CES 2018 Day 1: From Electric Cars to Laptops, What Created Buzz

All the excitement from Day 1 of CES 2018. From Byton’s new Concept car to new range of laptops unveiled.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is held in Las Vegas. 

(Photo: AP)

The month of January is always a busy month for tech experts as it heralds in a lot of innovative technology that we can expect in the coming months.

As CES (Consumer Electronics Show) has already kicked off and set Las Vegas rocking, here is a look at some of the tech that caught our eyes on day 1 of the gala event.

Undoubtedly, the Future is About ‘Going Electric’

The Byton Concept comes with a 1.25 metre display on its dash.(Photo Courtesy: Byton)

Though not an auto show, electric cars were still creating headlines at the event. The focus on day 1 was on a Chinese startup known as Byton who introduced their EV (Electric Vehicle) dubbed as the ‘Concept’.

The manufacturers say that the car is meant to replace your smartphones. It comes with what the company calls a “coast-to-coast” display, that is a 1.25 meter screen that pans across the entire dashboard.

The first car off the assembly line will be in 2019.(Photo Courtesy: Byton)

It is controlled by a handful of gestures and also comes with Alexa’s voice recognition technology. It’s a tech loaded vehicle that comes with additional features like heart-rate sensor, facial recognition and a rotating front seat.

The company says that the first car for commercial use will be made available in 2019, with China being the first recipient followed by the US and Europe by 2020.

KIA motors was also busy at the event with the launch of their very own battery-electric car called Niro EV.

KIA Niro.(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

The design is quite reminiscent of the current Niro SUV with some futuristic adjustments and cosmetic additions.

It comes bundled with tech like Active Pedestrian Warning System thanks to front view cameras, front speakers and object recognition technology.

The 64 kWh battery inside is capable of delivering a mileage of 383 kilometers. It can also fast charge and give 185 kilometers of mileage in just 30 minutes.

Volkswagen and Nvidia announced that their future cars will recognise drivers and respond to their needs.

The I.D. Buzz from Volkswagen in its new avatar.(Photo Courtesy: Nvidia)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced a partnership with Volkswagen as the German automobile company unveiled their concept car I.D. Buzz which will come with features like an Intelligent Co-Pilot with an in-car virtual assistant powered by Nvidia hardware and software.

Mostly Upgrades in the Laptops Department

2018 will see a lot of laptops hit the market and most of them are going to be sleek and gorgeous hybrids rather than big bulky machines.

At CES, Acer introduced the world’s slimmest laptop, the Swift 7. With a thickness of just 8.98 mm, it is even thinner than the HP Specter 13 and the Dell XPS 13.

The world’s slimmest laptop, Acer Swift 7.(Photo Courtesy: Acer)

Also, HP (Hewlett Packard) launched a hybrid of its own called Envy X2 which the company is touting as stiff competition to the Microsoft Surface Pro series. The Envy X2 also comes with a detachable keyboard and a stylus.

The HP Envy X2 offers up to 20 hours of battery life.(Photo Courtesy: YouTube/HP)

Also at the event was ASUS showcasing its latest series of ROG gaming laptops. Of the many, the cream of the portfolio was the ASUS ROG Strix SKT T1 Hero Edition that comes with an Intel i7 processor coupled with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10-series graphics card.

ASUS ROG Strix SKT T1 Hero Edition(Photo Courtesy: ASUS)

The laptops comes with a RGB back-lit keyboard(Photo Courtesy: Asus)

Also unveiled was the the ROG Strix GL12 desktop which is powered by a factory-overclocked 8th Generation Intel Core processor and a transparent side panel.

Lenovo also hit the refresh button on its X1 series by introducing the new X1 Tablet, X1 Yoga models and the X1 Carbon notebook at the event.

ThinkPad X1 Tablet.(Photo Courtesy: Lenovo)

Where the latest ThinkPad X1 Tablet offers a 13-inch 3K touchscreen tablet with a fingerprint scanner and an optional infrared camera, the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon notebook comes with an i7 Intel processor, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD hard drive.

ThinkPad X1 Carbon notebook(Photo Courtesy: Lenovo)

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga is a fully 360-degree convertible hybrid with a 14-inch HDR screen and comes with 15-hour long battery life.

ThinkPad X1 Yoga(Photo Courtesy: Lenovo)

Intel also let loose its little black box of power as it launched its mini-PC NUC (Next Unit of Computing) system, code name ‘Hades Canyon’. It has been launched in two variants and comes with the latest 8th Generation Intel i7 processor with Radeon RX Vega graphics.

‘Hades Canyon’ mini-PC NUC system. (Photo Courtesy: Intel)

Intel said that the company's smallest premium VR-capable system is ready for heavy content creators and VR enthusiasts.

Wearables Are Still In

2017 was a pretty slow year for wearables, though 2018 seems ready to usher in some freshness in this department. Garmin has already kicked off 2018 with the launch of the Garmin Forerunner 645 smart watch.

The Garmin Forerunner 645 comes with offline music support. (Photo Courtesy: Garmin)

This is the first watch from Garmin that supports offline music up to 500 songs. It is a fully GPS enabled watch that comes with always-on display and chemically strengthened glass.

It will be available with strap options in black and vivid pink colour when it is launched.