CES 2022 Day 5 live news and analysis - Samsung, BMW, LG, Picoo, Alienware and more

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    • Jan 2015
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    CES 2022 Day 5 live news and analysis - Samsung, BMW, LG, Picoo, Alienware and more

    [IMG alt=“A wider banner with an altered Vegas sign in the middle, with silhouettes of assorted tech floating around”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6T...vrYRNvGjN3.jpg

    (Image credit: TechRadar)

    Right, we’ve made it: it’s the last day of CES 2022, and we’ve seen some pretty incredible things appear in the last few days - from color-changing BMWs to foldable laptops from Asus to Samsung using Wi-Fi to power remotes.

    We’ve not seen the things we wanted to see from brands like Garmin (where’s the Fenix 7, huh?) and Samsung has been quieter than we thought when it comes to game-changing TVs… they’re good, but not quite pushing the barriers that have been broken in recent years.

    That said, we’ve seen massive TVs with Roku onboard, the smallest commercial OLED TV from LG (which is actually a big deal) and a lot inbetween - HiSense making improved ULED displays doesn’t sound like much, but it’s actually the kind of thing many of us will be buying come Black Friday at the end of the year.

    And let’s not forget the ‘I never saw this coming’ popular hits - the new Picoo game for kids is a ‘console without a screen’, although it really is more like a game of tag with PlayStation Move controllers. Methinks I’ll need to crash a kids birthday party to find out if this is going to be popular…

    [HEADING=2]The big announcements[/HEADING]
    [ul]
    [li]BMW has made a color-changing car… yes, really[/li][li]Invisible headphones are as cool and crazy as they sound[/li][li]Oura might be the biggest name in smart rings, but it’s got competition[/li][li]PlayStation VR2 is official, accompanied by new PSVR 2 Sense controller[/li][li]This smart dog collar is one of the coolest things we’ve seen yet[/li][li]This GoPro for cyclists combines a smart tail light with lasers[/li][li]These noise-cancelling headphones rival the Sony WH-1000XM4[/li][li]Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is official, and now we know how much it’ll cost[/li][li]Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX is a solar cell-clad EV with huge range [/li][li]Sony announces the first (and currently only) QD-OLED TV of CES 2022[/li][li]Samsung’s 2022 QLED TV lineup offers near pixel-perfect contrast[/li][li]New Panasonic 4K OLED ditches front-firing speakers for something better[/li][li]Sony’s making its own EV, with a PlayStation inside[/li][/ul]
    [HEADING=2]CES 2022: Analysis and insight[/HEADING]
    [ul]
    [li]Exclusive: How Samsung is rethinking the gadgets in your kitchen[/li][li]Seven Garmin watches missing from CES 2022 (including the Fenix 7)[/li][li]Canon’s CES 2022 launches are ambitious shots at reinventing cameras[/li][li]Forget the 48-inch OLED TV – the 42-inch LG C2 is the true mid-size winner[/li][li]Sorry Intel, I’m not sold on folding-screen laptops[/li][li]Will the foldable Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED actually be worth buying?[/li][li]Large appliances are now the latest way to give your home’s decor a refresh[/li][/ul]


    [ul]
    [li]Metaverse avatars and finger chewing puppies: the robots of CES 2022[/li][li]The health tech you didn’t realize you needed from CES 2022[/li][li]The best TVs from CES 2022: 8 cutting-edge TVs to keep an eye on[/li][li]The best phones of CES 2022: Galaxy S21 FE, OnePlus 10 Pro and more[/li][li]The best record players of CES 2022 prove vinyl’s still groovy[/li][li]The best wearables of CES 2022: Razer, Garmin and more bring new watches[/li][li]The best cars of CES 2022: color-changing BMW to 1,000km range Mercedes [/li][/ul]
    [HEADING=2]The weird and wonderful[/HEADING]
    [ul]
    [li]SkyDrive air taxi lands at CES 2022 – but no-one’s allowed to fly in it[/li][li]Volvo is putting YouTube in its cars[/li][li]Massage Robotics wants you to come and be touched by a robot [/li][li]CyberPowerPC’s Kinetic gaming PC case actually breathes[/li][li]This Eufy video doorbell helps solve the problem of stolen packages[/li][li]Boston Dynamics once tried to help Sony with AIBO - and a ‘Spot Lite?’[/li][li]LG’s Omnipod self-driving concept is actually an entire world on wheels[/li][li]Oral-B’s new electric toothbrush will stop you going cross-eyed[/li][li]Toss the batteries! Samsung’s new remote uses Wi-Fi to charge[/li][li]TCL’s new tablet for CES 2022 is like a Kindle, but it’s in color[/li]

    [/ul]

    [IMG alt=“Amagami Ham Ham”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/w2...qspZAC6gxS.gif

    (Image credit: Yukai Engineering)

    OK, it’s time for the final push, as CES draws to a close. Sadly for this liveblogger (and happily for you readers) there’s a lot more analysis and insight to come from the TechRadar team, who have been ably finding all the really cool stuff from the show despite not being there.

    One of my favorite things so far, and probably of all time, is the Amagami Ham Ham robot bear, which will nibble your finger like a pet, but without all the bacteria.

    Shut up, you’re weird. Now, onto some highlights from the previous days:

    [ul]
    [li]This adorable stuffed animal robot will nibble on your finger because that’s what we need now[/li][/ul]

    [IMG alt=“a dog resting on a keyboard”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Fr...edRjt7bGWg.jpg

    (Image credit: MarlyneArt/Pixabay)

    Oh man, can you get more CES than a smart dog collar? Smart tech: check. Pet stuff: check. Something like something else but for dogs? Check. This was one of our biggest stories yesterday, and I’m here for it.

    This is Invoxia’s attempt to bring Apple Watch-esque beauty to your pooch, with the ability to track both respiration and heart rate, using GPs and accelerometers as well as AI (another CES trend: check) to allow you to monitor the health of your pooch as well as making sure it doesn’t go missing.

    [ul]
    [li]This smart dog collar is one of the coolest things we’ve seen yet from CES 2022[/li][/ul]

    [IMG alt=“Samsung Eco Remote”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YN...B6hKLjgMH8.jpg

    (Image credit: Samsung)

    It’s funny, the things that, as a child, you think will excite you about being grown up. Late nights, unlimited sugar intake, watching TV all day.

    I still do enjoy doing all of these things, mind you - but what really gets me excited these days are the boring adult things like remote controls.

    Not just any remote controls - specifically, the freshly announced Samsung SolarCell remote - and this was another of day 2’s biggest stories.

    Needing no charging base, the remote uses solar and RF energy harvesting to wirelessly charge, meaning even your end-table lamp can be a part of the process. Wild.

    [ul]
    [li]Toss the batteries, Samsung’s amazing new remote uses your WiFi to charge.[/li][/ul]

    [IMG alt=“the noveto n1”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ju...UYHiYvY4jL.jpg

    (Image credit: Noveto)

    This has been one of our biggest stories over the last three days: headphones that are so invisible that they aren’t even there. CES in a nutshell.

    This Noveto N1 soundbar will track your head in real time, using facial recognition to stay locked onto you. It will then use beam forming, where it directs the sound, to small audio pockets around your ears, meaning only you can hear the sound.

    Is this useful or practical? Probably not - a pair of open-ear headphone could probably achieve the same thing. But it’s incredibly cool, and if it works could well be a cornerstone of future offices - meaning instant ability to chat to colleagues with a ‘secret’ concert going on at the same time.

    [ul]
    [li]Invisible headphones are as cool and crazy as they sound[/li][/ul]

    [IMG alt=“BMW iX Flow transitioning from white to black”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4H...iLPsWQRh4S.gif

    (Image credit: BMW)

    [IMG alt=“Movano Smart Ring”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/5h...aZcP8bQAXM.jpg

    (Image credit: Movano)

    This came in late yesterday, so it’s definitely worth checking out again - the wearables of CES are rounded up here.

    In fairness, it’s basically just two re-imagined Fossil Gen 6 smartwatches, a couple of new nuggets from Garmin and smart rings.

    That doesn’t paint the whole picture, in fairness - by not being at the event in person, we weren’t able to dredge the fitness pavillion, for instance, and find the cool things that smaller brands are coming up with. There could be smart fitness bands, or advanced face masks that won’t make their way into the media for a few weeks - or CES could have just been something of a damp squib.

    Either way, the Movano smart ring looks the most exciting to me - grabbing some lovely metrics and ways of making your data more accessible:

    "The ring has an impressive list of capabilities, covering sleep monitoring, heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration levels, temperature, blood oxygen readings, step count, and calories burned – and the company is promising that the device is going to get more features over time as well.

    “Those features, pending regulatory approval, will include blood glucose and blood pressure monitoring, something that smart rings haven’t managed to achieve so far. The Movano device might just hit the sweet spot in terms of price and features.”

    [ul]
    [li]The top wearables of CES 2022, all in one place[/li][/ul]

    [IMG alt=“Alienware X14 on a table next to a cactus or something”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/cL...rzZCFRvokP.jpg

    (Image credit: Future)

    The Alienware X14 is one of the most popular laptops that’s emerged from CES this year, which is a curious thing - it’s a gaming laptop that sacrifices spec for portability, but doesn’t necessarily make a bad choice, as our US Computing Editor Jackie Thomas highlights:

    “The Alienware X14 is the most portable gaming laptop that the luxury brand has ever put out. From what it looks like, it won’t lose much on performance but the limited spec options means you really have to be into the portability aspect.”

    It’s limited to an RTX 3060, which tells you where it sits on the gaming spectrum - but like the rise in mobile gaming, it speaks about a world where the hottest and most powerful consoles aren’t always the ones people care about the most… and it looks darn striking too.

    [ul]
    [li]Hands on: Alienware X14 review[/li][/ul]

    [IMG alt=“Two children showing off Picoo controllers”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mh...GhtrGapq6B.jpg

    (Image credit: Picoo)

    This is an interesting one, especially as someone who has a small child who I know would either love this or be entirely apathetic to it.

    The Picoo ‘console’ (a bit of a stretch it call it that) was one I mentioned in the intro, but we’ve dug a bit further into it and it looks pretty cool.

    Basically, spend $250 (around £180 / AU$350) and get four controllers and five game cards. The controllers are like PlayStation Move wands and allow kids to play Zombie games (like tag, but your controller changes color when infected), or flash when you’re found in hide and seek.

    There are loads of sensors in the controller that allow it to work out how it’s being held, proximity to others etc, and beyond an app to set up, you don’t need much else.

    These cards mentioned are scanned into the controllers and can communicate with other Picoo controllers via radio networking, and the system is expandable with additional controllers and games available for purchase.

    The games are actually very reasonably priced, even if the controllers are hella expensive, coming in at around $5 (£3.50 / AU$7), a far cry from the lofty prices seen in actual console games.

    [ul]
    [li]Picoo digital gaming wand drags kids away from screens and back oudoors[/li][/ul]

    Right, who’s ready to be creeped out? There were a number of robots on show at CES this year, as ever, and we’ve gone and found the best / most frightening of them.

    While most of them are obviously benign, and you can read all about them in this excellent roundup, I’m going to focus on the dystopian nightmare they could create:

    Ameca - Just look at the video above, it’s clear why that one is frightening. The article says ‘don’t worry, it’ll be 10 years before something like that is walking among us’. THAT IS NOT LONG ENOUGH.

    Hyundai’s Metamobility concept - take a robot dog with you, hug your dog at home with it through VR. Until the two become entwined in some horrible internet nightmare and you have to become absorbed by the metaverse to save your dog, being held prisoner by a virtual Zuckerberg.

    Amagami Ham Ham - Looks cute, nibbles your finger, gets OTA hack to make the mouth super strong, bites off finger.

    See & Spray - Tractor can pinpoint weeds with herbicide automatically, saves 80% herbicide. Gets OTA hack to use final 80% into your eyes.

    Massage Robotics - Robot fingers and arms can give you a precise, sensor-driven massage, and you can save the levels of pressure and rubbing to the cloud. Until the cloud is hacked and it squishes your back.

    I’ve realised that all of this is pretty unlikely with just a modicum of web security, which most probably have. Just don’t go near any robo-tractors, just in case, OK?

    [ul]
    [li]Metaverse avatars and finger chewing puppies: the robots of CES 2022[/li][/ul]

    [IMG alt=“CES 2022 awards”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/n4...xu3LrCLunR.jpg

    (Image credit: Future)

    What’s better than a single hot product from CES? Well, let me tell you: it’s 20 of them. And that’s what we’ve cooked up from our Hottest of CES list, which is the who’s who of the best stuff from the show.

    It’s not the biggest or most brash stuff - it’s the things that have got people talking, that we’re excited about, and that the team debated heavily to come up with this list.

    In my view, the Sony Vision-S02 should have been in there, because Sony might make a frickin’ car, but I was shouted down in favor of a toothbrush. It’s a really exciting toothbrush, to be fair - it rivals the best toothbrushes we’ve reviewed already and it’s not even been in a TechRadar mouth.

    Check out our list, and let us know over on @techradar if you agree…

    [ul]
    [li]Hottest of CES 2022 awards: our 20 favorite launches from the show[/li][/ul]

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