Today’s the official kickoff date of the Consumer Electronics Show for 2020. Like I said yesterday, you’d think the first day was yesterday, but that was just Media Day. The show floor officially opens today, which means two things: there will be plenty of hands-on coverage of new gadgets from various outlets and there shouldn’t be too much more news. In other words, the worst is behind us.
I couldn’t fit everything I wanted to talk about in the newsletter last night, so this is kind of a part 2. I rounded up a few more stories that are worth your attention, so please enjoy this roundup with a cup of coffee. I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible.
Lenovo unveils its first foldable PC priced at $2,499
Foldables are just starting to become mainstream, and this new one from Lenovo certainly has the potential to attract customers with its futuristic look. Called the ThinkPad X1 Fold, the device is basically a foldable laptop that comes with a Bluetooth keyboard and pen. I won’t go over all the details here, but if you wanna know what Lenovo thinks this thing is useful for, click here.
Samsung debuts an auto-rotating TV for portrait and landscape content
I was talking to my uncle last night about some of the announcements out of CES so far, and the Samsung Sero TV came up in our conversation. I hadn’t spoken about the TV to anyone yet, but as we were having a conversation about it, it immediately dawned on me that this thing is pretty dumb.
It basically lets you mirror your phone screen and automatically rotates when it detects the orientation of your device has changed. That’s it. Other than that, it’s a standard 43-inch 4K QLED television, one that doesn’t even have all of Samsung’s latest technologies. That kind of confirms my suspicion that the whole “auto-rotating” thing is a cool trick, but one that will barely be used.
If you’re into it, the Sero should start shipping this year in the United States.
HP announces new all-in-one PC with wireless phone charging
It isn’t too common for companies to announce new all-in-one computers at CES, but HP decided to do it anyway. Called the Envy 32 AiO, the PC comes with a 31.5-inch 4K display with HDR and 600 nits of brightness, 9th-gen Intel processors, up to 1TB of SSD storage, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 (Max-Q) graphics. In its base, you’ll find a wireless charging pad where you can place your phone and give it some juice while you sit at your desk. In addition, the Bang & Olufsen speakers can be used as Bluetoth speakers when the PC is off so you can listen to music or podcasts without having to turn your machine on.
The new Envy 32 AiO is on sale starting today for $1,599.99.
HP upgrades Spectre x360 15 w/ new design and specs
This is another story that I covered in more detail on the website, but in short, HP upgraded its 15-inch version of the Spectre x360 for 2020 to bring it in line with its 13-inch counterpart. It includes slimmer bezels, 10th-gen Intel chips, an improved design with an updated IO layout, and a much better trackpad with Windows Precision drivers. I don’t have any pricing or launch information yet, but that’ll likely come in the future. Keep it locked to Wiretapped for a follow up to this story.
Lenovo unveils the first ARM-based 5G laptop
5G is just starting to take off with 2020 promising much more wide-spread rollouts of the tech. This week at CES, Lenovo unveiled the first ARM-powered laptop that’ll take advantage of the new cellular connection.
Called the Yoga 5G, the laptop is a pretty standard 2-in-1 from Lenovo with a boring gray design, a 14-inch full HD display, 8GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, and a couple of USB-C ports. It’s inside the laptop where things get interesting: Lenovo combines Qualcomm’s 8cx processor with the X55 5G modem. This gets you an ARM-based machine with the ability to connect to 5G via the nano-SIM slot.
It also gets you better battery life, with Lenovo claiming up to 24 hours of usage out of the machine. I don’t know if you should believe this claim or not, but it at least sounds cool.
The Yoga 5G will launch this spring for $1,499.
Lenovo made a 21.5-inch digital picture frame
While on the subject of Lenovo, I’d like a take a moment and share Lenovo’s new Smart Frame which is literally a 21.5-inch digital picture frame for your wall. It’ll cost $399 and display photos you sync with it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t directly sync with Google Photos, but it’ll probably be easy to sync your pictures anyway.
LG is bringing Apple TV to its TVs
There’s always a ton of TV news at CES, and one of LG’s announcements during its keynote is perhaps one of the more important stories. According to the company, it’ll be releasing a software upgrade to its 2020, 2019, and 2018 OLED and NanoCell televisions with support for Apple’s Apple TV app. This update will roll out at some point this year, which could literally be December 31st given LG’s track record with software. Still, at least they have the ambition to bring the app to its televisions.
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