CES last year in Las Vegas, Nevada, it marked the last time in a long time that many of us would be chatting face to face, exchanging invisible breath drops, manipulating the same germinal apparatus, and enjoying food and drink in windowless restaurants.
This year, due to the ongoing pandemic, the annual CES is held entirely on the screens of our computers. The first completely remote staging of the consumer technology industry tentpole event begins on Monday, January 11th.
Experiencing the CES from afar poses some obvious challenges for those who report on the program. We can’t walk around the nearly 3 million square feet of showroom or try out the new products being introduced. But we will do our best to offer you our expert reviews of this year’s tech party, based on a bunch of virtual briefings and our collective dozens of years covering CES in the past. So turn on Zoom, belt out your virtual reality headset, and get ready to follow.
Let’s get small
On the plus side, if you want to see CES this year, you don’t have to spend money on registration fees, airfare or accommodation. You can see all the ads and activities in pajamas.
But there is no doubt that this year’s CES has shrunk. The Consumer Technology Association, which hosts the CES, says that around 1,800 exhibitors will be part of this year’s show. That is, less than half of the 4,400 exhibitors who showed technology last year. The CTA also noted that, being a fully digital event, “the show will be accessible to audiences around the world,” but declined to say how many people have actually registered for this year’s virtual CES. Last year it was estimated that about 170,000 people attended in person.
Some tech companies choose to leave CES this year or filter the news about their own schedules. Amazon won’t have an official presence, though you’ll likely see your Alexa voice assistant appear on hundreds of products. Google, which has recently installed massive Google facilities in Las Vegas, says it will host partner meetings, but otherwise stays out of the program. Microsoft President Brad Smith will give a keynote lecture on technology that is both a weapon and a tool, a particularly relevant topic, but most of the news related to Microsoft at CES will be from its PC-making partners. Facebook and its Oculus division will not participate either. Instead, the company opted to tease out its upcoming “smart glasses” in a blog post earlier this week. And most of the focus on Facebook right now, anyway, is its role in upsetting American democracy.
Samsung and LG Electronics will host virtual press conferences and hold briefings on their new displays and home appliances. But it is worth noting that Samsung celebrates the annual presentation of its Galaxy phone on January 14:during CES but it is not really part of CES. We will also be looking forward to Monday’s press conferences with Intel and Sony. And some of the highlights include talks from chief executives at General Motors, Verizon and AMD.
Look but don’t touch
So what a new technology will will we see it practically next week? There are some exciting things happening on TV, says Parker Hall of WIRED. The most impressive TV we saw before the conference is a new 110-inch MicroLED model from Samsung. (MicroLED is a relatively new display technology that uses inorganic LEDs, three per pixel, and is supposed to offer perfect contrast.) There are also more TV manufacturers pushing 8K screens, including Samsung, LG and Sony, as well. as manufacturers of lower cost assemblies such as TCL and Vizio. And that may seem small, but many new TVs will ship this year with updated HDMI 2.1 ports, so new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X gaming consoles can run at full 120 Hz potential on screens.