What We’re Looking Forward To From CES 2020

After years of covering this trade show, we’ve learned not to get our hopes up—a lot of the headline-grabbing “innovations” presented at CES in Las Vegas (a toilet paper robot, a salad-making pair of arms) won’t actually affect ordinary folks’ lives, if they ever make it to store shelves at all. After a few days of checking out the new offerings at CES 2020, though, our writers and editors have found some things to get excited about, such as a smart faucet that can dispense water at precise temperatures, a foldable computer that won’t crack, and a bassinet that can mimic the soothing effects of a car ride. Of course, we haven’t been able to test anything we’ve seen (that’ll come after we get our hands on stuff), but for now these are the items we’re most looking forward to.

Small improvements to our favorite ultrabook

New Dell XPS 13 (9300), available now, $1,250 for our recommended configuration

Dell has updated our long-standing favorite ultrabook with a few small but exciting upgrades—the biggest change in the XPS 13 (9300) is its taller, 13.4-inch screen, which promises to be particularly useful for scrolling through Web pages. Thanks to an even smaller bezel (the frame surrounding the screen), the new XPS 13 is a bit more compact than its predecessor, measuring 11.64 inches wide compared with 11.9 inches. And although the previous XPS 13 was already one of the lightest and most compact ultrabooks we’ve tested, the new model is a bit lighter, weighing 2.64 pounds versus 2.7 pounds. We also like the less cramped keyboard, the improved hinge, and the new fingerprint reader, even as the new model sacrifices a USB-C port and a battery indicator. It’s available now with 10th-generation Intel processors and the same 52 Wh battery as the previous model had, so we’ll test it as soon as possible to see how its battery life stacks up against that of our existing picks.

Foldable computers are here

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, expected midyear, $2,500

Whereas plenty of manufacturers are talking about their plans for foldable computers at CES 2020, Lenovo is making good on promises it made last May. The foldable prototype Lenovo unveiled then is back this year, now officially named the ThinkPad X1 Fold. Lenovo is well ahead of its competition in this regard, as the X1 Fold is here, it’s working, and it’s almost production ready. The company is even letting show attendees touch it, bend it, close it, and use it. Lenovo has designed the X1 Fold’s refined hinge and smart rubberized bezel elements around the folding OLED display to avoid the problems that plagued Samsung’s Galaxy Fold last fall. The screen is almost a throwback with its 4:3 aspect ratio (with a resolution of 2048×1536). And the leather cover is both practical and tasteful. The biggest question is who the X1 Fold is for, exactly. At $2,500, it’s far more expensive than more capable notebooks or even flagship Surface and MacBook models. As the first company to ship a device of this type, Lenovo has its work cut out for it in justifying the price and establishing the use cases for some undeniably impressive tech.

More processor options for your next laptop

AMD Ryzen 4000 laptop processors, early 2020

AMD’s Ryzen processors have been great for desktop PCs, and the competition has also prompted Intel to offer better performance for less money. The new AMD Ryzen 4000 laptop processors, which should start showing up in PCs early in 2020, could do the same thing for laptops. We’ve considered laptops with older Ryzen 2000 and 3000 chips (after getting similarly excited about them when we attended CES 2018), but in our real-world testing Intel laptops have still offered superior performance and battery life. The big news this time is that the Ryzen 4000 chips make improvements that should address those specific problems, thanks to technology borrowed from the well-reviewed Ryzen 3000 desktop chips. Consider me cautiously optimistic.

Finally, OLED TVs from more than LG and Sony

Vizio OLED, unknown release date, unknown price

Generally OLED TVs offer the best image quality of any TV technology today, but in the past they’ve been available in the US only from LG and Sony. This year we should see OLED models from Vizio, Konka, and Skyworth, which could create some more competition. All of the OLED panels are likely still made by LG, but with multiple TV vendors we should see more differentiation in features, design, and price than we have in the past. OLED prices have been falling for years now, and here’s hoping they’ll fall even faster in 2020.

LCD TVs that can rival OLEDs

Hisense XD9G, third quarter 2020, unknown price

One of the more promising technologies for improved TV displays in the future is dual-layer LCD. Using a second black-and-white LCD panel behind a traditional LCD panel gives LCD TVs the potential to offer contrast ratios that approach those of an OLED, free of local dimming. (Traditional LCD TVs haven’t been able to achieve the true blacks that OLED TVs produce, but they approximate it with local dimming.) The technology isn’t completely new, as Sony uses it in $30,000-plus professional broadcast monitors, but the Hisense XD9G promises to deliver it later this year, at a lower price than OLED TVs command. It offers over 1,000 nits of brightness (a regular LCD TV delivers 300 nits, though top-of-the-line versions go beyond 2,000) and Quantum Dots (a fancy name for technology that creates a wide color gamut), and in person we found that the viewing angles looked much better than we expected. Images were remarkably clean and free of halos around bright objects. This might be the start of some real-world LCD technology that can compete with OLED on black levels.

A photography drone that checks all the boxes

Autel EVO II drone, early 2020, $1,500 to $2,000

DJI has dominated the picks in our guide to photography drones for several years now, but a promising competitor is finally on the horizon. The Autel EVO II drone combines 8K video (our current pick, the DJI Mavic 2 Pro, captures 4K video) with 40 minutes of battery life plus the ability to detect and avoid obstacles in every direction. I’ve tested Autel drones before and been impressed with their ease of flight and smart software, but this model is the first drone from the brand to beat the specs of DJI’s Mavic line. Autel has yet to announce pricing, but an employee on the show floor at CES 2020 stated the EVO II should cost between $1,500 and $2,000. That’s on a par with the price of the DJI Mavic 2 Pro, which has a shorter battery life and lower resolution, though we should note that DJI is expected to release the Mavic 3 sometime this year. Whichever drone wins the specs battle, I’m glad to see Autel stepping up to the plate with tempting alternatives to DJI.

A (cheaper) motorized bassinet

4moms mamaRoo Sleep Bassinet, February 2020, $330

Parents and caretakers eyeing the ultra-popular, ultra-pricey Snoo bassinet may find the 4moms mamaRoo Sleep Bassinet a suitable (less-expensive) alternative. Although it doesn’t automatically start baby-soothing movements, as the Snoo does, the mamaRoo Sleep Bassinet does offer the company’s five signature modes of motion (including “car ride,” a horizontal figure-eight glide, and “kangaroo,” a gentle side-to-side bounce) first developed for its best-selling infant seat. It also offers subtle vibration and white noise options that you can control from the mamaRoo app or directly on the digital display (there’s a sleep timer, too). You can activate everything but the sleep timer on the bassinet’s digital display, which is tucked beneath the sleeping surface, out of the baby’s view. Of course, as we note in our guide to co-sleepers and bassinets, all babies are different, and there’s no guarantee this bed will help your kid fall or stay asleep.

The smart home delivers practical magic

U by Moen Smart Faucet, unknown release date, from $430

This year’s CES has a rich assortment of smart-home gear of the sort we expect, such as color-changing bulbs, alarm systems, plugs, switches, and so on. It also has the kind of odd curveball, like Charmin’s toilet-paper-delivering RollBot (PDF), that keeps us coming back every year. But CES 2020 is also seeing a big push from more traditional home brands, a trend that shows the smart home has hit a tipping point, heralding the imminent arrival of really smart homes. In particular, established names such as Moen, Kohler, and Toto have gone big on a range of smart fixtures that aren’t casual, disposable purchases like a plug-in gadget might be. Think kitchen sink faucets, home water-leak monitors and filters, smart shutoff valves, and “thank the maker” toilets and toilet seats. For instance, instead of getting out measuring cups, you can simply tell the U by Moen Smart Faucet to dispense precise amounts of water from as little as a tablespoon up to 15 gallons, at a specific temperature. Should the notion of talking to your sink or toilet sound absurd, a quick reminder: If you already have a smart home, you likely speak to Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri more often than you speak to your parents.

Improved earbuds that do more for your workout

Jabra Elite Active 75t earbuds, available now, $200

Jabra is updating a few of our current headphones picks. The Elite Active 75t pair will be in stores in February and is available for preorder now. These earbuds are an improvement over the Elite Active 65t (our current favorite workout earbuds), with longer battery life (increased from five hours to seven and a half hours) and a serious IP57 rating against moisture and dust. Jabra’s new on-ear set, the Elite 45h, will challenge our current budget Bluetooth headphones pick, the Jabra Move, when it’s available in March. The Elite 45h pair features 40 hours of battery life, better microphones for phone calls, and USB-C quick charging, all for $100.

Nearly invisible amplified hearing for much less

Eargo Neo HiFi, available now, $2,650

Eargo impressed the heck out of me with a nearly invisible hearing-assistance device that’s an FSA-eligible Class 1 hearing aid but available without a visit to an audiologist. The Neo HiFi pair is rechargeable, so you have no button batteries to fiddle with and replace, and it offers 20 hours of battery life when fully charged. The included charge case provides about a week’s worth of power, and if any of the sound-boost presets don’t work precisely for you, Eargo’s staff audiologists can tweak the sound by pushing a firmware update to your pair—for no extra charge. The Neo HiFi set usually costs just under $3,000, but considering that true hearing aids can cost $10,000 or more and are generally far more visible in use, this could be a game-changer for folks who have begun to experience mild hearing loss due to age or noise exposure.

New soundbars hasten the end for home theater systems

Klipsch Bar 54, available fall 2020, $1,500

Anyone hoping to convince their cohabitants of the need for a traditional home theater speaker system better talk fast. Several companies at CES 2020 are demonstrating new soundbars that come so close to the sound of full home theater systems that it might be impossible to persuade anyone that they really need five (or seven or 11) speakers plus a subwoofer and a receiver. Klipsch’s Bar 54 is one of the best of the new models. The bar itself has three front speakers plus two upward-firing speakers to create immersive Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X sound. Two wireless surround modules with front and top-firing speakers sit behind you, and a 12-inch subwoofer provides bass comparable to what you can get from a high-performance subwoofer. One HDMI cable connection from a TV is all you need to hook it up, and it can take voice commands through Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa devices. Similar models are on the way from Vizio, LG, JBL, and others.