Not going to talk too much about the overkill stuff like the Samsung fridge with a gigantic tablet display. It is the future and all but at the moment it is impractical whatsoever due to it's relatively high price tag. But instead, I am going to focus on the mobile technology part of CES 2016. Maybe a little about the cars and home appliances but generally speaking, I am not an expert or advocate of either genres. So, it's just mostly about the new tablets, computers, laptops. Fitness trackers and mobile accessories.
One of the 'groundbreaking' announcements made during CES 2016 was Netflix's expansion to 130 countries worldwide and Qualcomm's first Snapdragon 820 powered smartphone was also a pretty big hit. But, we'll talk about the latter first. Chinese TV maker turned smartphone maker LeTV has the pride of announcing the Le Max Pro which is the very first smartphone running Qualcomm's new octa core Snapdragon 820 CPU. The announcement of the device generated more buzz than expected.
LeTV Le Max Pro Key Specifications:
- Snapdragon 820 CPU
- 6.3-inch 1,440 x 2,560 display
- 32, 64, 128GB memory
- 4GB RAM
- 21MP rear camera
- Quick Charge 2.0
- Qualcomm Sense ID
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow
Being the first smartphone powered by the Snapdragon 820 is a nice term when marketing the device but it does not mean anything else. As the smartphone industry has proven, being first into the game doesn't give the player a fair advantage whatsoever unless the company is Apple. But yeah, just look at the HTC One M9, it was the first Snapdragon 810 phone last year but it only managed to get middling response. Anyway, I'm not trying to defame the LeTV Le Max Pro or anything, I just think that it received a little too much buzz than it needed. Plus the device will only be available in the 1H of 2016 and by the time it goes on sale, it'll be fighting with flagships from LG, Samsung and HTC which will all undoubtedly be powered by the new Snapdragon 820 CPU too.
See how @Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 and Sense ID power #LeFuture in our Le Max Pro: https://t.co/kGHlWf3wvc #WhyWait pic.twitter.com/gdAvW8PQgM
— Letv USA (@letvusa) January 7, 2016
Qualcomm isn't the only one making waves during CES 2016, other chip makers like Nvidia and Intel also unveiled some interesting hardware products this week. Intel in particular showed off their tiny Curie SoC in action with some extreme sports in addition to their fleet to futuristic drones which had a mind of it's own and also some interesting concepts for wearables. Intel partners in the other hand didn't stop innovating either as they also unveiled some cool new laptops powered by the 14nm Skylake CPUs and not to mention, Windows 10.
When you look at the Razer Blade Stealth, it's hard to not compare it with Microsoft's Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 systems as Razer's lineup of Blade laptops have always been known for their MacBook-class industrial design. From a price standpoint, the Razer Blade Stealth outdoes the Surface Book or Surface Pro 4 in terms of bang for your buck. Most notably is that Razer managed to get a Thunderbolt 3 / USB C connector on the new Blade Stealth which essentially makes it futureproof. One thing that Microsoft totally missed with the first gen Surface Book and SP4 is a USB C port, it's not that the chipset does not support it. It was just Microsoft which didn’t choose to implement it. The next iteration of the Surface lineup will definitely have this future I/O onboard.
Razer Blade Stealth Specifications:
- Intel Core i7 6500U
- Intel HD graphics 520
- 8GB RAM
- 12.5" IGZO LED touch display
- QHD (2560 x 1440) OR UHD (3840 x 2160)
- 128/256/512GB PCIe M.2 SSD
- Thunderbolt 3 port (USB Type-C)
- USB 3.0 ports (x2)
- 13.2mm x 321mm x 206mm
- 1.25kg
- $999 - $1,599
Beyond what Razer unveiled, other PC makers like Samsung, Lenovo, Acer, Dell, HP also unveiled new systems running one Intel's Skylake processors during CES 2016. You've probably heard about the new Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro S that runs Windows 10. If not, the new Galaxy Tab Pro S is the first Samsung Galaxy branded device running Windows 10 and it looks like Samsung finally realized that the Ativ brand wasn't good enough and the Galaxy name should be more effective in terms of marketing. But other than the name, the Galaxy Tab Pro 3 is a lot like the Windows based tablets/laptops powered by Intel's core M CPUs.
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro S Key Specifications:
- 12-inch 2,160 x 1,440 SUPER AMOLED display
- 2.2GHz Core M CPU
- 4GB RAM
- 128/256GB memory
- 5,200mAh battery
- 5MP front and rear camera
- Wi-Fi/LTE
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| Acer's new Aspire V Nitro "Black Edition" with Intel's Realsense camera technology |
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| Dell's rugged and business focused Latitude 13 700 series Ultrabook capable of ouputting dual 4K displays and features Dell's signature Infinity Edge display like on the XPS 13. |
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| HP's new Elite Book Folio that comes with Windows 10 Pro and is aimed towards business users with an Intel Core M vPro processor onboard. |
But moving back to Nvidia, the company didn't announce any new graphics card or mobile processor but they did unveil a sequel to their in-car supercomputer called the Nvidia Drive PX2. The Dual SoC Drive PX2 is designed to help advance the research of autonomous driving and the board itself features over 8 teraflops of compute power which equates to the processing power of 150 MacBook Pros. Volvo will be the first to implement this board their fleet of XC90 cars and this is just the start of supercomputers in cars as everyone including Apple is gearing up to bring autonomous driving to the masses.
Finally, it's to talk some wearables as this category has been a hot topic in the past year or so. Fitbit announced their first customizable fitness tracker with the Fitbit Blaze. The Blaze which features customizable bands and a premium build that includes a shiny aluminum bezel but you can upgrade that look with an optional band like a leather or metal links band. That should take some thunder away from the Apple Watch. But basically, the Fitbit Blaze is just like the Fitbit Charge HR but it look more like a standard square faced watch. HR tracking and automatic activity tracking is available on the color display but the Fitbit Blaze does not come with GPS tracking like the Fitbit Surge.
But wearables isn't necessarily the tech that goes on your hand, as Oculus has proven, Virtual Reality has a bright future. Late last year, the Facebook owned Oculus unveiled the first consumer version of the Oculus Rift and only earlier this week that they finally unveiled the $600 price tag of the virtual reality headset. Oculus is now taking pre-orders for the Rift and the product will finally ship on March 28.
HTC's Vive VR headset made in partnership with Steam was at the HTC booth but the new Under Armor HealthBox was the star of the show there. Bot HTC and Under Armor is calling this $400 box the world's first connected fitness system that is designed to measure, monitor and manage your health. The star of this kit is the UA Band which is a lot like all the other fitness bands out there, it tracks steps and sleeps but lacks the GPS and HR tracking. Also inside the three-piece kit is a UA Heart Rate strap that measures your heart rate and to round things up, there's the US Scale which is a round scale that can log body data of up to 6 people.
HTC's Vive VR headset made in partnership with Steam was at the HTC booth but the new Under Armor HealthBox was the star of the show there. Bot HTC and Under Armor is calling this $400 box the world's first connected fitness system that is designed to measure, monitor and manage your health. The star of this kit is the UA Band which is a lot like all the other fitness bands out there, it tracks steps and sleeps but lacks the GPS and HR tracking. Also inside the three-piece kit is a UA Heart Rate strap that measures your heart rate and to round things up, there's the US Scale which is a round scale that can log body data of up to 6 people.
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