CES 2022 live blog: Sony Vision-S electric car, Galaxy S21 FE and all the biggest announcements

There are plenty of cool concepts being shown at CES 2022, but very few can rival the Tesla Model S or Lucid Air Dream. The Mercedes Vision EQXX is a concept car that claims to go 620 miles on a single charge. It does so while using the same battery pack found on the Mercedes EQS. It achieves the extra miles by being light with a low coefficient of drag. 

Actually, Mercedes claims that this EQXX concept has a lower coefficient of drag than the Tesla Model S Plaid, which Tesla claims is the “lowest drag car on earth.”

With a massive 47.5-inch Mini LED screen and an ultra-luxurious interior, we hope that some version of this EV hits the market eventually. 

Between forest fires and Covid, air quality has been a big concern over the past few years, and will continue to be so in the future, which is why we’re seeing more and more air purifiers these days. 

At CES, a number of new air purifiers were launched; one of the most interesting, design-wise, is the LG PuriCare Aero Tower. This conical-shaped air-purifying fan is designed to capture 99.7% of fine dust and allergens, and its advanced UVnano LED technology with HEPA filters can capture and kill airborne bacteria. 

The best webcams have become an essential part of our work-from-home life during the pandemic, so it’s no surprise that a handful of these devices have shown up at CES. Anker’s new AnkerWork B600 Video Bar addresses one of the biggest issues people have — not enough light. The B600 has a built-in LED light strip above the lens to provide illumination in darker settings. It also has a 2K/30 fps resolution, adjustable field of view, and automatic lighting adjustments. It also has beamforming  mics for better audio clarity in noisy environments.

Of course, all this will cost you: The AnkerWork B600 will cost $219 when it’s released on January 25. 

What if you had a foldable phone … but made it bigger, like a laptop? That’s the pitch behind the Asus Zenbook 17, which was just unveiled at CES 2022. The concept of a foldable laptop has been around for a little while, but now Asus is making it a reality. 

Unfolded, it is basically a large 17.3-inch 2560 x 1920 OLED screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Folded, the screen becomes a 3:2 12.3-inch clamshell with an on-screen touch keyboard on the lower half. For those of you who dislike touchscreen keyboards, the laptop also comes with a spacious ErgoSense Bluetooth keyboard. In that configuration, it looks and functions like any other laptop.

The Zenbook 17 packs a 12th gen Intel Core i7 U-series processor, up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. It will also come with Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, a 75Wh lithium-polymer battery, built-in 5-megapixel camera, a 3.5 audio combo jack and a single Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port that supports external display.

Asus says its foldable laptop will roll out in Q2 of this year. It didn’t reveal a price, but we’re guessing it’ll be steep.

A robot vacuum can seriously change your life. It’s one of the most convenient gadgets for your home. Brands like Roborock, Ecovacs and Neato are behind some of favorite robot vacuums at CES 2022. 

The big trend this year is improving hybrid vacuum-mop designs. Some new robot vacuums can now rinse and clean the mop head between runs, as well as self-emptying the dust bin — saving you the hassle of doing it yourself. 

The Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra is one of these models. An intelligent docking system and an improved obstacle avoidance system really takes it to the next level. This robot vac does come with a hefty price tag, though — $1,399.99. 

Meanwhile, Neato claims its new D9 and D10 (pictured above) have substantially better dust pick-up than previous models. And the iconic D-shape of the body is ideal for reaching into corners and along edges. Though they don’t have self-emptying bases, they are also more affordable. The D9 is $449 on Amazon and the D10 is $599.

A TCL announcement at CES generally means a look at a new television or upgrades to an existing line. But the company surprised us by unveiling two budget handsets, the TCL 30 XE and TCL 30 V. 

TCL says its goal is to bring 5G to everyone, regardless of their budget, which is why both are equipped with 5G. The TCL 30 XE and TCL 30 V could be good for anyone looking for more affordable options among the best 5G phones. TCL may not have the name recognition of Samsung when it comes to phones, but the budget category is pretty wide open. We’re looking forward to getting hands-on with the new models try try them out.

Pricing info isn’t available yet, though we expect the TCL 30 XE will cost less than $300. The TCL 30 V might cost a bit more since it has support for Verizon’s mmWave 5G network.

Isn’t sleeping just the best? Thanks to technology, it’s getting even better. At CES 2022, smart mattress manufacturer Sleep Number announced upgrades to its award-winning 360 Smart Bed range. 

The new Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed wants to be the mattress you can grow old with. The company says it monitors your general wellness and sleep health, and generates real-time suggestions to help you sleep better. And over time, the AI will learn your snoozing habits so that it can detect and alert you to “abnormal events.” 

And maybe, eventually, the 360 Smart Bed could warn you about insomnia, sleep apnea, and other health conditions. The company doesn’t have FDA clearance for that yet, but CES is all about innovation, possibilities and, yes, sweet dreams.

Thinking about investing in a new doorbell camera? You might want to consider the Eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual, one of the best video doorbells from CES 2022 thanks to its cool dual-camera design. It’s rare to find doorbell cameras with more than one camera: we’ve only ever seen one other, the Maximus Answer DualCam. You might want a dual-camera setup if you want a way to quickly check not only who (if anyone) is standing at your door, but whether or not there’s a package lying on the doorstep.

The Eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual can handle that thanks to its lower camera, which captures images at 1080p resolution in a 120-degree field of view angled down. Above it sits a front-facing camera with 2K resolution and a 160-degree FOV. Eufy claims the battery-powered camera’s software is capable of recognizing people and packages, as well familiar faces, and the Security Video Doorbell Dual is advertised as lasting up to half a year on a single charge. We won’t have to wait long to check it out, either, as Eufy says it should be available in the U.S. February 8 for $259.

HP launched its new Victus line of mid-range gaming PCs last year with the debut of its Victus 16 gaming laptop, and at CES 2022 this week it unveiled its first Victus gaming desktop: the Victus 15L. 

It’s far from the flashiest gaming PC you can buy, and that can be a good thing: the Victus 15L’s sleek, unadorned case (available in either white or black) should blend right in with your existing home office setup, but it has enough power under the hood to stand out when it’s time to game.

Configurable with up to an Intel Core i7-12700F CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics card, with as much as 32GB of DDR4 RAM, the Victus 15L should be a great gaming desktop (especially for 1080p gaming) when it ships later this year. 

Gaming chairs with haptic feedback motors aren’t a new idea, but Razer has unveiled a new spin on the concept at CES 2022 in the form of the Razer Enki Pro HyperSense.

Of course we may never get the chance to buy one, as its one of Razer’s famous CES “concept” products that aren’t guaranteed to come to market. But the Enki Pro HyperSense seems more likely to become an actual product than the Project Brooklyn gaming chair concept Razer unveiled at CES last year, as Brooklyn sported full RGB lighting, a peripheral tray, a rollable OLED display and a built-in haptic feedback system.

The Razer Enki Pro HyperSense does away with all those extravagances save the haptic feedback system, which takes the form of a motor near the base of the chair which can vibrate in tune with your games and music. Razer collaborated with D-Box (of vibrating movie seat fame) in the design of the HyperSense, and we’re excited to see whether it proves viable enough to become a real product.

When Asus unveiled its ROG Flow X13 gaming laptop/tablet hybrid at CES last year, we called it the best 2-in-1 laptop of CES 2021. This year the company announced a successor, the ROG Flow Z13, that looks to be an even more impressive compact gaming machine. 

This 2-in-1 will ship in 2022 with the latest Intel 12th Gen CPUs, along with up to an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to a 1TB SSD. But what really makes the ROG Flow Z13 so exciting is its unique hybrid design: the 13.4-inch screen (configurable as either a FHD 120Hz or 4K 60Hz display) can be detached from the keyboard, and you can pop out the built-in kickstand and wirelessly pair a gamepad to it for some Nintendo Switch-like tablet gaming action on the go. Reconnect the keyboard and it functions as a more traditional gaming laptop, and you can hook hook up Asus’ ROG XG Mobile eGPU enclosure (sold separately) to access the extra power of an external GPU — up to an Nvidia RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT.

Asus has yet to announce a price for the Flow Z13, but it will likely cost at least as much as last year’s X13, which started at $1,499 but could easily cost over $3k if you also bought the XG Mobile eGPU kit with a beefy Nvidia GPU inside.

Hey, you! Back up! You’re sitting too close to the TV! Believe it or not, your Sony Bravia smart TV may soon be able to yell at you like your mother, as long as it’s got the new Bravia Cam attached to the top of the screen.

The Sony Bravia Cam is just as “smart” as the TV it’s strapped to, and can tell where viewer are sitting in order to optimize the TV’s sound and picture quality. If it senses no one present, it can turn off the TV to save power. It also offers gesture controls to let you control your TV by waving your arms around, but we’ll have to try out that feature ourselves to see how well it works. There’s also a mechanical shutter in case you want, y’know, privacy and all that.

But let’s get back to the proximity sensor. If you get too close, the screen will put a warning at the bottom of the screen telling you to back up. If you don’t, the warning will take over the entire screen and a nasty alert will sound. So there! 

The Bravia Cam ships with Sony’s latest Z9K and A95K sets, and will be an optional add-on for several other models as well. Pricing and availability information was not released.

Now here’s a weird one. Cyberpower unveiled its Kinetic gaming-PC case, which has 18 triangular mechanical vents that automatically open and close according to cooling demand. The damn thing looks like it’s breathing — we’re not sure whether to find it creepy, cool or both.

Cyberpower calls this process “intelligent airflow,” and you can watch it in action on YouTube. The Kinetic’s mechanical vents are bronze-colored; the rest of the chassis is white, with one side transparent glass to better show off your gaming rig’s innards. 

Unfortunately, there’s no pricing or availability information yet, although Cyberpower says the Kinetic case is “coming soon.”  We’re looking forward to setting it up in the office, though we’re not sure we want it in our bedroom after dark.

Lenovo took the wraps off its next-generation Legion 5 Pro gaming laptop at CES 2022, revealing a sturdy-feeling, port-loaded design that comes in a muted dark gray or a striking white. 

Available in April for a starting price of $1,429, the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro Gen 7 will sport a next-gen AMD Ryzen or 12th-gen Intel Core CPU, up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 30-series graphics card, up to a 1TB SSD and a up to 32GB of 4800-MHz DDR5 RAM. All configurations will weigh 5.5 pounds and have a 16-inch WQHD 240Hz screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio, an RGB keyboard, an 80 Whr battery and USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, Ethernet and audio ports. 

We found the screen to be clear and bright, yet weren’t able to try out any games during our short time with the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro Gen 7. But we’re really looking forward to getting one long-term for our full-length review.

We didn’t see this collaboration coming, but Fossil has teamed up with Razer to produce a limited-edition “gaming” version of the Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch. Dubbed the Razer x Fossil Gen 6, the watch will cost $329 when it goes on sale Jan. 10.

But you’d better get your screen-refresh button ready, because Fossil is selling only 1,337 units of the Razer x Fossil model. That number is a decades-old in-joke referring to “leet” or “elite” hackers, gamers and/or nerds. You can sign up for availability notifications on the Razer website.

In any case, the 44mm Razer x Fossil Gen 6 will have three watchfaces featuring the Razer logo, interchangeable bands, a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100+ chipset, fast charging, fitness tracking, Wear OS, and health and fitness tracking. It doesn’t really do much more than a regular Fossil Gen 6. But it does look kinda cool.

We’ve all wanted a bit more screen space on our laptops, but Lenovo is taking it to extremes with its new ThinkBook Plus Gen 3. Not only does it have the first ultra-wide (21:10 aspect ratio) screen we’ve ever seen on a laptop, but there’s a second 8-inch LCD screen touchscreen right next to the keyboard.

This is no gimmick. The second screen is very versatile and can be used for taking notes with the included digital pen, performing fine adjustments to an image file, scrolling through documents or even just as a calculator. 

The gorgeous 3K display isn’t shabby either, and the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 sports a 12th-gen Intel Core CPU, up to 32GB of RAM, an SSD of up to 1TB and Thunderbolt, USB-C, USB-A and HDMI ports. At only 4.4 pounds, it’s remarkably light for a 17-inch laptop, although it may be too wide for some backpacks. Starting price is a surprisingly low $1,399, and Lenovo says the ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 will be available in May.

Ring is adding some new capabilities to its DIY smart home system. The Ring Alarm Glass Break Sensor will listen for the sound of shattering glass, and send you an alert  if it hears something, as well as trigger your Ring Alarm siren. It can detect sounds up to 25 feet away. If you have an Amazon Echo Dot or some other Alexa-powered smart speaker, you can get the same capabilities — as well as smoke and CO2 alarm detection — using Alexa Guard, but Ring’s offering gives you a standalone device for that purpose.

The Ring Alarm Glass Break Sensor is now available for pre-order for $39 and will start shipping on February 16. 

Samsung has been going all in on monitors this CES 2022. The company announced the world’s first 4K 240Hz monitor in the Odyssey Neo G8. The Quantum Mini LED panel will allow for rich contrast and should be fast enough for first-person shooters. 

The company also unveiled two additional monitors, the Smart Monitor M8 and the High Resolution Monitor S8. The former is a monitor that comes with a smart TV remote. It’ll have built-in apps and works more like a tiny television that can also be a monitor. The latter monitor is more for professionals. It’s a 4K display that sits at 98% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and is the first UL verified Glare Free monitor.

Another personal highlight for me from the show so far is the new Razer Blade 17 2022 gaming laptop.

This machine brings with it all the updates you’d hope to see from a new gaming laptop, namely a 12th-gen Intel Core chipset (going up to an i9-12800HK) and Nvidia RTX graphics, with the options going up to a 3080 Ti GPU.

Add to that a big SSD (up to 4TB depending on what you spec), a 17.3 inch display available with either FHD or QHD resolutions and between 144Hz and 360Hz refresh rates, eight speakers and ports for all types of peripherals, and you’ve got the ultimate gaming PC. It’s also one that happens to also be portable.

Hey everyone, this is staff writer Richard Priday taking over the live blog for a couple of posts.

Until I saw the TP-Link Archer AXE200 Omni earlier today, I wouldn’t have believed a WiFi router would be able to hold my attention for more than a few seconds. This one did however, because of its wacky but also compelling ability to automatically adjust its four antennas to help you get the best signal possible on your devices. It’s WiFi 6E compatible too, which is the latest and zippiest standard that you’ll see widely adopted by more and more devices in the coming months.

CES is great for press releases that proudly shout “The world’s first!” then introduce a device that looks like a thousand others, only this time in a fetching shade of pink.

However, the Pozio Cradle is a little more interesting than that — in fact I rather like the sound of it. Its claim to fame is that it’s “The world’s first phone charger that prevents eavesdropping,” which isn’t a sentence I ever thought I’d write, but the more I find out about it, the more I’m intrigued.

Simply slip your phone into it and it’ll charge it up while blocking your device’s always-listening microphones. A simple command will bypass the blocking tech for 30 seconds, so you can then ask Siri or Google Assistant for something, and it’s well priced at just $119 from Pozio’s website. I’m not personally worried about what my phone might hear me saying (I’m too boring to care), but if you are, it’ll start shipping in March.

Electric vehicles have been everywhere at CES, with the Mercedes Vision EQXX concept and Sony Vision-S electric SUV in particular standing out. But here’s an EV-related device you might have: the Wallbox Quasar 2 EV charger.

This clever gizmo offers ‘bidirectional power’ so you can access energy stored in your EV’s battery and supply your home in the event of a power cut. Wallbox reckons it could power a home’s critical energy consumption for more than three days, and unlike previous versions it has a Blackout mode that can isolate your home from the grid, plus fast 11.5kW charging.

It’s expected to cost around $4,000 — so it won’t be cheap — but that’s still a lot less than the $10,500 you’d pay for the Tesla Powerwall. 

If you’re on the lookout for a really, really big TV then you’ll want to check out the monster TCL announced at CES yesterday.

The TCL XL QLED TV is a massive 98-inch set that comes with an equally gargantuan price tag of — wait for it — $8,000. So no, you’re probably not going to be buying one for your spare bedroom. But if you have a deep pockets and a big house, it would make for an awesome centerpiece. 

Mere mortals might be more interested in some of TCL’s other new offerings, including a new flagship 85-inch TCL 8K QLED X925pro Mini LED set.

The best OLED TVs all have incredible pictures these days — but what about sound? In my experience, you’ll need to buy a soundbar or home theater to get audio quality to match, as most modern TV sets just can’t cut it on this front. 

Fair play, then, to Panasonic, which has prioritized audio on its recent OLED models. The new Panasonic LZ2000 OLED looks like a further leap ahead in this regard, with built-in sound modes and overhauled front-firing speakers that come with beam-forming technology. On the image front, you get both Dolby Vision and HDR10+, an upgraded Auto AI genre detection and a new Game Control Board feature, among other treats.

The Panasonic LZ2000 OLED TV lineup will be released in 55-, 65- and 77-inch models this summer, though there’s as yet no word on price or U.S. availability. 

Sticking with audio devices, JBL announced a bunch of stuff at CES yesterday. We already mentioned the JBL Boombox 3 earlier on in this live blog, but we’re also quite taken by the JBL Quantum 910 wireless headset.

This is a premium gaming headset with a premium price tag to match: it will debut in Spring 2022 and cost $250. But for that, you get some innovative features including head-tracking which alters the directionality of the sound as you move your head, plus two kinds of wireless connectivity (USB and Bluetooth) and Discord chat integration.

Let’s start by talking about headphones — although not your standard kind. The Shokz OpenRun Pro are bone-conduction headphones, which means they rest on your cheekbones rather than going in your ears, enabling you to hear more of what’s going on around you but at the cost (usually) of sound quality.

Our Kate Kozuch is a big fan of using bone-conduction headphones for running, and tested the Shokz OpenRun Pro ahead of its release at CES yesterday. And without giving the game away, she loved them. Find out why in her Shokz OpenRun Pro review.

Good morning, and welcome to another day of the Tom’s Guide CES 2022 live blog. Yesterday was jam-packed with big announcements, but there’s still plenty more to come over the course of the week, so bookmark this page so you don’t miss a second of it.

Samsung has its ways. At CES 2022, the electronics giant announced plans to integrate its SmartThings Hub software into select Samsung Smart TVs, Smart Monitors and Family Hub refrigerators released this year. Essentially, that means these other Samsung products will be able to double as smart home hubs, saving you the hassle of having to add another piece of hardware to your setup.

There aren’t any details about specific products, though Samsung did say its SmartThings Hub will work with Matter, the soon-to-launch smart home standard, as well as via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Zigbee devices will be able to connect to the SmartThings Hub with the help of a USB dongle.

At the same time Samsung was promising smart home hub software for its appliance, it was showing off a physical hub of its own. Samsungs Home Hub is a docked tablet that allows you to control other devices in your home. It’s supposed to launch in South Korea this year, but it’s unclear if it’s coming to other markets.

Sony just can’t seem to go through a CES press conference without bringing an EV prototype onto the stage. Two years ago, it was the Vision-S sedan. On Tuesday night, the company repeated the trick with the Vision-S SUV.

Of course, Sony could have more than a EV prototype on its mind. It plans to spin off a new company called Sony Mobility, and at the very least, the new outfit will work to bring some of Sony’s efforts to the automotive world. But Sony also raised the possibility that it could bring about the commercial launch of its Vision-S vehicles.

For a look at what’s in store, we’ve got a report on Sony’s Vision-S electric vehicle news from its keynote.

Samsung hopes to prove that projectors don’t need to be big and bulky to beam out a clear picture. The new Freestyle projector weighs less than 2 pounds but can deliver a 1080p picture wherever you want, seeing as how portable Samsung has made this device.

While you’re mulling whether to part with the $899 Samsung is charging, you can either read Kate Kozuch’s report on the Freestyle projector or get the quick summary via this TikTok video.

@tomsguide

Thoughts? @samsung #samsung #samsungtv #samsungtips #projector #projectorscreen #ces #tech #technology #techtok #projectorphotoshoot #tvs

♬ originalljud – S U P E R M O D E L S

Sony’s CES press conferences tend to be a grab bag of whatever the electronics giant is working on at the time, and that was certainly the case with the 2022 edition Tuesday night. You want Tom Holland on stage discussion the film version of the long-time PlayStation game Uncharted? You got it. Want to hear about Sony’s partnership as the virtual fan engagement provider for Manchester City F.C. That’s there, too. But one of the more interesting topics centered around Sony’s plans for a new PlayStation virtual reality headset.

During the press conference, Sony confirmed that the headset will officially be known as the PlayStation VR 2. The controllers are the PlayStation VR 2 sense controllers.

Per Sony Playstation’s Jim Ryan, you can expect deeper immersion into games and “experiences that invoke a whole range of emotions” with the PSVR 2. Specifically, the headset will offer haptic feedback and eye-tracking. Other features include 4K HDR, foveated rendering, and a 110-degree field of view. We also got to see a preview of Horizon: Call of the Mountain, an original game being built for the headset.

Sony didn’t reveal launch plans for the PSVR 2, but based on reports, it could be sooner rather than later. Earlier today, we published a report in which hardware analyst Brad Lynch claimed Sony’s VR headset would soon enter mass production.

The OnePlus 10 Pro news continues to trickle out of CES 2022. Yesterday, it was the phone’s January 11 launch date in China (plus an official look at the phone’s black and green versions). Today, OnePlus revealed most of the OnePlus 10 Pro’s specs — and its the charging speeds that caught our eye.

The OnePlus 10 Pro will support 80W charging. That’s up from 65W on the most recent OnePlus phones. Considering that a half-hour of charging with a 65W charger could just about fully charge a drained phone, we’re expecting some very fast charge times.

Our report on the OnePlus 10 Pro specs also includes the battery size (5,000 mAh), the camera setup (it’s the same lenses as the OnePlus 9 Pro, but with a new Hasselblad imaging system) and display. (OnePlus didn’t announce the screen size, but it will be a 120Hz display with improved scrolling thanks to LTPO 2.0 technology.)

Cync has arrived at CES 2022 with a whole bunch of smart home announcements — and we’ve got a full account of Cync’s new smart home offerings. But one product in particular deserves some attention, and that’s Cync Smart Thermostat.

For starters, Cync’s Thermostat carries an attractive price — at $129, it’s roughly $120 cheaper than the list price for the Ecobee SmartThermostat, our current pick for the best smart thermostat. It’s also easy to install, as there’s no common wire to fiddle with. Remote temperature sensors let you warm up a room from afar. And of course, there’s Alexa and Google Assistant compatibility.

All of that adds up to making Cync’s effort at making a smart thermostat one we’re eager to try.

Our pick for the best SLA printer has been the Form 3 from Formlabs, which produces the best resin-based prints we’ve seen from a 3D printer. It sounds like we’re going to need to rethink our best 3D printer rankings, though, as Formlabs just announced a new version at CES — the Form 3 Plus.

This new SLA printer improves print speeds by 40%, according to FormLabs. One of the changes involves new spacing components that allow for tighter alignment between the printer’s light processing unit and its print bed — that means faster printer times in particular for the first few layers of a print. And the air duct and thermal measurement system on the Form 3 Plus have been redesigned for more consistent performance across different temperatures.

The 7.3 x 5.7 x 5.7-inch build volume of the Form 3 is unchanged for this new version, which also retains its predecessor’s $3,499 price. That’s certainly not inexpensive, but it’s right in line with what 3D printing pros would expect to pay for Formlabs’ top SLA printer. We’re planning on reviewing the Form 3 Plus just as soon as we can.

Easily one of the sleekest laptops (and most sustainable) at CES 2022, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 represents a pretty bold departure for the ThinkPad line, as it’s going right after that Gen Z crowd.

So what do the cool kids want these days? Super slim bezels, an OLED display option,  and a design that turns heads. The black vegan leather on the bronze model of the ThinPad Z13 is luxurious but good for the environment. Speaking of which, the packaging is made of bamboo and sugar cane. 

The specs are solid, too, including an AMD Ryzen 7 Pro CPU, up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. 

Here’s a CES gadget I could see myself buying. Right now we use a cordless electric vacuum and a corded electric steamer to keep our tile floors clean at home. But the Roborock Dyad could be just the combo device I’ve been waiting for. 

The Dyad is a cordless wet and dry cleaner that will vacuum, wash and dry your floors in one session. It runs for about 35 minutes and when you’re done it self cleans at the touch of a button. Look for the Roborock Dyad when it hits Amazon for $459. 

AMD announced a flood of new laptop CPUs and GPUs at CES 2022. We’re seeing massive performance increases over last year’s chips. This includes a new 6000 series mobile processor that deliver 1.3 times faster CPU performance and 2.1 times faster GPU performance. 

The mobile GPUs are especially good news for gamers. Not only can these chips deliver gaming performance at 1440p, but they will also lead to 20% thinner gaming laptops. 

Lastly, even though GPU restocks remain elusive, AMD is releasing a new line of budget desktop graphics cards. These cards, which will sell for $199, give budget PC builders solid 1080p gaming performance, pushing 108fps in Resident Evil Village.  

Intel today took the wraps off its first Alder Lake laptop CPUs, which the company claims will rival Apple’s M1 chip line for speed and power. We haven’t been able to verify that ourselves, but Intel released data purporting to show an Intel Core i9-12900HK, the top of its new lineup, beating out an Apple M1 Max. 

Like Apple’s chips, the Alder Lake architecture relies on grouping performance cores and efficiency cores together on each chip, essentially giving each the best of both worlds and the ability to rely on either factor when needed. For example, the i9-12900HK has six performance cores and eight efficiency ones, creating what Intel says is 40% more speed than its Tiger Lake/11th-gen counterpart.

The first laptops with Alder Lake chips are set to come next month from Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo. We can’t wait to find out whether Intel’s claims are true.

Verizon is getting ready to throw the switch on its C-Band 5G network sometime this month, bringing faster Ultra Wideband speeds to 100 million people in 1,700 cities nationwide. 

Until now, fast 5G speeds had been limited to the mmWave part of the spectrum, using wavelengths that have limited ranges and can’t penetrate buildings. The C-Band spectrum, recently vacated by legacy satellite operators, promises speeds of up to 1 Gbps at longer distances — many times faster than 4G LTE. Many of the latest iPhones and Samsung phones support C-Band 5G.

The question is exactly when the C-Band goes live. Both Verizon and AT&T have already postponed their launches by a month, heeding safety concerns by the FAA and U.S. airlines. They were to have flipped it on today (Jan. 4), but at the last minute agreed to hold off for another two weeks.

Some major upgrades are in store for Acer’s big gaming laptop. The Acer Predator Helios 300 will pack a 12th Gen Intel CPU, up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, and an IPS display of up to QHD (2,560 x 1,440 pixels) resolution with a 165Hz refresh rate.  While we haven’t gotten our hands on it yet, it could wind up being one of the best gaming laptops. 

The redesigned chassis has a “cleaner” look (according to Acer) and it may help address some of the fan noise issues we’ve experienced with older models. While the Acer Predator Helios 300 won’t be very portable, it’s built for solid, powerful performance. 

And thanks to the ongoing GPU shortage, which has made cards like the RTX 3080 very hard to find, the gaming laptop may be a worthwhile investment when it goes on sale in March for a starting price of $1,749.

HyperX is behind some of the best gaming headsets of the last decade or so, which is why we’re excited about the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless. It leads the lineup that HyperX announced at CES 2022. 

What really stands out about the Cloud Alpha Wireless is its jaw-dropping battery life — up to 300 hours! HyperX claims that this headset “offers the longest-lasting battery in a wireless gaming headset,” based on an analysis from December 2021. Tom’s Guide has not tested any gaming headsets that last close to 300 hours.

 The company didn’t explain how the headset is able to maintain the charge, though a heavier battery doesn’t seem to be the reason. The device weighs 11.8 ounces, pretty standard for a wireless gaming headset.

The Cloud Alpha Wireless headset’s other features include DTS Headphone X surround sound, 50-mm drivers, swappable ear cups and noise-canceling mic. It will cost $200 and be available to purchase in February.

Hybrid work is here to stay, and many of us need a laptop that operates efficiently whether you’re at the office, at home or elsewhere. And the HP Elite Dragonfly G3 may be the ultimate hybrid work laptop. 

It’s ultra light and portable, powered by a 12th-gen Intel Core processor and comes with Windows 11. The G3 has larger keys and a larger touchpad than previous Dragonfly models, and the 1:1 screen-to-touchpad experience makes using the touchpad more natural and intuitive. 

Video conference calls will run more smoothly, thanks to AI-based noise reduction, low-light correction and the HP Auto Frame feature, which automatically centers your face. Plus, the HP Elite Dragonfly G3 learns your work patterns for optimal power consumption. If you step away from the laptop, the AI-controlled feature will recognize that you’re gone and adjust the power consumption — which could save you the headache of the laptop dying on you while you’re on the road.

Sony 2022 TVs are really bringing the heat at CES 2022 with improvements and upgrades to its popular Bravia XR line as well as introducing the A95K QD-OLED line. It’s the first QD-OLED TV we’ve seen unveiled at this year’s CES.

Since Sony isn’t a major large panel manufacturer, the company focuses instead on image processing. The new Bravia XR processor will be great for gamers, since it can switch between game mode and standard mode automatically on the PS5. Playing Gran Turismo 7? Game Mode. Playing a 4K Blu Ray? Game Mode off. No need to change the setting yourself!

The A95K QD-OLED line comes with Sony’s XR Triluminos Max color processing, which the company claims can display the full spectrum of colors even in the brightest scenes when compared to “conventional OLED” (not sure if they are referring to LG OLEDs or just OLEDs in general).

The new sets will also throw a quantum dot layer above the OLED array, just like Samsung’s upcoming QD-OLED. This should result in a better light and color spread across the panel from each individual pixel. Viewers will get a more vivid and bright picture. 

Dell has unveiled its brand-new XPS Plus 13 laptop, and we got a hands-on look. It starts at $1,199, with the base model sporting a 12th-gen Intel Core i5-1240P CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD alongside a 13.4-inch FHD+ display.

Those innards are customizable, of course. You can go up to an Intel Core i7-1280P CPU, opt for as much as 32GB of memory and up your storage to 2TB. Graphics are handled by Intel Iris X.

With displays, it’s a bit more complicated. You can opt for a FHD+ touchscreen, a 3.5K OLED or a 4K LCD. Naturally, the size of the XPS Plus 13’s screen will stay at 13.4 inches.

Now for the cool stuff. The processor, whichever one you choose, cranks at 28 watts, up from 15 watts on the standard XPS 13. The body — your color choices are light-gray Platinum and dark-gray Graphite — is made of machined aluminum and weighs only 2.7 pounds. 

Keycaps are also larger, with the keyboard stretching from one side of the chassis to the other. And the touchpad is built right into the palm rest — you won’t notice it’s there until you try it.

In terms of performance, the Dell XPS 13 Plus felt very fast when we got a few minutes to try it out, but our full review will establish how snappy it truly is.

Some new features are more questionable. Even as Apple has backed off from the Touch Bar on its latest MacBooks, Dell has brought back something very similar, minus the animations. The function keys are part of this capacitive touch bar, but they share space with media keys — a toggle lets you switch between them.

Likewise, Dell got minimalist with the ports, giving you just two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one on each side. There’s no SD card slot, and even more radically, no headphone jack.

As you might suspect, there’s something very MacBook Pro about all this. It’s ironic that Dell is embracing some of the design aspects that Mac users rejected. Nevertheless, the XPS 13 Plus is a beautiful, powerful machine, and we look forward to having more time with it.

We recently went hands-on with the Alienware m17 R5 Ryzen Edition. This is a huge and powerful laptop meant for the most hardcore gaming laptop users. It has an expansive 17.3-inch display that comes in 1080p 165Hz, 1080p 320Hz, and 4K versions. 

For CPUs, you get your choice of a Ryzen 7 6800H, Ryzen 9 6900HX, or Ryzen 9 6980HX. Yes, this new Alienware uses AMD’s latest Ryzen 6000 mobile chips. RAM options span 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. GPU choices consist of an RTX 3050 Ti, RTX 3060, Radeon 6700M, or Radeon 6850 XT. For storage, you choose 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB in single or double storage configurations. 

The m17 starts at $1,599 for the base model, but we expect it to rapidly climb from there. It seems that whatever config you opt for, you’ll be lugging around a 7.3-pound monster. It also has the hallmark Alienware styling, i.e. far from subtle (like what Razer usually goes for). You can grab your own m17 R5 Ryzen Edition this spring.

Razer took the wraps off the new Blade 15 2022 gaming laptop. Not only is it quite the looker, but it packs up to a 3080 Ti GPU. Yeah, you read that right — a 3080 Ti in a 15-inch laptop. Talk about over-the-top!

As we’ve come to expect from Razer, this laptop is premium in build quality and design. It starts at $2,499 and comes with a 15.6-inch QHD display at 240Hz, an Intel i7-12800H CPU, Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti GPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and 1TB of storage. This thing is a monster and that MSRP isn’t really that bad considering all that you get.

There’s also a $3,999 model that ups the display to 4K at 144Hz, and boasts an Intel i9-12900HK CPU and 32GB of DDR5 RAM. You get the same 3080 Ti GPU and 1TB of storage (with an optional upgrade to 2TB if you so wish). Talk about a killer gaming laptop! We can’t wait to get our hands on for testing.

If you’re like me, you’re in the market for a new monitor — and the newly revealed Alienware 34 Curved QD-LED Gaming Monitor should be on your radar. This display balances everything both gamers and non-gamers could ask for, with a quantum dot OLED panel (for excellent brightness and contrast), Nvidia G-Sync Ultimate certification (for low latency and HDR support) and an 0.1ms GtG (gray to gray) response time and a 175Hz refresh rate over DisplayPort (100Hz over HDMI). 

The big question, though, is how much is it going to cost? Alienware probably won’t go cheap on this 34-inch display, so we’re wondering how much of a bite it’s going to take out of our savings. 

Over at our Nvidia CES 2022 live blog, we’ve just learned that the rumored Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti is real. 

The wide world of Bluetooth-based trackers got a new heavy hitter last year when the Apple AirTag showed up. Now, one of the biggest players in this category is playing nice with Apple, for a better user experience. That’s Chipolo, whose new 2022 model of the Chipolo Card Spot wallet tracker (just announced at CES 2022) actually works with Apple’s Find My network. And this is a huge perk, as Apple’s network is notorious for its wide reach.

The new Chipolo Card Spot is unsurprisingly thin at 0.09 inches (the AirTag is 0.31 inches). It’s rated for IPX5 water resistance, so it can handle splashes (not accidental tumbles in the laundry). Wondering about Tile, the other big name in Bluetooth-based trackers? They’re not working with Apple (yet). 

As someone who (on occasion) has trouble finding my own wallet, I’m intrigued. The idea of a super-thin tracker that likely fits in even my tiny wallet — that also works with Apple’s Find My app — could get me to finally dip a toe in this pool.

Hi there, I’m Tom’s Guide senior editor Henry T. Casey, and I’ll be sharing the next big updates from CES 2022. The wildest-looking one I’ve seen so far is the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential with Alexa, which my colleague Kate Kozuch has covered for our site. As someone who prefers smart clocks to smart displays (I’m not huge on smart homes, but I love a single-purpose device, such as a Kindle), this new Alexa-enabled version of Lenovo’s Smart Clock Essential is interesting. 

And that’s, in part, due to the Lenovo Ambient Light Dock it’s plugged into, which looks like some wild kind of fish. It also includes a USB port for charging your smartphone or smart watch. In other cool news from Lenovo, the company’s reducing the amount of waste in the box, by taking out plastic throughout, including the handle. Check it out:

@tomsguide

We stan eco-friendly packaging #tech #laptop #lenovo #sustainable #sustainability #ecofriendly #techtok #technology #thinkpad #computer #ces #recycle

♬ originalljud – S U P E R M O D E L S

While smart locks are old news, this latest home security device from Schlage has caught my eye. It offers something Apple users have been waiting for; support for digital keys. 

The Schlage Encode Plus Smart WiFi Deadbolt is indeed HomeKit-compatible, which means it’s ready to use Apple’s virtual keys feature. In Layman’s terms, you can lock or unlock your home using just your phone, once the keys are added to your iPhone’s wallet. This is great news if you’re prone to losing your keys, and if your battery goes flat, there’s still a physical keypad for getting inside as well.

I love the idea of carrying one less thing around with me, and priced at $299, this security device is affordable. The Encode Plus will be available from Spring 2022. 

I’ve recently started working out, and either of these two new smartwatches from Garmin would be a welcome addition to my wardrobe. 

The Vivomove Sport and the Venu 2 Plus are both hybrid smartwatches which have just been launched at CES. These will track your steps, heart rate and calories burned, while looking great in the process. They’re great to wear outside of workouts too, assessing how well you sleep as well as how much water you’ve taken in. In short, they can help keep your general health in check as well as track your workouts.   

The Garmin Vivomove Sport retails at $179, while the Venu 2 Plus has a higher price tag of $499 — though it does come with more features, such as on-wrist calls and voice assistants, as well as GPS. Both watches are available to buy now.  

Want to learn more about your body? The new Withings Body Scan smart scales will break down your body composition to a whole new level. 

Through the use of bioelectrical impedance analysis, the scales can provide segmented body composition measurements whereby the scales assess the fat and water composition of different parts of your body. In doing this, you can figure out if there’s any potentially harmful visceral fat on your body, rather than harmless subcutaneous fat — essentially giving yourself a health check.  

It also comes with ECG tech which can record your heart patterns via an algorithm, and this can be shared with a medical professional if needed. While the Withings Body Scan scales need to receive FDA clearance before they are sold in the U.S, they are currently set to cost $299.  

Everyone in the world now owns a fitness tracker, so wearable tech companies have started targeting a new market: pets.

While fitness trackers for dogs have been around for a few years, the Invoxia Smart Dog Collar looks like a cut above the average model, thanks to several neat innovations. For one, it uses radar to measure your dog’s speed and movement, then uses those figures to calculate heart and respiration rate. This method means the collar can sit loosely rather than needing a tight fit, and it also works no matter how long your dog’s fur is. 

The Invoxia Smart Dog Collar also has GPS tracking onboard, and won’t be super-expensive — it’s due to arrive this summer priced $99, plus $12.99/month for the GPS features.

Ah, Bluetooth speakers and CES, a pairing that goes goes together like cheese and, well, anything.

The latest to catch my eye is the JBL Boombox 3, a beast of a device offering a day’s battery life and packing a new three-way speaker system made up of two tweeters, two mid-range drivers and a “powerful racetrack-shaped subwoofer.” I’m not entirely sure why the racetrack thing is important, but there you are.

It’s also IP67-rated and comes in two colors: an understated black shade or a more conspicuous “squad colors” design (pictured). Like the look of it? The JBL Boombox 3 will be available this summer, for a rather hefty $499.

One of the things I love about CES is that it’s a great place to see the stranger end of the tech spectrum. And no offence to the Ible Airvida E1, but a portable air purifier with built-in headphones isn’t exactly mainstream consumer tech.

Then again, maybe it should be. After all, the pandemic has reminded us how important the quality of the air we breathe is, and portable air purifiers have soared in popularity as a result. 

The trouble is, you look a bit odd wearing one — which is where the Airvida E1 has a trump card. Unlike rivals, it has integrated ANC headphones, meaning you won’t attract nearly as much attention. We’d go so far as to say it’s a bizarrely brilliant invention.

You can’t underestimate the importance of good Wi-Fi. It’s more important to me than anything except my kids, and that’s a close-run thing (joking).

One of the best Wi-Fi 6 routers we tested last year was the Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500 — but with a price of $599, it was also one of the most expensive. Give thanks, then, for the new Netgear Nighthawk RAXE300, announced at CES 2022 yesterday and offering nearly the same specifications as its big brother but at a more affordable $399.

Interested? You should be — and you can find out how Netgear’s new Nighthawk RAXE300 router makes Wi-Fi 6E speed more affordable here.

Many people now have some kind of smart door setup, whether a video doorbell, smart lock or sensor. But for an all-in-one solution, look no further than the  Masonite M-Pwr Smart Door.

It promises to be the best-connected front door yet, with sensors, lights, a Ring Video Doorbell and a Yale smart lock all included at launch. Plus, it has a built-in power system that’s wired to your home’s electricity — so there’s no risk of your smart lock’s battery dying. There’s even a backup battery for if your power goes out.

We don’t yet know when it will be available or how much it will cost, but for a truly smart home setup it’ll be worth keeping an eye on.

Speaking of TVs, here’s a new smart home gadget that could improve your viewing experience. 

The Sengled Wi-Fi Video-Sync TV Light Strips sync with your TV to match the colors of what’s on the screen, whether that’s a video being streamed from Netflix or a console game. What’s more, different sections of the light strip will match different parts of the TV image, for an overall effect that’s not a million miles away from Philips’ Ambilight TVs. 

They’ll be available in the second quarter of 2022 and will cost $120 — which sounds pretty reasonable to me.

But the LG 2022 TV we’re most interested in would be the LG C2 OLED TV — AKA the smallest OLED TV ever.

As well as being available in the more standard 83-, 77-, 65- and 55- and 48-inch configurations, there’s also now a 42-inch version. First teased during last year’s CES but pushed back for reasons unknown, it will get most of premium features found in larger models, including HDMI 2.1 ports, 120 Hz refresh rate and LG’s latest Alpha 9 Gen 5 Processor 4K.

We don’t yet know how much it will cost, but last year’s 48-inch C1 OLED TV was priced at $1,200 — so it’s possible the new 42-incher could come in below $1,000. Great news if so.

Morning everyone, Marc here in the U.K. starting the Tom’s Guide CES live blog for the day and rounding up any news that trickled out late last night.

Let’s start with TVs — because they’re always a big part of CES. On Sunday, Samsung revealed its 2022 TV lineup and yesterday it was the turn of LG to showcase its new sets.

We’ve got a full guide to all the TVs LG revealed at CES, but a couple of models stand out right away. One of those is the LG OLED evo G2, the follow-up to the LG OLED G1, which was one of the best TVs we tested last year. 

The new version has dedicated heat-dissipation technology that should let the panels get brighter without causing burn-in, and will come in 97-, 83-, 77-, 65- and 55-inch configurations.

The phone news keeps coming out of CES, with Samsung taking the wraps off the Galaxy S21 FE. This is a lower-cost version of the Galaxy S21 flagship with a few noticeable trade-offs — the FE has less RAM and a lower-resolution telephoto lens than the S21. Also, while the Galaxy S21 FE has a 120Hz refresh rate, it’s not adaptive like it is on the other Galaxy S21 models.

For all that you save $100 off the cost of the standard S21. The Galaxy S21 FE costs $699 and goes on sale next week.

We’ve spent some time with the new phone and can share our impressions in this Galaxy S21 FE hands-on.

CES may not be the biggest launchpad for phones, but try telling that to OnePlus. The Chinese phone maker is using CES 2022 to introduce us to its latest flagship, the OnePlus 10 Pro.

We got our first official look at the OnePlus 10 Pro this evening, and while there’s a certain similarity to past OnePlus flagships, we’d note the camera array is pretty distinctive on this year’s phone. The Hasselblad branding is back on the camera array, too, so OnePlus’ partnership with the Swedish lens specialist is still in effect. That’s good because the OnePlus-Hasselblad team-up led to a vastly improved camera in the OnePlus 9 series.

We’ve also gotten our first hint as to where the OnePlus 10 Pro will ship first. It’s arriving in China on January 11. No word on other markets, but we’re hopeful that a U.S. launch is in the cards sooner rather than later.

The new Targus Cypress Hero Backpack will help you get your stuff back if you misplace the bag. That’s because it has Apple Find My technology baked in. Thanks to the built-in location tracker, owners can find the backpack using the Find My app should it go missing. 

Another cool perk: if your iPhone is lost you can press a button in the backpack to ping your phone. Targus says that the Cypress Hero comes with a replaceable battery that’s chargeable via USB. 

The Targus Cypress Hero will be available for $149 in spring/summer 2022. 

Products that can track health data figure to garner a lot of attention at CES, and EarlySense is hoping that includes its Insight+ sensing system for gathering health data while you sleep. As demonstrated in the above video, Insight+ using a sensing pad that slips under a mattress. From there, it’s able to not only measure sleep patterns, but vital signs and patient movement.

Plenty of home sensors promise similar tracking for devices that consumers directly interact with, but EarlySense targets Insight+ at doctors who want patient data that doesn’t require any interaction from those patients. Right now, EarlySense is making Insight+ available for clinical research purposes; the technology should be broadly available later this year.

It’s not CES until someone breaks out a self-driving car, so Udelv’s announcement of the Transporter truly heralds the launch of CES 2022.

Transporter isn’t a car, really — it’s a delivery vehicle. But it’s a self-driving, cabless delivery vehicle that can carry up to 2,000 pounds of cargo and make 80 stops per run. Detach the pod from the vehicle, and you can now haul 5,000 pounds of cargo.

The idea is that Transporter can haul goods from merchants directly to shoppers, with a Udelv app making it easier to retrieve the goods you ordered. A video helps explain it all for us.

The first Transporters aren’t expected to be commercially deployed until 2023, with Udelv hoping to have 50,000 units of the Transporter making their way down streets near you by 2028.

Sengled has a lot of smart lighting announcements for CES 2022 — everything from Wi-Fi outdoor string lights designed for outdoor spaces like patios to video-sync TV light strips that adjust to the on-screen action on your TV. But the announcement that really caught our eye involves a smart light bulb from Sengled that offers health-tracking capabilities.

Specifically, Sengled’s Health Monitoring Light features the company’s A19 bulbs that are capable of tracking sleep as well as other biometric measurements such as your heart rate, body temperature and other vital signs. The bulbs are equipped with a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth dual chip for connectivity. Set up a second A19 bulb, and you create a Bluetooth-based mesh network that can figure out if someone in the room has fallen and needs help. 

The product’s already picked up a CES 2022 innovation award, though it will be some time before we see the Health Monitoring Light out in the real world. The product is in the early stages of development, and Sengled isn’t expecting to launch it until the last three months of the year.

Not many consumers have Wi-Fi 6 routers yet, and with good reason — there’s not a lot of devices that support this newer, speedier version of Wi-Fi. Comcast is looking to future-proof its Xfinity customers with its new xFi Advanced Gateway. According to the company, the new gateway will offer up to three times the bandwidth as its current products, thanks to the addition of a new low-latency 6 GHz band that should reduce interference.

In addition, the gateway will serve as a smart home hub, and support both the Zigbee and Matter standards. It will also work with Xfinity extenders and Pods, which create a mesh network in your home. The new gateway will be available in the coming months, and will cost $14 per month — the same as its current rates. 

While Matter may change things, when it comes to the best HomeKit-compatible smart home devices — namely, outdoor security cameras. Eve’s new Outdoor Cam ($250, available in April) is just the third such device, and only the second that works with HomeKit Secure Video. This 1080p camera has a 157-degree field of view, two-way communication, and infrared motion detection and night vision. 

The Eve Outdoor Cam needs to be hardwired, and all video is stored in the cloud; it can distinguish between people, animals, packages, and vehicles, but you need an iCloud+ account (starting at 99 cents per month for 50GB of storage) in order to use these features. 

Coloring your hair can often be a messy process, but L’Oreal hopes to change that with the new Colorsonic. This handheld device uses an innovative process to mix hair color and apply it evenly.

After you select your hair color from among 40 shades on the Colorsonic website, the kit is shipped directly to your home. Then you load the cartridge into the device for on-demand color mixing and use the brush to apply the color. A oscillating nozzle moves 300 times a minute to cover hair quickly.

We don’t have a price yet, but L’Oreal plans to launch the Colorsonic in early 2023.

What will be some of the biggest trends at CES — and, to a larger extent — in 2022? We talked to several analysts to find out what they had to say about a number of topics, from electric vehicles to smart home to the future of work in CES 2022: 5 trends we’re expecting as the show goes on.

We also expect that there will be a lot of TV news coming out of CES; check out our TV trends to watch in 2022 to get a preview of the tech that could be announced at the show. 

Peloton better look out if LG ever makes this concept exercise bike, which features three large vertically mounted LG OLED panels, which would give a rider a real sense of immersion when spinning.

LG’s exercise bike wasn’t the only concept the company showed off; there was also the LG Media Display, the mother of all recliners with a built-in OLED TV and Cinematic Sound OLED (CSO) technology. 

For more details and photos, check out our full story: LG’s immersive exercise bike with flexible OLED panels looks amazing

Acer has announced three new Chromebooks aimed at students:

The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 ($599, available in June) has an aluminum case, MIL-STD 810H durability, a 13.5-inch VertiView display with a 3:2 aspect ratio, up to 10 hours of battery life, and is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Kompanio 1380 processor. In addition, it has Wi-Fi 6, a backlit keyboard, and  a USB Type-C port. As its name suggests, its display can spin to be used as a regular laptop or tablet.

The Acer Chromebook 315 ($299, available in January) has a 15.6-inch anti-glare FHD display with an optional touchscreen, numeric keypad, and an HDR webcam with flare-reducing technology. It uses an Intel processor, lasts up to 10 hours on a charge, and has two USB Type-C ports and a microSD card reader.

The Acer Chromebook 314 ($299, available in June), also has MIL-STD 810H durability and will run up to 10 hours on a charge. It also uses Intel processors, has a 14-inch FHD IPS touchscreen display, Wi-Fi 6, and two USB Type-C ports.

Recognized as a 2022 CES Innovations Award honoree, Arlo has unveiled its new Arlo Security System, which is a DIY security monitoring solution. It boats a “first-of-its-kind” all-in-one multi-sensor that’s capable of eight different sensing functions. And it comes with a security hub with integrated keypad.

The multi-sensor can recognize motion, door/window openings and tilt, water leaks, light/temperature changes and T3 and T4 smoke/CO alarm patterns. Arlo says the 1.1-inch wide multi-sensor can be placed anywhere without hard wiring. 

The hub offers a siren, motion and smoke alarm sensor, and with NFC support you can quickly arm and disarm the system with a tap of your phone. Plus, the Arlo Security System works with existing Arlo security cameras. 

There’s no price or availability info yet but stay tuned. 

Many of us like the idea of taking a relaxing bath, but it’s all too easy to get distracted while the tub is filling. Enter PerfectFill from Kohler, which is being announced at CES 2022.

PerfectFill is a smart drain, digital/app controller and bath filler. It’s designed to draw a bath to your preferred temperature and depth, and you can do it either via a voice command or the Kohler Konnect app. That way you don’t have to keep an eye on the batch as it fills. 

Kohler says PerfectFill will be available in May 2022, and pricing starts at $2,700. 

CES 2002 isn’t just about the products you can buy soon. It’s about innovations that will be paving the way for the gadgets of tomorrow. PanelSemi, a Taiwan-based panel semiconductor provider, is unveiling what it calls the “world’s first flexible Active-Matrix Mini LED Display.

Primary is a 55-inch display that weighs only 1 kilogram and ultra thin at only 1mm thick. And it’s flexible with a 360-degree viewing angle. The company says that it uses 9-inch tiles that make it easy to assemble, and you get four hours of use out of a 10K-mAh power bank.

PanelSemi says the the display can transform into concave, convex, s-curve, cylinder and rollable form. Use cases for now include commercial advertising, robotics and subways, as well as boardroom applications. 

A lot of us are using thermometers these days as the world tries to fight off the omicron variant, and Baracoda has arrived with something different at CES 2022. The BCool is a thermometer that never needs batteries, as it charges with just a few shakes via patented sensor technology. After that you just press the button and hold or slide it slowly across the forehead. 

The temperature readings can then be sent to the BCool app, and you can add notes for household members. The BCool is made of recycled plastic and is waterproof for easy cleaning. We don’t know a price yet, but the company is targeting a release date for Q4 2022. 

A new pair of Jabra earbuds is usually a cause for celebration, and the Elite 4 Active announced at CES 2022 looks like being another great addition to the company’s enviable lineup.

It certainly looks like an upgrade in some regards over the excellent Elite Active 75t, our current pick as the best wireless earbuds, despite costing a fair bit less — not least because it has aptX Bluetooth. They also come with Active Noise Cancellation as standard. 

IP57 water resistance is another bonus, but the real star could be the price — just £119 in the U.K., which is £60 less than the RRP of the Elite Active 75t. No release date or price has yet been announced for the U.S., but expect to see it cost around the $120-$130 mark if and when it does hit these shores.

Until now, I never knew I needed a smart bath mat. But it turns out I do — and it’s made by BBalance. 

The BBalance smart bath mat is a weight scale, balance and stability reader, and posture evaluator in one, all topped with a foot-friendly, removable, washable, soft cotton finish. 

Obviously it also syncs with an app (for iOS or Android), so you can track your weight, posture and more, and it even has footprint recognition — because of course it does. No word yet on whether it also dresses you afterwards, but that can only be a matter of time.

The BBalance smart bath mat is available to pre-order now, with deliveries expected in the spring. But you’ll need deep pockets — it’ll cost $449 as standard, though a current sale brings that down to $349. 

One of the coolest products revealed in Samsung’s 2022 TV lineup wasn’t a TV at all, but rather its New Eco Remote. 

This can charge via radio waves from your router — yes, really — or, as with last year’s model, via the light from your living room’s light fixtures. Plus it has a USB-C port as a backup. It’ll also come in a white version this year, to better match some of the Lifestyle TV offerings, and will ship with all Samsung 2022 TVs.

CES is always equal parts consumer tech you can actually buy soon and futuristic tech that looks amazing but that’s not necessarily coming to the market for a while yet.

InWith’s smart contact lens falls firmly into the latter camp — although I very much hope it does make its way into my eyes before long. Billed as “potentially the most advanced platform for viewing the coming Metaverse,” it will apparently offer “tunable vision” via mobile device and “augmented vision” — which sounds suitably Cyberpunk-esque to excite me.

InWith says it’s planning to achieve FDA Breakthrough Clearance this year and to put the lenses on the market soon after, so I’ll be watching with interest (through my sadly non-smart contact lenses).

We were fortunate to get a sneak peek at several new products ahead of their CES 2022 reveal, and the Alienware Concept Nyx was one of our favorites.

This is best thought of as a cloud gaming service like Xbox Game Pass, Google Stadia or Nvidia GeForce Now — but one that streams locally via a central server in your home. 

We were impressed by it in our Alienware Concept Nyx demo, with the Concept Nyx’s ability to stream two different games to one TV simultaneously a particular highlight. We’ll be interested to see how this one develops over time.

If we had to choose just one highlight from Samsung’s 2022 range, it would have to be the first MicroLED TV that could fit in your home.

Admittedly, at 89 inches the new Samsung MicroLED TV is hardly small, but it’ll be a lot easier to find space for than last year’s 99-inch and 110-inch models, let alone the first 146-inch version of The Wall TV from 2019.

Size-aside, the MicroLED TV promises to be an exciting addition to Samsung’s 2022 lineup. It has a million micro-sized LEDs, bringing a 10% wider color offering, and should also have an improved audio performance thanks to Dolby Atmos support and Object Tracking Sound Pro.

Samsung has already been busy, showing off its entire 2022 TV lineup.

There are far too many highlights to list here, but the 2022 range covers everything from new 8K and 4K Neo QLED sets to a new McroLED TV, refreshed versions of The Frame lifestyle TV and updates to the Samsung smart TV platform. Even Samsung’s Eco Remote is getting a refresh.

Get all the details in our guide to the Samsung 2022 TV lineup.

Good morning, and welcome to Tom’s Guide’s CES 2022 live blog! 

The show starts in earnest today, with the first of two media days and with plenty of products due to be revealed later.

The two big events on the horizon are the CES 2022 Tech Trends to Watch (4-4.45 p.m. PST)  and CES Unveiled (5-8.30 p.m. PST) conferences. The latter, in particular, tends to showcase exciting products from various startups as well as some established brands.