CES 2023: What we expect to see in Las Vegas this year | Web3 included

In recent years, CES has been a lackluster event due to pandemic-induced restrictions. Omicron wreaked havoc at CES 2022, with major carriers opting out at the last minute and publications like PCMag deciding not to send staff to Las Vegas to cover the show in person.

This year, things will change. We’re back in action and (almost) ready to battle the masses for access to the latest innovations at the Las Vegas Convention Center and in ballrooms and hotel suites across the city.

The new year will also bring CES 2023, the industry’s largest trade show, which is likely to be the center of attention for technology investors from January 5-8.

CES 2023 and Web3

CES 2023 will also feature a dedicated metaverse pavilion, where exhibitors will present cutting-edge digital solutions for virtual worlds.

This year’s program, which will showcase the most innovative technologies to address everyday challenges, will also cover new topics such as Web3, NFT and metaverse.

According to a recent press release, CES 2023 will feature a dedicated metaverse pavilion where exhibitors will present cutting-edge digital technologies for virtual worlds.

The Web3 Studio created by CoinDesk and located in the LVCC Central Hall will be the focal point of the Web3 area at CES. CoinDesk will host a discussion with industry professionals and visionaries on the most significant advances in the industry and technology.

Topics will focus on the metaverse and its potential to transform the retail industry and consumer experience, as well as the investments, applications and content surrounding it.

SK, Microsoft, Magic Leap and OVR Technology are among the most important brands to be showcased in the Web3 space at CES 2023.

Speakers include Jason Waskey, chief creative officer at Microsoft, Leslie Shannon, head of technology trend scouting at Nokia, Dade Orgeron, vice president of 3D innovation at Shutterstock and others.

LG will also participate on the Web3 stage, showcasing some of its most innovative products, such as its smart shoe cabinets-LG’s Styler ShoeCase and ShoeCare-with pairs of NFT shoes to decorate them.

Since 1967, CES has been known for presenting great innovations, networking opportunities and a look at the present and future of technology.

Last year, Web3 raised its voice and CES 2023 heard it. As a result, it has included Web3 in its exhibits, and the space is expected to increase in future editions.

What is CES?

CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association, a trade association representing more than 1,500 consumer technology companies.

These include numerous new TVs, PCs, smartphones, wearables and other connected devices destined for store shelves and digital shopping later this year, usually in time for the holiday season.

While many will be focused on these new offerings, others will be paying particular attention to the various keynotes that will be held during the show. With chips and technologies creeping into more aspects of our daily lives, the type of companies participating in CES keynotes has expanded in recent years to include tech companies such as Nvidia, AMD, IBM and Samsung, but also Verizon, Unilever, Abbott Labs and General Motors.

With topics ranging from 5G, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, digital health, food technology, robotics and drones, as well as smart cities, vehicle technologies and the metaverse, the range of companies offering keynotes continues to expand.

Taking a look at the CES 2023 speaker list, we see AMD returning alongside BMW (BMWYYY), John Deere (DE), Delta Air Lines (DAL), Netflix (NFLX), Instacart, Riot Games, Stellantis (STLA), United Healthcare (UNH) and Teladoc (TDOC).

Featured exhibitors include Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOGL), LG, Microsoft (MSFT) and Sony (SONY); investors can find the full list on the CES 2023 exhibitor list here.

How will CES 2023 be different?

While we expect the keynotes to be about upcoming disruptions, such as how the underlying technology will further improve productivity and our quality of life, this year’s CES may have a more sobering tone.

Recently, Micron (MU), a maker of computer memory and storage chips, released its latest quarterly results and sounded the latest alarm bell in the chip sector, which has been plagued by supply chain problems and bulging inventories.

Micron commented that the industry is “experiencing the most severe supply-demand imbalance” in 13 years and expects customer inventories to return to relatively healthy levels by mid-2023.

The current market environment, however, leads Micron to believe that industry profitability will remain challenging through 2023, likely due to inventory reduction efforts that will impact margins and the bottom line.

One area Micron highlighted is the PC market, for which it now sees unit volumes for 2022 declining by a high percentage, with mid- to low-single-digit declines in 2023.

Smartphone unit volumes for calendar year 2022 are expected to decline 10% year-over-year compared to Micron’s previous forecast of single-digit declines, and the company sees smartphone unit volumes for calendar year 2023 flat to slightly up year-over-year.

Despite all the talk in recent quarters about semiconductor shortages, these expected declines are going to free up semiconductor capacity, which explains why Micron has cut its 2023 and 2024 capital spending for new semiconductor facilities.

Micron now sees its 2023 capital spending budget between $7 billion and $7.5 billion, down 40% from 2022 and below its previous forecast of $8 billion.

Although it did not provide specific figures for 2024, the company said it is “significantly reducing our investments for fiscal 2024 compared to previous plans to adapt to the supply and demand environment.”

Laptops

New notebook models this year are expected to be equipped with the latest hardware from AMD, Intel and Nvidia. AMD has already unveiled its next-generation Ryzen CPUs for notebooks, while Intel is expected to soon launch mobile versions of its 13th generation of notebook CPUs with a hybrid architecture that includes full-power Performance cores and low-power Efficient cores.

Desktop versions of these chips will hit the market in the second half of 2022, so mobile versions from both AMD and Intel are inevitable.

For Intel, these laptop-class “Raptor Lake” chips should be available in the U, P, H and HX series in 2023; for AMD, the situation is less clear, but mobile Ryzen 7000 “Phoenix” and “Dragon Range” CPUs are on the way and should use a new naming scheme.

CES could be a real launch pad for both

When this happens (at CES or not), in the coming months we expect to see everything from sleek ultrabooks to rugged gaming laptops on the market with these new processors, which offer benefits such as higher performance and longer battery life.

While these launches could drag on for weeks or months, we expect major manufacturers to announce several of these new systems during CES.

A “special talk” planned by Nvidia at the show suggests that new notebook GPU hardware could also arrive this year.

Although no details have been announced, Nvidia used last year’s CES to announce the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti notebook models. It is possible that new mobile GPUs will be announced, which will likely be included in all new notebooks coming out of the show.

However, considering that so far only the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 desktop cards have been released, it will be interesting to see if mobile versions of these cards will make it to market and how they will perform, given the huge power consumption of desktop chips.

Displays could also get bigger and faster this year. We know that Alienware is preparing an 18-inch gaming laptop, and it is likely that this larger screen will bring with it better image quality, with improvements such as 4K resolution and high refresh rate for gaming.

We’ve even seen early reports of a 600Hz laptop display, although we don’t think this year’s laptops have anything that extreme in store.

Last year’s display innovations even changed laptop designs to accommodate foldable displays, as seen in the Asus ZenBook 17 Fold OLED. That said, we haven’t seen a whole lot of other foldable designs in 2022, so we have to wonder if they will catch on at CES 2023 or turn out to be just a minor fad.

Finally, while CES is known as the place where some of the more extravagant laptop designs and features are unveiled, as companies scramble for more prominent coverage and a bigger buzz factor to generate buzz for the following year, it’s possible that this year’s CES will slow this trend.

As manufacturers take into account new economic pressures and changes in buying behavior, it’s possible that the flashy CES announcements will lose luster for notebook manufacturers. We’ll see. -Brian Westover, Chief Hardware Analyst

PC Components

The end of 2022 was one of the busiest seasons in recent years for PC components. Not only did we witness the launch of AMD’s ‘Zen 4’-based Ryzen 7000 series processors and Intel’s 13th generation Core Raptor Lake processors, along with new motherboards and chipsets compatible with both product lines, but we also witnessed new graphics cards.

First, Intel unveiled its first serious attempt to enter the graphics card market with the Alchemist-based Arc A770 (plus a lesser A750), and then Nvidia responded with the very powerful GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080.

AMD, of course, could not sit idly by and launched its flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT GPUs just before the vacations.

With the exception of Intel’s Arc A770 and A750 graphics cards, all of the new components released so far by AMD, Intel and Nvidia have been cutting-edge pieces of hardware that have pushed the boundaries of what we can expect to see from (and pay for) modern PC components.

It’s been an exciting few months, but we have yet to see anything (other than the Arc A770) that can be considered remotely “cheap”. The lowest price we’ve seen for one of these new CPUs is $299 for the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, while the lowest price for a new GPU was $899 for the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT.

Since we’ve only seen high-end components so far, it’s only a matter of time before AMD, Intel and Nvidia introduce lower-end and cheaper components.

For example, we have yet to see any non-“K-series” desktop CPUs in Intel’s Raptor Lake range, and surely both AMD and Intel will remember to produce Ryzen 3 and Core i3 processors sooner or later. (Or at least we hope so).

The situation is similar in the GPU market, as AMD and Nvidia are no doubt well aware that most people won’t spend anything close to $1,000 (or more) on a new graphics card.

If you anticipate the release of components like these, keep your eyes peeled during CES. You’re likely to see something from at least one, if not all, of these companies. -Michael Sexton, Junior PC and Hardware Analyst

PC Storage

The most important number at CES 2023 for the PC storage world is likely to be “5”-not 5G, which has dominated the tech consciousness for the past two years, but 5.0, specifically PCI Express 5.0.

Given that the two major PC CPU manufacturers, AMD and Intel, already have state-of-the-art PCI Express 5.0-compatible desktop platforms (13th generation Ryzen 7000 and Raptor Lake, respectively), we expect the first wave of PCI Express 5.0-compatible consumer SSDs to hit the market in 2023. What better stage than CES to showcase the cutting edge?

PCI Express 4.0 already offers plenty of storage space for everyday users. And PCI Express 3.0, with a lower limit than 4.0, still dominates in older systems that can be upgraded. Why then this enthusiasm for 5.0?

It’s mostly about sheer speed. With data transfers of up to 13,000 MB per second, the maximum potential of PCI Express 4.0 drives is twice as high. Another first: with such high speeds, drive manufacturers could reduce the number of PCI Express lanes used by their drives and still achieve speeds comparable to those of version 4.0 (i.e. they would still be very, very fast).

Memory manufacturers Apacer, Corsair and Gigabyte/Aorus have already announced the availability of 5.0-compatible drives in 2022. We expect to see many more of these in Las Vegas, as SSD storage moves full speed ahead… again. -John Burek, Executive Editor and Lab Director

Smart home

After the recent launch of Matter, excitement about the future of the smart home market has never been greater. Backed by Amazon, Apple, and Google, the industry-wide Matter standard aims to end “walled gardens” and encourage interoperability among smart home devices, regardless of brand, so you can control them seamlessly through the platform of your choice.

So far, Matter has been a buzzword and nebulous promises from vendors, but we are finally starting to see some real movement. At CES we expect to see new Matter-certified products in the following categories: bridges, controllers, locks, thermostats and other HVAC controllers, lighting and power, multimedia devices, security and safety sensors, and blinds and shutters. Vendors will also outline their progress and plans to add Matter compatibility to existing devices through over-the-air upgrades.

According to early rumors, sustainability will be a major theme at this year’s CES (as it was at IFA), so keep an eye out for new smart home devices that save energy and water. Home appliances large and small are always a staple of CES, and we’re sure to see new connected models from brands like LG and Samsung.

Last year’s CES saw exciting innovations in the floor-cleaning robot market, with premium models from Ecovacs and Roborock capable of not only emptying their own bins but also washing their own mops. This year we expect automatic mop-washing capability to extend to models under $1,000, as well as some cleaning innovations, such as window-cleaning robots and robots that climb stairs. -Angela Moscaritolo, Senior Analyst, Fitness and Smart Home

Monitors and display technology

During 2022, we have seen the continued expansion of monitor panel technologies beyond traditional LEDs. As these panels have come down in price, more and more of them have found their way into gaming, professional and productivity monitors, and even some high-end portable monitors.

Dell has launched the first monitors-the UltraSharp U2723QE and U3223QE (opens in a new window)-with LG’s IPS Black technology, which doubles the contrast ratio of traditional IPS panels. LG and HP have already launched their own IPS Black monitors. We can expect more at CES 2023 and next year.

One of the few positive aspects of the pandemic has been the entry of videoconferencing technology into displays as well, with teleconferencing monitors such as the HP E27m G4 and Philips 329P1H. These monitors offer a better audiovisual experience than typical laptops, thanks to powerful speakers, dual microphones and high-resolution webcams. At CES and beyond we expect to see further improvements in teleconferencing monitors.

Resolutions higher than 4K have been around for some time, but could become more common, and we expect the option of native resolutions higher than 4K to start making its way into professional monitors and the like. In the gaming sector, LG and Dough have announced 1440p OLEDs, which on paper look ideal for gamers who value performance over raw resolution. Considering how expensive GPUs have become and continue to be, low-res OLEDs are a surefire way to get a better picture with low-end and mid-range hardware. -Zackery Cuevas, junior analyst and Tony Hoffman, senior analyst

Fitness technology

If you’re starting a new year of exercise or looking to upgrade your current workout equipment, don’t wait until CES to start exploring your options.

Most of the major players in the smartwatch and fitness wristband market, such as Apple, Samsung, Fitbit and Polar, have already revamped their product ranges ahead of the 2022 holiday season. Among the most popular wrist wearables of the season are Google’s first smartwatch, the Pixel Watch, the rugged and watercraft-friendly Apple Watch Ultra, and the health-focused Fitbit Sense 2.

With the exception of Apple, which never has a booth at CES, all the major wearable device manufacturers will be there to show off their latest models. Hopefully Garmin has hired security guards to protect the $2,100 MARQ Adventurer (gen 2) luxury smartwatch (opens in a new window), which will debut at CES in the US.

While we don’t expect any major smartwatches or fitness monitors to debut, we have heard about some new inexpensive wearables from lesser-known brands that could be interesting. We expect to discover a wide range of other digital health solutions, such as fitness tracking glasses, blood pressure monitors and devices designed to improve sleep and reduce stress.

As for fitness equipment, Peloton just launched its first rowing machine, so it probably won’t make any major announcements at CES, but we could see new models from connected fitness competitors.

Last year, Echelon lit up the show with its Tron-inspired EX-8S smart exercise bike, which was the most popular fitness machine at CES 2022. -Angela Moscaritolo

Mobile technology

CES isn’t usually a big event for smartphones and tablets: most of the big players like Apple, Samsung and Google hold their own events to announce their latest devices, leaving CES on the sidelines.

However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be phones at the show, as smaller companies will be showing off their mobile products.

Motorola and Lenovo’s ThinkPhone handsets are among the most talked about. As reported by The Tech Outlook (opens in a new window), the phone appears to have a physical style reminiscent of Lenovo’s beloved ThinkPad laptops.

It will reportedly have a 6.6-inch 144 Hz POLED display, a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip and a 50 MP main camera, a 13 MP ultra-wide-angle lens and a 2 MP depth sensor.

No price has been leaked, so we’ll have to wait until CES to find out more. Aside from Lenovo, there hasn’t been much activity in the phone and tablet arena on the eve of CES. -Dave LeClair, Analyst, Mobiles

Virtual Reality

Meta has already made the big announcement of its new prosumer VR headset, the Meta Quest Pro, in late 2022, and while it has confirmed that an updated consumer-priced Meta Quest 3 is on the way, we likely won’t see any information on it before spring.

Meta is the largest manufacturer of virtual reality headsets, but not the only one. HTC Vive or Valve could have news at CES. Windows Mixed Reality has stalled next to Meta/Oculus and SteamVR compatible headsets, but we could see some new consumer VR systems from unexpected companies.

Augmented Reality (AR) headsets have had little success outside of medical, military and tech-specific applications, but every year we are getting closer to seeing some form of AR glasses that everyday users can afford and tolerate wearing on a regular basis. We expect to see some evolutionary steps in augmented reality display technology that may not reach consumers immediately, but will provide a more comfortable and convenient experience when they do. -Will Greenwald, Chief Consumer Electronics Analyst

Electric vehicles

CES is shaping up to be the largest auto show in the country, with 25% more space dedicated to vehicles for CES 2023 than in 2022. The majority will be electric vehicles and chargers, reflecting the convergence of the technology and automotive industries and the emergence of the “software-defined” vehicle.

Companies such as Google, Qualcomm, Panasonic, Microsoft and Sony will feature vehicle technologies at their booths (or those of their automotive partners). These partnerships are bringing gaming to cars, enhanced safety and security, LiDAR sensor technology, impressive sound systems and multiple touch screens per vehicle. We hope you’re not too fond of physical buttons, because they’re on their way out.

Some new electric vehicles will also be announced. Stellantis will show off its Ram 1500 Revolution EV concept ahead of its 2024 debut. Pricing has not been announced, but speculation is that it could be as high as $40,000. Will it succeed in unseating the Ford F-150 Lightning as the most popular electric pickup?

New electric vehicle brands are also debuting at CES. Honda and Sony have teamed up to create a new company, Honda Sony Mobility, focused on entertainment-rich driving with Sony’s extensive content library. Pre-orders aren’t expected until 2025, with first deliveries in 2026, but we may get more details at Sony’s CES press conference on Jan. 4, during which “Sony Honda Mobility will join us on stage,” Sony tweeted (opens in new window) last month. The press conference will begin at 5 p.m. PT, and can be followed live in the video below:

VinFast, a Vietnamese electric vehicle startup, is returning to CES after delivering its first 999 vehicles in the United States. In addition, a new Canadian electric vehicle startup, known as Project Arrow (opens in a new window), will debut its first vehicle.

Meanwhile, don’t miss solar cars and autonomous vehicles. Saturday, Jan. 6, will also feature the Indy Autonomous Challenge, in which college teams will compete on a track with their customized autonomous vehicles. -Emily Dreibelbis, Journalist

TV

The current state of TV technology is that 8K exists, but it’s not here yet. 4K is still the standard upper limit for all consumer content and there is still no real forecast for new 8K shows and movies coming to theaters.

This does not mean, however, that 8K TVs don’t exist. The cat was out of the bag a few years ago and we will continue to see 8K in the very high-end and early adopter models that will be offered by some major TV manufacturers.

Note that we still don’t recommend you buy one, and if you do, you will be relying almost exclusively on the 8K upscaling capabilities of that specific TV from lower resolutions, with no truly native content.

Outside of 8K, both OLED and mini-LED technology are catching on. Samsung has jumped on the OLED bandwagon and (along with LG, Sony and likely Vizio) this panel technology will continue to be a premium choice for its fantastic colors and contrast.

Mini-LED backlight systems for LCD TVs are also becoming standard for flagship TVs from most major brands, and we have seen incredible advances in this field, with light veiling and haze reduced to such an extent that some mini-LED TVs can be described as offering black levels as perfect as OLED. These two technologies will continue to represent the high-end designs of most major TV manufacturers. -Will Greenwald

CES 2023 officially runs January 5-8, although major exhibitors will hold press events on January 3 and 4. Stay tuned to our CES hub for the latest news.

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