nice upgrade. More headroom is always better. If you do think you’re in the demographic for this GPU, however, we don’t know pricing for it yet, but some estimate it’ll be around $2,000. Yikes. But if you’re not ready to spend 2 stacks on a new GPU, how about 10x less than that? Nvidia also announced the $250 RTX 3050 GPU. That’s scalpers aside, through. The RTX 3050 aims to bring DLSS and Ray Tracing at a lower price to more consumers who can’t spend more than a couple hundred dollars on a computer part. It offers a respectable 1080p at 60 fps with Ray Tracing (keep in mind this is a $250 card) and has 8 GB of vRAM. It’s alright for video editing, but not super ideal for multiple tracks. Nvidia says the main point this card serves is to convert old GTX users to RTX for cheap, and I see where they’re coming from. This card is VERY price competitive, and I can’t imagine how many more people are now inclined to upgrade their old 1080s. And that’s all Nvidia announced. Pretty great selection.
Next up in line was Razer with their new 2022 refreshed Blade laptops — the 14, 15, and 17. All of the new laptops have faster DDR5 RAM, support for AMD Ryzen 9 OR Intel 12th Gen, and come shipped with the new Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti mobile chips debuted earlier. In addition to the chip upgrades, the new laptops all come standard with a 1080P webcam, a much-needed upgrade in 2022. And… that’s about it. The refreshed Blade comes out on January 27th. A boring spec refresh, but a needed one. Laptops at CES, how exciting.
Next up was Hisense’s press event, where they unveiled a crap ton of TVs to disrupt the market. They’re all dubbed “ULED,” which means 4K 120hz. Most of the TVs have miniLED, but not all. Starting with the flagship, the U9H; The U9H sports a 4K 120hz miniLED panel with 1280 dimming zones. So, pretty flagship. It has HDMI 2.1 and Dolby Vision, with a max brightness of 2,000 nits peak when displaying HDR/Dolby Vision content. That 2,000 nits makes it the brightest, and for good reason. I can only imagine how that’s going to perform in a dark living room at night. However, if you’re not for the latest and greatest, Hisense has got you covered with the U8H. The U8H drops the peak brightness to 1,500 nits but keeps the miniLED panel and 120hz refresh rate. It still also has Dolby Vision IQ. I don’t know, but this TV seems like the real winner. 2,000 nits max brightness seems overly excessive to me, and all same features + a larger size for a substantial price cut seems great. But even if that’s too much for you, Hisense has a competitive offering out; the U7H. The U7H drops miniLED which results in much lesser peak brightness but remains to have Dolby Vision certification which is awesome, 4K, and a high-refresh-rate panel at 120hz which is great for modern consoles. It’s a real winner for those on a budget. Speaking of budget, the pricing for these TVs ranges from $3,199 to as low as $799. The U9H costs $3,199 and comes in a 75-inch flavor. The U8H starts at 1,099 for a 55-inch model and goes up to a 75-inch model (with pricing unknown for the 65 and 75-inch models). The budget U7H comes in at a very nice $799 for the 55-inch model, with the 65 and 75-inch models unknown. They all ship by late summer. Side note, they all have Google TV and microphones, so no external Chromecast or Apple TV is needed to get it working. Pretty great deal, if you ask me. Hisense has always been known for its price-competitive products, and this year is no exception. I’m thoroughly impressed.
Speaking of impressed, I’m sure nobody thought I’d be impressed with Intel’s press conference. But, in a shocking turn of events, I was! They started by announcing a whopping 22 new SKUs to complete the rest of their Desktop Alder Lake lineup (image below). So now, all chips have been updated to use the 12th Gen platform. Nice! But, they also announced a new chip series; the 12th Gen Intel KS chip which offers massive leaps in Turbo clock in both single-core and multi-core performance. And we’re not talking a 3 or 4 GHz Turbo, no. We’re talking a 5 GHz Turbo Boost with multi-core performance (which is nuts for multicore, for the uninitiated) and a MIND BENDING 5.5 GHz Turbo clock for single-core performance. That’s INSANE. We don’t see clock-speed improvements like this year over year (or generation-to-generation if you think about it that way) normally, and it’s appreciated for high-performance multi-threaded tasks. Now, you could make the argument that clock speed doesn’t matter (and you’d be somewhat right), but this will certainly make a difference in many tasks, and I’m happy to see Intel innovating, slightly. The new 12th Gen KS processors will ship by the end of this quarter, according to Intel. But Intel wasn’t done yet. They announced their new 12th Gen Alder Lake H-series chips. If you’re not familiar with Intel’s naming conventions, that means laptop chips — and these are some mad spicy chips. Putting TDP and performance-per-watt aside, Intel’s got a chance here. I mean, yes, they’re still using their Intel 7 process, but they can play with their Hybrid architecture enough to see real-world benefits. Intel announced 8 new SKUs for laptops today, with the highest-end i9 processors sporting 14 cores (7 P, 7 E). Intel says these new processors should be around 15% faster than Apple’s M1 Pro and Max, and up to 20% faster than AMD’s 5000 series unveiled last year at CES 2021 in productivity tasks. In gaming, Intel says their 12th Gen i9 provides 30–50% higher frame rates than competing Ryzen integrated graphics, depending on SKU. Once again, putting TDP and PPW aside, that’s an impressive number. But, we can’t trust Intel just yet, because Intel. Sucks. But the real magic comes in the year-over-year improvements from 11th Gen. Intel specifically says that the Core i9–12900HK offers 28% faster performance than last year’s Core i9–11980HK. That’s good! Even if PPW and TDP remain the same, Alder Lake continues to impress with its Hybrid architecture. These new Intel chips are supposed to ship by the end of this year in Windows laptops. In addition to their H-series chips, they also announced their P-series for ultra-low-powered devices. Nothing exciting, it’s H-series, but scaled down. But speaking of ultra-low powered devices, the Intel Evo standard — which is designed for ultra-low power laptops — gets an upgrade. Well, kind of. It raises the standard for video calls and webcams, and a new update allows for “interactions between devices.” Intel showed this off in the keynote and it’s… basically what Apple’s had since OS X Yosemite. You can send text messages between devices… it’s basically continuity. Pretty cool, the PC world has finally caught up. Speaking of catching up (wow this is a long set of releases), Intel’s Arc GPUs finally come closer to shipping. Laptop makers are finally starting to get their hands on Arc GPUs, and they’re now required for Evo certification. We still don’t know when exactly they’ll ship, but now that they’re required for Evo certification, they’re probably coming soon. That’s it for Intel. They announced a LOT. I’m happy!
Next up after a very well-needed lunch break was Qualcomm. Do you see a trend for this CES? Me neither. Qualcomm’s event was largely… very boring. They talked about some car stuff and some other car stuff, and then AR glasses. Huh? Yeah, you heard that right. AR glasses. Qualcomm announced a partnership with Microsoft and their mesh platform to build a low-power, lightweight chip for a pair of AR glasses “for the Microsoft ecosystem.” The software experiences will be built using Microsoft Mesh and Snapdragon Spaces to enable a low-cost, lightweight pair of AR glasses for Microsoft users. No other details were provided by Qualcomm at this time, but media outlets say the tech could be available in the next 3–4 years. That was… kind of it for Qualcomm. Very uneventful.
And finally, the grand finale of the first day of CES 2022, the new Galaxy S22 Ultra!… not so fast. Samsung didn’t end up announcing any new phones, but they did announce some new initiatives for sustainability, displays, gaming, the smart home, and customization. Samsung started with Sustainability, so let’s start with that. Samsung is investing in more resources to become a more eco-conscious brand. Earlier today, they announced a TV remote for use with their smart TVs which would capture unnecessary radio waves and turn them into energy to power the remote, mitigating the use of single-use batteries. Samsung says that if all the batteries saved by this initiative were laid across the ground, the line would stretch from Korea to Las Vegas. Wow. In addition to this new tech, the remotes are also (mostly) powered via solar light. TV remote aside, Samsung is also monitoring how much energy SmartThings appliances in your home use and gives that data to users in the SmartThings app to hopefully encourage better energy-saving practices by consumers. Samsung is also attempting to tackle its product packaging, by removing Styrofoam and single-use plastics from TV and monitor boxes, and by removing vinyl stickers from the exteriors of those boxes. In addition to that, Samsung is working with partners to reduce emissions in the shipping process, and factories. They didn’t give us many details about this, but it’s impressive to see nonetheless. Now, on to the more interesting stuff. Samsung gave us our first look at projectors of the future with something they call Samsung Freestyle. Samsung Freestyle is this tube-looking projector that is pretty cool. In the promo video, they showed off how it’s able to be screwed into light fixtures and can be used as a colored bulb. But that’s not even the start of it — it can project a 100-degree image (so you can put it super close to the wall and it’ll still work), you can angle it all the way up or to the side, and Samsung says it’s able to provide a “cinema-like experience no matter where you are…” I don’t know about all that, but from what we saw in the keynote, the image looks pretty clear despite it being a projector, and its ambient color features are cool. It’s like a hue light but also a projector that’s pretty small and discrete. Additionally, Samsung touted the fact that you could tap any Galaxy to the projector, and using NFC, it would cast any content you had playing on your phone to the projector, which would come in handy. It seems like… a cool little projector that’s extremely versatile. You can mount it to tripods, you can travel with it, you can put it anywhere, and its large field of projection means that you can just stuff it in the corner and have a huge screen. I’m considering ripping out my TV for this because it looks promising. It’s controlled via SmartThings and has voice control up to 13 feet away from the device, so you don’t even need a Samsung phone to get it working. I’m… a huge fan and it seems like most of the crowd was. Samsung also unveiled what it calls the “Odyssey Ark” monitor. Why is it called that? It’s because it’s the shape of an Ark. It’s 55” horizontally which is massive for a monitor, and also turns to create this giant monitor that goes over your head. It’s meant to provide an immersive gaming experience with a PC so that you feel like you’re “in the game.” Additionally, it also has some pretty cool software features like what Samsung calls “Multiview,” which allows you to have your game in focus while having chat apps or a web browser window in your peripheral vision — something which you could only do with a giant curved monitor like this one. For people who like to game for hours and hours, this could be cool. It retains the benefits of an ultra-wide while providing more versatility and customization options. I… like it. Oddly. It’s still weird. You gamer folk are one of a kind. But speaking of gamer folk, Samsung covered a new app on their 2022 TVs and Monitors (like the Ark) that they call the Samsung Gaming Hub. The Samsung Gaming Hub is supposed to “bridge the gap between hardware and software.” I really wouldn’t go that far because the “Hub” is just a giant library with all your games. Samsung worked with Nvidia and Stadia to build Stadia and GeForce NOW into the application, so all you have to do is launch it, and you can play any game you want — with no other hardware. Samsung touts that you can use any controller you want (we’ll have to see how that turns out) and that there are no downloads required — oddly futuristic. Gamers rejoice in Fiber. After the whole gaming fiasco, Samsung turned to the smart home. They unveiled a new device (yes, another one) called Samsung HomeHub, and it’s designed to be the all-in-one place for all your smart home stuff. But wait, isn’t that SmartThings? No. SmartThings will be integrated into HomeHub, and HomeHub provides a platform for an “everyday home assistant” that makes your home smart via automations. It’s cool to not have to buy a smart fridge and just get the display. This was also a time for Samsung to talk about its commitment to Matter, and that they hope that all smart home accessories will be able to live on HomeHub. As a smart home enthusiast, I’m very excited about this. Making a smart home easier is one of the hardest tasks for big tech companies to do, and I’m glad that it’s finally happening. But, Samsung wasn’t done with the smart home yet. Turns out Samsung partnered with a bunch of other companies (namely GE) on something they call the Home Connectivity Alliance. Samsung says that this is to “build a collaborative connected home” with multiple companies. They didn’t give us much information as to what the alliance is working on, however, they mentioned their main focus was on 2 things; Security & Privacy, and Increased Energy Efficiency. Samsung says that the alliance hopes to bring more Privacy to the smart home and IoT, using advanced protocols and security measures to keep users safe. They also plan on putting sustainability at the forefront of what they do, and hope to inform users of their energy usage and “make a better planet for everyone.” Great stuff. We can never have too much smart home, can we?
And now the scraps, the left-overs, the things that didn’t deserve a press conference. Firstly, Sony announced the name for their PS5 VR system, called PlayStation VR2. We don’t know what the headset will look like, but it will have dual 4K HDR 120hz displays for each eye and work with the PlayStation 5. Dell announced their new XPS 13 Plus, with a touch bar. Well, a touch bar. It’s got no headphone jack, no trackpad, and no function buttons. The function buttons are replaced by a bunch of capacitive buttons at the top of the keyboard that can be reprogrammed per app. It’s not really a touch bar replacement, but it kind of is. It replicated the touch bar more elegantly. Sony also announced the world’s first QD-OLED TVs coming later this year. QD-OLED provides better sharpness and brightness than traditional OLED, and it’s great that a company is finally innovating on TV panel tech. John Deere unveiled a bunch of new tractors that drive themselves, and that allow farmers to leave the cab. Still no change against right to repair though. The tractors are designed to just be set and then forgotten. They do their job. Anker announced a new 100W GaN charger that is coming in March for $80 and is the smallest yet. Pretty impressive.
And that’s all that happened at CES 2022 Media Day — a jam-packed day of announcements from the biggest tech companies. And it only gets better tomorrow. Now I choose better sleep.
