I don't know if this is a delayed effect of the remote working trend or simply a bunch of technologies all maturing at the same time (or possibly both), but 2022 was an unusually great year for monitors. So before we move onto a new generation of gadgets in 2023, I just wanted to take a little time to recap some of the standout displays that came out in the last 12 months.

Before we even get to specific models, this year we saw the arrival of two new major players in the gaming monitor space thanks to Sony’s Inzone brand and HyperX’s line of Armada displays. For a company like Sony that's responsible for some of the most popular consoles of all time, this move was both a surprise yet also feels a bit late. That's because while Sony has dabbled with gaming displays in the past (remember that weird Playstation 3D TV from 2011), the company has largely refrained from expanding into the wider gaming hardware and accessories market — especially when it comes to PC peripherals.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

That said, while Sony's line of Inzone devices is made up of headphones and monitors that share a similar design with the Playstation 5 and a few exclusives features, it's important to note that the devices come from Sony Electronics (the company that makes TVs and wireless earbuds) and not Sony Interactive Entertainment (aka the Playstation people). That means you won't find any explicit Playstation logos, but what you do get is some of the fancy tech found on Sony's other premium gadgets like its flagship WH-1000XM5 wireless headphones.

As for monitors, after testing it out earlier this year, I found the Inzone M9 to be one of the best 4K gaming displays for the money. Now going for just $799 (down from its $899 launch price), you get a 27-inch display with VRR and NVIDIA G-Sync support, DisplayHDR 600 certification and full array local dimming. I also appreciate some of the smaller touches Sony included such as a built-in KVM switch and surprisingly decent onboard stereo speakers, the latter of which makes it really easy to hook up a PC or a PS5 and just start gaming without worrying about audio.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Meanwhile, HyperX (which is now owned by HP) has also joined the fray this year with its line of Armada gaming monitors. Similar to Sony, HyperX's first batch of displays features a small twist on the standard formula because, instead of shipping with a traditional desktop stand, both of its new monitors are only available with a bundled monitor arm. And when combined with a 25-inch panel that offers a 1080p resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate for just $450 or a 2,560 x 1440 display with a 165Hz for $500 on the 27-inch model, what you get are some great mid-range displays, particularly for anyone looking to keep clutter to a minimum.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Another important milestone in 2022 was the release of the first batch of QD-OLED monitors, headlined by the Alienware AW3423DW. The really nice thing about QD-OLED displays is that they combine the super saturated colors and pure blacks you get with traditional OLED panels, but with much better brightness, not to mention less blooming and wider viewing angles (when compared to conventional LCD displays). When you factor in its huge ultra-wide format and 175Hz refresh rate, you get what's arguably the best overall gaming monitor on the market. And while Alienware was the first company to release a QD-OLED monitor, other companies like MSI have their own rivals coming soon.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Alternatively, for people who don't care about costs and just want the biggest and baddest gaming display on the market, Samsung's Odyssey Ark was one of the most memorable gadgets I've used all year. With a massive 55-inch 4K panel and a 1000R curve, the Ark wraps around you like some kind of spaceship cockpit. And if that wasn't enough, you can even rotate it into portrait mode, which delivers one of the most unique gaming setups I've ever experienced. The downside is that while the Ark has four HDMI inputs and a special Multi View mode (which is basically a souped-up picture-in-picture feature), due to a limitation with HDMI, it can only display content from one external source at a time. But if you have$3,500 lying around and want the most jaw-dropping monitor that came out this year, the Odyssey Ark can't be beat.

I also recently had the chance to check out LG’s latest UltraGear gaming monitors with their new 240HZ displays, which is the highest refresh rate you can get from any OLED monitor on sale today. LG’s new panels mean you can get both the deep blacks and vibrant colors OLED screens are known for and the kind of refresh rates that previously were only available from IPS displays. The downside though is that with a max brightness of just 200 nits, the new UltraGears aren’t ideal for gaming in bright rooms.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

But as someone who’s been waiting a long time for OLED panels to become more mainstream, it’s really encouraging to see more products get added to the mix. That’s because while there are a handful of OLED monitors out right now (like the aforementioned Alienware AW3423DW), pickings are still pretty slim. Some like the LG C2 are actually just TVs that are also being pushed as large-format desktop displays. Meanwhile, ASUS' ROG Swift OLED line uses the exact same panels LG uses in the C2, but with a few tweaks like a built-in heatsink and a DisplayPort 1.4 jack for improved gaming performance.

But perhaps the bigger issue is that, essentially, all the OLED monitors available right now are rather large. The smallest C2 and ROG Swift OLED models measure 42 inches across, while the Alienware AW3423DW isn't much better with its 34-inch ultra-wide panel. But with LG's new UltraGear OLED, we're finally getting something in a more manageable size along with one of the highest refresh rates we've seen on an OLED monitor to date.

LG

Meanwhile, for anyone who isn’t a gamer, there were also some interesting new productivity displays that came out this year. That's because while technically it was announced last year, 2022 also saw the release of LG's DualUp monitor with its funky 16:18 aspect ratio. When combined with its included arm, you’ll enjoy a setup that boasts a ton of vertical screen real estate without needing to stack multiple displays or having to deal with a screen that's too skinny when rotated into portrait mode. And, thanks to a color gamut that covers 98 percent of the DCI-P3 spectrum, the DualUp can handle a lot more than just really tall spreadsheets. LG even included support for power output of up to 90-watts, so you can get video from a laptop and keep it charged all with a single USB-C cable.

Finally, while it still needs a bit of refinement, Corsair just released its huge 45-inch gaming monitor with a bendable display called the Xeneon Flex. Now I know that the ability to manually transform a monitor from flat to curved might seems kind of silly (and it probably is, especially when gadgets like the LG OLED Flex exists and features built-in motors), but it's nice to see more companies experiment with bendy screen tech. And who knows, maybe they can add a feature where the monitor goes into gaming mode when you bend it allowing your battle station to shift gears depending on the kind of work (or play) you're doing.

Regardless, with more people working remotely than ever, it's nice to have more choices when it comes to kitting out your setup. And I haven't even talked about some of the other innovations from adjacent categories like TVs, laptops and phones such as the 240Hz OLED display option on the Razer Blade 15, new LED.EX TVs from Panasonic or the improved under-display-camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 4. (I recently used the UDC on my Z Fold 4 to dial into a video meeting, and not a single person complained about its image quality). Still, 2022 has been a great year for monitors and as we get closer to CES 2023, I'm expecting to see that momentum continue into next year.

In Japan, the big premiere week of James Cameron’s Avatar sequel was hit with technical problems in some movie theaters. One venue in central Japan was forced to reduce the 48 fps frame rate down to the traditional 24 fps – one of the major technical innovations of Avatar: The Way of Water. The Avatar sequel is actually available in multiple formats, including 2D 48 fps, 3D 48 fps and regular 24 fps. If you see the 48 fps version, it only uses the HFR tech for action sequences, while dialog and slower scenes are dialed down to 24 fps by duplicating frames. Intrigued by high frame rates? Check out Devindra Hardawar’s (spoiler-free) review of Avatar: The Way of Water, right here.

Despite being the widest movie release of all time in Japan, Avatar: The Way of Water failed to claim the top ranking last weekend, beaten by the anime basketball movie called The First Slam Dunk.

– Mat Smith

Hands-on with LG's 240Hz UltraGear gaming monitors

Setting a new bar for OLED refresh rates.

Engadget

Earlier this year, Alienware released what’s arguably the best all-around gaming monitor on the market right now: the AW3423DW. But last week, LG quietly announced its latest batch of UltraGear gaming monitors. LG’s monitors are available in two sizes intended for slightly different use cases. There’s the 27-inch option with a flat panel, meant for both general use and more demanding competitive play, while the 45-inch monitor has a curved display with an 800R radius, designed to deliver a more immersive experience. Regardless of which one you pick, both feature 240Hz refresh rates – the highest you can get from any OLED monitor available today.

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Ukraine strikes deal with SpaceX for thousands more Starlink antennas

Several EU countries will reportedly share the costs.

Ukraine will receive an additional 10,000-plus Starlink satellite dishes from Elon Musk's SpaceX to help provide internet amid Russian attacks on communications infrastructure. Financial issues around the terminals have reportedly been resolved, with several European countries stepping up to share the costs, according to Ukraine's deputy prime minister Mykhailo Federov. The 10,000 new terminals add to the 22,000 already received and will be used to "stabilize connections for critical situations," according to Federov. "There is no alternative to satellite connections," he added.

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The best free games for 2023

Some great games don't cost a thing.

Blizzard

Free games used to mean ropey puzzle games and knock-off clones of games that had a price tag. But now, courtesy of in-app payments and the ease of offering both a sample of a title alongside its full-fat version, there are plenty of great games to play without spending a dime. Following the continued success of titles like Fortnite, the level of quality across mobile, PC and consoles has never been higher. Put your card away, and consider this your starting point. Oh and while it’s not in the current edition of our guide, check out Vampire Survivors too — my latest addiction, and free-to-play on smartphones.

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Canada plans to enforce an ambitious zero-emission vehicle sales quota by 2026

At least 20 percent of new vehicles sold will need to be zero-emission models.

The Canadian government has announced enforceable quotas for zero-emission vehicle sales. By 2026, a fifth of all new passenger cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the country will need to be zero-emission models, such as electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. "We're moving forward with a regulated sales target that requires at least 20 percent of new vehicles sold by 2026 to be zero emission, increasing that to 60 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035," Julie Dabrusin, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. There's still some way to go. In the first six months of 2022, EVs (including plug-in hybrid models) made up 7.2 percent of new car registrations.

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The biggest stories you might have missed

• Tesla reportedly plans more layoffs as the company’s stock tanks

• The best co-op games for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and more

• Nike brings workout videos to Netflix on December 30th

• NASA officially retires its InSight Mars lander

• How the tech titans crashed head-first into reality

The two-year-old Meta Quest 2 is now faster due to a surprise performance boost in the headset's latest update. Meta boosted the maximum frequency from 490 MHz to 525 MHz, giving all Quest 2 headsets up to 7 percent more performance. 

"No integration or coding is needed to start reaping the benefits of this improvement — the dynamic clocking system will automatically increase the frequency as it detects that your app would benefit from it," Meta wrote. To get the extra speed, all you'll need to do is either a doff/don (take it off and put it back on) or sleep cycle by clicking the power button twice.

What's more, if you have dynamic foveation enabled in your app, the GPU will boost from 490 MHz to 525 MHz to maintain higher visual quality rather than increasing foveation (foveation lowers image detail depending on what you're looking at). The result should be better overall image quality. 

Quest 2 owners will benefit from the extra speed with no app changes, but developers could also update apps, using the extra power to boost resolution. In any case, it makes the headset more useful in the final year of its lifespan, with the Quest 3 set to launch next year. 

Twitter appears to have cut off Google Voice numbers from two-factor authentication (2FA). Although it's hardly the first company to block virtual phone numbers from SMS authentication, the change could be connected to CEO Elon Musk’s aggressive moves to snuff out bot accounts from the platform.

The new behavior, reported by 9to5Google, appears to block users from using a Google Voice number to authenticate their accounts. (I tried it today, and it rejected my Google Voice number.) Further, users previously authenticated with Google Voice could find themselves locked out of their accounts. Engadget reached out to Google to confirm, and we’ll update the story if we hear back. Twitter no longer has a PR department.

Since buying Twitter and taking over as CEO (a title he now says he’ll abandon once he finds a successor), Musk has been vocal about vanquishing bots from the platform. Earlier this month, Platformerreported the company blocked traffic from 30 mobile carriers worldwide — including networks in Russia, Indonesia, India and Malaysia. The move cut off access for thousands of accounts, including legitimate ones using those wireless carriers for 2FA. Musk accused the carriers of initiating the bogus texts to inflate what Twitter owed them contractually for SMS.

That report didn’t mention Google Voice, but anyone with a Gmail account can set up a free Google Voice number, making it an easy authentication tool for bots, scammers and spammers. Although it’s tempting to lump this move together with Musk’s seemingly erratic overhauls since taking over, it’s standard practice for apps ranging from financial institutions to dating apps to bar virtual numbers from 2FA.

If you set up your Twitter account with Google Voice authentication, you should be able to change the number without contacting support. You can go to Twitter Settings > Security and Account Access > Security > Two-Factor Authentication to remove that number and add your primary carrier line.

If you want more than just a robot vacuum, Roborock's models provide not just exceptional sucking power but mopping functions as well. Now, you can grab some of the company's best models at steep discounts thanks to Amazon's latest sale. Some of the best deals include the E5 Robot Vacuum and Mop at $200 (44 percent off), the S7 Robot Vacuum and Mop ($410, 37 percent off) and the Roborock S7+ Robot Vacuum and Sonic Mop at $680, or 28 percent off the regular $950 price. 

The Roborock E5 is one of the best value robot vacuum/mops out there, but that doesn't mean you're losing out on features. It offers a powerful 2,500PA of suction, yet can clean for up to 200 minutes of a charge. It's also ideal for pet hair and other bulky debris thanks to the large 640ml (0.67 quart) dustbin. It can vacuum and mop simultaneously, mopping up to 1,600 square feet efficiently thanks to the OpticEye scanning and dual gyroscopes. And it's no slouch technology-wise, offering an app, Alexa voice and a remote to give you fine control over cleaning. Normally it's priced at $360, but you can grab one now for just $200.

The Roborock S7 has the same 2500PA suction, but comes with a larger water tank for mopping and an ultrasonic sound feature that identifies carpet so the machine can automatically adjust cleaning strength. Also, the S7 can be connected to a clean base, so you have the option in the future to add another level of convenience to your robo-vac. It also supports voice control with Alexa or the Google Assistant, full app control, home mapping, cleaning schedules and spot cleaning, too. Normally priced at $650, you can grab it now for $410 ($240 off).

Finally, if you've been saving up for the best robotic mop/vacuum around, The Roborock S7+ fits the bill. It's a vac-and-mop combo, and its mopping map automatically lifts itself out of the way when the machine reaches the carpet. At the same time, the mop picks up more dirt thanks to the sonic vibration technology. And it can dump the dirt after each cleaning, so you don't need to deal with emptying for up to 120 days. It cleans efficiently thanks to LiDAR navigation, while offering voice control, home mapping and more. The Roborock S7+ is normally quite expensive at $950, but it's on sale for $680, or $270 off the regular price. 

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OpenAI, the Elon Musk-founded artificial intelligence startup behind popular DALL-E text-to-image generator, announced on Tuesday the release of its newest picture-making machine POINT-E, which can produce 3D point clouds directly from text prompts. Whereas existing systems like Google's DreamFusion typically require multiple hours — and GPUs — to generate their images, Point-E only needs one GPU and a minute or two.

OpenAI

3D modeling is used across a variety industries and applications. The CGI effects of modern movie blockbusters, video games, VR and AR, NASA's moon crater mapping missions, Google's heritage site preservation projects, and Meta's vision for the Metaverse all hinge on 3D modeling capabilities. However, creating photorealistic 3D images is still a resource and time consuming process, despite NVIDIA's work to automate object generation and Epic Game's RealityCapture mobile app, which allows anyone with an iOS phone to scan real-world objects as 3D images. 

Text-to-Image systems like OpenAI's DALL-E 2 and Craiyon, DeepAI, Prisma Lab's Lensa, or HuggingFace's Stable Diffusion, have rapidly gained popularity, notoriety and infamy in recent years. Text-to-3D is an offshoot of that research. Point-E, unlike similar systems, "leverages a large corpus of (text, image) pairs, allowing it to follow diverse and complex prompts, while our image-to-3D model is trained on a smaller dataset of (image, 3D) pairs," the OpenAI research team led by Alex Nichol wrote in Point·E: A System for Generating 3D Point Clouds from Complex Prompts, published last week. "To produce a 3D object from a text prompt, we first sample an image using the text-to-image model, and then sample a 3D object conditioned on the sampled image. Both of these steps can be performed in a number of seconds, and do not require expensive optimization procedures."

OpenAI

If you were to input a text prompt, say, "A cat eating a burrito," Point-E will first generate a synthetic view 3D rendering of said burrito-eating cat. It will then run that generated image through a series of diffusion models to create the 3D, RGB point cloud of the initial image — first producing a coarse 1,024-point cloud model, then a finer 4,096-point. "In practice, we assume that the image contains the relevant information from the text, and do not explicitly condition the point clouds on the text," the research team points out. 

These diffusion models were each trained on "millions" of 3d models, all converted into a standardized format. "While our method performs worse on this evaluation than state-of-the-art techniques," the team concedes, "it produces samples in a small fraction of the time." If you'd like to try it out for yourself, OpenAI has posted the projects open-source code on Github.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers have developed a way to monitor breathing based on tiny changes in WiFi signals. They say their BreatheSmart deep-learning algorithm could help detect if someone in the household is having breathing issues.

WiFi signals are almost ubiquitous. They bounce off of and pass through surfaces as they try to link devices with routers. But any movement will alter the signal's path, including how the body moves as we breathe, which can change if we have any issues. For instance, your chest will move differently if you're coughing.

Other researchers have explored the use of WiFi signals to detect people and movements, but their approaches required dedicated sensing devices and their studies provided limited data. A few years ago, a company called Origin Wireless developed an algorithm that works with a WiFi mesh network. Similarly, NIST says BreatheSmart works with routers and devices that are already available on the market. It only requires a single router and connected device.

The scientists changed the firmware on a router so that it would check "channel state information,” or CSI, more frequently. CSI refers to the signals that are sent from a device, such as a phone or laptop, to the router. CSI signals are consistent and the router understands what they should look like, but deviations in the environment, such as the signal being affected by surfaces or movement, modify the signals. The researchers got the router to request these CSI signals up to 10 times per second to gain a better sense of how the signal was being modified.

The team simulated several breathing conditions with a manikin and monitored changes in CSI signals with an off-the-shelf router and receiving device. To make sense of the data they collected, NIST research associate Susanna Mosleh developed the algorithm. In a paper, the researchers noted that BreatheSmart correctly identified the simulated breathing conditions 99.54 percent of the time.

Mosleh and Jason Coder, who heads up NIST’s research in shared spectrum metrology, hope developers will be able to use their research to create software that can remotely monitor a person's breathing with existing hardware. “All the ways we’re gathering the data is done on software on the access point (in this case, the router), which could be done by an app on a phone,” Coder said. “This work tries to lay out how somebody can develop and test their own algorithm. This is a framework to help them get relevant information.”

Earlier this year, Alienware released what’s arguably the best all-around gaming monitor on the market right now: the AW3423DW. But last week, LG quietly announced its latest batch of UltraGear gaming monitors and after getting a chance to check them out in person, I can say that Alienware’s display has some formidable new rivals.

Unlike the AW3423DW, LG’s monitors are available in two sizes intended for slightly different use cases. There’s the 27-inch 27GR95QE-B, which sports a flat panel with 2,560 x 1,440 resolution meant for both general use and more demanding competitive play, while the 45-inch 45GR95QE-B packs a curved display with 800R radius and 3,440 x 1,440 resolution designed to deliver a more immersive experience.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The nice thing about these monitors is that regardless of which one you pick, both feature 240Hz refresh rates – the highest you can get from any OLED monitor available today. On top of that, both models have incredibly fast response times of just 0.3 ms (gray to gray). What’s more, they each support both AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync while also outputting a dazzling range of colors (up to 98.5 percent of the DCI-P3 spectrum). In short, LG’s new UltraGear displays deliver a laundry list of premium display tech with one clear downside: a relatively low max brightness of just 200 nits.

Admittedly, low brightness might not be a big deal if, like many people, you prefer gaming in dark environments – especially since you’ll probably want to turn the lights down anyway to make the most of LG’s built-in RGB light strips. You can even sync the LEDs on the back to what’s being displayed on screen, which adds a bit of bias lighting without the need for additional hardware. Another small bonus of having a lower max brightness is that there’s no need for an ABL (auto brightness limiter) setting like you see on some other OLED monitors, so you don’t have to worry about the display randomly getting dimmer when looking at primarily white screens (like when you’re viewing word docs or spreadsheets).

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Unfortunately, because of the size of the displays – particularly the huge 45-inch model – text doesn’t look quite as sharp as I’d like. When you’re gaming that’s not an issue, but when I browsed the web, I could see color fringing and a bit of general blurriness when reading stories and headlines. Now, it’s important to mention that color fringing is something that can be seen on a handful of new OLED displays (most notably QD-OLED panels due to their triangular sub-pixel arrangement), and it’s possible that tools like Better ClearType or an update to Microsoft’s own Clear Type feature could address this issue. But unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to test that out during my brief hands-on.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

That said, while the new UltraGear monitors may not be the best all-around displays for both productivity and entertainment, they look stunning in gaming scenarios. The 27GR95QE-B is the more approachable of the two as it only costs $1,000 (versus $1,700 for the 27GR95QE) and has a better chance of actually fitting on your desk – at least without you needing to rearrange everything. At 27 inches, it’s also closer in size to what pro gamers use in tournaments (most competitions feature 24-inch monitors), while support for tilt, swivel, height and even portrait adjustments make it super easy to position the display properly.

But the best thing is just how good everything looks in motion. LG brought in some pro Valorant gamers from Evil Geniuses to show off the new UltraGears and even in the midst of a firefight everything stayed tack sharp which brings me to the monitors’ most important spec: their 240Hz refresh rates. Previously, the highest you could get on an OLED monitor (including premium rivals like the Alienware AW3423DW and Samsung Odyssey OLED G8) was 175Hz.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

For people still using 60Hz displays, that gap might not sound like a big deal. However, the issue is that the general rule when it comes to monitors is that you typically only notice a difference in perceivable performance when you double the refresh rate (e.g., from 60Hz to 120Hz or 120Hz to 240Hz) That means anyone upgrading from a 120Hz displays to one of Alienware’s or Samsung’s rivals might not notice a big improvement while still having a panel that can’t quite hit the super high frame rates (typically from 240 to 300 fps or more) that competitive gamers prefer. But with LG’s latest UltraGears, you get the deep blacks and rich vibrant colors that OLED displays are known for and a refresh rate that rivals all but the very fastest LCD screens.

As for the larger and more expensive 45GR95QE-B, while it has a slightly lower pixel density than its smaller sibling, its curved panel delivers an encompassing experience. Its 800R radius is meant to mimic the natural shape of your eye while wrapping around you even more than more typical 1000R curved displays. The sweet spot for the monitor is about two and a half feet from the screen and it’s basically perfect. You can still see from edge to edge so you get that glorious panoramic view, but it's not so expansive that you need to constantly move your head to spot buttons or icons that might live in the corners. Interestingly, when I asked EG Com if the 800R curve messed up his aim when compared to a flat display, he said even though it was his first time using this monitor he didn’t have to adjust much at all.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Aside from the new panels themselves, there are a couple of other design tweaks I want to call out. The first is that to better cater to competitive gamers, LG is using new feet on the UltraGears’ stands so you can position your keyboard closer to the monitor. But to me, the bigger upgrade is the inclusion of a dedicated remote for adjusting image settings. Instead of having to fumble around with hidden buttons or a joystick on the back of the monitor, you can just sit back and enjoy a more TV-like experience. The addition of a remote is something we’ve seen from other flagship monitors like Samsung’s Odyssey Ark and it’s a trend I’m really hoping to see trickle down to more mainstream displays across the market.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

So while LG’s new UltraGear monitors don’t have the best brightness, they’ve got pretty much every other high-end feature you could want on a gaming monitor right now. And with the 27-inch model going for $1,000 while the bigger 45-inch version going for $1,700, LG suddenly has some very interesting alternatives (both smaller and larger) to Alienware’s fantastic QD-OLED display.

CES 2023 usually features some pretty eccentric gadgets, and Lenovo is kicking off that trend with the Go Desk Station with Webcam. It's designed for those of us with limited desk space, serving as a webcam, adjustable desk light, Qi wireless charger and expansion hub all in one. It doesn't compromise on any of those things, but is priced accordingly.

The primary feature is the Lenovo Go 4K Pro Webcam (also available as a standalone camera) designed for video conferencing and high-res streaming. It can stream 4K at up to 30 fps and includes autofocus and auto-framing with an adjustable field of view, along with auto ambient light adjustment, via the built-in desk light.

Lenovo

That desk light rides on a height-adjustable and rotating arm, and can be positioned in almost any direction to illuminate your face or objects on your desk. You can choose from three color temperature options to match your environment, including 3,000K (yellow white), 4,500K (cool white) and 6,500K (daylight), with brightness up to 1600 lux at 0.5 meters (1.5 feet). 

It's a versatile hub, as well. It has a 135-watt USB-C power input with a full-function 65-watt USB-C port for laptop power, to start with. It also includes 15-watt Qi compliant charging pad for mobile devices, a 20W USB Type-C port, two USB Type-A 3.1 ports and an HDMI 2.0 output for external displays up to 4K at 60fps.  

If you're already looking for a desk lamp, wireless charger and USB hub, this could fit the bill in just a single purchase. You'll pay for it though. The Go Desk Station with Webcam arrives in March 2023 starting at $329, or you can grab the Lenovo Go 4K Pro webcam by itself for $150, also in March next year. 

Lenovo has launched the IdeaPad Flex 3i 2-in-1 Chromebook with improved features over last year's Flex 3i Chromebook, along with a higher price tag. The 16:10 12.2-inch display is an inch larger than before, and it can be used as a laptop, tablet or made to stand in tent-mode for entertainment. It also comes with thinner bezels and looks a fair bit less chunky than the previous model. Performance-wise, it offers the latest N-series Intel processors (the N100 or N200), up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

Other features include an optional Full HD webcam with a physical shutter and designated mute key, along with faster connectivity via WiFi 6E. It offers up to 12 hours of battery life, an optional backlit keyboard, tuned speakers and a drop-hinge feature that lifts the keyboard for a more ergonomic typing experience. It's shipping in May 2023 starting at $350, a fair chunk more than the $190 price on the current Flex 3i.

Lenovo

If it's an Android tablet you're after, Lenovo also took the wraps off the Tab M9 ahead CES 2023. It's essentially designed as an entertainment unit, with a 9-inch "Netflix HD-supported" 1,920 x 1,200 display, Dolby Atmos spatial audio support and dual stereo speakers. If you're more into books, it also offers an immersive reading mode that simulates the color of real book pages, lets you soften the tone for your eyes, and choose from various ambient background sounds. 

It comes with a MediaTek Helio G80 Octa-Core processor, Android 12 OS, up to 128GB of storage, 13 hours of battery life, face unlocking and WiFi 5 connectivity. It arrives in Q2 2023 for $140, though it'll cost more with the optional folio case shown above.