CES 2024 may not have officially started yet, but the news is already in full swing. The show’s official dates are January 9th to 12th, with the 8th usually being a day of press conferences ahead of the convention centers opening to attendees. Which makes this… Day 0 of CES 2024.

The announcements on this day usually gives us an idea of what to expect for the rest of the week, and this year we’re already seeing some emerging trends. Samsung and LG both brought us transparent display tech, we saw a slew of pet and kitchen gadgets, while vibrating and massage chairs have taken over the showfloor. Here’s a recap of the biggest news out of CES 2024 so far.

Let’s start with the companies that couldn’t even wait till we were in Vegas to share their news.

On January 3rd, just one day after people returned to work on the New Year, LG announced it would be bringing its new DukeBox smart speaker to the show. The DukeBox features vacuum tube audio placed behind a transparent OLED screen, allowing you to see the vacuum pipes for a retro vibe even as something is on the display. LG also teased a two-legged AI-powered robot, a 27-inch OLED gaming monitor that goes up to 480Hz, its latest 4K OLED TVs with AI processors, Gram laptops with AI features and the CineBeam Qube 4K projector.

We’ve now seen many of these things in person and I’ll tell you more about them in a bit, but other PC and gaming peripheral companies also teased their wares prior to the show. Dell, for example, showed its new XPS 13, 14 and 16 laptops alongside a curved 40-inch 5K monitor that it says offers “five-star comfort.”

Razer also told everyone to be on the lookout for its Blade 16 laptop at CES, because it’ll feature the “world’s first 16-inch 240Hz OLED display.” Samsung also teased its trio of Odyssey-branded anti-glare OLED gaming monitors on January 2nd! The day after New Year’s Day! I wish companies would stop just spilling their own beans ahead of the actual full reveal, because it gets in the way of actual news. And there was plenty.

For instance, Samsung had a whole truckload of new products to share. Yes, it did announce most of its news ahead of CES, but a lot of it was really interesting. The one that stole most of our attention was the world’s first transparent MicroLED screen — that's a screen you can see through even as it displays content, and is completely clear when nothing is on. According to our senior reporter Sam Rutherford, who saw the screens up close last night at Samsung’s First Look showcase, the transparent MicroLED panel was significantly brighter and noticeably clearer than the transparent LCD and OLED screens next to it.

Samsung also launched a new speaker version of its Frame TV, called the Music Frame. This is basically a photo frame that can hold a photograph or art print, while also hiding a solid speaker within. It basically masquerades as home decor, but that doesn’t diminish its capability. It has two woofers, two tweeters and two mid-range drivers, and also supports Dolby’s Atmos audio. You can pair it with your existing home audio system or use it standalone.

That’s not all Samsung unveiled. It also showed off Premiere projectors that can turn any surface into an interactive display, as well as its 2024 TV lineup that features plenty of AI.

Samsung’s main rival at CES is LG, since both companies tend to show off an incredibly similar portfolio of products. This year, LG also came to the game with transparency as its secret weapon, showing off the “world’s first wireless transparent OLED TV.” According to Billy Steele, who’s seen this OLED T TV, “some of the visuals are a bit unsettling,” but because the transparent background made it feel like things on display, like a singer, seemed like they were actually in the room. He said image quality was bright and sharp, though, and that it was comparable to Samsung’s MicroLED version. Though LG’s set seems more ready for public consumption, the company did not share pricing information, just that it’ll be ready to sell the OLED T this year.

LG also brought the other products I mentioned earlier and I was able to check out the new Gram Pro laptops in person at the Unveiled showcase last night. They’re impressively thin and light, as usual, and trying to do bicep curls with them is really not a challenge.

While we’re on the topic of laptops, a quick shoutout to HP and Acer. HP brought us the “world’s lightest 14-inch gaming laptop” and a new 4K 240Hz OLED gaming monitor, among other things, while Acer dragged out a massive 57-inch ultrawide monitor that will cost $2,500. It refreshes at 120Hz and has a Dual UHD resolution of 7,680 x 2,160. Acer also refreshed its Swift and Aspire laptops with Intel Core Ultra processors and dedicated Copilot keys for Microsoft’s generative AI shortcuts.

We also saw a slew of kitchen and pet products at Unveiled, including GE’s Profile smart indoor smoker that cooks meats and imparts a woody flavor without actually smoking up your apartment. The Flappie AI cat door, meanwhile, uses AI to see if your cat is coming back to your house with a rodent and automatically lock so it can’t come inside with the gross gift.

There’s so much more that I can barely cover in this single recap article, so I urge you to check out our liveblog, which we update all the time with the latest news. This has only been a collection of news from the day before the day before the show officially opens, and we’ve barely begun. Stick around as we continue to cover the biggest news and trawl through the convention to find you the most noteworthy developments from CES 2024.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

I've always been curious how easy it is to work while you're using one of those under-desk bikes and, thanks to CES 2024, now I know. My jaunt to Las Vegas has taken me to visit LifeSpan, who was showing off its recently-released Ampera standing desk bike. Unlike some desk bikes, Ampera is designed to capture your energy and use it to charge your phone via its 15W Qi charging plate. And, if you feel your legs have more power in them, you can re-juice your laptop via the 65W USB-C port. 

You don't even need to plug it in, since it operates entirely under its own power, or at least the power it has once you've given it some. The company's official estimates suggest you could get a phone up to 50 percent charge in half an hour. And, if you cycle at speeds over 60 rpm, you'll be able to produce 65 watts per hour, enough to put some decent charge in your laptop or USB battery pack. There's also a companion app which will let you track how much power you've generated, how many calories you've burned and even change the color of the embedded RGB light. 

And it's certainly comfortable enough to work from, even in the less-than-ideal conditions of a CES media event. Sitting with my laptop balanced on a tall cocktail table, I was able to maintain a fairly brisk typing speed all the while slowly adding some power to my phone. It's sturdily built and helps you feel planted while you're working out, but mercifully there's also a pair of wheels to help move it around. I could very much imagine having one of these under my standing desk to slide in and out when I don't fancy going out and cycling in the real world. 

The Ampera Office Bike is available to buy right now from Amazon, normally priced at $999, it's presently on sale for $799. 

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

MSI has introduced a handheld gaming device called Claw at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. And unlike its biggest rivals the Steam Deck and the ASUS ROG Ally, it's powered by Intel's processors instead of AMD's. The Claw runs on Intel's new Core Ultra chips and comes integrated with Intel's XeSS technology, which uses advanced AI upscaling algorithms to boost FPS for a smooth gaming experience. MSI says that will allow users to enjoy even resource-intensive AAA games on a handheld device. 

The device also uses MSI's thermal technology design called the Cooler Boost Hyperflow that redirects airflow to cool internal components so that it doesn't overheat even after extended gaming sessions. Its battery lasts for two hours under full workload conditions, same as ROG Ally's. In fact, the Claw looks pretty similar to its ASUS counterpart, even its curvatures at the bottom for better grip. 

It has a 7-inch full HD display, as well, with a 120Hz refresh rate. MSI's system enables users to fully customize personal macros for certain games, and it gives them access to Android games in addition to Windows titles on the handheld. We'll be taking the Claw for a spin at CES, so keep an eye out for a hands-on where we'll be talking about its performance. 

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

Following last year's smart toilet which debuted at CES 2023, Vivoo is at it again for CES 2024 with another urine analysis product. The company has unveiled an at-home digital urinary tract infection (UTI) testing kit that provides what it calls "gold standard accuracy results" via a two-minute test. 

To use it, just pee on the provided UTI test strip and scan it to obtain results via Vivoo's app in "seconds," the company says. If the result is positive, customers can then connect with a doctor to obtain a prescription if required. The company says the product "saves customers time, prevents confusion in readings, and digitalizes the data so customers can share results with healthcare providers via the app, if instant treatment is desired." From the looks of it, the results are obtained via the strip, then deciphered by the app.

Vivoo notes that UTIs are the most common type of outpatient infection, with six in ten women experiencing them in their lifetimes. Normally, you'd send your urine off to a lab for analysis, or use an existing at-home test kit. The company says that the new product spares users the bureaucracy of lab testing while also keeping the relevant data for users who might need that, unlike regular testing kits. 

In fact, many women experience recurrent UTIs, which have become resistant to at least one or even multiple types of antibiotics. By keeping a record of past infections, Vivoo's app could help patients and medical professionals track the problem and treat it appropriately. 

Last year, the company unveiled a smart toilet device that clips onto existing toilets and provides data like your body's water, magnesium, PH, protein and sodium levels. Later on, it released strips for vaginal PH levels. The new home UTI test will come to market in Q2 2024, but pricing isn't yet available. 

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

CES 2024 is here, and we're seeing all manner of new gaming gear and accessories. One notable mention is Razer's Project Esther, the world's first HD haptics gaming chair cushion. Yes, that's right, you can get one step closer to feeling like you're in the game — especially if you combine it with a VR headset. 

The Project Esther concept includes 16 haptic actuators and has ultra-low latency. You can control the haptics' directionality, multiple-device integration and multi-actuator experiences. It also had automatic audio-to-HD haptics conversion, allowing for a plug-and-play solution. Razer claims the cushion is compatible with most gaming and office chairs, so you won't have to get a whole new setup to use it. 

Razer's Project Esther gaming chair cushion is the result of years of haptics development. In 2018, the company unveiled Razer HyperSense haptics in its new Nari Ultimate headphones. They used advanced digital signal processing and wideband voice-coil actuators to produce the haptics for PC gaming — expanding it into Xbox headphones the following year. 

CES 2019 brought Razer's Hypersense high-resolution vibration system, which it programmed into keyboard rests, mice, and a chair. In 2022, Razer took another big step, buying Interhaptics, a company specializing in, as the name suggests, haptics. Project Esther functions using Interhaptics technology. 

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

Razer’s new accessories at CES 2024 are every bit as lavish as you’d expect. At this year’s convention, the company has a follow-up to its first gaming chair, an 11-port USB-C dock, a gaming cushion with HD haptics and a monitor-mounted light bar with Chroma RGB illumination.

Razer Iskur V2 gaming chair

The Razer Iskur V2 Gaming Chair is the successor to the 2020 original. The new model’s highlight is its “6D Adjustable and Adaptive Lumbar Support System.” Described as the only one of its kind, the lumbar support has a spring-loaded mechanism to adjust to the body’s weight and posture, alongside manual controls for the lumbar area’s protrusion and height.

Razer

Razer says it gathered feedback from ergonomics experts and esports communities in designing the Iskur V2. The chair can recline up to 152 degrees and lets you control its tilt. It includes high-density foam cushions and is made of EPU-grade synthetic leather. The company describes it as offering “extensive customization in height, position, and angle,” and it has a memory foam head cushion.

The Iskur V2 costs $650 and is available to order today from Razer’s website.

Razer USB C Dock

Razer

Razer also has a new 11-port dock compatible with Windows PCs, Macs, iPads and Chromebooks. On the port front, the Razer USB C Dock has four USB-A, two USB-C, a gigabit ethernet, HDMI, a 3.5mm audio combo jack and slots for UHS-I SD and microSD.

The dock’s HDMI port can output up to 4K at 60Hz, and its audio jack supports 7.1 surround sound. The accessory is made from an aluminum alloy, and its USB ports support 85 W laptop charging.

The Razer USB C Dock costs $120 and is available today from Razer.

Project Esther cushion

Following its 2022 acquisition of Interhaptics, Razer is showcasing Project Esther, “the world’s first HD haptics gaming cushion,” which sounds like it could have been made from a CES-themed Mad Lib. The cushion hasn’t been announced as a commercial product (at least not yet), but it’s designed to flaunt Razer Sensa haptics.

Similar to the size and shape of standalone chair massagers, the Project Esther chair mat stretches along where you sit up across the back. Devs can control Sensa’s “directionality, multi-actuator experiences, and multiple-device integration between different platforms and peripherals.” The tech is plug-and-play, automatically converting audio to HD haptics.

The chair offers “wideband, high-definition haptics,” thanks to 16 built-in actuators. It has adjustable straps, and Razer says it’s compatible with most gaming and office chairs. (If it ever makes it to market, it could perhaps help the haptic-obsessed save money on gaming chairs.) It supports low-latency connections to ensure its rumbles stay synced without delay with your gaming or media content.

Aether Monitor Light Bar

Razer

Razer loves RGB lighting, and the company has a new bar to prove it. The Aether Monitor Light Bar is a mountable accessory with front- and rear-facing LEDs.

The light bar has a Color Rendering Index (CRI, a rating of color accuracy) score of 95 and can light a 60cm x 30cm (about 2 x 1 feet) area. Its Chroma RGB lighting supports over 16.8 million colors and “a myriad of lighting effects.”

The bar also includes capacitive touch controls. Its brightness, color temperature and Chroma effects are all user-customizable. It supports the Matter smart home standard, and users can tweak its settings through the Razer Gamer Room app.

The Aether Monitor Light Bar will be available in March for $130.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

Sony's partnership with Honda around a new concept EV called the Afeela has been a highlight of CES for several years now. And while we're not any closer to finding out if and when this car will become a reality, Sony had a fun way to show off the latest iteration of the vehicle: they drove it onto the Sony CES 2024 stage with a PlayStation DualSense controller. Sure, it was just a fun gimmick rather than any evidence of a PlayStation-controlled vehicle coming down the road, but CES is all about the spectacle. 

Sony

We'll keep an eye out for more details on the Afeela, but Sony just invited Microsoft on stage to talk about how the in-vehicle experience is going to get smarter thanks to — you guessed it — AI. We're getting close to CES bingo here, folks. 

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

Sony's CES 2024 presentation didn't have much for the first 25 minutes, then it revealed a new virtual reality creation headset with... no name so far, aimed at "spatial content creation".With a matte grey finish, the headset looks like a stripped-down PSVR2, and there appears to be two cameras facing out from the front. There is also a controller-wand and a smaller peripheral similar in size to a ring. The new hardware is apparently aimed at creators and artists who manipulate and craft products in virtual spaces.

Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said it would offer a "crisp viewing experience" and "intuitive interaction for 3D design", teasing a device aimed a professionals, similar to its professional-level cameras and devices. 

Sony showed mock-ups of a user tinkering with a bipedal robot while wearing the new headset, manipulating the robot's harm, while two monitors nearby showed things in extra detail. 

It doesn't seem like a Vision Pro rival (or even a next-gen PSVR2) but something possibly more like Hololens. Just more... artistic. 

This is a developing story, please refresh for more details.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

Intel is one of the biggest names that's in Las Vegas for CES 2024. The company has several talks and panels lined up, including a keynote from CEO Pat Gelsinger. You'll be able to watch that particular event live at 8pm ET on January 9 at Intel's website, along with the CES 2024 site and app.

What to expect

Intel hasn't divulged too much about what Gelsinger will dig into. However, it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that AI is one of the topics at hand. According to Intel, Gelsinger will talk about "the critical roles that silicon and software play in making AI more accessible, providing powerful compute and enabling modern economies." 

Meanwhile, the company has just revealed its full slate of Intel Core 14th-gen processors for desktops and laptops, including HX-series mobile CPUs. Intel says there are more than 60 14th-gen HX-powered systems coming to market from its partners this year. Meanwhile, thin-and-light laptops featuring the new Intel Core U Processor Series 1 lineup will start hitting retailers by the end of March.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

For years, ROG Phone users had to put up with average camera quality for the sake of mobile gaming experience, and ASUS blamed it on cost reasons. To put it bluntly, it was either ROG Phone for gaming, or Zenfone for photography. Now that we've entered 2024, the Taiwanese tech giant finally has a change of heart. Announced at CES 2024, the ROG Phone 8 and 8 Pro essentially blend together the best of both worlds, featuring the usual trove of gaming aids in — at last — a brand new design, along with a set of significant camera upgrades derived from the Zenfone line.

Specifically, the new 50-megapixel f/1.9 main camera is powered by a more efficient Sony IMX890 sensor (featured on the OnePlus 11's main camera, as well as the 3x periscope camera on Oppo's Find X6 Pro and Realme's GT5 Pro). More importantly, ASUS also brought over the Zenfone line's 6-axis hybrid gimbal stabilizer, which further improves low-light shooting and offers a "Super HyperSteady" video mode. 

The new 13-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide camera benefits from a free-form lens for reduced distortion. As for the third camera, the old 5-megapixel macro camera is now replaced by a more practical 32-megapixel 3x telephoto shooter, which comes with optical image stabilization and pixel-binning process (8-megapixel output) for boosted sensitivity. On the other side of the phone, the 32-megapixel selfie camera — now a punch hole on the screen — has gained a wider field of view, jumping from 73 degrees to 90.

ASUS

Another significant change on the ROG Phone here is the appearance. In what ASUS calls the "Gen#3" design, the ROG Phone 8 has opted for compactness by way of reduced bezels (especially top and bottom), body thickness (from 10.49mm to just 8.9mm) and weight (from 239g to 225g). Thanks to this re-engineering, the company was also able to implement IP68 dust and water resistance here — apparently a first for gaming phones, thus making it even more suitable for daily use.

The ROG Phone 8 line comes in two looks. The regular model features a redesigned Aura RGB logo on the back, and comes in either "Rebel Grey" or "Phantom Black." The more premium Pro flavor only comes in "Phantom Black," with the main difference being its "AniMe Vision" powered by 341 white mini LEDs. This dot matrix display supports over 20 preloaded animations that respond to the likes of X Mode, incoming calls, powering on and more. You can also create your own custom animations, and should you come across a fellow ROG Phone 8 Pro user, tapping both phones together will unlock new secret animations. (In case you're wondering, ASUS has confirmed that there will be no "Ultimate" edition this time.)

It should come as no surprise that the ROG Phone 8 series packs the top options available in terms of processor, thermal design and display. You get Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip paired with a "GameCool 8" advanced thermal system, which features a tiny rapid-cooling conductor to apparently boost thermal efficiency by up to 20 percent. (You can go even further by utilizing the new AeroActive Cooler X attachment, which is designed with a larger cooling chip at the sacrifice of two physical buttons.) Both are tucked underneath a Samsung E6 flexible AMOLED panel — it's the same 2,448 x 1,080 resolution, 165Hz refresh rate and 720Hz touch-sampling rate as before, but now with a whopping 2,500-nit peak brightness (from 1,500 nits).

ASUS

There are some small trade-offs, though. For one, the battery size has been reduced from 6,000mAh to 5,500mAh, but it still supports 65W HyperCharge which takes just 39 minutes. ASUS's justification is the improved efficiency of the new processor as well as display, and that it saw the weight of the earlier ROG Phones being a major pain point. It also needed to squeeze out more space for the better (read: larger) camera modules. That said, this phone still somehow manages to add wireless charging support, which follows the Qi 1.3 standard.

Another slight downgrade lies within the audio department. What used to be two loud front-facing speakers are now one front-facing speaker and one downward-facing speaker, due to the reduction in the top and bottom bezels. Still, ASUS thinks Dirac's tuning is able to compensate for this change. Speaking of, you also get Dirac Virtuo spatial audio for all headphones, be it wired (3.5mm or USB-C) or wireless (Bluetooth). As for phone calls, the ROG Phone 8 offers computational noise-cancelling for voice input across various scenarios — be it in-game communications, IM calls or regular phone calls.

ASUS' signature AirTrigger pressure-sensitive buttons are here to stay, for obvious reasons. There's also X Sense 2.0, an AI pattern recognition system for automatically detecting key events on screen, in order to provide timely prompts for the right moments. For instance, in Genshin Impact, this function will know when to trigger tools like auto pick up, fast forward, running lock and auto press-to-escape. Another AI feature — though not necessarily related to gaming — will be wallpaper generation, due to arrive in a future firmware update. This will leverage fast stable diffusion for creating images offline.

The ROG Phone 8 series will be available for pre-order in the very near future, with the base model (16GB RAM and 256GB storage) asking for $1,000 (actual retail price will cost an extra $100), followed by the $1,200 ROG Phone 8 Pro (16GB RAM with 512GB storage), and a more premium $1,500 ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition (24GB RAM with 1TB storage, plus an AeroActive Cooler X which normally costs $100). All models will come with at least two major OS updates (from Android 14), along with four years of security updates.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.