Las Vegas / Berlin. Corona, delivery problems, the chip shortage? Does not matter! The technology fair CES at the beginning of the year also provides all sorts of insights in a reduced form of what will end up in German living rooms, home offices or trouser pockets in the future.
Televisions are getting brighter, smarter, and more versatile
The future of televisions will continue to be called micro LEDs – tiny, self-illuminating pixels for extremely detailed image display. Samsung and LG showed displays with extremely small light-emitting diodes.
In spite of all the enthusiasm for size, color display and picture quality: the sometimes huge televisions still don’t have living room prices. Average showers will have to wait a few more years.
The more affordable options for normal TVs are in the OLED area. At the CES, LG in particular is showing many new models up to more compact sizes of 42 inches. The more expensive models are now up to 20 percent brighter LEDs – called “OLED evo”.
Sony now calls its improved self-illuminating displays QD-OLED. The luminous dots built into the Bravia A95K, for example, should last longer than before. There are also “normal” OLED TVs: the A90K series with models of 48 and 42 inches and the A80K series with 77, 65 and 55 inches.
Turn on the telly and go
At Samsung, the models à la The Frame or The Serif have been technically renewed in the design area. There is also now Neo QLED – Samsung’s QLED screens with fine-resolution backlighting for better illumination of individual areas of the image. More speakers and a special processor should assign the sound to the correct area on the screen – in 2021 this technology was only available in the top models.
Samsung offers a wall mount for younger television objectors and smartphone fans. In it, the television can be turned into portrait format – hello social media and portrait videos. There are also new services. For example a new gaming hub for some 2022 models. This should allow easier access to cloud games from the game streaming platforms GeForce Now (Nvidia), Stadia (Google) and Utomik. For a subscription fee, these games can be streamed to the television.
OLED displays in more and more notebooks
Leaner, faster, better for video games, better for mobile work: Notebook manufacturers from Acer and Asus to HP and Lenovo are showing new devices in Las Vegas and on the Internet. It contains the latest Intel and AMD chips and, increasingly, OLED displays.
This is for example in Lenovo’s Thinkpads Z13, Z16 or X1 or in the Zenbooks from Asus. In the gaming sector, Nvidia has introduced the RTX 3080 Ti, according to the provider, the most powerful notebook graphics unit to date – it can be found in computers from Asus, MSI or Razer.
If you have the necessary change, notebooks can also be playful this year. This applies, for example, to the Thinkbook Plus Gen 3 from Lenovo with its second screen next to the keyboard. Or for the Zenbook 17 Fold from Asus, which can be folded from a tablet to a notebook to a reader. A second mini OLED screen in the laptop lid and certified space suitability are available in the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED in the Space Edition.
More screen for games
Because gaming not only requires the right computer, the range of screens specially designed for video games is also growing – some of them are the size of TVs. The ROG Swift OLED (PG42UQ) measures 42 inches diagonally, while the Acer CG48 measures 48 inches. Both OLED displays with 4K resolution (3840 to 2160 pixels) should also display fast video games from PC and console smoothly with fast pixel switching times and refresh rates of 120 Hertz and more. And sophisticated cooling should protect the self-luminous OLEDs from premature heat death.
ROG has not yet given a price, and compared to TVs suitable for games, Acer’s CG48 is not a bargain at just under 2200 euros. The price is to be justified with extras tailored to the player, such as a large number of connections, image synchronization technology or laptop charging capability.
Further focus on mobile working
“Hybrid working worlds” are now used as a term in almost every conception of business notebooks and screens. There are roughly two trends emerging.
Trend number one is a complete device like the HP Elitebook 860 G9. The notebook with Windows 11 and the latest Ryzen processors from AMD should be a good compromise for stationary as well as mobile work in the 16 inch format. Here, but also in many other models, there are high-resolution cameras for the inevitable video conferences. AI-supported microphones and improved loudspeakers should make the sound as well as the picture coherent.
The other trend and at the same time a continuation from the year 2021 are smart screens – smart in the way that they are not just a display device, but also a hub for mouse, keyboard and other devices and supply the notebook with power right away. Goodbye cable clutter.
Not a big focus on smartphones
It is better not to have too high expectations in terms of smartphones at CES 2022, but there were definitely a few new products.
In addition to Samsung’s Galaxy S21 FE 5G – a slightly improved and cheaper version of the 2021 flagship S21 – the Chinese manufacturer OnePlus also gives a preview of the OnePlus 10 Pro. That comes again with a camera developed together with Hasselblad, including a 150-degree wide-angle camera. While the Galaxy S21 FE 5G is already available for purchase, the OnePlus will initially be launched in China and not until later in the year will it also be launched in Europe.
Android should become even more like iOS – but really now
Android will get some new features this year that Apple is already offering. With the multitude of providers and devices, this takes a little longer – for example, fast pairing of headphones with Chromebooks, Google TV or other Android TV devices.
Bluetooth-enabled headphones will soon switch automatically to the device being used, even under Android. If supported, there will soon also be Spatial Audio under Android – i.e. audio playback depending on your own position in the room.
In addition, Google wants to make cross-device work and data exchange easier. The Nearby Share file sub-function will soon also work with Windows. Google is cooperating here with Acer, HP and Intel. Chromebooks will also be able to access pictures and videos from smartphones via the Phone Hub “in the coming months”, and SMS and message management will also be improved. Smartphones with Wear OS will soon be able to unlock Android smartphones and Chromebooks.
The metaverse and other absurd things
No trade fair without big buzzwords: If Silicon Valley has its way, the next virtual revolution is imminent – the Metaverse. In short, this is a virtual 3D world: shopping, meeting people, playing, creating worlds and much more – all of this should soon be available with virtual reality glasses and other hardware.
The Facebook parent company Meta is banking heavily on this hardware-hungry future, and the notebook manufacturer MSI is already introducing the “Meta-Ready” rating for its high-performance gaming notebooks. In addition, exhibitors are showing, for example, a vest that is supposed to make touches and other sensory events from the Metaverse tangible and other ideas for the still nebulous Metaverse worlds. What will become of it remains to be seen.
Samsung’s NFT option for televisions is somewhat more specific, but still uncharted territory for many consumers. With their help, TV buyers should also be able to buy and view digital art that has been confirmed as original and unique by NFT (non fungible token) and assigned to a specific person by certificate. An example: The first SMS ever sent was recently sold with NFT for just under 110,000 euros – and could then be displayed on the Samsung TV at home.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 220107-99-628113 / 3
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