The Best Items We Laid Eyes on at CES 2017
Every January in Las Vegas, the tech world (tech world, yuck) heads to CES to check out the latest and greatest of...gadgets? Stuff? Anything that turns on? At one point, it used to be just a consumer electronics show, but now, it’s basically anything that has a battery: smart water bottles, smart hair brushes, cars that drive themselves and robots that will raise your children—it’s got it all. The big takeaways for the regular guy? TVs keep getting impossibly thin, drones are really fun, and VR is close, but not quite there. Here, our favorite products to keep in mind once that tax return kicks back a few months from now.
Roger Kisby1/13LG Signature W7 "Wallpaper" TV
LG’s 2016 OLED line were last year's best TVs. Although 2017’s competition is much stiffer—shout out to Sony and Samsung for restarting the bidding war that will trickle down and make $400 TVs equally jaw-dropping in a few years—their Signature W series checks all the “next gen” boxes (4K, OLED, HDR) while being 2.57 millimeters thin. The iPhone is almost 3 times thicker. It's ridiculous. The trick: most of the electrical components are stashed in the mandatory soundbar below. This is clever, but we wish there was a smaller version that lost the audio. Who buys a $8,000 TV and uses a soundbar?
65” starting at $8,000, at LG.com
Roger Kisby2/13NVIDIA Shield TV
When we last checked in on the smart TV race, there were plenty of viable (read: totally fine) options, but few that were usable and handled the next-gen TV requirements. Leave it to NVIDIA, the company that makes the best graphics cards for your computers and video game consoles, to take on the challenge. It works with Google Home, too, so the latest episode of “Westworld” is only a shout away.
Shipping in mid-January, at nvidia.com
Roger Kisby3/13OmniCharge Portable Battery Pack
For years, we've wanted a battery pack with a built-in outlet, but none worked that weren't as big and ugly as a brick—might as well just bring a gas generator. The Omni 20 is compact, but loaded with features that'll make your next foray into the outdoors—or just a coffee shop with a bad outlet situation—seamless. The onboard OLED screen lets you know how much power you're putting out, and I watched it handle a TV with no problems. It's still in crowdfunding phase, so take advantage of the deal.
Available for pre-order at $199, at omnicharge.co
Roger Kisby4/13goTenna Mesh
“Mesh” networks are the current buzzword of choice. They usually refer to wifi routers that connect to each other to seamlessly blanket your house in glorious, glorious internet. But in this case, the goTenna Mesh works more like a walkie-talkie, creating a network for texting and GPS even when your cell service falls through. It’s built for hikers, but we’re planning to use it at the last frontier of cellular communication: crowded sports arenas.
$149, available for preorder at gotenna.com
Roger Kisby5/13Sensorwake Oria
Some products make life easier, and some just make it more fun. The Oria is basically an alarm clock that uses scent pods, and we'll say it: waking up to different scents sounds like a nice change of pace. We found it down in the startup section of CES, so you'll have to wait a bit for this to come out. Good things take thyme.
See the preview at sensorwake.com
Roger Kisby6/13Sevenhug's Smart Remote
Voice control is one of the biggest trends in tech—and if you don't have an Amazon Echo, CES was a good indicator that you should probably get one to work with all the gadgets coming out this year. But the Smart Remote takes a different approach. Instead, you just point at the thing you want to control (smart lights, your Sonos, your smart thermostat, 2,500 other compatible things), and it pulls up the options: turn it on, turn it off, turn it down, turn it to 73 degrees. Three sensors sit in the room to figure out where you're pointing, and you can even set it to work with non-smart stuff in your home. Point at the window? I'll take the weather please. For those of us who don't like talking to a robot all day, the Smart Remote is a nifty little gizmo.
$229, available for preorder at sevenhugs.com
Roger Kisby7/13Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed
If you're looking to track your sleep, you have a couple options: simple iPhone apps, which lay on your bed and pretty much tell you how often you weren't a fidgety mess, and more complicated under-mattress sensors, which are usually more accurate, but more expensive and sometimes constrained to one side of the bed. In any case, neither of them solve the real problem—they just tell you how shitty you're sleeping. The Sleep Number 360 works by actually adjusting the bed, giving you sleep quality statistics and adjustments that might crack the code once and for all. If anything else, the toe pre-warming has our interest piqued.
See more at sleepnumber.com
Roger Kisby8/13Polaroid Pop
We're in a Second Renaissance of the Instant Camera, and so it makes sense that Polaroid enters the fray. Like their previous cameras, this is actually a hybrid digital camera that just happens to have its own printer inside. You'll even be able to re-route photos from your phone/camera through it for on-the-go party favors. We'll have to wait a year for the return of the 3x4" Polaroid, but I'll be the first to say: it's gonna be awesome.
Launching in late 2017, at polaroid.com
Roger Kisby9/13Smartypans Smart Pan
We know, we know: most kitchen gadgets are overkill, and the Smartypans isn't much of an exception. It is, however, really fun. The pan has a built-in temperature tracker and weight scale, with recipes that you can follow along with on an accompanying app. As an added benefit, it's easier than ever to track the calories of your homemade meals. The whole thing is dishwasher safe, and you can even pop off the inner pan and use it for baking.
$229, available for pre-order at smartypans.co
Roger Kisby10/13Anova Precision Oven
Anova makes one of our favorite budget-friendly sous-vide cookers, and the Precision Oven is next level. It's more like a device you'd find in a high-end kitchen, capable of steam cooking, searing, and convection baking. You can even sync it up with one of their Precision Cookers, meaning that you'll finally experience the nirvana of every dish finishing at the same time.
Learn more at anovaculinary.com
Roger Kisby11/13Panasonic Lumix GH5 Camera
The Panasonic GH4 was a kind-of-budget filmmaker's favorite, and they've upped the game yet again with the GH5. It's not the cheapest option, but if you're looking to ramp up past smartphone quality, it's Go Big or Go Home. It can handle any photo or video jobs that the average guy will throw at it, and it's in-camera stabilization protects any amateur shake.
See more at panasonic.com
Roger Kisby12/13Qardio Blood Pressure Tester
A gadget that takes your blood pressure doesn't exactly scream "sexy," but the Qardioarm sure makes it easier to do a really boring task—one of the few new "smart" devices that actually benefits from being connected to your phone. Their app tracks the information with a bunch of easy-to-read graphs, and can even send the info right over to your doctor. This is the future, baby.
$84, at getqardio.com
Roger Kisby13/13Sony Short Throw Projector
With most tech at CES, you’re seeing something you could have in your home in months, even weeks—actually, you see a lot of shit that’s been out for four months already. This Sony projector isn’t budget-friendly, but it displays a jaw-dropping 4k 100” screen from six inches away. Everyone kept walking in front of the screen they had as a demo, but they didn't cast a shadow. It felt like magic. In the future, your TV doesn’t have to be your living room’s centerpiece, and that’s a relief.
Available “soon,” at sony.com
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