Inside-Out Phones, Folding TVs: Behold The Eye-Popping Tech of CES 2024

We got an eyeful of a 137-inch TV that folds and unfolds, here at CES 2024. David Katzmaier/CNET

CES 2024 is full of innovative delights, futuristic concepts, practical products you can preorder or buy today and some of the strangest tech to stumble across our paths. Here in Las Vegas at the world’s largest technology show, we’re scouring the show floor for the best, most cutting-edge tech set to change our lives.

As we expected, AI is everywhere at CES this year, especially in the form of ChatGPT and similar generative AI chatbots. We’re also seeing plenty of TVs, phone goodies, new car tech, gaming gear and robots — there’s even a robot for your dog.

Here’s what’s captivating us, and here are the biggest tech trends at CES this year. We’ll bring you more news on the best tech highlights as we come across them this week in Las Vegas.

AR/VR glasses that fit in one room

John Kim/CNET

Apple may have stolen the show in absentia announcing that the Vision Pro would be available next month, but the headset is still insanely expensive at $3,500. While it’s yet to be seen whether AR/VR technology will take off, there are plenty of cheaper alternatives, including the intriguing-looking Xreal Air 2 Ultra ($699). The Xreal is a lot more compact than the Apple behemoth, the price is relatively competitive and CNET’s Lisa Eadiciccio was impressed by its image quality. However, she says the headset still needs to be tethered to another device, and it’ll need third-party developers if it’s to have a chance against Apple or even Google.

A portable, add-on OLED display that folds

Asus

Secondary displays are a productivity godsend, enabling the kind of multitasking that isn’t possible even with the widest monitors. While portable solutions are available, the best solutions tend to be tethered to your desk. Maker Asus says the ZenScreen Fold OLED MQ17QH is the first portable OLED display — and as the name suggests, it also folds! With the superior image quality of OLED, this 17.3-incher should be great for on-the-go movies or gaming, when it hits later in 2024.

Hitch a ride on a flying EV taxi

The electric air taxi flies closer to reality with the debut of the Supernal S-A2. Antuan Goodwin/CNET

Banish thoughts of flying cars from your mind. Banish them! The Hyundai Supernal S-A2 is more of a helicopter replacement, only this one comes without the noise or running costs. The S-A2 is a VTOL design and, as every Marvel and Call of Duty fan knows, it means the vehicle can take off vertically without a runway — just like a helicopter. As an electric vehicle the S-A2 is designed for short trips — say from downtown to the airport — and the company says that its modular design means it can be easily upgraded with future battery technologies. You may not see one in your backyard or even at your local airport, but the Supernal S-A2 is potentially the start of a new era for sustainable air travel.

The future is electric

Honda promises that the Saloon will match “the joy of driving” with steer-by-wire technology. Honda

As we get closer to a single standard for EV charging, the future of electric vehicles is bright. CES being what it is, there have been phalanxes of future cars on show with hidden gizmos and plenty of LED bling. At its press conference, for example, Sony demonstrated a Honda vehicle that could be steered with a Dual Sense controller (why?), while LG’s concept car has gone the “board room on wheels” route — with a driverless front seat and rotating chairs!

The most impressive, and most-likely concept to appear in our opinion, was Honda’s own 0 series EV range. While the van had an aircraft-like steering wheel the sedan had intriguing “steer-by-wire” controls. Both vehicles boasted cool LED grilles highlighting the new “floating H” logo.

Foldable phones? How about a foldable TV?

The C Seed N1, unfolded. David Katzmaier/CNET

What to do with a TV when it’s not being used? You could make it see-through (more on that below) or, if you happen to have a couple hundred thousand dollars lying around, maybe you opt for a foldable TV like the 137-inch C Seed N1 showed off at CES 2024.

The custom-built N1 features a stunning, bright, seamless picture, and its screen can rotate 180 degrees to face different directions. Divisions between the different sections of the screen were invisible. But when not in use, the N1 folds up into a compact rectangular chunk in about two and a half minutes with the touch of a button, forming something that looks more like a metal bench than a large expensive TV.

Oh, and it costs $200,000 for the 137-incher, but hey, that includes installation and setup.

Futuristic CES 2024 Tech Concepts We Can Hardly Wait For

CES 2024 is a candy-colored box of goodies. While you can certainly buy some of the wares at the show, some of the most intriguing tech concepts trumpeted at CES are visions of the future we wish were already real. (Others were straight-up wacky.) Here’s what’s sparking our imagination.

A Finnish startup created some impressive software, called Doublepoint, that turns your smartwatch running Android’s WatchOS into a kind of remote control you can wear on your wrist.It makes your watch a general-purpose controller for any device via a Bluetooth connection. You may be able to dim your lights, scroll Netflix or do any number of other things.

Hisense doesn’t make cars, but the company is demonstrating its laser TV in-car technology at CES. CNET’s David Katzmaier calls it “basically a drive-in movie theater built into your car.” There’s a laser projector right on the front bumper — you could project a movie straight from your car onto a flat surface, like your garage door. Inside the car, you can turn the windshield into an information hub, allowing drivers to simultaneously observe virtual images and the real environment.

Transparent OLED and even LCD-based screens have been around for a while, but Samsung says its micro-LED display technology produces brighter, clearer images and is more transparent than the going tech. That means you should be able to see through it more easily to objects on the other side. One intriguing use: One day, you could be in a luxury box at an athletic event or concert looking through this transparent micro-LED glass. Scores, replays and highlights could appear on the “windows” and augment the experience of the game without obscuring it. (You’re still on your own for getting those luxury box tickets, however.)

Samsung’s Flex In & Out Flip concept is like a Galaxy Z Flip you can fold in both directions. Unlike the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and other flip phones you can buy today, it folds completely backward so that you use the phone’s 6.7-inch screen even when the device is shut.

If you’ve ever wanted to sync up The Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, the LG DukeBox might be just the device for you. It’s a 360-degree speaker with a transparent OLED panel at the front to show off the tube amplifier inside. LG says the screen can be used to watch movies or “create a cozy fireplace ambiance where the vacuum tube is visible amidst the flickering flames.”

LG has a car? It’s just a concept for now, but this futuristic beauty features completely autonomous driving, seats that turn completely around, and of course, plenty of screens. It also works with LG’s smart home system, and there’s a video game system and concierge station that holds a wine bottle. AR displays give you information on businesses you’re passing as the car drives you around.

This car displays Samsung’s flexible rollable OLED display technology. These screens offer small, unobtrusive displays when you’re driving, but when you need to charge your electric vehicle, you can fold out the screen to a larger size for movie watching or playing games. It folds right back up to the size of a chunky highlighter when you’re done.

Think you know what solar panels look like? Think again. This crystal isn’t just an art object but a solar panel capable of turning sunlight energy into power. Extra points for not looking like a giant, unsightly black box.

Razer shows off its new Sensa HD Haptics technology with a concept for a gaming chair cushion. Project Esther, an add-on cushion unveiled at CES, is the first demonstration Razer has offered held of the new technology, which comes via its acquisition of Interhaptics in 2022. It straps on to a chair and creates sensations to let you feel as if you’re really experiencing the game you’re playing.

Panasonic has a plan to one day turn walls and windows into solar energy. The new solar technology, perovskite, uses different materials than traditional silicon solar panels. The fact that the materials are printed onto walls and windows means Panasonic can manufacture components at much lower temperatures — which saves energy — and the solar cells themselves have the potential to one day capture as much energy as traditional solar panels, if not more.

Honda gave CES attendees their first peek at its next generation of battery electric cars, the Honda 0 (pronounced “zero”) series, expected to launch in the US in 2026. Shown here is the sharply styled 0 Series Saloon, the flagship model.It will be joined by the more upright and van-shaped Honda 0 Space-Hub, featuring a transparent canopy and center-facing bench seats.

Steam Deck has a new challenger

MSI’s new game handheld runs Windows but has Intel inside. MSI

After years of near misses such as the Steam Machine, the Steam Deck was an unexpected success for Valve, and the console is the current standard for mobile PC gaming. While the competing Asus ROG Ally looked cool, using Windows on it was apparently pretty clunky. Now that situation might change with the help of Intel — the company has a lot of experience making Windows machines. MSI’s Claw handheld obviously owes a debt to the Steam Deck, but it has Intel’s new Meteor Lake chips onboard instead of AMD chips. CNET’s Scott Stein says this development means more manufacturers will have the opportunity to design their own Steam Deck-alikes that can also run Windows.

What’s old is new

Clicks

If you consider yourself an old-school smartphone user, you may yearn for the physical keyboards that used to be a mainstay of the phones of yesteryear. The iPhone’s on-screen keyboard ushered out the full physical keyboards that were popular on BlackBerry devices.

The Clicks keyboard, from Clicks Technology, will transform your iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, adding a keyboard that’s actually integrated into a wraparound case. This $139 wraparound slides onto your device and runs off the phone’s battery, so no charging required. Be sure to check out our hands-on review.

This phone bends over backward for you

Lisa Eadicicco/CNET

As phones with screens that fold in half get more consumer attention, Samsung appears to be poised to flip the market again. The electronics giant showcased a concept handset at CES 2024 called the Flex In & Out Flip that can fold in both directions and completely backward, allowing you to use the phone’s 6.7-inch screen even when the device is shut.

When bent backward, one side is slightly shorter than the other, to avoid covering the camera, while the larger side was big enough to show several icons in the phone’s quick settings menu, media playback controls and the time and battery level. Although the handset is only a concept design right now, CNET’s Lisa Eadicicco points out that it might offer a hint at the future of devices that roll, flex, bend, fold and otherwise contort to adapt tech to our unique needs.

Get to work with this gaming laptop

Josh Goldman/CNET

More and more, we’re asking our laptops to do double duty. In addition to strong gaming performance, we want to be able to use these thinner, lightweight devices for work or school. The HP Omen Transcend 14, which made its debut at CES 2024, is light enough for a daily commute but sports a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display with a 48-120Hz variable refresh rate backed up by an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070.

The 14-inch laptop weighs only 3.6 pounds (1.6 kilograms) — light for a gaming laptop and has battery life good for up to 11.5 hours with the integrated graphics and an Eco mode. The new 14-inch size starts at $1,500. A 16-inch version will also be available with the option for a 4K 240Hz OLED starting at $1,900.

This thermometer also checks your heart and lungs

Withings

If you ever wanted to hold up a single device to your head for a quick health checkup, the Beamo might be just what the doctor ordered. The BeamO, which looks like a game stick, is a four-in-one thermometer, electrocardiogram, oximeter and stethoscope made by Withings and it was unveiled this week at CES 2024. Depending on where on your body you “beam it,” the device can give you clues about your health.

The device, which Withings describes as being “portable and smaller than a smartphone,” combines the simplicity of taking your temperature at home with some of the wellness metrics newer-grade wearables and smartwatches carry, like blood oxygen and heart rate readings, as well as chest sounds when used as a “digital stethoscope.”

Following expected clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration this June, you can get one for $250.

Forget a projector, get a huge TCL instead

The TCL 115QM891G is a 115-inch TV that’s 8.5 feet wide and around 6 feet tall on its stand. David Katzmaier/CNET

CNET’s projector reviewer Geoff Morrison has been extolling the benefits of projectors for many years, but even he has come around to technologies like OLED and Mini-LED of late. What would he think of the new TCL 115QM891G? This is a 115-inch 4K LCD TV that’s up to five times brighter than most TVs, and with better blacks too, according to TV reviewer David Katzmaier.

As TV reviewers ourselves we’ve seen large TVs, but in the old days they were stuck at HD. The pixels on Panasonic’s 103-inch 1080p, for instance, were huge and easily noticeable. This is why 4K technology is so great — it means you can install a TV as big as a wall, and not see black lines between the pixels. The TCL is also going to be a lot cheaper than that $100,000 Panasonic too, at under $20,000.

Stained glass gets a new lease on lifelong power 

Think you know what solar panels look like? This thing is capturing the energy of light. Jon Reed/CNET

Solar panels are great — they produce electricity from one of the most abundant resources we have, and they pay for themselves in quick order — but no one has ever called them pretty. Fear not! Japanese company inQs has worked out a way to make solar cells out of colored glass. The company is exhibiting a number of objects at CES 2024, including a stained glass pane that generates electricity. The devices are small, and one was able to power only a desk fan, but we like how they point to a rethink of how solar panels should look and work.

Disguising weird-looking things has been a perpetual trend at CES, as with LG’s ArtCool air conditioners. And this year the Samsung Music Frame lets you put art inside a smart speaker.

Hey, Ida, which is better: Alexa or Siri?

Antuan Goodwin/CNET

AI is already everywhere here at CES 2024 — and adding to the list of products it’ll be appearing in is cars. Volkswagen has announced a deal with ChatGPT that enables users to ask all sorts of questions of their car, in the same way they would of a traditional digital assistant. At the moment, VW’s voice assistant lets users say, “Hey, Ida,” to ask a question about something basic, like requesting tire pressure. But the automaker’s cars are incapable of answering more advanced questions like, “When did the New York Jets last win the Super Bowl?” Under the new deal, if the car’s assistant can’t answer the question, it’ll hand off the query to ChatGPT. (Yes, the Jets did win one. But it was a very, very long time ago.)

It’s worth noting that competitors like Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri have been completing these queries natively for many years, so teaming with ChatGPT is an easier way for VW’s Ida to catch up.

Must-see-through TV

This transparent display, currently showing fish, can transform into a 77-inch TV. Tara Brown/CNET

TVs are getting bigger every year, which means there’s a bigger slab of black plastic taking up a significant portion of the living room wall when it’s not in use. But what if we could make it disappear, without actually pulling it off the wall?

LG has apparently done just that with a transparent OLED screen that converts from a “fish tank” to a 77-inch television (pictured above). Unlike Samsung’s competing technology this will apparently be a real product, shipping later in 2024.

Meanwhile Samsung is showing off the first transparent version of its Micro-LED display tech at CES 2024. While transparent OLED and even LCD-based screens have been around for a while, Samsung says its Micro-LED display technology produces brighter, clearer images and is more transparent than the current tech. But Samsung says its transparent Micro-LED tech isn’t available in the market, so what Katzmaier saw (or didn’t see?) is essentially a concept.

A 2-minute ice cream maker

We scream for ice cream. David Watsky//CNET

Coming soon to a restaurant near you: freshly made ice cream, ready from start to finish in just 2 minutes.

We’ve loved trying the vanilla ice cream churned out by the speedy ColdSnap — first in 2021 and then again this year. We’re still a year away from being able to buy one of these innovative ice cream makers for our homes, but the company came to CES this year with the news that its restaurant partners will have hold of the machines much sooner.

The countertop ice cream maker uses Keurig-like pods to make a bowl of the cold stuff in less than 2 minutes. The finished result has a gelato-like consistency that had us coming back for more every time we passed the ColdSnap booth.

Robot stain fighter

Samsung is set to unveil its Bespoke Jet Bot Combo this week at CES in Las Vegas. Samsung/CNET

Here’s a product sure to clean up — literally. Samsung’s new Bespoke Jet Bot Combo, a smart robot vacuum with a mop, does more than just get rid of dust bunnies and dog hair. It’s designed to roam your rooms scouting for stains on hard flooring and scrub them out so you don’t have to.

The robot taps AI-powered object recognition to identify stains on hard flooring. Yes, it can tell the difference between the surfaces, presumably making adjustments to its cleaning technique accordingly. You can also tell this likely $1,000-plus household helper where it can and can’t go as it attacks stains as bad as a puppy piddle or a zinfandel spill with a spinning mop that hits 170 rpm. (Pricing details aren’t yet available.)

Teeth tech

Oclean

AI isn’t just helping keep your floors clean, it’s also being used to make sure your teeth are as clean as they can be. The Oclean X Ultra Wi-Fi Digital Toothbrush features an algorithm-controlled motor, five brush modes tailored to specific needs, an interactive touchscreen that shows you areas you missed and, brilliantly/weirdly, an AI voice guide that speaks into your brain via bone conduction to help you improve your technique.

It also features Wi-Fi connectivity so you can pair it with your home network, and it will store information about your brushing history until you can download it to your app. It also offers 40 days of battery life through wireless charging. It will go on sale in the US in the fall for $130.

It’s all in the wristwatch remote

What if your smartwatch could also control your lamps, your Netflix programs and more?? Nick Wolny/CNET

Imagine using your wrist to control everything around you. A flick this way, and you can turn off the lights or scroll through the offerings on Netflix. Finnish startup Doublepoint has developed software that can turn an Android watch into a general-purpose controller for any device via a Bluetooth connection.

The software will come to developers in the first half of this year, but it’s up to developers and app-makers to decide what a small gesture, such as tapping fingers or rotating your wrist, will actually do.

Steven Musil, Sareena Dayaram, Katie Collins and Ty Pendlebury contributed to this article.