CES 2024 has been a whirlwind for the Mashable team. Some products were bizarre, including the WeHead, which is designed to put a (creepy) face to AI. Others entertained us, including the TCL RayNeo X2 Lite smart glasses and LG’s smart home robot.
Now that we’re headed back home, it’s time for Mashable to look back at what we’ve seen and determine the best tech products in the following categories: TV, laptop, car, tablet, phone, and wearable.
All of these products demonstrated some degree of innovation, allure, practicality, and technological advancement, eliciting feelings of intrigue, curiosity, and wonder.
Best TV
LG Signature OLED T
Credit: LG
A transparent TV might not be the most practical product. Why would you want a TV you can see through when the goal is to watch it? But that’s where LG’s innovation comes in. The LG Signature OLED T is a regular (albeit high-end) OLED TV that has a transparent mode when the contrast filter is lifted. This means when you’re not watching it, the display seamlessly blends into the background.
Plus, the OLED T comes with special designs and widgets for transparent mode that make it look like what Mashable’s Stan Schroeder describes as a “living sculpture.” Before you ask, this is not just a concept TV. LG will actually be selling this futuristic display sometime this year. No word on price yet, but you can bet it costs about as much as a priceless work of art.
— Cecily Mauran
Best monitor
Alienware 32-inch 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor
Credit: Dell/Alienware
Meet the world’s first world’s first 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor. It supports Dolby Vision, delivers a refresh rate of 240Hz, and offers an impressive responsive rate of 0.03 ms. Plus, according to what I’ve seen when I visited Dell’s suite, it has top-of-the-line color performance, too.
And guess what, it’s only priced at $1,199.
Best car
Razer Lexus TX
Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable
This one gets in on a bit of a technicality because we didn’t technically see it at a CES event. Instead, Razer had its promotional Lexus TX concept car sitting outside our hotel, which we ran across randomly at 11 p.m. one night. Serendipity!
Put simply, it’s a LAN party on wheels. Razer filled this 2024 Lexus TX with gamer chairs in the back rows, four widescreen gaming monitors, and even a desk and keyboard at one of the backseats. There’s a series of RGB lights on the exterior that can change color on demand, too. It looks like a gaming laptop that’s the size and shape of an SUV.
Then you pop the trunk and see a docking station for four Razer gaming laptops and a built-in Xbox Series X. Razer’s Lexus concept car may not be street legal, but it’s our winner for best car at CES 2024.
— Alex Perry
Best tablet
Wacom Cintiq Pro drawing tablets
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable
I got a chance to test the Wacom Cintiq Pro at Showstoppers, and I was blown away by the number of nuanced tools that I got to use to facilitate my creativity as a drawing hobbyist. It delivers a 4K display, and whether it was the 27-inch, 22-inch or 17-inch, the tablet was spacious enough to tap into my affinity for drawing comics.
The Wacom Cintiq Pro comes with the new Wacom Pen, which felt ergonomic to the touch. It allowed me to use natural touch gestures, including rotating, zooming, and panning.
For anyone who is an artist, I’d highly recommend snagging one of Wacom’s latest tablets on the market.
— Kimberly Gedeon
Best laptop
Asus Zenbook Duo
This dual-display laptop won our hearts, as it’s able to transform into several different modes, including a lie-flat posture for sharing, a book-like mode that lets you multitask between two apps, and a stunning vertical workstation with two 14-inch displays, 3K OLED screen, and a 120Hz refresh rate.
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable
What makes it particularly striking is its pricing. Typically, laptops that facilitate multitasking functionality, including the HP Spectre Fold and the Lenovo Legion 9i, are quite pricey, climbing to $2,000 at the lowest end and up to $5,000 at the top end.
Surprisingly, Asus’ Zenbook Duo is only $1,500. Plus, it has a detachable keyboard that can be attached via Bluetooth or pogo pins, and it actually has a touchpad. Most keyboards in this class of laptop typically don’t have touchpads, forcing you to navigate with your finger and smudge the display with your dirty little fingers. However, in the case of the Zenbook Duo, it has a touchpad, so you don’t need to sully the display with your smears and ugly fingerprints.
The best part of the ZenBook Duo is its accessibility. Dual-display laptops are no longer out of reach for the average consumer.
— Kimberly Gedeon
Best wearable
XReal Air 2 Ultra
Wearables, and specifically AR wearables, were a big thing at CES 2024 this year. So, there are a lot of contenders for best wearable.
Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable
TCL-incubated TCL RayNeo X2 Lite would easily steal the show with its real-time translations, complete with augmented reality captions. These wireless glasses were impressive to see, but it still feels like an early work-in-progress version of what could be a superior future product.
On the contrary, XReal Air 2 Ultra was the most ready for primetime in the category that I tried. XReal is a leader in the AR wearable space and already had an AR glasses product that brings a crisp, clear HD in-glass display for on-the-go gaming and movie watching when you travel. The Air 2 Ultra upgrades those glasses into a light version of the Apple Vision Pro.
What I really liked about XReal’s approach here was that they seem to best understand the utility of the AR glasses they make. RayNeo and even Apple appear to believe that you will live in their product and choose the glasses over your smartphone or computer. XReal’s approach is different. They seem to know that wearables, at least glasses wearables, are not there. Consumers are interested in using them for specific purposes, like playing video games while on an airplane.
The XReal Air 2 Ultra were also hands-down the most comfortable AR glasses I tried. And in this space, that alone would be enough to come out on top.
— Matt Binder
Best smart home
Samsung Bespoke 4-Door Flex Refrigerator
Credit: Samsung
What struck me about Samsung’s 4-Door Flex Refrigerator is that it can recognize 33 food items, thanks to its AI capabilities. This means that it can detect a variety of food stuff in your fridge, plus it can give you recipes based on what’s inside.
— Kimberly Gedeon
Best concept
Bmind smart mirror
Everyone wants an AI in everything now, including your mirror. Last year, Baracoda came to CES with BMind, a smart mirror with a focus on your personal wellness. Now, it’s brought BMind back with a personal AI assistant that speaks to you about gratitude meditation and tips on how to be your best self on a bad day.
Credit: Baracoda
Mashable’s AI reporter Cecily Mauran was able to get a hands-on experience with BMind and said that, unlike other smart AI assistants, Baracoda’s CareOS takes privacy seriously. According to the company, the AI model and the information it receives is stored locally and it only connects to the internet if you want it to.
It’s not available for consumers at the moment, as Baracoda instead is choosing to partner with mirror manufacturers. So don’t be surprised if you see talking mirrors in the near future.
— Chance Townsend
UPDATE: Jan. 12, 2024, 5:22 p.m. EST This story has been updated to reflect the XReal Air 2 Ultra was Mashable’s choice for “Best Wearable.”
