CES 2023 “Day Zero” Recap: Quotes, promises, and competition

Metaverse, metaverse, metaverse, 5G, 5G, 5G

13 min readJan 4, 2023

The unofficial first day of CES has wrapped up, bringing announcements from major companies like Acer, Dell, and Intel as well as the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)’s “Tech Trends to Watch” press keynote which breaks down consumer spending, trends, issues affecting the tech industry, and innovations at CES. Here are the biggest announcements of the day, broken down by exhibitor, as well as the biggest trends and quotes from the Tech Trends keynote — straight from Las Vegas, NV.

World Power Consortium (WPC) & Apple:

The WPC announced a collaboration with Apple (yes, that Apple) to make the next Qi standard for wireless charging. The standard, named Qi2 (fittingly), would replace Qi (the original one used in all modern wireless charging technology) to become the de-facto standard and would use Apple’s MagSafe technology debuted with the iPhone 12 in 2020. How this would be accomplished… is unclear. But the press release says that in addition to the actual transmission method Apple uses to charge MagSafe devices at 15 watts instead of the standard 7.5 (which would therefore come to Qi, upping the minimum charging speed for all wireless charging devices that use the standard currently), the magnetic attachment apparatus (called MagSafe Attach by Apple) would also be used to “ensure that phones or other rechargeable battery-powered mobile products are perfectly aligned with charging devices, thus providing improved energy efficiency and faster charging.” It’s currently unclear if they’ll be using the exact same MagSafe Attach hardware (which would have to be built into every single device using Qi2, which is unlikely), but I’m guessing that it’ll be much more different and separate (and cheaper) due to Apple’s strict guidelines, materials, alignment guides, and instructions. It’s impractical for every single product that uses some kind of wireless charging to use magnets — it adds cost to the product, makes it heavier, and creates unique design issues for smaller devices. Apple can get around all these limitations because, well, they made the standard specifically for use in their devices, and they can control how those devices are designed. But this is practically impossible when a standard is created for open use in millions of products.

Putting these questions aside, it is nice to see Apple open its technology to third parties — it’ll create more standardization within the industry and (hopefully) bring faster, more reliable wireless charging to the masses. Its implementation concerns me, but we’ll have to see what the WPC and Apple are working on (and have been working on) behind closed doors when the first products with Qi2 ship at the end of this year.

Dell:

Dell announced a new Pro Display XDR-killer 32” 6K monitor with a 4K webcam — and an unknown price. What separates this from the Pro Display XDR (which it very obviously is competing with) is that it uses Dell’s proprietary “IPS Black” display panel technology, which isn’t anything like the Pro Display XDR’s locally dimmed LCD. Dell says that the IPS Black stuff lets the display be color-accurate (which is important for photo and video work) and provide “deeper blacks,” but it doesn’t come near the Pro Display’s brightness and HDR capabilities. The Dell UltraSharp maxes out at 600 nits of peak brightness, a spec comparable to the Studio Display, while the XDR sports 1,600 nits of brightness; this essentially means that the UltraSharp won’t be able to display HDR content properly, which is a very important spec for many Pro Display XDR buyers who might (potentially) look at this monitor.

The UltraSharp does have a significant amount of positives over the Pro Display, however; it comes with a (free!) height-adjustable stand, which, granted, doesn’t look as good as the XDR’s, but also doesn’t cost a ridiculous $1,000. It also comes with a 4K webcam with a supposed wide-angle lens to emulate Center Stage, using AI to keep you in the frame while on video calls. However, I’m skeptical of this — I’m not sure if Dell will be able to do the auto-tracking stuff as well as Apple does while retaining good picture quality, but if we trust Dell, they say that it should provide “crystal clear images.” The monitor also has 2 microphones, 2 speakers, and a wide assortment of ports — HDMI 2.1 (for all that HDR and high-frame-rate productivity work you won’t be doing with this), USB-C (only one of those), 4 USB-A ports, and a 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports — it’s a great number of ports, good enough for most computer work and negating the purpose of a thunderbolt hub.

The display isn’t pretty with its plastic build and signature Dell look, nor does it have the panel quality of the XDR with HDR and dimming zones, but if Dell gets the price right, I can see this being an extremely attractive monitor for its value. Finally, competition with Apple’s displays — I like seeing this. Dell says the monitor should be available during the first half of the year. I’m guessing summer, and I’m really excited.

Nvidia:

Nvidia, aside from “unlaunching” one of its GPUs today, brought its 40-series Ada Lovelace GPUs to laptops, bringing “4x performance” improvements. Nvidia says the GPUs will start rolling out in laptops on February 8th and will start at $999 for a laptop equipped with a 4050. These GPUs won’t match the desktop counterparts, of course, but they do have the same features — the 40-series chips use GDDR6 memory for higher efficiency and less power-draw, which is important in a laptop.

Some who have subjected themselves to the virus-town of the CES show floor have seen the new laptops in action, and they’re impressive. Nvidia says that the new chips (specifically the 4090, in this quote) can “deliver [desktop] RTX 3080 performance while using one-third as much energy.” We’ll have to see about that later in the year, but this seems very exciting and definitely competition for AMD and potentially Apple if Nvidia’s power-draw claims pan out to be true.

Samsung TVs:

Samsung is focusing on refining its TV lineup this year, with new AI tricks and software enhancements.

First, Samsung’s Neo QLED TVs convert SDR content to HDR with a feature they call Auto HDR Remastering. From Samsung’s press release, they say it “uses AI deep learning technology to analyze and apply real-time high dynamic range (HDR) effects on standard dynamic range (SDR) content on a scene-by-scene basis, making SDR content brighter and livelier for absolute immersion.” I’m not a fan of this — it’ll probably make content look worse in the end, artificially boosting contrast and making colors more “punchy.” AI gimmicks mostly never work as well as they should — maybe this becomes the next motion-smoothing fiasco that’ll cause a fuss at the Thanksgiving dinner table.

Samsung also announced a new 76” MicroLED TV (pictured above) that finally won’t require professional installation and won’t break the bank completely. It doesn’t tell us how much the price will be (this is what you get for reading a CES article), but it seems promising. MicroLED takes the benefits of OLED and combines them with the benefits of LCD and its lack of OLED burn-in issues. It’s nice but expensive, more expensive than miniLED which many TVs have. Coincidentally, they also announced a bigger QD-LED that clocks in at 77” and that gets brighter than previous models. How much brighter? Uh… it’s CES which means numbers are sparse here. It also, for the “first time” comes with AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro for the “ultimate gaming experience.” The theme here at CES 2023 is big TVs packed with tech and hefty price tags.

Finally, they say they’re bringing “improvements” to Tizen OS, their TV operating system. Here are some of the headlining features, listed and described for brevity:

The Art Store: users can pick art pieces and NFTs to display on their TV, like a screen saver. Monkey profile pictures on your TV, anyone?
Health Monitor: users can install a webcam on their TV, and it’ll use AI to monitor their heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, stress index, and more. Specifically, Samsung says it uses photoplethysmography (rPPG) to assess vital signs by detecting changes in facial skin color. Uh, why?
Relumino Mode: users can enable this mode to use AI to outline the edges of characters and on-screen elements to let anyone see people, objects, and text better on the screen. Sure, I guess.
Samsung Telemedicine: users can request telemedicine service directly from their TV, see the doctor, and use their Watch or phone to add pictures and communicate with the doctor. Why is this on a TV again?

I don’t think any of these “features” will make a difference in anyone’s TV-watching rituals, but that’s the theme of this year’s Samsung TV announcements here at CES. Boring, non-revolutionary, and not very interesting. It’s Grey’s Anatomy IRL, everyone.

Acer:

Acer, a company you’ve probably forgotten about, announced a crap-ton of new laptops, Peloton desks, all-in-one desktops, and monitors. In fact, it’s so much stuff that I couldn’t even include a specific link at the top of the section!

First, the bike — it’s called the eKinekt BD 3 bike desk and it uses the power generated from the bike part to power the computer. It has a bunch of ports, a bag hook, and a Gatorade holder for your convenience. The idea is to promote sustainability while allowing users to “live a healthier life.” Whatever that means. The bike has 2 modes, a working mode, and a sports mode — the working mode allows for a more relaxed position whilst the sports mode brings the desk closer to the bike seat for a faster pace. We do have pricing for this ridiculous monstrosity: you’ll be able to buy it for $999 in June. Safe to say that I won’t be purchasing this thing.

Next, the fast laptops (pictured above) — the new Nitro laptops go all-in on Intel and Nvidia 40-series. Other than that, they’re basically identical to the previous generation. The Nitro laptops come in 16 and 17" variants and are, obviously, gaming-focused, with RGB up-the-wazoo and HFR displays. The Nitro 16 specifically comes with a 5% bigger screen and Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus allowing for dynamic switching between integrated and discrete graphics. The Nitro 17 comes with multiple display options, a larger touchpad, and the same RGB keyboard. But of course, the highlights for both laptops are the new 13th generation Intel processors and Ada Lovelace-based RTX 40-series GPUs which provide superior performance to previous models. Both will be available starting in May of this year for $2,000.

Next, the Aspire AIOs and laptops — the Aspire lineup is Acer’s cheaper, lightweight computer lineup. They also go all-Intel 13th gen and seem to just be mid-cycle refreshes, for the most part. The models updated were the Acer Inspire S, the AIO, and the Acer Aspire 3 laptop line. All of these models will supposedly come out in Q1 2023, with no pricing information just yet.

Finally, super-beefy laptops and monitors — continuing with the trend of RTX 40-series laptops here at CES 2023, Acer announced the Predator Helios 16 and 18, 2 monstrous gaming laptops with Intel 13th gen processors and, of course, RTX 40-series GPUs (are you seeing a trend with these laptops?). Both laptops have beefy heat sinks and a “plethora of must-have top-of-the-line gaming features.” The laptops go up to the 4080, not the 4090, but come on — that’s still mighty impressive for a mobile device. The displays are great too, getting an upgrade to 250hz (which is an option, not standard) and 1000 nits of peak brightness (also an option, I really don’t understand that logic). The Helios 18 (wow that’s a large laptop) has a miniLED display, competing with the MacBook Pro from 2021, and is of course, absolutely massive. Both are impressive machines and will be available starting in April at $1,650. Acer also announced some monitors to go with the laptops — both are OLED with a 240hz refresh rate. One is 27” and the other is 34", and they’re both curved ultra-wide monitors geared towards gaming. They’ll roll out in Q2 of this year at $1,699.

All these products are quite minor upgrades in the grand scheme of things, but that’s usual for Acer. More RTX 40-series laptops and 13th gen laptops are always appreciated, though.

Intel:

I’ve already been talking about the new 13th gen Intel mobile processors found in the Acer laptops, but Intel did more than just announce new mobile chips this time at CES. They announced new entry-level chips, those 13th gen mobile chips, and “the world’s fastest mobile processor.”

Since the (beloved?) Celeron and Pentium chips have been discontinued, Intel announced new entry-level processors to replace them — they called them the N-series, and Intel says they pack 28% better application performance, 64% better graphics performance, AV1 decode engines, WiFi 6E (yes!), and flexible RAM upgrades. They’re a significant upgrade from their now-discontinued brethren, and Intel says they’re designed for the education and value markets. We expect they’ll be on the market later this year in select Chromebooks and value laptops from brands such as HP, Lenovo, and ASUS.

Intel also announced the full lineup of 13th-generation processors, including the i9 19980HX, which is the first 24-core processor for a laptop and “the world’s fastest mobile processor.” I don’t know if the second claim can be given much importance knowing Intel’s track record, but the first one is truly astonishing. 24-cores in a mobile processor is, frankly, unheard of. It’ll change the market for good. I can’t wait for Apple to create something like this with more of a focus on power efficiency (which we don’t know about yet with the 13th gen Intel processors. I’m guessing it won’t be good).

The full lineup is stacked and includes H, P, and U-series processors. The new family offers 5.6 GHz turbo, up to 24 cores (8 P, 16 E), 128 GB of total RAM, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and Thunderbolt 4 — all features shared across laptop and desktop processors. H-series processors can be overclocked, of course, and P/U-series processors sport up to 14 cores for thin-and-light laptops (using the same big/little architecture). All these chips will be available in laptops starting this year, and we’ve already seen a couple from ROG and Acer.

I applaud Intel for their efforts in trying to innovate again — this is a step in the right direction following last year’s impressive 12th gen work. I’m excited for Intel to start competing again — more competition is always better for consumers and brings new technology to the table. They’re not quite there yet with power efficiency, but performance-wise Intel processors are absolutely the way to go (except for some Apple silicon chips).

CTA’s Tech Trends to Watch Keynote: A timeline of my favorite quotes from the 45-minute snooze-fest

The most boring keynote I’ve ever watched.

Every year, the Consumer Technology Association runs a 45-minute “Tech Trends to Watch” press keynote exclusively for media where they explain past, present, and future technology trends to boomers who don’t keep up with the news. I was taking notes during the whole endeavor, and here are some of my favorite quotes and “trends” they explained to end day 0:

“The biggest issue the consumer technology industry is facing right now is the chip shortage… we’re moving from a chip shortage to a chip surplus.” — I don’t think that’s particularly concerning, but sure, I guess.
“Other issues are… rising inflation affecting consumer spending, as well as labor shortages across the US.”
“More than 60% of surveyed economists believe that the US will slip into a recession.” — We’re already in one.
“We’re moving to a new phase of automation… we’re going to see more of it in the industry and IoT devices.” — This has been a trend for the past 6 years.
“5G is the future of automation…” — 5G was a major topic during the keynote. Tons of emphasis. Seems like it was the only thing they had to talk about…
“Anything about the Metaverse is subject to skepticism. Metaverse is still a speculative term. But make no mistake, this is a real trend.” — Another trendy term used throughout the keynote to describe literally anything was Metaverse. Yikes.
A new term: “The Metaverse of Things.” Basically, virtualization and immersion put together. What a dumb name. “You’re going to be seeing a lot of this.”

“The core of [the future, essentially] is how the electric vehicle ecosystem is evolving.” “The way we grow the EV market is with more competition, but it is also important to see fast charging and battery technology improvements [and more, but I left them out for brevity.]”
“Autonomy is important, we need self-driving trucks… we have a shortage of truck drivers.”
“Cars are becoming marketplaces.” — This made me laugh. “Will the AM/FM radio [in a car] become a subscription service?”
“The farm of the future.” Basically hell, take a look:

“Another surprising thing is how much time is spent gaming. We’ve seen an average of around 24 hours per week spent gaming per person.” — Pandemic trends, baby!
“We’re seeing… consumer spending behavior emphasizing services.” “31% of every tech dollar is spent with services.” — Yeah, because it’s better for the companies and they won’t stop shoving them down our throats.

It was a pretty dumb keynote with some interesting statistics that I don’t remember. But mostly pretty funny. It says a lot about the tech industry.

That wraps up day 0 of CES 2023. I’ll be back tomorrow at 8 AM EST with a recap of Media Day at CES — the day of all the big announcements and 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.