The ten coolest pieces of technology announced at CES 2021 • Eurogamer.net

1. Asus ROG Flow X13 Convertible Game Laptop

Asus brought fire after the annual show, with a seemingly relentless cavalcade of laptops, monitors, motherboards and peripherals. For me, the ROG Flow X13, a small 13-inch laptop with three (!!) graphics cards, was the highlight of their offering. You can choose between integrated Vega graphics from the Ryzen 5980HS processor, a discrete GTX 1650 GPU and a small external RTX 3080 graphics card.

The latter option is only available if you pick up the 2021 ROG XG Mobile case, which doubles the price, but it should unlock a ridiculous amount of gaming performance in an incredibly compact design – and the case also gives the laptop power and offers a tons of extra USB ports for peripherals while paired. Not bad for something smaller than the average laptop computer.

There’s also much more from the ROG Flow X13 itself, including a 360 ° hinge, a choice of 4K or 1080p 120Hz 16:10 screens, high-performance LPDDR4X-4266 memory, and 100W USB-C fast charging. Of course, all this will not be cheap, but the Flow X13 is still a very exciting laptop that is worth knowing.

If you want something more traditional, Asus has updated their popular Zephyrus G14 laptop with a Ryzen 5900HS CPU and RTX 3060 graphics; there is also a new 15-inch G15 with an RTX 3080 and a cheaper Tuf F15 with an 11th-generation Intel processor and up to an RTX 3070.

2. Razer Project Hazel smart face mask

Razer is known for making forward-looking but slightly unrealistic ‘draft’ announcements at CES, and 2021 is no different. Project Hazel is called ‘the smartest face mask in the world’, a N95 surgical respirator, active ventilation, UV cleansing and a voice amplifier. The design is also fantastic, with a clear section around your mouth so that people who read your lips or understand your expression; there is even a built-in light so people can still see your face at night. Oh, and there is RGB lighting, because we would be disappointed if it were not.

There were very few products announced at CES, where I immediately said, “wow, I want one of these” and really meant it, but for Project Hazel, I’m 100 percent on board. If we are still going to fight COVID for weeks and months, I would be damned if I did without a rechargeable face mask that blows out hot air, illuminates millions of colors and gives me a thriving voice. Razer, take my money.

3. LG LG27GP950 4K 160Hz HDMI 2.1 monitor

“What is the best HDMI 2.1 monitor?”

This is a question I got a lot of last year with the release of the Xbox Series X and PS5, and the only real answer was that there was not one – unless you counted LG’s 48-inch CX OLED as a monitor has. Now it looks like HDMI 2.1 monitors are finally coming to market, and the most exciting I have seen so far is LG’s LG27GP950.

This gripping screen has a 4K resolution and can be clocked from its 144Hz original refresh rate to 160Hz, a new highlight for a 4K monitor. For HDMI, you’re limited to 4K 120Hz, but you also get all the usual HDMI 2.1 features, including Auto Low Latency Mode and HDMI Forum VRR, as supported by the Xbox Series X / S. There’s also G-Sync and FreeSync for using the screen with AMD or Nvidia graphics cards. Finally, the Nano IPS panel that meets the requirements of DisplayHDR 600 meets quite strictly, which means it can reach 600 nets brightness for HDR highlights that really appear.

Of course, the LG27GP950 will not be the only HDMI 2.1 monitor on the market. There’s the Eve Spectrum, which I recently had a chance to test (unfortunately HDMI 2.1 support works) and other recent announcements like the Asus PG32UQ, a 32-inch HDMI 2.1 monitor that may be a better choice for those with larger budgets and larger spaces. I’m sure we’ll see other options too, which is good news for anyone looking for the best monitor for their PS5 or Series X.

4. LaVie Mini (and Lenovo ThinBook Plus Gen 2) foreign laptops

Lenovo has teamed up with NEC, the LaVie Mini, to bring a cool Switch-like PC concept to the show. It has an 8-inch 1080p touchscreen and an 11th-generation Intel processor with Iris XE graphics, but the interesting part is how it works – it can be used as a handheld device or slid into a dock to work more like a super-small laptop. . It looks like a similar experience to the BBP Win Max, a fixed-form-factor laptop with an integrated gamepad. I recently tested one of them and hope to share my thoughts soon.

Lenovo also announced a bunch of more traditional laptops, including one that struck me: the ThinBook Plus Gen 2, a laptop with a 12-inch e-ink touch screen on the back of the standard screen. The e-ink section is larger, higher and has a higher refresh rate than the original model that appeared at last year’s show, which hopefully makes it more useful to make notes, to make a list and to check calendars . E-ink forever just feels like it’s about to break out of the e-reader category, so maybe this is the striking success that makes e-ink laptops viable?

5. LG A1 – the first affordable OLED?

For the past two years, LG has made our best recommended 4K TVs for gaming, thanks to their incredible OLED panels and willingness to include forward-looking gaming features such as 120Hz panels, varying refresh rate support and HDMI 2.1 ports. The newly announced A1 OLED, on the other hand, flies by clinging to a 60Hz panel, failing to offer variable refresh rates, and maintaining the old HDMI 2.0 standard.

It sounds pretty lame, but the sheer existence of the A1 suggests that this OLED TV will be significantly more affordable than its BX predecessor, allowing a whole new population to experience the benefits of OLED – almost infinite contrast, wide viewing angles , perfect pixel response time and so on. All of this can make games really lively, to say nothing of movies and TV, and the prospect of an under- £ 1000 / $ 1000 OLED is exciting.

6. HyperX Alloy Origins 60 mechanical keyboard

Yup, that HyperX Alloy Origins 60 is just a small keyboard – and it’s great. 60 percent of designs have been in vogue for some time among mechanical keyboard enthusiasts, and by the end of 2020 and early 2021, we saw the mainstream slowly catch up with that mania. The idea here is that the compact design provides much more space for your mouse and still contains the most important keys for games, while the rest is accessible via a feature layer.

The Alloy Origins 60 comes with PBT key caps, usually a premium aftermarket upgrade, HyperX’s own red linear switches, a detachable USB-C cable and reprogrammable keys. HyperX offers the Alloy Origins 60 at $ 100, a lower price than the Fnatic Streak 65 ($ 110) or Razer Huntsman Mini ($ 120), so if the quality is there, it could be an excellent introduction to the new smaller size be.

7. LG UltraFine OLED Pro 4K computer monitor

OLED is the future. Sure, there are still issues around burning in, and Mini LED TVs are pretty cool, but after experiencing an OLED screen for games and movies – those blacks, the immediate pixel response time, the viewing angles, the vibrancy – it’s hard to go back to an old school LCD. That’s why I’m very happy to see LG’s UltraFine OLED Pro, a 32 – inch 4K monitor with a proper OLED screen. It’s a more manageable size than the previous best OLED content creator monitor, the 48-inch LG CX TV, and has more useful inputs such as DisplayPort and USB-C with 90W power delivery.

It will not be affordable – UltraFine screens never are – but it’s an important first step towards making OLED screens viable on the desktop. It should be a great choice for designers and content creators, capable of using the high pixel density and excellent color accuracy, and it offers companies like LG the opportunity to find out how OLED can best be adapted for desktop use. LG Display, part of it chaebol like LG Electronics, is making a bunch of 20-32 inch screens next year and I pray that as many as possible will make it in monitors like this – except, you know, cheaper.

XPG Mana Caffeine Chewing Gum

XPG has announced a bunch of internal and external SSDs – including PCIe 4.0 models that should be fast enough to work as expandable storage in the PS5 – but we’re not interested in that. Instead, we talk about their gum, which is packed with exciting ingredients such as caffeine (for attention), lutein (for eye health) and mint (for taste). While Razer was technically the first technology company to offer glue, and Acer has been making Predator Shot energy drinks for a while, endless CES 2021 headlines make the prospect of caffeine chewing gum very appealing.

9. Razer Project Brooklyn – the best gaming chair

Yup, Razer made this list twice. In addition to creating the ultimate accessory for COVID protection, the company known as ‘Lightning Snake’ in China also unveiled their Project Brooklyn wheelchair concept at this year’s show.

The chair looks pretty ordinary at first, but then you notice that it has a desk in the armrests for your keyboard and mouse … and a 60-inch rollable OLED screen (!!) that unfolds from behind your head. Oh, and there is RGB lighting, haptic motors for insane vibrations, a carbon fiber seat and cable guidance for your peripherals. In a quieter year, this insane combination could undoubtedly take the best place, so it speaks to how it is now with 2021 that Project Brooklyn is just scraping a mention in this list.

TCL’s All-8K 2021 6 Series Series

I knew I wanted to include one of TCL’s CES 2021 announcements in this summary, but I could not decide between the two. rollable scrolling screens and their upcoming 6-series TVs … but in the end, it’s the TVs that should get the nod, because they’re worth knowing. The short and short point of this is that each of the 6-series TVs will be in the middle series of 8K models, which significantly lowers the access point for 8K screens – although we only have historical prices as a guideline here, as TCL has not yet final prices still announced. These models also feature TCL’s second generation Mini LED backlight, something the giants LG and Samsung are using for the first time in some of their 2021 TVs.

8K games are technically possible today in some games with DLSS and a very high graphics card – even if it does not really make sense – so there is an argument that recording an 8K TV offers a small future – prove … as long as you do not want to upgrade again in five or ten years. Regardless, it’s an interesting development and the development of mainstream 8K adoption.

Finish

Pew, it’s about it! It was a great pleasure to cover all these new products and concepts, and there are so many more announced that this year did not make the cut – Dell’s 40-inch curved 5120×2160 monitor, WD’s 4TB external SSD, new laptops from Acer, Razer, Lenovo and Asus, the list goes on and on.

What do you find most exciting about this year’s CES? Let us know in the comments or write to us on Twitter @wsjudd or @digitalfoundry!