CES 2023 Day 2: More promises, more experiments
3D-printed gel candies, smart kitchen mixers, and squared steering wheels
Day 2 of the Consumer Electronics Show 2023 from Las Vegas, NV just wrapped up a couple hours ago, and we saw tons more announcements — everything from new laptops to weird webcams, all the way to 3D-printed skincare products. Even though today is Mac Technophilia’s 3rd day of CES 2023 coverage and the second official day of the conference, today marks the first day of the show floor, which means we also got to see a bunch of products from smaller brands pushing for innovation. I got to check out 7 booths from some of CES’ most crazy innovators, as well as the press releases and booths from popular brands such as Lenovo, Razer, and Google. Let’s jump into all the announcements, going through them one by one, from today’s press releases, show floor, and keynotes.
Lenovo:
Lenovo announced a bunch of new laptops, 2-in-1s, and e-ink devices that quite honestly shocked me. Many of these products create new product categories entirely, which is fascinating — and others improve on already-existing technologies in drastic ways that they’re too hard not to look at.
First, the Yoga Book 9i, which is a dual-screen OLED laptop that looks normal from the outside, but packs 2 identical screens stacked like a book (pictured above). It also comes with a keyboard folio-looking thing attached to the underside of the second screen which allows the laptop to function normally, but also fold out into the dual-screen mammoth that it is. The 2 screens can either be stacked vertically or horizontally — if stacked vertically, a stand pops out for extra stability. If you wish to stack them horizontally, you can either create a book-like tablet or position them vertically within the stack to create an almost floating display setup. Here are all the configurations Lenovo demoed:
The Yoga Book 9i starts at $2,099 and comes with good specs out of the gate — a 13th gen Intel Core i7 processor, onboard graphics, 16 GB of RAM, and up to 1 TB of storage. It comes standard with the keyboard and a pen — no add-ons necessary, which is also nice and arrives in June 2023. I’m really excited about this laptop, and I’ve seen that many others are too. Sure, there have been many weird dual (or triple) screen prototypes at CES over the years, but none come as close as the Yoga Book 9i — it looks genuinely useful and fun and creative, as well as practical — unlike those 3-screens-in-1 folio laptops from CES 2017. I can’t wait for this to get into people’s hands.
Lenovo also unveiled what they call “Project Chronos,” which is a concept box that is supposed to sit in a space (like a TV box or something) and capture human movement for replication in the metaverse. Lenovo says it uses an RGB depth camera to capture movements and a 13th-generation Intel processor to calculate said movements. We’re not sure about the exact use-case of something like this yet, but Lenovo demoed a reality where a person would have a headset on with no controllers, and their movements would be exactly replicated in VR. This is a very Metavers-y, cheesy, experimental product with no release timeline, price, availability, or real applications — Lenovo, however, has told The Verge that they intend on shipping the product in 2023 — but this isn’t concrete by any means. Lenovo hasn’t even partnered with Metaverse brands like Meta to bring this functionality to their worlds yet, so we’ll just have to see when and how this project will be used in the real world.
Coming back to reality, Lenovo also announced 2 new e-ink products — the Smart Paper tablet and the ThinkBook Plus Twist laptop. I’ll start with the Smart Paper — a $400 e-ink tablet with a stylus that aims to compete with the Kindle Scribe. The display is 10.3”, but not in color — and is intended for both reading and writing at a resolution of 1872 x 1404. It also features front lighting for when you’re in the dark, as well as a neat audio recording feature that will let users record audio when they’re taking notes with the pen and listen back to the recordings later. The tablet will run Android 11 and will come standard with 50 GB of storage. We don’t know when it’ll be released, though — I’m guessing 2023.
The ThinkBook Plus Twist is another one of Lenovo’s new e-ink products. In previous generations, the e-ink display would be on the back of the normal display, forcing users to flip the whole laptop upside-down to actually use it. Now, the display is on a hinge, so you can flip it around and use the keyboard with the e-ink portion as well. In other words, it twists. Both screens get upgrades from last year’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 2 — the main display goes from LCD to OLED and gets a resolution bump to 2.8K, and the e-ink display, which is 12”, now supports front lighting and more importantly, color, which makes the e-ink portion much more usable for light productivity work — which you’ll want to do since e-ink uses a lot less power than OLED. The ThinkBook Plus Twist comes standard with 13th gen Intel processors which also bring WiFi 6E, as well as a 1080p webcam. The machine costs $1,649 and will be available in June — and I think it’s a really compelling buy. I mean, imagine the headlines if Apple made something like this — I loved the previous generation as a concept, and the Twist makes it even better.
There’s also another, non-e-ink laptop called just the “ThinkBook.” It’s 16” and the headlining feature is that it comes equipped with a magnetic pin connector at the top of the display to connect various accessories magnetically. Lenovo says that it’ll sell the accessories with the laptop — not separately, which is unusual. I’m hoping this changes in the future, but we’ll have to wait and see. The magnetic accessories add functionality in numerous ways — like adding ports, a better webcam, or even LTE connectivity — which is very fascinating. It kind of reminds me of the Framework laptop — you can add and remove functionality whenever you want and buy new parts whenever you want (hopefully). I love this. Other than the magnetic pin connector, the laptop has a 270-degree hinge, a 120 Hz IPS display, Intel 13th gen processors, and RTX 4000 series GPUs. It’ll start at $1,349 for the entry-level model, and it’ll be available for purchase starting in May 2023.
To wrap things up, Lenovo also announced a new “Tab Extreme” tablet which aims to compete with the iPad Pro on a larger scale. It has a 14” 120 Hz display, comes with a stylus and keyboard, and is powered by a MediaTek 9000 processor. The keyboard does the same thing the Magic Keyboard does — it floats, holding the tablet up high and allowing for the stylus to attach to the side of the tablet. The tablet also has a microSD card slot, a “center stage” camera, 2 13mp cameras, and 12 GB of RAM. Lenovo says that it’ll go on sale later this year but didn’t give us any pricing information. Even though the iPad Pro is light years ahead from any tablet running Android 13, it’s nice to see competition come from other brands that have the power to innovate. Competition always makes for better products.
Google:
Google announced a ton of new updates to Android Auto and Android to make them work better with other products and devices at CES 2023 today — everything from new maps to Spotify features and integrations. These new features excite me for many reasons — the biggest being that they could inspire other brands to make advancements in car technology, which is something I strongly believe in.
First, Android Auto got a bunch of updates today, the first of which being the new layout. Previously, Auto only had a list of apps that you could launch — but now, the split-screen card layout first announced at Google I/O is now coming to all cars with Auto. Maps and Media have their own cards now on the home screen, bringing easier access to commonly used apps. This new layout also brings app suggestions — Google Assistant will intelligently suggest contacts, apps, content, and more information to display on the home screen for quick access. All of this is designed to minimize distractions, make the most out of the space available, and for the car to become more intelligent on its own.
Music and Podcasts now get a seekable progress bar for easy forwarding and rewinding on the Android Auto interface itself, as well — making the interface more useful for drivers who need an easy way to control media from the car’s display. The media controls are, as mentioned before, pinned to the home screen of Android Auto for easy access and feature the album art, song/artist, and more information. Tapping on the media widget opens the app and full media controls. Android Auto also now supports making calls with WhatsApp when using select Pixel and Samsung phone models running Android 13 — notifications and calls come in directly through the normal interface and you can, of course, ask Assistant to make the call for you if you desire. Finally, Google says they’ll also be bringing the YouTube app to select Android Auto vehicles for when the car is not in motion — we don’t know when this will be happening, but it’s supposed to be soon, and I think this is a really nice addition that competes with Tesla’s historically superior entertainment suite that more cars ‘ought to have.
Shared Car Keys are also coming to more phone and car brands. Samsung and Xiaomi phones will now also be able to share and receive shared digital car keys directly from the updated Google Wallet app, something they were previously unable to do. This feature should be expanding to select Android 13-capable models later this year, Google says. Digital car keys are also expanding to more models of BMW cars and other car brands later this year — we don’t know which brands yet, though.
Maps get a major upgrade in many cars, too — Google is bringing its new HD map to Polestar and Volvo vehicles later in the year, the company says. The HD map shows road markings, road signs, and allows for greater detail on select highways and city streets and is supposed to provide a more immersive experience for the driver. The HD map was first debuted at I/O this year and shows up right in the instrument cluster, allowing for more detailed turn-by-turn directions with better visuals. In addition to these Google Maps features, the Waze app is also coming to Renault vehicles with Android Auto, living alongside Google Maps. We don’t have a date for this either, and neither will we know how it’ll be implemented. Will it also have a maps widget on the home screen? We have no idea. Google also announced that more cars will be getting Android Auto soon and that their focus is on bringing more features to more cars to make the road a safer, better place.
In other Android-related news, Google announced that Spotify Connect — the feature that allows for seamless music switching between devices with the Spotify app — will be built into the default native Google media player. If the system detects audio coming out of Spotify, a button will appear allowing you to easily switch between Spotify Connect devices — making for seamless audio transfer without the need for the app to be open.
Google also says it’s working on a way for audio content to move throughout devices automatically as you use them. The company says that users will be able to tap notifications on certain devices (Android Auto, Google TV, Android) and carry the same audio through devices seamlessly. Google says they’re working with Spotify and the YouTube Music teams to utilize these notifications, and that they should be coming soon. I’m not much of a fan of this feature, however — it seems like it’ll be as irritating as those AirPods smart switching prompts I always get between my Apple TV and Mac — but if Google pulls this off seamlessly and uses some sort of spatial awareness to automatically detect when I’ll actually want to switch between devices, this seems like a nice addition. Maybe this is what finally puts an end to Bluetooth woes and random pairing. Google showed off some of these features at its colorful booth right outside the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Razer:
Razer announced a boatload of new laptops, accessories, audio products, and gaming hardware at CES this year, which is no surprise to anyone who follows the tech news. Razer always has some of the most innovative hardware and booths at CES, and this year was no different.
First, the Razer Blade Stealth 16 received a refresh and a new 18” brother — both laptops have Intel 13th generation processors, 4000-series GPUs, and better displays with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a miniLED upgrade for the 16” (and that comes standard with the 18”). The miniLED upgrade also features a cool new feature that dynamically toggles between 4K and 1080p automatically without a restart of the laptop. The only downside of this upgrade is that the frame rate goes down to 120 Hz since it would be impractical to go higher at 4K with a miniLED panel. If you choose not to go with the pricy upgrade (of which the price is unknown, all we know is that it’ll be higher), both laptops have stunning LCD 1440p displays that don’t dynamically switch but have a higher refresh rate and 500 nits of peak brightness. Port-wise, both laptops have 3 USB-A ports, HDMI 2.1, an SD card reader, a headphone jack, 1 Thunderbolt 4 port, and 1 USB-C 3.2 Gen2 port, which seems to be pretty standard for laptops at this price. Speaking of price, the Blade 16 starts at $2,700 for an i9 and 4090, which is an unstoppable combo, especially for the price. The Blade 18, which has the same specs, will start at $2,900. Both will release in the first quarter of 2023 and will live alongside the Razer Blade 14, which hasn’t been updated this year. These, without a doubt, are some of the most powerful gaming laptops to have ever existed and join the other massive gaming laptops of CES like the ASUS ones from yesterday’s coverage. I’m extremely impressed. I also got a chance to look at them in action at the Razer booth, and they look… massive, to say the least.
Next was the Leviathan V2 PRO soundbar, adding to Razer’s existing lineup of gaming soundbars. Razer worked with both THX and Audioscenic to create a soundbar that “envelops users with 3D audio.” Whatever that means. Basically, the built-in IR camera detects the user’s position to optimize sound based on where the user is in the room. It also detects the user’s head position to emulate head-tracked spatial audio using AI — it basically emulates a full Atmos setup on the cheap. Unfortunately, Razer did not show off the soundbar at their booth, so we don’t have any in-person or virtual first impressions of the product — but we do know about pricing and availability. The Leviathan V2 Pro will be available to buy next month at a hefty $400 — the reason I say that’s hefty is that this soundbar isn’t made for TVs or large rooms at all, but rather only for gaming setups and desks. $400 is an absurd amount of money to pay for a relatively small and compact product, but we’ll have to see if it’s worth it and if the 3D audio features actually pan out in the real world.
Continuing with the theme of desktop gaming products, the new Kiyo Pro Ultra 4K webcam is a $300 4K webcam (duh) that promises that it can film 4K uncompressed video at 24 FPS, or 1080p at HDR, beating the competition like the Logitech Brio (which I personally own) and the Elgato Facecam Pro. The camera looks massive cyborg-looking cylinder when atop a monitor or laptop like shown at the Razer booth, but that’s for a reason — Razer wants creators to buy this over a mirrorless camera. So, naturally, it delivers mirrorless-like video quality with a 1/1.2-inch Sony Starvis 2 sensor, which Razer claims is the largest sensor ever in a webcam. The Pro Ultra also supports head tracking, similar to Apple’s center stage and the Lenovo laptop webcam from earlier (this has become somewhat of a trend here at CES) — it’ll crop, pan, and zoom automatically to keep you in the frame at all times if you wish, and from CNET’s hands-on demo, it seems to work great. I think this webcam has a lot going for it, especially for streamers and other content creators. But it’s just too expensive for most people, and I think that you’d be better off just buying the BRIO from Logitech which costs half this thing and performs identically (albeit without the head tracking).
Now for something unusual: Razer announced a collaboration with Verizon to bring the new Edge gaming handheld to customers with 5G. If you haven’t heard, the Edge was an announcement from last year and is essentially a cloud gaming handheld console that runs Android. It has a 6.8” OLED with a 144 Hz refresh rate and supports Xbox Cloud Gaming, GEFORCE Now, and Steam Link — and now has a price of $399 for the WiFi model and $359 for the 5G model. It’s set to be coming “very soon,” as soon as this month.
Stellantis:
Stellantis took the stage at CES 2023 to unveil 2 new concept cars, its focus on sustainability, lofty goals about its new product lineup, and some of its new technologies for use in its sub-brands Peugeot and RAM. I found these announcements extremely interesting — they reminded me that the “future” of automotive technology is already here and happening, and that excites me. Stellantis opened the keynote by saying that their focus is on “freedom of mobility,” and ignoring the obvious corporate speak, this made sense as I was tuning in. Stellantis focused heavily on bringing new experiences to the space — not just recycling old ones.
Stellantis laid out a couple goals at the beginning of the keynote:
- It wants to achieve carbon neutrality by 2038 around the globe — a lofty goal for a car company as large as Stellantis.
- It wants to electrify 50% of its American lineup by 2030, which is ambitious.
- It wants to push the automotive industry forward via automation and personalization, making vehicle interiors more inviting, customizable, and useful using user data.
- It wants to build 5 gigafactories across the globe by the end of the decade to rocket battery production.
All of these goals are obviously ambitious and exciting — Stellantis gave us a sneak peek at the technologies they’ll be using to achieve these goals as well. First, they’ll be partnering with Amazon, Foxconn, and Qualcomm to move their software stack forward, which the company says is a major priority for them. It’ll also collect data from cars using its new ‘MobiliStats’ platform for analytics to personalize experiences further — I wonder how that’ll affect privacy and if there’s a way to opt-out of this data collection. Second, they announced 2 new concept cars that put these goals into action and kickstart the process — and they kind of blew my mind.
Stellantis’ subsidiary Peugeot unveiled the “steering wheel of the future,” which they call the “Hypersquare.” Hypersquare, according to Peugeot, is like “gaming in real life.” It uses gestures and displays information in the center while removing all buttons and stalks. It almost feels like a worse version of Tesla’s yoke, but my opinions don’t matter here in the grand scheme of things — it’s happening, and we can’t do anything about it. The Hypersquare should be arriving in cars as soon as 2026 — it looks weird, but also feels weirdly… attainable. I can imagine seeing this in an autonomous vehicle in the future.
The concept vehicle it’s in is called the Inception Concept, and it looks… interesting. The exterior is extremely sporty and low to the ground, with sharp lines and jagged edges throughout the vehicle. It looks like basically every other “futuristic” concept car we’ve seen for the past 20 years, but I think it looks nice. Impractical, but nice. It doesn’t seem to have side mirrors either and has suicide doors for easy access to the interior. It’s definitely an opinionated concept.
That interior is one of the most striking parts of the concept: it has this interesting retro vibe to the interior, with those same jagged edges and sharp lines. Peugeot says that it wants to make the interior more spacious and inviting — particularly like a lounge or living room. In other words, it doesn’t want the car to feel like a car, but rather a room that drives itself. I don’t necessarily agree with this concept: a car should feel like a moving object — an object that moves itself (I’m not saying driverless cars shouldn’t exist), but it should still feel like it’s moving. Part of the fun of a car is the experience of going somewhere — you shouldn’t feel boxed in.
Peugeot wants the car to be on the streets by 2026 but gives us no information about the battery, motors, pricing, markets of availability, or any other specs relating to driving the car. It’s purely an artistic concept for now, and I feel probably forever knowing national governments and realistic timelines.
What seems more realistic to me is the RAM 1500 Revolution, their electric pickup truck concept — the design doesn’t seem too outlandish, only modernized with LEDs and slightly more rounded edges. I don’t think it looks super good, but it definitely would fit in with other vehicles on the road. Other than the fact that the truck is electric and autonomous, the main enhancements come in cargo capacity, Stellantis says. The truck has 18 feet of continuous passthrough inside the vehicle — what that means is that you could fit something 18 feet long in the truck from the center console to the bed — and that’s impressive. The truck also features a spacious front trunk and bed, as well as what they call the “One Space Environment.” That means that the truck is modular — components can be added or removed to convert the truck into a van or SUV during production — like the new Rivian cars. I’m a very big fan of this truck, as you can probably tell.
My favorite feature, however, was what Stellantis calls “Shadow Mode.” In essence, the truck can follow you wherever you go, autonomously. Say for example you have some supplies in the truck and you’re on a construction site — with Shadow Mode on, you can keep the supplies in the truck and walk through the construction site with the car right behind you… like a dog. Isn’t that amazing?! That’s going to be such a game-changer for so many people, and the feature just sounds so cool and futuristic. I’ve never seen something so brilliant — it doesn’t need a remote or anything, just AI. That’s the future, right there. We don’t know any of the specs yet, nor do we know anything about pricing or availability — not even a year. But I’m still excited, and confident this truck will hit the market soon.
Delta Airlines:
Delta took the stage at a C-Space conference from CES to announce something big: unlimited free in-flight WiFi for Delta SkyMiles members. There’s no fine print, they say — it’s supposed to be fast, secure, and free. Delta also says that they’ll be turning on the feature on February 1st, and by that time 80% of the US system will have in-flight WiFi. Delta pledges that by the end of next year, all Delta planes will have fast and free in-flight WiFi for users of all carriers.
T-Mobile is Delta’s partner for this venture — previously, only T-Mobile customers had access to in-flight WiFi, and even so, they had a data limit. Now, the data limit has been removed and customers of all carriers can access the WiFi. Delta says they’re also working with more entertainment providers to upgrade the seat-back screens — they’ll have more information, be more personalized, and have intelligent recommendations soon. You’ll also be able to order stuff and make reservations from when you land — all in the air. It’s pretty unique and very interesting — and all coming soon.
Neutrogena:
Neutrogena showed off their new 3D-printed supplement gels today on the CES show floor. When the product launches, users will be able to download an app that does a 180-degree scan of the person’s face and creates a supplement mix based on what it finds (dryness, blemishes, etc). The order is then sent to a 3D printer which prints (I kid you not) the gels. You can pick which flavors you’d like too. Pretty interesting!
Ecoflow:
Ecoflow showed off 2 new products on the show floor today: their 3-in-1 freezer, cooler, ice maker, and their robotic lawnmower. The freezer is… just a freezer. It connects to an app to monitor temperatures and keeps things cool. So cool, in fact, that it even makes ice and crushes it too. Pretty neat.
The robotic lawnmower interested me too — it uses an arm to prop up a LiDAR sensor which does a scan of the area before lawn mowing automatically. It even picks up trash and branches with the onboard trash compartment and vacuum (2nd picture). It doesn’t connect to the internet, but it’s much cheaper than hiring someone and much more fun than doing it yourself.
Both products lack pricing information, but Ecoflow says they’ll be available before the Summer (May 23rd for the lawnmower, April for the freezer).
I-PERCUT:
I-PERCUT is a brand you probably haven’t heard of before, and they showed off their new smart punching bag cover on the floor of CES today. It works with any standard-size punching bag and has a bunch of smarts built in. The bag has a bunch of hotspots that it instructs you to hit — it then can measure the force of your punches, tell you how to throw better punches, and help you improve your accuracy with the app.
The app shows you your average, force measurements, and even has guided exercises to help you improve. It’s available now in France for $800, and the company is looking at a global launch towards the end of the year.
Unistellar:
Unistellar unveiled their Equinox 2, what they claim is the most powerful consumer telescope and the world’s first smart telescope. The telescope connects to an app that guides you to objects and suggests points of interest in the sky. The telescope itself has a display inside which highlights important things as you’re looking at them — the company says that you can see all the planets through it and that it has a “light pollution reduction technology” so that you can even see the stars in a bright city. You can buy it now, and it’ll ship in February.
Nuheara:
Nuhara is a company you’ve never heard about, but they showed off their collaboration with HP on the show floor today — Nuheara made the first smart self-fitting hearing aids… or at least they say they did. Users can buy the hearing aids for $699 (an incredible price) over the counter and then set them up using an app that tests their hearing. The hearing aids then automatically adjust to their hearing loss as needed.
Where HP comes in is that the hearing aids even have Bluetooth and ANC, so they can even play audio like any other set of truly wireless earbuds. The audio that comes out of them is even tuned for each individual user. They’re FDA cleared, you can buy them now, and they’ll ship starting next month.
This is the first CES where consumers can buy over-the-counter hearing aids, so this is a real revolution that can help millions of people.
Kohler:
Kohler unveiled what they call the “Anthem Digital Control System” today on the show floor of CES 2023. The system has a voice assistant which you can yell at to change water temperature and pressure, but more importantly, the system can control the temperature of separate water zones… separately. Instead of just having one dial that controls the temperature for all the water in the shower, you can set one zone to a certain temperature and another to a different one — for example, the wand and head can have different temperatures.
The system will be launching this year at an unknown price, but it’ll come with the controller and speaker (pictured above).
Acwa Robotics:
The final exhibitor I got to check out at CES 2023 today was Acwa, who is designing a robot that cities can send down pipes to complete tests. This allows cities and water utility companies to diagnose pipe issues quicker and easier while keeping the flow of water intact. The system has a camera on it and records 1080p footage for engineers, but also has a series of sensors to check for corrosion and other damage.
The robot then creates a heatmap of the piping system, allowing engineers to replace parts quickly and fix issues before they happen. I think it’s super neat and will help a lot of communities in the future.
That wraps up day 2 of CES 2023. I’ll be back tomorrow at 8 AM EST with a recap of day two of the show floor at CES — another day of all the weird gadget news. See you tomorrow!
This article is part of Mac Technophilia’s CES 2023 coverage. Mac Technophilia has no sponsors, runs no ads, and receives no compensation for its in-depth coverage found nowhere else on the internet. If you enjoy it, share it with a friend.
