The game-changing tech products that will launch this year

Each year in January, tech experts gather in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where tech brands large and small debut their next big thing. It’s hard to imagine that there were just 14 brands at the first-ever CES in 1967 – this year, 4,400 exhibiting companies and 182,000 visitors descended on the show to get a sneak peek at the technology and trends we can expect to see in the year ahead. 

Many of technology’s most significant developments were first seen at CES. Philips launched their first home video recorder in 1970, Atari lifted the lid on the Pong games console in 1975, while Sony launched the CD player at the 1981 show. The main tech giants spend huge sums trying to outdo each other, but it’s often the small independent start-up companies who present the more experimental – and sometimes wacky – side of consumer technology. Here are the standouts that may be coming to a house near you sooner than you think…

Televisions always dominate the headlines at CES, and 2019 was no different. While last year was all about 4K, resolutions have doubled with the latest 8K panels making headlines. Sony and Samsung both revealed wafer-thin wall-filling 98” 8K LCD screens that looked nothing short of spectacular.

As a bit of background, 8K is set to be the next big thing in picture quality – a screen so detailed it looks almost three-dimensional. The only catch is that nobody is actually making programmes in 8K yet – unless you count the pixel-perfect demos at the show – but that’s what everyone said a few years ago about good old 4K…

LG stole the show at CES this year with their revolutionary 65" LG Signature OLED TV R (pictured above), which rolls away into a brushed aluminium and wool base unit. The base also conceals a high-quality soundbar that doubles as a wireless music system. LG’s rollable TV will also have Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant built in, as well as support for the Apple AirPlay 2 wireless streaming and HomeKit. It will be very expensive, but with any luck competition from rivals will quickly push the prices down.  

And in the world of phones, the FlexPai from Royale is a hybrid smartphone that, when folded, has three screens to choose from, but when opened turns into a 7.8” tablet. With Samsung tipped to launch the Galaxy F (for fold) in a few weeks, this could be the next big thing for our pockets.

A couple of pairs of headphones caught the eye, including the Halo Sport 2, which uses neuropriming. This means the headband sends small electrical signals to the part of the brain that controls movement, putting your brain in a state of ‘hyper learning’ to enable you to push your workout that bit further.

Back in the real world however, the wireless Jabra Elite 85h (above) uses six microphones and artificial intelligence to differentiate between more than 6,000 different sounds in order to block them out more effectively. So, in theory, if you use them on a train, the headphones will specifically tune out the rail noises.

A rapidly expanding area at CES – and globally – is smart home tech. In the kitchen this year, Whirlpool demoed the Connected Hub Wall Oven, which uses augmented reality to overlay a touchscreen on the glass door. The result is that the oven can show you which rack to use and where to place it, tell you which setting is needed and even zoom in on the food, so you don’t have to open the door and let out the heat. 

And LG took a break from roll-up TVs to launch HomeBrew, a countertop beer robot that brews almost four litres of beer from a coffee-pod-style capsule containing malt, yeast, hop oil and flavouring. Ring also added to their impressive product line-up with the Door View Cam, a smart door-mounted video doorbell. If someone decides to knock instead of ring the bell, a motion sensor alerts you to their arrival. 

You couldn’t move for voice-controlled smart home gadgets at CES this year, with everything from bathroom mirrors, toilets and automatic dog feeders boasting voice and smart home integration.

The water-resistant KitchenAid Smart Display is a Google-powered voice assistant designed to be your personal sous chef. It can stream from Spotify or Netflix and also offers step-by-step recipe guides from the world’s best chefs. Lenovo also revealed the cute bedside Google-powered Smart Clock, designed to compete with Amazon’s Echo Spot. Waking up has never been so hi-tech. 

And you can expect your bathroom to get a tech makeover too, with a host of connected products designed to make the start of the day more efficient. Simple Human’s Sensor Mirror Hi-Fi Assist is a make-up mirror that boasts Bluetooth speakers and Google Assistant so you can catch up on the headlines while getting ready, while the Kohler Numi 2.0 Intelligent Toilet is the first of its kind, with Amazon Alexa voice control so you can ask the lid to open, flush and, thanks to built-in speakers and lights, turn your bathroom into a disco.