This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is lining up to be an excellent year despite the lower number of attendees. CES 2022 featured hundreds of announcements in almost every sector of the consumer electronics industry.
This year, smartphones, laptops, computers, and wearables were in the spotlight with the most attention. That’s because the manufacturers are overhauling the current design trends with fantastic new aesthetics to complement their latest creations. The integration of new and exciting features wherever possible made major improvements across the board.
We cherry-picked only the sublime to save you time going through hundreds of products. We compiled these ‘best in show’ devices from each class. That way you’ll get a glimpse of what the future may have in store. That way, you’ll know what you can buy from stores later this year!
Computing, SmartPhones, and Wearables: An Introduction to the Marketspace
This year is lining up to be an excellent year for consumer products. Let’s take a deep dive into these market sectors, starting with computing and processors!
The Battle of Chipmakers: Intel vs AMD
Some of the biggest news from CES 2022 came from the biggest chip manufacturers, Intel and AMD. Both Intel and AMD power most computers, smartphones, and other electronics globally and both of these giants had many announcements at the event.
Intel
Intel used CES as a platform to further enhance its position as the global leader in the computer processor manufacturing sector. The company announced its 12th Generation Alder Lake mobile processors. These new chipsets from Intel use its new proprietary performance hybrid architecture. The company announced 8 new, technologically-advanced chipsets in the lineup that support better processing, graphics performance, and multi-tasking. Intel’s all-new 12th Gen mobile processors are powered by up to 14 cores, which allows up to 20 threads to multi-task simultaneously.
AMD
AMD’s announcements focused on enhanced gaming, better battery life, thinner form factor, and improved performance. The company teased its next Generation Zen 4 desktop processor that incorporates its new 3D Stacking technology’s dual caches. It introduced the Radeon RX 6000S series of mobile GPUs for laptops. AMD also announced Risen 6000 and Risen 6000 Pro mobile CPUs based on an updated 6nm Zen 3 Plus architecture with newer GPUs.
Now that we’ve looked at the heart of computing, let’s now delve into the wider computing realm to see what the future may look like!
Computing
On top of the chipmakers’ battle, we witnessed a long list of gaming and multi-purpose laptops announced at CES 2022. Almost every major laptop manufacturer like Dell, Asus, Razer, and more announced their top-of-the-line offerings at the event. Computers are becoming much more powerful with their specifications, powerful innards, and computing abilities, but some of these companies are defying the rules. They showcased devices with unconventional futuristic features at this year’s CES. We believe the top picks below can disrupt the existing computing market and potentially revamp the way we use our traditional PCs or laptops.
Razer: Project Sophia
Razer’s Project Sophia looks like a futuristic computing machine straight out of a sci-fi movie. Boasted to be the world’s first modular gaming desk concept, Project Sophia comes with a slim chassis that magnetically snaps in underneath a glass tabletop. It’s a desk with embedded modular components that allow users to swap parts and modules. Users will be able to change the displays, USB hubs, wireless chargers, and other input peripherals on the Project Sophia. That said, this fancy tech is a concept for now and might not be available for the audience any time soon.
Asus: Zenbook 17 Fold OLED
Asus had a bunch of announcements at CES 2022, and the Zenbook 17 Fold was one of the company’s most innovative offerings. As the name suggests, the laptop comes with a foldable screen and an on-screen keyboard. When you unfold it, it’s essentially a massive 17.3-inch tablet. You also can fold into an L shape to use as a laptop.
A 12th Gen Intel Core i7 processor powers the device, paired with 16GB of onboard memory and 1TB storage. The device comes with multiple ports and runs Windows 11 out-of-the-box. You can also pair it with Asus’ ErgoSense Bluetooth keyboard and touchpad. That said, the Zenbook 17 Fold’s unique selling aspect is its ability to be used as a tablet or a laptop with connected peripherals. The Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED will be available for users starting Q2 2022.
Dell: Alienware X14
Dell announced the all-new Alienware X14, which is a rather slim, compact, and stylish gaming laptop. X14 sports a Full HD 144Hz display, and it’s powered by Intel Core i7-12900H processor under the hood. We expect the sales and shipment of this laptop to begin in the coming months and start at $1,799.
Lenovo: ThinkBook Plus Gen 3
The ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 is a very creative offering that comes with an ultra-wide 21:10 aspect ratio screen. The device also comes with a secondary 8-inch display to the side of the keyboard, which can be used as a tablet to browse apps, take notes, or draw with a stylus. The laptop sports a 17.3-inch IPS display with a resolution of 3072x1440p with a refresh rate of 120Hz. Under the hood, the device is powered by up to 12th Gen Intel Alder Lake processors paired with up to 32GB of RAM. The secondary display on this laptop can make it a great value choice for someone who’s in graphic design, animation, arts, or editing. This laptop basically brings the convenience of dual monitors with the comfort of a single, portable device. Lenovo has yet to disclose the pricing and availability of this laptop.
CES 2022 Smartphone Announcements
Needless to say, smartphones are getting better day by day. The evolution of smartphones has been running at an unprecedented pace. From multiple camera sensors to foldable phones, we’re witnessing technological marvels in the smartphones we use daily. Here are our top smartphone picks from the CES 2022.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE
After many rumors and speculation from fans, Samsung finally announced the Galaxy S21 FE (fan edition) at the CES 2022 event. Its specifications met all the expectations, and it’s offered at an attractive starting price point of $699. This new device comes with a clean and reminiscent design following the footprints of the standard Galaxy S21, looking almost exactly like its S21 brother (except for the uniform color versus the S21’s two-tone scheme).
Galaxy S21 FE is also a budget-friendly offering if you want to experience flagship features without paying a hefty price tag. The device sports a 120Hz 6.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED display and an Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 mobile chipset. That’s one of the fastest in the segment and also powers the Galaxy S21. The Galaxy S21 FE has up to 8GB of memory paired with up to 256GB of storage options. The device’s imaging system is a triple camera setup consisting of 12MP wide, 12MP ultra-wide, and 8MP telephoto sensors. The device also consists of a 32MP front-facing camera and comes with 4 years of assured OS updates.
OnePlus 10 Pro
The OnePlus 10 Pro wasn’t technically announced at CES 2022, but the device is now official and on sale in China. That said, it’s only a matter of time before we can expect the phone to be available in the U.S and other parts of the world. The device offers a 6.7-inch LTPO2 AMOLED adaptive display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4nm) chipset paired with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage.
It also comes with a powerful triple camera setup consisting of 48MP wide, 8MP telephoto, and 50MP ultra-wide sensors. It also packs in a 2nd-Gen Hasselblad camera supporting up to one billion colors. The OnePlus 10 Pro comes with a 5,000mAh super-fast charging battery.
The availability and pricing of the device aren’t announced yet for the U.S and global markets. Still, we can expect the device to launch with a starting price of $1000-$1200, considering its price in China. The OnePlus 10 Pro has top-of-the-line flagship specs that allow it to go against the other global flagships like the iPhone 13 Pro and the Galaxy S21.
Apart from these previous handsets, several other renowned manufacturers like Nokia, T-Mobile, and TCL launched a bunch of powerful yet budget-friendly 5G compatible handsets at CES 2022.
Wearables
Smart wearables are now a part of our everyday lives. They help us track our sleep and fitness and assist us in being productive. That’s why these modern marvels fare well in the tech market. CES has always been a global stage for the unveiling of smart wearables, and this year was no different. Here are all the top wearables from the CES 2022 event we’ve selected based on their features, innovation, and design.
Garmin
Garmin has been consistently launching its lineup of smart wearables every year, especially smartwatches. It has also become one of the leading Android OS-powered smartwatch makers in the world, offering their products at different price ranges. At this year’s CES, the company announced their all-new Garmin Venu 2 Plus and Garmin Vivomovo Sport, starting at $450 and $180 respectively. The Venu 2 Plus sports a 1.3-inch AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It supports voice calls and voice assistant features using the built-in speaker and microphone.
The Vivomove Sport blends a smartwatch’s features and flexibility with the versatility of a traditional wristwatch with real ticking hands on top of the touchscreen. Both these smartwatches offer fitness and health tracking features including steps, daily calorie count, active calories, distance traveled, heart rate, stress data, and more.
Movano Smart Ring
Movano has announced a very elegant-looking smart ring for women available in different styles and colors, including black, copper, gold, and silver. This is the only smart ring announcement at the event and is the first of its kind to encapsulate smart features in a form-factor of a ring. The ring can track health and fitness metrics like sleep patterns, blood oxygen readings, step count, calorie count, and more. You can connect the ring with your smartphone through Movano’s application to receive all this information.
The company is reportedly working towards getting certification from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which sets it apart from its competitors in the world of smart wearables. We don’t have any official information on pricing and availability of these smart rings yet. That said, the company announced it’s aiming for an aggressive price point under $299.
TCL Smart Glasses
TCL unveiled a couple of new smart glasses called TCL NxtWear Air and TCL Leiniao Air at CES 2022. These models objectively look much better than last year’s model. The NxtWear Air sports a MicroOLED 1080p display embedded in its frame to provide an experience equivalent to watching a 140-inch screen from 4 meters away or similar to being in a movie theater. The device also rocks dual speakers with supported spatial effects. That makes the device’s audio very crisp. These glasses also allow users to connect their own wired or wireless headphones for a more private viewing experience.
TCL Leiniao Air is the first binocular full-color MicroLED holographic optical waveguide AR glasses in the industry. It sports a display engine capable of serving as a heads-up display and includes several applications like showing fitness data while exercising, real-time navigations, and weather forecasts.
TCL hasn’t announced these glasses’ pricing and availability details. That said, it promised to include more features and functionalities in its smart glasses, like multi-screen presentations, interoperability with automobiles, and more. Considering TCL’s usual aggressive pricing and the specifications above, it can be a tough competitor to the already announced RayBan Stories.
On top of these smart wearables, a whole host of smartwatches, fitness trackers, and other accessories from makers like Skagen, Razer, Vuzix, HTC, and others were at the event. We also witnessed a pro version of Razer’s Zephyr mask that comes with an internal microphone and external speaker.
Final Words
At CES 2022, we witnessed foldable laptops, additional displays on computers, modular machines, and more powerful innards. We’ve also seen many 5G enabled smartphones in all the price segments announced. Finally, smart wearables are getting smarter, more stylish, and aesthetic in terms of look and design. We’ll publish another story to cover other notable mentions in the consumer electronic segment. Stay tuned!
FAQ
What is 3D Stacking technology?
Traditional integrated circuits were 2D in their layout. For example, a processor die created in two dimensions through a lithography process. 3D stacking technology originated in the development of faster and denser SSD memory modules. Essentially, vertical connectors stacked and interconnected multiple 2D dies. This allowed storage to become more dense and performance with lower latencies. A similar stacking process is now serving the same function reason in other hardware components, like processors. This technology is relatively new and being rolled out in stages as manufacturing techniques are developed to accommodate this technology.
What are modular components in computers?
Computers are designed with hardware components that can be replaced or upgraded without having to throw out the entire system. This has been achieved through both de-facto industrial standards including hardware connectors and protocols such as non-volatile memory (NVM).
What is the latest smartphone processing core?
Smartphone processors are continually improving. At present, you can expect to find quad, hexa, or even octa core mobile processors in a smartphone. The processors used will vary between phone manufacturers with companies such as Apple having the A15 processor in their latest iPhone SE 2022. These are 6 core processors with a 7nm architecture. For Android devices, the Snapdragon 888 processor is one of the latest processors used. It comes in 1, 3, and 4 core flavors. These have a 5nm architecture.
What are the latest hardware features being integrated into mobile phones?
At present, AI is being used for data processing in more mobile platforms and connected to cloud servers. As such, dedicated AI processing technology is being integrated in CPUs directly, or as dedicated chips. This helps process much of the data without needing a cloud connection or big data transfers between platforms. Companies like Google and Apple will be rolling these out at some point this year.
Has the recent chip shortages impacted unit prices for devices?
The price has increased due to supply-shock, resulting from the lack of specialist facilities to make chips at the nanoscale. It’s not the facility, but more so having experienced lithographers that can ‘dial equipement in’ to achieve nanolevel etching to make the chips. This challenge impacted all technology sectors, making chips scarce and much sought after.
Resources
CES
Access additional information on CES and the latest consumer product innovations here.
TechGenix’s Website
Get the latest news in the consumer electronics space from TechGenix’s website here!
Choosing the right PC Chipset
Understand what you need to consider before buying your new PC chipset from this post.
5G network
Get to know what 5G-enabled smartphones can offer you and how they’re better than 4G-enabled devices here.
