One would think that in my many years working in tech that I would be a seasoned CES veteran by now. The truth is that this was my first year attending and I was very excited to do so. I'll run through my highlight reel and WTFs.
If there's one word that I would use to sum up CES this year it would be DRONES. Holy crap so many drones. The majority of the South Hall was overrun with drone companies and retailers. It's interesting to see how much these have moved into the consumer space. You better believe that the FAA was also there to make sure everyone knew that they now had to register their new toys.
My overall pick for the "You Win CES" award goes to LG. Whomever plans their booth and marketing deserves one hell of a pat on the back. I found myself staring at vacuum cleaners and refrigerators in awe. Aside from home appliances, their televisions are easily the top tier available, and their computer displays are also second to none. These guys know what they're doing and it's the model for every other manufacturer (Sony, Samsung, etc) to aspire to. Most impressive was the new Signature line of 4K OLED displays. Out of all the new TV tech (OLED, Samsung's Quantum Dot, Sony's Slim Backlight Drive) OLED is the clear winner in my opinion. They are also on top with HDR support, boasting pretty much every standard on the market (Dolby Vision, HDR Pro, etc). I would give Samsung the second place ribbon but they definitely have some catching up to do. I would post a picture, but it just wouldn't do OLED justice. Pure blacks, insanely vivid colors, infinite viewing angles, etc. I will however give you a glimpse of what everyone's private workstations (or gaming stations) should look like:
Next up is VR. Thanks to a friend I got a personal demo of Oculus and their new touch controllers. I've been pretty vocal at this point about my HTC Vive fanboy status, but the Oculus might have won me over after this demo, which was a chance to play Bullet Train. The touch controllers are amazing. After a bit of an adjustment period you can almost feel like you can use your hands to their full capabilities in the virtual realm: picking up objects, holding and firing a weapon, etc. The only place that I feel they need to catch up is the trackable space in which you have to play, where I think the Vive does a bit better of a job of tracking in a larger space (it also marks boundaries, which would have been helpful in my Oculus demo when I ran into a shelf).
The best surprise award goes to Marshall Amplification. I've had a long history with Marshall due to being a musician, mainly a guitar player. They're already legendary in that space so it's interesting to see their push into consumer sound. Their booth first off was small but amazingly decorated in the image of the brand. I was given a beer while I explored which was also a big plus. I sampled two of their portable speakers: The Stockwell and the Kilburn. The Kilburn is now high on my to-purchase list. It packs a very large punch and amazing sound quality into a relatively small package. The Stockwell sound is great too and is prefect if you need more portability, but for the small extra amount of money and increase in bass response and volume, the extra size of the Kilburn is justifiable.
My final award, the "I almost feel bad for you" award, goes to Polaroid. The name itself seems dated, and you can tell their struggling to find their place in the current market. They were displaying a sub-par version of almost any product you can think of: cell phones, 3D printers, tablets, TVs, etc. None of them caught your attention and it seemed almost desperate.
So there you have it! Although I only spent one day I definitely had my fill of consumer technology. I know for sure that my life will soon be including some new LG and Marshall products, and maybe even a Rift!