The time has come to say goodbye to the tech event of the year, CES. It’ll be January 2025 before we get to say hello to the Consumer Electronics Show again, but that’s okay. There’s still plenty to sift through from 2024’s show — but you needn’t bother with all that. Our job is to do all the sifting for you and cherry-pick the very best gadgets from CES 2024.
First, we’ve got a ground rule. We’re only covering the tech that has a real shot of making it to the shelves — or at least, our shelves — before their CEOs start asking funny questions like: “What the hell are we doing here?” (We’re looking at you, Shift Robotics). The products we’ve listed below are either already on sale, or can at least lay down some hard facts about when they’ll be released into the wild. All caught up? Great. Let’s move on, shall we?
What? TVs are transparent now?
We’ll admit, when we saw that LG rocked up to CES touting a wireless OLED transparent TV — known as the Signature OLED T, we were about as far away from being on board as possible. Then we saw the thing. That’s about where we stopped doubting LG. Samsung also took the opportunity to get into the world of transparent TVs, but LG edges it in more ways than one. For one; it’s OLED — Samsung’s efforts only managed microLED — and two, it’s wireless. That’s all down to the Zero Connect box that’s handling all the processing, and leaving the Series T to do what it does best. Which, apparently, is being see-through. LG reckons these will be up for sale before CES 2025 rolls around. As for the price, your guess is as good as ours.
Knocking Kindle off its perch?
Having only recently gotten its hand on TCL’s TVs, South Africa is still blissfully unaware of the company’s other ventures. One such venture is the TCL NXTPAPER 14 Pro, an Android-based tablet that’s looking to put the Kindle out of business. Or, you know, give Amazon something to scoff at. Whatever the case, it’s unlikely that Amazon will be competing with TCL’s NxtPaper 3.0 display technology which can make the switch from a full-colour LCD to something more akin to a real-life book at the press of a button. It helps that it’s got a 14in IPS LCD panel (fitted with NxtPaper 3.0) and a 120Hz refresh rate to boot. It won’t last as long as a Kindle despite a 6,000mAh battery, but it’ll be more powerful, repping a Dimensity 8200 chip and 12GB of RAM. They’ll be available later this year, though pricing remains a mystery.
Amazfit’s Helio Ring might not rule them all, but it’ll certainly try
When you think of health-tracker tech that’s been cut to size and made to fit on a single finger, Oura is probably the brand that springs to mind. If Amazfit has its way, that won’t be the case much longer. It spent the week pushing the Helio Ring that’s capable of tracking heart rate, blood-oxygen levels, stress levels, sweat, and most importantly, sleep. It’ll supposedly do all that and only need a charge-up once a week or so. Amazfit is still keeping pricing and availability details close to its chest for now, but the first batch should be along before the end of the year.
360-degree visibility
This one’s a bit of a cheat, but we’re counting it anyway. LG announced its new 4K projector going by the name of the CineBeam Qube a couple of days ahead of CES, but it still appeared at the Show. And anyway, how could we not include a 4K projector that’s squeezed into a 13cm-tall body? It’ll spit out a 4K image that spans a wall as long as it’s somewhere in the 50-120in range. It’s wearing the usual array of ports, with a mix of HDMI and USB-Cs, so what sets this thing apart? That handle you see there? Yeah, that’ll turn this thing into a mostly portable projector that’ll work in whatever room you throw at it. It’ll cost, though. We think. LG hasn’t announced any pricing or availability just yet.
Alienware 32in OLED 240Hz Monitor (try saying that three times quickly)
OLED is all the rage right now. QD OLED is even hotter. That’s good because that’s what Alienware’s CES efforts have brought us to fawn over. Say hello to the Alienware AW3225QF — a 32in monster of a monitor that’s sporting 3840×2160 true 4K resolution, 240Hz, and G-Sync compatibility. Oh, and it’s curved. But that doesn’t matter. We’re more interested in the QD (Quantum Dot) OLED spec that’s affixed to this thing that’s sure to send the price skyrocketing. And… yup. Dell already has a listing up, and it’s asking $1,200 (roughly R22,000) for the honour of having this thing on your desk.
Another Apple Vision Pro competitor? Okay…
Apple’s take on augmented reality hasn’t even launched yet (though it will soon) and it’s already got the whole of CES shaking in their boots. That’s evident in the fifty or so AR glasses you’d have seen if you trawled the Show’s floors — one of which belongs to Xreal. The Air 2 Ultra looks a little less stupid than Apple’s Vision Pro, so that’s a big plus right from the go. It also doesn’t cost R65,000 bucks so it can only go up from here. It still won’t come cheap, setting your wallet back around R13,000 ($700) if you’d like one. It’s reportedly a full-on “spatial computing” device that’ll need an external computing unit before it can get going. Once it does, it’ll be capable of mapping virtual objects in the world around you, allowing you to interact in real space rather than sitting in one spot. You can check out this video for some more insight.
Samsung’s Ballie is back, except it’s got AI now (cue eye-roll)
Previous iterations of CES have brought us glimpses of Samsung’s Ballie robot that, unsurprisingly, looks like a ball. But this year it’s different. Well, kind of. It’s more of a spheroid on wheels than a ball, but that’s not all that’s different. Not only is it now donning a projector that’ll aim at the floor and walls, but it’s also loaded up with AI because… it’s 2024. Yeah, that sounds about right. It’s held onto its original functionality of being a speaker that’ll follow you around in your home and stream camera footage, so that’s cool. Now, though, it’s been fitted with AI so it’ll answer your questions as it follows you around, too. Four years on and there’s still no price attached, but we’re guessing it’ll cost less than your average kid, so there’s that.
