The Consumer Electronic Show (CES) helps you keep your fingers on the pulse when it comes to emerging technology trends. Since it launched in the 1960s, there’s been some game changing products unveiled at the show including the first VCR and Xbox. And who can forget last year’s news of the Toyota’s Woven City, a prototype community of the future which is to be built near Mount Fuji in Japan. This is where Toyota plans to create an experimental laboratory of future technologies from self-driving vehicles run on hydrogen fuel cells, robots, smart homes and new forms of personal mobility.

So what’s hot this year?

Self-driving cars

Self-driving car technology is still the talk of the town but despite the hype of Toyota’s Woven City in 2020, they are still to become mainstream. But once the pain-points are smoothed out self-driving cars are clearly the way of the future and it is no surprise that Mary Barra, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, was chosen to give this year’s key note address.

Intel’s Mobileye autonomous vehicle platform, Samsung’s Digital Cockpit initiative and self-driving vehicle company Aurora both had impressive showings.

You can find out more about self driving sessions from CES here.

TVs are thinner and 8K panels are more affordable

Get ready for next-gen consoles and more affordable 8K panels. 8K TVs are expected to generate US$3.3 billion plus in global revenue this year, according to Deloitte and that’s thanks to house proud early adopters who want all the mod cons when it comes to home entertainment.

Among those TVs getting thinner is Samsung’s customisable The Frame TV and you can expect tech companies to keep upping the ante on features.

Improved laptops

2020 was the year of working from home and you could see this trend reflected in the features in the newly improved laptops. You’ll be seeing more in the way of webcams, battery life, OLED displays and more 5G options.

Gaming gear improvements

PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X were both released last year with new video game soles. Now it’s all about 3D-audio headsets.

Nvidia’s RTX 3080 mobile graphics card and a range of gaming laptops was something for gamers to get excited about.

Digital health and medical gadgets

Expect more medical gadgets with an emphasis on quick accessibility and convenience.

Deloitte research  estimates home health care technology sales to rise will rise by almost 20% in 2021. This will mainly be in the form of medical-grade monitoring solutions and wearables.

Most tech lovers are already across self-care and DIY health technologies and there’s plenty of new products coming their way as well as new fitness trackers and smart home gym products.  Check out these links: The Road to DIY Consumer Health, Next-gen Technologies to Transform Health Care and Samsung Health’s group challenge.

Key announcements At CES

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG)

• ROG Citadel XV online portal introduces viewers to the ROG gaming universe and brand heritage

• Gaming laptops: Dual-screen ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE, gaming powerhouse ROG Strix SCAR 17 and ROG Flow X13 with external GPU

• New monitor and peripherals: World’s first 32” HDMI 2.1 gaming monitor ROG Swift PG32UQ, ROG Claymore II keyboard and ROG Gladius III Wireless mouse

• Debut of world’s first 360 Hz laptop display, new cooling technologies and first use of liquid-metal thermal compound on AMD mobile processors CPUs in mass-produced laptops

• ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED: 15.6″ 4K OLED HDR NanoEdge display; 14″ tilting ScreenPad™ Plus; Intel® Core™ i9; NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 laptop GPU

• ZenBook Duo 14: 14″ FHD NanoEdge display, 12.6″ tilting ScreenPad Plus, 11th Gen Intel Core CPU in a smaller form factor for effortless portability

• Tilting ScreenPad™ Plus: 14″ and 12.6″ full-width secondary touchscreens with auto-tilt mechanism, ScreenXpert 2 software with new Control Panel creative tool

• New ZenBook OLED models: All-new ultraportable 13.3″ ZenBook 13 OLED (UX/UM325) with an ultra-vivid OLED visual experience

• New ultra-powerful ZenBook models: ZenBook Flip 15 (UX564) with 11th Gen Intel® Core™ H CPU; ZenBook 14 (UM425) with AMD® Ryzen™ 7 5800H CPU

Lenovo

Lenovo unveiled Yoga AIO 7 all-in-one desktop PC that takes up less space with a rotating display, unique LAVIE devices from NECPC, and new Lenovo monitors.

Plus the IdeaPad 5G laptop, family-friendly Lenovo Tab P11 tablet, and Amazon Alexa Show Mode debuts on select Lenovo PCs.

• IdeaPad 5G (14-inch)
• IdeaPad 5 Pro (16-inch, 14-inch)
• IdeaPad 5i Pro (16-inch, 14-inch)
• Lenovo Tab P11
• Yoga AIO 7
• L27e-30 Monitor
• L24i-30 Monitor
• LAVIE MINI prototype
• LAVIE Pro Mobile laptop

Dell

• New Alienware m15 and m17 R4 laptops that deliver superior speed, offering the user greater competitive advantage thanks to next-gen NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 30 Series Laptop GPUs
• New Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10 desktop that now supports up to 128GB Dual Channel HyperX™ FURY DDR4 RAM – twice the memory of previous generations
• Alienware will be hosting a livestream at 7am AEDT on 27 January via Alienware’s Twitch.TV channel to celebrate the launch of these new gaming rigs, featuring Alienware partners Team Liquid and NVIDIA GeForce.

Acer

• The Acer Nitro 5 gaming notebook line gets a significant upgrade with the addition of up to an AMD Ryzen^™ 9 5900 HX Mobile Processor and up to an NVIDIA^® GeForce RTX^™ 3080 Laptop GPU
• The new Nitro 5 notebooks are available with 15.6-inch or 17.3-inch displays, featuring a quad high-definition (QHD) display with a 165 Hz refresh rate or a full high-definition (FHD) display with up to a 360 Hz refresh rate and a 3 ms response time².
• The Acer Aspire 7 line now features new AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Mobile Processors paired with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX^™ 1650 GPU in a sleek understated design.
• The Aspire 5 is a slim yet powerful notebook offering new AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Mobile Processors and AMD Radeon^™ GPUs.

Hisense

• The Hisense ULED 8K TV is 8KA and 8K Ultra HD Certified which uses sophisticated upscaling technology powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver astonishing resolution.
• Joining the Hisense ULED 8K TV is a variety of ULED 4K TVs that are equipped with Quantum Dot Colour, Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos Audio, including a number that are IMAX Enhanced.
• In addition to the 2021 ULED TV range, a UHD TV will also be available in big screen 98-inch offerings.
• Hisense’s 2021 ULED TVs are ready for next-gen gaming thanks to the introduction of Game Mode Pro, including HDMI 2.1 features like Variable Refresh Rate, Auto Low Latency Mode, and eARC.

LG

• New LG Ultra Series monitors were launched at the first all-virtual CES 2021. The monitors deliver premium productivity and entertainment experiences to support the needs of both home and office life.

• Planned partnership with Google to bring Stadia to LG webOS smart TVs in the second half of 2021, making LG the first TV manufacturer to natively support Stadia gameplay via webOS.

• AI Exchange: The Future of AI and Human Experience, a multifaceted digital report was launched that includes in-depth interviews with leading experts in AI, consumer advocacy, design and business.