Gallery: Best of CES 2017: This Year's Most Interesting Gadgets
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The Toyota Concept-i’s mission to make driving fun again in a future where the focus is on utilitarian autonomous transport. This goal makes the car a stand-out amongst the vehicles unveiled at CES. Its scissor doors and dramatic yet realistic styling don’t hurt either, and getting to see it in person consistently meant wading through crowds of people trying to do the same. This Toyota might not be available to buy right now, but the company says it will start testing several of its key features on Japan’s roads soon.
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CES is full of toys that promise to turn your kid into a coding wiz. The issue? Not all of them are fun to play with. This week Lego introduced Boost, a new kit that lets kids bring their existing bricks to life with three different modules. You can program Lego to walk, roll, flash, and make noise via an app that uses drag and drop code. Kids probably won’t notice they’re building logic skills when they program their bot to shoot a dart at their sister when she walks by, and that’s the point. It’s a sneaky way to get kids to learn, which is exactly why they’ll love it.
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The Amazon Echo is an awesome device, but that black-and-black monolithic tennis ball can doesn't quite fit in next to the ficus on your coffee table. Lenovo's Smart Assistant is nothing more than Alexa in a nicer-looking package, for $50 less than the Echo. And if you want to upgrade a bit, spring for the Harman Kardon edition with beefed up audio, which will help your voice assistant double as a serious party DJ. Lenovo's starting a trend here, too: pretty soon Alexa will live inside every speaker you own.
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CES isn't really a phone show anymore, but Huawei's millennial-focused Honor brand still did impressive work in Vegas. The Honor 6X is a light, handsome smartphone with a camera ready for whatever crappy lighting or missed focus you throw at it. It also has high-end specs, good-looking software, and a two-day battery. Oh, and here's the kicker: you can buy the 6X starting at $250. This device is just further proof you're paying way too much for your smartphone.
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The Hub robot is adorable, but LG’s animated voice assistant also provides a clear peak at the future of in-home interfaces. These devices run Alexa, but they do more than your average Echo. A screen on the front doesn’t just surface visual info, it provides personality: Blinking eyes patiently await your commands. Ask for your favorite tunes, and the little robot busts a move as it plays them. You can customize the wake word to anything you’d like, and the big and mini versions of the robots have the exact same features. The only difference is the size of the screen and the power of their built-in speakers.
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Good speakers are furniture. They add to a room's decor, and they begged to be touched. The cylindrical Beoplay M5 is a wireless speaker that fits those criteria—its wool covering is soft and gorgeous, and it's topped by an aluminum disc that functions as a satisfyingly tactile volume knob. The sound is excellent, with impressive volume and gobs of bass. Audio streams in over Bluetooth, AirPlay, or Spotify, and it has Chromecast built in, so you can command the jams by talking to your Google Home. It's not a portable speaker (it plugs into the wall and has no battery) but it is made for multi-room setups—group a few M5s together, or pair them with other Beoplay multi-room speakers like the A6 and A9.
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In truth, it seems slightly absurd to name a flash drive as one of the very best bits of technology in a show full of wonders. But stuffing that many bytes into so tiny a home is a marvel—one that reminds us that big leaps can come from surprising places.
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The hardest part of CES this year? Selecting a single stunning TV as our top pick. Whether you opt for LG’s comely OLEDs, Samsung’s ravishing QLEDs, or this divine Sony set, you’re in for a visual treat. The tiebreaker is Sony’s innovative spin on audio with its very first OLED TV. The Bravia A1E uses its panel to deliver stereo sound, as four surface transducers on the back of the screen vibrate to emit audio. Dialogue sounds like it’s coming directly from onscreen mouths, and audio pans from side to side. The set’s exquisite design, which includes an A-frame stand around the back that houses a woofer for the low end and all the I/O ports you need, certainly makes it unique.
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The Chromebook Plus is the rare product that’s perfectly named—it’s a Chromebook, but better. It’s built to support Android apps as well as Chrome OS, equipped with a tucked-away stylus, has a beautiful display, and folds around on a 360-degree hinge to switch between typing and tablet modes. Chromebooks have already taken over classrooms; the Chromebook Plus will help them take over the world.
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The Mohu AirWave won’t magically make cord-cutting easy. But it definitely makes it easer, and every little bit helps. This wireless antenna can go anywhere in your house, eliminating unsightly wires and allowing for optimal positioning, and it can plunk live, local broadcast channels onto your Apple TV, Roku, and more.
