CES 2022 Day 4 news live – BMW, GM, Samsung, Sony, LG and more

While we’re on the subject of wearables, how about these few nuggets that we spotted around and about? In fairness, it’s basically just two re-imagined Fossil Gen 6 smartwatches, a couple of new nuggets from Garmin and smart rings.

That doesn’t paint the whole picture, in fairness – by not being at the event in person, we weren’t able to dredge the fitness pavillion, for instance, and find the cool things that smaller brands are coming up with. There could be smart fitness bands, or advanced face masks that won’t make their way into the media for a few weeks – or CES could have just been something of a damp squib.

Either way, the Movano smart ring looks the most exciting to me – grabbing some lovely metrics and ways of making your data more accessible:

“The ring has an impressive list of capabilities, covering sleep monitoring, heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration levels, temperature, blood oxygen readings, step count, and calories burned – and the company is promising that the device is going to get more features over time as well.

“Those features, pending regulatory approval, will include blood glucose and blood pressure monitoring, something that smart rings haven’t managed to achieve so far. The Movano device might just hit the sweet spot in terms of price and features.”

Uh oh, Wear OS. Doesn’t look like CES is the proving ground that many expected it to be – this piece points out well that people were looking to Vegas as the place where loads of new watches were unveiled, but there was nothing in the end beyond the refreshed Fossil Gen 6 with Razer branding.

That doesn’t mean that it’s game over for Wear OS 3, just that it’s not the instant savior that many predicted it might be – yes, it’s a decent platform, but if it’s not encouraging a slew of new manufacturers to make wristwear, then it’s not particularly performing.

Yet. Our writer highlights that perhaps it actually is a touch too early for the tech, and CES 2023 could be the key battleground for the new Wear OS:

“For one thing, outside of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 range, Wear OS 3 hasn’t actually shipped yet, so wearables announced now are likely either to arrive running Wear OS 2 (with a software update to Wear OS 3 later in the year), or to not actually go on sale for quite a while.

“So it’s entirely possible that companies are waiting until they can actually ship devices with Wear OS 3 before announcing them.”

First of all, kudos to Olivia Tambini for a great pun about record players still being groovy. Then kudos again for a great round up of all the top players still kicking around in 2022, highlighting the renaissance the format is packing.

This isn’t just a simple list of the best record players from the show, but a detailed look at the juxtaposition of old-school, warm and crackly technology with modern desires for everything to be instant and digital.

She discusses why Bluetooth has become important, why cost is important, and finishes with a call to action we can all agree with: “Sonos, hurry up and make a record player, will you?”

What’s Canon up to? The elder statesman of the photography world should have been bringing all manner of new photography hardware and tricks to CES 2022, but instead it’s got a platform for Microsoft Teams and a weird VR world.

To be fair, the AMLOS system (Activate My Line Of Sight) for Teams is cool, using software to cut together one stream into many elements – for instance, a tilted whiteboard can be turned into a single stream even if your camera isn’t right at it.

And the new VR platform, Kokomo, comes with the disclaimer of “no assurances can be given that this software, in the current or any other form, will be made available for sale or use in the U.S. or elsewhere”, so I don’t feel it’s even worth talking about.

It feels like Canon has missed a trick here, like our Cameras Editor Mark Wilson put it: “Rather than a VR-based moonshot, couldn’t Canon make a photography-based app like Glass to provide a home for those fleeing from Instagram? Or why not make a next-gen companion app for its cameras that blows away the average competition? Innovations in computational photography, live streaming or camera accessories would all have been great fodder for CES 2022, too.”

Yep, just that.

There’s something fishy about Garmin at CES this year – mostly that the stuff the brand has shown off is a bit, well, boring. The Venu 2 Pro and Vivomove were fine, but hardly lit a fire under the world of wearables.

Many, including me, really suspected that we were going to be getting a Fenix 7 finally, with the watch rumored at the right time and leaked in images before the new year – a telltale sign that a launch is in the offing, and CES would have made sense.

But nope – nothing. And that led our intrepid Fitness Editor, Cat Ellis, to scratch the surface of what else is missing and, as it turns out, there are seven watches that we should have got at CES this year – and she makes a compelling case for all of them.

What were the most exciting laptops of CES 2022? There were a lot from a wide variety of brands including Asus, Alienware, Razer and more.

Matt Hanson, TechRadar’s Senior Computing Editor, has put together a selection of the top six you need to know about right now. You can see them all in the post below.

A personal air taxi is being shown at CES 2022. You can’t fly in it, but if you’re at the show in Vegas you’re allowed to go and sit down in the cockpit of the small aircraft.

It’s from a company called SkyDrive, and it looks much more like a giant drone rather than a vehicle. Think of this like a mini-helicopter, especially as it’s only designed to seat one person.

It features eight horizontal rotors, and it’s capable of lifting objects (or people) up to 1,000 pounds. We’ve seen similar concepts to this before, but it’s interesting to see a new competitior in the space.

Don’t expect to see these flying in the sky anytime soon. Test flights are underway, but the company behind this version doesn’t expect it’ll be able to use it until at least 2025.

Then there’s wearables – we’re talking smartwatches and health tracking tech. We’ve seen a variety of devices over CES 2022, even though there haven’t been as many introduced as we have seen in previous years.

Like clockwork, Fossil revealed new iterations of its Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch at CES 2022. Plus, we’ve seen two new smartwatches from Garmin and a smart ring competitior that you may want to hear about.

Expect a lot of roundup articles from TechRadar over the coming days, and one of the first is our selection of the biggest phone reveals we’ve seen at CES 2022. 

Traditionally, CES isn’t much of a smartphone show as most brands wait until MWC in March. The last few years have seen more and more major phone brands attend the show though, and CES 2022 has been one of the most prolific showings yet.

This year we’ve seen five major brands reveal smartphones, but one of those was a teaser for the OnePlus 10 Pro. Arguably the biggest name was Samsung with its Galaxy S21 FE, but we’ve been more excited by the Vivo V23 than anything else.

One of the things I love about CES each year is the health stuff – namely sleep, if I’m honest, because I’m so exhausted by jetlag.

But this year, there’s been a number of cool new devices shown off, from the Ible Airvida E1 (billed as the world’s first air purifier with built-in headphones, and emits negative ions that “can disrupt and breakdown coronavirus’ carbon-hydrogen bond and inactivate them immediately”) to the… interesting… Sengled Smart health Monitoring Light that can monitor your vital signs and even let the authorities know if you fall, should you have a network.

Most of this is conceptual at the moment, and we need to see more from this kind of stuff to know if it’s any good… but check out our roundup to see more from the amazing world of health tech.

Hot on the heels of the Chevrolet Silverado, there’s another story bubbling under the surface – the fact that Tesla is starting to have its lunch eaten by a number of other car brands. 

Whether that’s in terms of range, tech or simply price, the Tesla EV lead is being eroded – so a cheaper model is a must.

You could argue that Tesla is a more premium brand, but as John McCann, our Global Managing Editor and car writer extraordinaire says: “Tesla is still pitching itself as a premium brand, but climb inside an Audi or Mercedes EV after stepping out of a Tesla and the step-up in quality is marked.”

There’s a lot to do, but McCann highlights why it’s far from game over yet for Tesla…

It’s all kicking off in the EV space – GM had a big ol’ launch last night, where it talked up the Chevrolet Silverado EV – and it looks set to go toe-to-toe with Ford’s F-150 Lightning in almost every department. 

The Ford Lightning truck has been getting a huge amount of love since it was unveiled, and was one of the hottest EVs across TechRadar last year – so seeing a genuine challenger is exciting.

The Silverado will ship in two variants, a basic work truck (the WT) and a fully-loaded luxury model (the RST), some time in 2023. The former will start at $39,900, with the latter set to cost an almighty $105,000. 

It’s got an impressive 400 miles of range on a full charge, and will segment some power to allow users to charge their home in the event of a power outage. That’s useful.

As far as we’re concerned, Sony unveiled one of the only truly next-generation TVs at CES in the form of the A95K QD-OLED TV.

However, that doesn’t mean that there weren’t a slew of other great sets announced – whether it’s the mid-range marvels from Hi-Sense, a smaller 42-inch OLED from LG or just another nice little unveiling from TCL, there’s a lot to talk about – so we’ve rounded up the best TVs from CES.

Have a look through – your next TV could be in there. Or you could be like me and just marvel at how big / thin / colorful they are these days… 

This really happened yesterday: BMW launched a color-changing car. Well, it’s a concept, but maybe one day…?

It’s properly impressive, with the fully electric BMW iX packing body panels made from E Ink displays – the same technology you find in the screen of a Kindle ereader – in a system it’s calling ‘iX Flow’.

It’s understandably just a concept right now, but the possibilities are high – could the car display charge status from afar? Could it be customized to allow for bespoke art? This is an exciting idea.

John McCann, our Global Managing Editor, said from his demo: “In the virtual demonstration we were shown, the modified BMW iX was switched from white, to black, and back to white. It’s a convincing showing, although when white, rather than one clean color, the car has a triangular pattern on the bodywork. 

“This is likely due to the physical makeup of the panels on the car, and something which is less obvious from a distance.”

It would be amazing to try this in real life – there were moments where, as a tech journalist, you get to blow people’s mind, such as the first time I paid for something with a wearable.

This would surely be comparable. And a little like Grand Theft Auto if you were trying to escape the cops…

You know when you have that worry in the pit of your stomach that someone has broken into your house? The sound of broken glass is always a dead giveaway, but can be confused by a number of other sounds.

Some brands have found a way to sense that with their tech, but not Ring, one of the biggest video doorbell brands – and now that’s been rectified.

The Ring Alarm Glass Break Sensor uses AI to distinguish between the sound of a window or glass door being smashed and false alarms such as keys being jingled or crockery clattering when you’re emptying the dishwasher. 

The Ring Alarm Glass Break Sensor is a compact white circular device that can be mounted to a wall or ceiling and can detect the sound of breaking glass from up to 25 feet / 7.5 meters away. If it detects glass being broken it will send an alert to your smartphone and give you the option to trigger both the alarm’s indoor and outdoor siren, if you have these installed, even if the alarm isn’t armed.  

The Ring Alarm Glass Break Sensor is priced at $39.99 / £35 (about AU$55) and will go on sale on February 16. 

This article from our Fitness and Wellness Editor Cat Ellis had me at the strapline: “Like you’re always using the cool side of the pillow”.

Yes. I’m in. I don’t care what it is. I love the cool side of the pillow. I didn’t realize how much until I started writing this sentence. It’s so good.

Anyway, I’m clearly tiring so let’s talk about this properly: US company Chilisleep has a cooled mattress topper that not only keeps your bed the ideal temperature, but also tracks your biometrics overnight so you can see just how much it’s improving your sleep.

It uses water to cool the bed, is quiet enough to be close to light rainfall (a sound I like anyway) and is improved to allow for better coverage of the mattress.

It’s also possible to pair it with the new Sleepme+ service, which allows you to pair the The Chilisleep Dock Pro with the Sleepme Insight – a sleep tracker that collects stats on sleep stages and duration. 

When the two devices are used together, their machine learning algorithms can automatically change the temperature of your bed to extend deep and REM sleep.

YES. I love sleep data. I love cool nights. This has got me jazzed.

Honestly, how has nobody thought of this before? The Eufy Security Video Doorbell Dual (Battery) has a 2K camera with a 160-degree field of view at the top, while the lower-quality Full HD lens, offering a 120-degree field of view, sits on the angled base of the doorbell to capture the ground.

What does that mean in real life? This lets you see a detailed view of the face and body of whoever is at your doorstep, as well as any packages they have resting on the ground. 

It’s not cheap at priced at $259.99 / £229.99 / AU$449.99 but will go on sale on February 8 in the US and February 16 in the UK – this is a nice idea indeed and I can see it appearing in a Ring model in the near future…

Uh-oh Dell… the new XPS 13 Plus was supposed to be all exciting, but this opening from US Computing Editor Jackie Thomas tells it all:

“The Dell XPS 13 has been one of – if not the – best laptops on the market for years. A brilliant design and excellent performance made it one of the easiest devices to recommend to anyone. But at CES 2022, Dell took this classic design and tried to transform it into something even more portable and modern – and ruined its best laptop completely. “

Calling it a ‘trendy mess’ and a (likely) ‘nightmare to use day-to-day’ this has got me worried – Dell has been making excellent laptops for years, but this could be a step too far.

Dell added a weird touch bar that isn’t an Apple Touch Bar (you can’t customize it). There’s no headphone jack or microSD card slot.

Overall, this doesn’t look good, even if the laptop looks good.

This was the big news overnight – the PSVR 2 was shown off in greater detail by Sony and I’m honestly here for it.

I love the notion of VR and I want a system that could just work in my front room – this is what the new option from Sony is promising.

Users can expect the PSVR 2 to boast OLED displays with a resolution of 2000 x 2040 per eye, which is an almost four-fold improvement on the original’s 1080p output and will hugely improve the sharpness and feeling of immersion. 

The PSVR 2’s built-in headphones will also take advantage of Sony’s 3D Audio technology that, again, is crucial to getting that feeling of being actually in the game – you can get a sense of what it feels like in the trailer above (although, spoiler: this is mostly a developer talking about how great VR is, rather than showcasing anything).

Additionally, the PSVR 2 will be capable of 90Hz and 120Hz refresh rates with a 110-degree field of view. The headset will also feature built-in six-axis motion sensing (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), along with an IR proximity sensor – all useful ways of tracking motion and improving that feeling of being inside the game.

The controllers, which we already know a lot about, clearly take inspiration from Oculus’ versions – while it would be better to be unique, at least Sony as moved away from the ‘sticks with light up balls on’ that the previous version used.

TCL launched a bunch of stuff at CES this year, which it often does, but the two things that got me interested were the NXTPAPER 10S and the NXTWEAR Air.

The NXTPAPER is bit underwhelming to be honest, but the NXTWEAR AIR isn’t – it’s two screens placed in a pair of glasses so it feels like you’re viewing a 140-inch screen from 13-feet away.

OK, there is some underwhelm – they’re only 1080p screens, which sounds a bit like a pixellated nightmare… but let’s get them on the face first. And they actually look like glasses, which is a massive win in itself.

This has been one of our biggest stories over the last three days: headphones that are so invisible that they aren’t even there. CES in a nutshell.

This Noveto N1 soundbar will track your head in real time, using facial recognition to stay locked onto you. It will then use beam forming, where it directs the sound, to small audio pockets around your ears, meaning only you can hear the sound.

Is this useful or practical? Probably not – a pair of open-ear headphone could probably achieve the same thing. But it’s incredibly cool, and if it works could well be a cornerstone of future offices – meaning instant ability to chat to colleagues with a ‘secret’ concert going on at the same time.

The next big innovation in TVs officially arrived yesterday: Sony announced the Sony Master Series A95K. But then weirdly didn’t talk about it during its press conference.

Why is it such a big innovation, you ask? Well, let me tell you: inky blacks, better color reproduction and even more impressive contrast ratios – if you thought OLED was good, then Quantum Dot OLED (QD-OLED) is going to blow your mind.

This is the first commercially-available TV using such tech – it’ll offer more uniformity to the image without losing the power of OLED, which basically means a better image.

Will this change things massively? No. Will it cost a lot? Yes. But it pushes TV quality on again, and that’s a Good Thing to me.

It’s funny, the things that, as a child, you think will excite you about being grown up. Late nights, unlimited sugar intake, watching TV all day. 

I still do enjoy doing all of these things, mind you – but what really gets me excited these days are the boring adult things like remote controls.

Not just any remote controls – specifically, the freshly announced Samsung SolarCell remote – and this was another of day 2’s biggest stories.

Needing no charging base, the remote uses solar and RF energy harvesting to wirelessly charge, meaning even your end-table lamp can be a part of the process. Wild. 

Oh man, can you get more CES than a smart dog collar? Smart tech: check. Pet stuff: check. Something like something else but for dogs? Check. This was one of our biggest stories yesterday, and I’m here for it.

This is Invoxia’s attempt to bring Apple Watch-esque beauty to your pooch, with the ability to track both respiration and heart rate, using GPs and accelerometers  as well as AI (another CES trend: check) to allow you to monitor the health of your pooch as well as making sure it doesn’t go missing.

Let’s go again! It’s day four of the biggest tech conference on the planet, and we’re back live-blogging the event once more. 

What will be happening today? Well, a lot it seems – we’ve got a load of analysis of what’s happened so far to pick through, as well as a number of new keynotes and launches that will always change the game in some way.

However, as you’re likely here to see what’s big, here are a few of the highlights from previous days’ live blogs: