Consumer Electronic Show - 2016

Consumer Electronic Show - 2016

We've known the dates of CES 2016 (January 6- 9) for some time now, and of course the casino-ladden town of Las Vegas will once again play the role of welcoming host.


Yes, yes, we're way ahead of the curve when it comes to speculating about CES 2016, but things move fast in the world of tech.


 It typically takes a long while before we see products announced at CES make it to store shelves, but it's never too soon to start sniffing out the goods when it comes to trends and the next hot piece of tech..

 We've decided to start early on our CES snooping to make sure you're up-to-date on the latest phones, tablets, TVs, wearables, and of course, virtual reality news.

Mobile 

           

CES 2015 saw the release of the LG G Flex 2 , which made huge waves during the show. That's partly also due to the fact that LG was the only large company to release a new flagship device. It's possible LG may pull the stunt again to grab bragging rights for having the best mobile phone come outta Vegas.

           
            There was a dearth of tablets at CES as well. Dell had it's Venue 8 7000 on hand but it didn't make any huge splashes. That didn't stop us from loving the heck out of the surprisingly thin-bezeled beauty despite its price.

            
            The Lenovo's Yoga Tablet 2 with AnyPen was also another tab from the show, but mostly notable for its gimmicky fork-on-screen demo. Lenovo seems to be a company we can rely on to show off a new consumer device every year, so it's a safe bet another Lenovo tablet will pop up.

Other possible phones and tablets for next year? Maybe the Samsung Galaxy S7 or the Galaxy Note 5, though that's not very likely considering the Galaxy S6 debuted at MWC. Samsung also loves pushing out tablets, so we could see some new additions to its slate line next year.

Winning Wearables

Just like virtual reality, wearables have certainly taken off. We've seen the Apple Watch bring high-end smartwatches to the masses, and sensor packed fitness trackers like the Microsoft Band.

Once thought to be vaporware, it seems like smartwatches and fitness trackers are here to stay. In fact, there's a whole, giant area at the Venetian now dedicated to wearables and fashion-oriented tech. So what could next year possibly bring?

Why more wearables, of course, and they'll all be better...we hope. The Pebble Steel was revealed when? and then the Pebble Time shortly afterwards, so it seems like Pebble likes the annual tech-fest for announcing its new smartwatches.

With Apple Watch out in 2015, Samsung could potentially pull out the big guns at CES, surprising everyone with a new entry like the Orbis - rumored smartwatch that could potentially have a camera, object, image and barcode recognition, health monitoring smarts, the ability to act as a key for your car and a remote for your TV and a round face with a rotating bezel used to navigate the interface.

LG also sneakily showed off its Watch Urbane before CES even started during Audi's press conference, so it's possible we could see more smartwatches make ninja appearances.

Reality check

Virtual and augmented reality seem to be inching ever closer to the mainstream side of things. With theMicrosoft HoloLens cementing AR in everyone's minds, and Valve blowing away the VR competition with the HTC Vive, expect CES 2016 to have plenty of both kinds of reality.

Of course, with new realms of tech, or in this case a resurgence of tech, comes peripherals. Sony'sProject Morpheus is already conveniently bundled with its own set of hand-tracking devices thanks to the Move controllers, but the Oculus Rift seems to be a standalone headset right now.

That could change by the end of this year as Oculus plans on releasing its head mounted display before the next round in Vegas. Could we see the likes of Leap Motion and Real Sense paired with the Oculus? Third-party developers have already taken the peripherals to create more interactive experiences.

Samsung should have more to show off in terms of the updated Gear VR. Revealed at MWC alongside the Galaxy S6, the newer version of the mobile VR headset uses the latest S6 as opposed to the Galaxy Note 4. Still deemed an Innovator's Edition, the Gear VR 2 could be ready by January considering Oculus CTO John Carmack stated the newest model would release when Samsung unveils its next round of flagship products. Perfect timing, right?

CES hearts TVs

TVs are a given when it comes to CES. Just about all the big names try to outdo one another with the latest and greatest in television innovation. 

How can we forget the LG 77eg9900 4K Flexible OLED TV? It was bold, it was big and it was expensive (all very typical of Sin City). And it's still not out yet.

Previous years also made a big fuss over curved and folding displays and the perennial favorite 4K. 2015 was all about Quantum Dots, like the LG UF9400, and weird acronyms à la Samsung's JS9500 SUHD 4K TV. It won't be surprising to see more bendy sets in 2016, and probably at a lower price. 

While we can expect some next-level hardware innovations, perhaps CES 2016 will be the time for TV services and streaming boxes to shine. We've already seen a plethora of streaming services and set-tops both at CES and throughout the year - Sling TV, Amazon Fire TV, Razer Forge TV, Nvidia Shield, and HBO Now, just to name a few. The popularity of the Google's Chromecast has brought a deluge of new streaming sticks, too. 

Sony is stepping into streaming with its own in-house developed service, PlayStation Vue which just arrived on the PS3 and PS4. The Xbox One also now has Sling TV. 

Could the next CES see even more from the players not already in the game? If they don't show up this later this year, then 2016 is where we'll see them.

Light as a feather laptops

Laptops also show up to CES in droves. 2015 saw the debut of a beautiful entry from Dell - an updated Dell XPS 13. It seems like the company is headed in a bright direction by moving towards nearly bezel-less screens, and excellent design all around - which is something we're expecting to see again on the show floor. We're also pretty excited to see the new crop, which is something you don't normally hear about Dell these days.

Lenovo's LaVie Z was also a hit earlier this year because it weighed practically nothing, and claimed to be the "world's lightest laptop." We were impressed, but not completely because of it's meager battery life and price. Still, at 1.72 lbs it's lighter than the new MacBook, which comes in a 2 lbs.

Speaking of the new Apple laptop, the buzz over one USB-C port is sure to reset the market in some way. There may be new portable PCs making debuts with fewer ports - maybe even none just to show up Cupertino. Or maybe not. Whatever the case, thin is in more than ever and it will be a race to win against the other lightweights.

                           
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