CES

The 5 most interesting PC monitors from CES 2024

ASUS, CES, dell, Features, lg, Monitors, msi, oled, Tech / Mike M. / January 14, 2024

Dell UltraSharp 40 Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U4025QW) — Enlarge / Dell’s upcoming UltraSharp U4025QW.

Scharon Harding

Each year, the Consumer Electronics show brings a ton of new computer monitor announcements, and it’s often difficult to figure out what’s worth paying attention to. When it comes to the most interesting models this year, there were two noteworthy themes.

First of all, my complaint in 2022 about there not being enough OLED monitors was largely addressed this year. CES revealed many plans for OLED monitors in 2024, with a good number of those screens set to be appropriately sized for desktops. That includes the introduction of 32-inch, non-curved QD-OLED options and other smaller screens for people who have been waiting for OLED monitors in more varied form factors.

Secondly, with more people blending their work and home lives these days, CES brought hints that the line between gaming monitors and premium monitors used for general or even professional purposes will be blurring more in the future. We’re not at the point where the best productivity monitor and ideal gaming monitor perfectly align in a single product. But this week’s announcements have me imagining ways that future monitors could better serve users with serious work and play interests.

For now, here are the most intriguing monitors from CES 2024.

Dell UltraSharps hit 120 Hz

Dell started adding 120 Hz models to its UltraSharp series.

Scharon Harding
This monitor is VESA DisplayHDR 600-certified.

Dell
Ports include Thunderbolt 4 with 140 W power delivery. There’s also a pop-out box of ports by the monitor’s chin.

Dell

Dell UltraSharp monitors have long attracted workers and creatives and, with their USB-C connectivity, even Mac users. The last few CES shows have shown Dell attempting to improve its lineup, with the most landmark innovation being the introduction of IPS Black. With CES 2024, though, Dell focused on improved video resolution.

Dell’s UltraSharp 40 Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U4025QW), pictured above, is a 39.7-inch ultrawide with a 5120×2160 resolution and a 120 Hz refresh rate. As most monitors are aimed at workers still using 60 Hz, this is a big step up for people with systems capable of supporting 11,059,200 pixels at 120 frames per second. Such speeds have been relegated to gaming monitors for a while, but with TVs moving to higher refresh rates (with encouragement from gaming consoles), more people are becoming accustomed to faster screens. And with other attributes, like a 2500R curve, we wouldn’t blame workers for doing some light gaming on the U4025QW, too.

But Dell says the refresh rate boost is about increasing eye comfort. The UltraSharp U4025QW is one of two monitors with 5-star certification from TÜV Rheinland’s new Eye Comfort program, which Dell helped create, a Dell spokesperson told me last month at a press event.

According to TÜV, the certification program “is no longer limited to the old low-blue-light or flicker-free labels” and now “covers a broader range of safety indicators, such as ambient brightness, color temperature adjustment and regulation, and brightness.” New requirements include brightness and color temperature control for different ambient lighting. Dell’s ultrawide covers this with an integrated ambient light sensor.

The certification also requires a minimum 120 Hz refresh rate, which is probably where Dell got the number from. A Dell spokesperson confirmed to Ars that the use of IPS Black didn’t impact the monitor’s ability to get TÜV certifications and that it could have theoretically earned five stars with another panel type, like VA.

Dell announced bringing 120 Hz to the UltraSharp lineup in November when it debuted two 24-inch and two 27-inch UltraSharp monitors with 120 Hz refresh rates. At CES, Dell proved this upgrade wasn’t a fluke relegated to its smaller UltraSharps and went all in, bringing the refresh rate to a top-line ultrawide 5K Thunderbolt 4 monitor.

The U4025QW has an updated version of ComfortView Plus, which uses hardware to lower blue light levels. I’ve seen it function without making colors turn yellowish, as some other blue-light-fighting techniques do. After not significantly updating ComfortView Plus since its 2020 release, Dell now says it’s using a “more advanced LED backlight” to reduce blue light exposure from 50 percent to under 35 percent.

The effects are minimal, though. Dell-provided numbers claim the reduced blue light exposure could reduce eye fatigue by 8 percent after 50 minutes, but we should take that with a grain of salt. It’s nearly impossible to quantify how well blue light reduction techniques work from person to person.

The UltraSharp U4025QW releases on February 27, starting at $2,400.

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I parked a BMW from across the parking lot at CES 2024

bmw, BMW iX, Cars, CES, remote parking / Ryan Harris / January 12, 2024

A BMW iX is remotely driven around a CES parking lot — Enlarge / Until now, remote parking systems have mostly required the parking lot or garage to fit expensive sensors and equipment. BMW’s approach is different, requiring nothing that isn’t already on the car.

Tim Stevens

If I had a dollar for every automated self-parking demo I’ve seen over the years, many of which happened at CES, I’d probably have enough money to tip a Las Vegas valet, folks whose jobs are still very secure.

But that might actually be changing soon. Given all those earlier demos that went nowhere, I wasn’t particularly enthused when I heard that BMW and Valeo were demonstrating yet another implementation of a car parking itself for the 2024 CES in Las Vegas.

However, after a quick chat with the folks behind the technology and getting a chance to try it myself, I realized I was wrong. Remote Valet is impressive not only for what it can do but because it does it without any technology more advanced than what’s already found in today’s production cars.

The core concept is a simple one. You pull up to the entrance of wherever you want to go. Instead of dealing with the drudgery of parking your own car or risking paying to let some red-vested teenager take your car for a joyride, you get out, tap a button in the My BMW app, and walk away.

The car parks itself, and when you’re done, you just open the app, tap the button again, and the car magically returns to pick you up.

The secret is that the car is not truly parking itself. This isn’t a limited case of driving autonomy. You’re actually handing over control of your car to a real human sitting in a sort of call center full of sim racing rigs.

BMW's remote operators use high-end sim racing equipment to control the cars remotely. — Enlarge / BMW’s remote operators use high-end sim racing equipment to control the cars remotely.

BMW

That person then remotely pilots your car, using footage livestreamed from the 360-degree cameras in the car. That streaming happens courtesy of the car’s wireless connection, which also returns the driver inputs back from the call center to the vehicle.

It’s a mechanical Turk situation, with a driver very much in the loop, though not within the car—nor, necessarily, within the state. That vastly reduces the complexity of the situation, so much so that this technology could theoretically be deployed very soon, potentially even pushed to current BMWs via an over-the-air update. It relies entirely on sensors and antennas already built into cars.

No new hardware needed

Indeed, at CES 2024, the demo machines were BMW iX SUVs. They had additional developer-specific hardware inside since they’re test vehicles, but I was told that once the software is final, no additional hardware will be necessary. So unlike other automated parking demos that require things like beacons within garages for locational positioning, perfectly pristine paint markers on the road, or, indeed, high-resolution maps of the entire lot, this solution just requires butts in seats and a reasonably good wireless connection.

At the show, I was able to remotely pilot one of the iX SUVs. BMW had set up a surprisingly high-end sim racing rig, a Fanatec DD2 wheel plus Clubsport pedals. All this was overkill, given that the maximum speed for a car remotely piloted like this is 10 km/h, or about 6 mph.

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Portable monitors could make foldable-screen gadgets finally make sense

ASUS, CES, foldable, Monitors, oled, Tech / Ryan Harris / January 10, 2024

Asus plans to release this foldable OLED monitor in 2024. Electronics retailer Abt Electronics captured footage of it on display at CES.
The monitor has a metal chassis and glossy coating.
The monitor could help workers quickly add more screen space to setups.
In its video, Abt Electronics showed off different angled views of the monitor.
Like other foldables, the crease can seemingly catch reflections and glare when the device is bent.
Port selection.
The portable monitor will come with a sleeve.

Foldable screens have been bending their way into consumer gadgets over the last few years. But with skepticism about durability, pricing, image quality, and the necessity of such devices, foldable screens aren’t mainstream. With those concerns in mind, I haven’t had much interest in owning a foldable-screen gadget, even after using a foldable laptop for a month. However, the foldable portable monitor that Asus is showing at CES in Las Vegas this week is an application of foldable OLED that makes more sense to me than others.

Asus’ ZenScreen Fold OLED MQ17QH announced on Tuesday is a 17.3-inch portable monitor that can fold to a 12.5-inch size. The monitor has 2560×1920 pixels for a pixel density of 184.97 pixels per inch. Other specs include a 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage claim and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification.

When I think of the ways I use portable monitors, foldability makes more sense than it does with other device types. For example, I love working outside when possible, and an extra 17.3-inch screen that’s easy to carry would make long work sessions with an ultraportable laptop more feasible. The Fold OLED’s 17.3 inches is near the larger size for a portable monitor, but the fold and comparatively light weight should make it feel more transportable than similarly sized monitors that don’t fold in half.

Regarding dimensions and weight, Asus compares the monitor to a 13-inch thin-and-light laptop. The monitor weighs 2.58 lbs—that’s notable heft for something meant to be lugged around (the smaller Lenovo ThinkVision M14 weighs 1.3 pounds, for comparison). But 2.58 lbs is still on the lighter side for a 17-inch-class monitor (Asus’ 17-inch ROG Strix XG17AHP is 3.88 lbs), and Asus’ foldable is similarly thin.

Asus credits a “waterdrop-style hinge” for the monitor’s thin size. It’s 0.38 inches (9.7 mm) thick when unfolded, which should translate to about 0.76 inches (19.4 mm) when the monitor is folded shut.

It feels more natural for a portable monitor to add a fold for easy transport, since portability is right in the device category’s name.

Plus, a portable monitor doesn’t have the same types of component and cooling concerns as computing devices like laptops and phones do.

Crease concerns

I haven’t seen Asus’ foldable monitor in person, so I can only speculate on image quality. The monitor is still being finalized, but based on images and video from people who’ve seen the ZenScreen Fold OLED in person at CES and my experience using foldables, I expect the display to show a crease that picks up reflections and/or glare when bent. But considering that a portable monitor will typically be open flat, this doesn’t matter the same way it would with other types of foldable devices.

However, what matters is whether that crease is still visible when the monitor’s flat. A portable monitor is likely to be viewed from different angles, which could make even a slight crease pop. For what it’s worth, The Verge reported that the Asus monitor’s crease seemed to “disappear” when flat, but I remain highly cautious.

Asus’ monitor announcement showed confidence that “you’ll hardly be able to tell that there’s a hinge behind the display” when it’s open because of the waterdrop-style hinge, which is the same hinge type that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 uses, as pointed out by The Verge. The hinge type reportedly makes for a looser feel when the device is closed. Samsung Display has claimed that this puts less stress on the display and minimizes the gap seen when the foldable is shut. Asus’ announcement noted that the foldable monitor’s hinge uses “hundreds of parts,” which “all but eliminat[e] the gap.”

Enlarge / A close-up of the hinge, shown on-video by Abt Electronics.

Like with any other foldable, though, durability remains a concern. A portable monitor may be moved around frequently, and Ars has seen firsthand how fragile a foldable screen can be, including with those small-gap designs.

Speaking of different viewing angles and visibility outdoors (and in bright rooms), the use of OLED suggests that this monitor won’t be as bright as some LCD portable monitors. That could limit visibility, depending on your use case. Asus hasn’t shared a brightness spec for the ZenScreen Fold.

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These are Honda’s concepts for its new family of EVs due in 2026

Cars, CES, concept cars, honda / Ryan Harris / January 9, 2024

that’s more like it —

A production car based on the Saloon should go on sale in the US in two years.

Jonathan M. Gitlin – Jan 9, 2024 7: 00 pm UTC

A futuristic-looking concept car called the Honda Saloon — Enlarge / Honda says a production version of this car will go on sale in 2026.

Honda

The global auto show might be in decline, but at least fans of futuristic cars still have CES. Today, Honda unveiled a pair of concepts in Las Vegas that it says preview a new range of electric vehicles. Called the Honda 0 series, the first of these new EVs is due to go on sale here in the US in 2026.

That car will be based on the Saloon, a sedan-ish car that looks like it just teleported in from Neo Tokyo. Some of the Saloon’s details might get watered down by the inevitable compromises of road legality regulations, but fans of the sedan should take comfort in its name—”saloon” is what they call one of those in Britain.

Just the other day, someone was lamenting the lack of cool-looking concepts.

Honda
Honda says it will use posture control, derived from its robotics know-how, to assist the driver.

Honda
How will it look when it’s not moodily lit?

Honda

The low-slung form factor is increasingly out of style these days due to a confluence of factors that now includes the difficulty in packaging a slab of batteries into something that isn’t crossover-shaped. But that appears to have been taken as something of a challenge by the automaker.

“The mobility we dream of is not an extension of the trend of ‘thick, heavy, but smart’ EVs,” said Toshihiro Mibe, global CEO of Honda. “We will create a completely new value from zero based on thin, light, and wise as the foundation for our new Honda 0 EV series to further advance the joy and freedom of mobility to the next level.”

Honda says it wants to bring the “joy of driving” to EVs, which it plans to deliver through new steer-by-wire and handling algorithms, perhaps similar to the way Ferrari programs its cars to flatter and enthuse their drivers.

“We have gone back to basics and formulated the Honda 0 Series with a design for the new era,” said Honda global EVP Shinji Aoyama. “A bold and pure proportion that from the first glance is overwhelmingly different from other EVs to evoke a new perspective for people.”

Does the Space-Hub preview a new Honda minivan?

Honda
A big glasshouse means the Space-Hub is a good place to stargaze.

Honda

Honda’s second concept is called the Space-Hub, and with any luck, it signals a future for the minivan, itself an endangered species. There should be no packaging constraints here—instead, Honda says the Space-Hub can be configured to a range of different uses, with big windows that connect “people with each other and the outside world.”

Honda has even gone to the trouble of designing a new “H” logo for the 0 Series—the outstretched hands represent “Honda’s commitment to expand the possibilities of mobility and continue to meet the needs of its customers,” we’re told.

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CES 2023 Highlights Featuring News and Innovations From Canon, MICLEDI, and NVIDIA

augmented reality, CES, Events, extended reality, featured, News, NVIDIA, virtual reality / Ryan Harris / January 24, 2023

CES is considered the world’s tech event, showcasing groundbreaking technologies and innovations from some of the world’s biggest brands, developers, manufacturers, and suppliers of consumer technology. At CES 2023, attendees saw the unveiling of the latest developments from over 3,200 exhibitors, including technology companies Canon, MICLEDI, and NVIDIA.

Canon Immersive Movie Experience and Immersive Calling Experience

Canon USA has partnered with filmmaker and director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Village, and Signs) to create an immersive movie experience for CES 2023 attendees. Featuring M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming film Knock at the Cabin (which will be in theaters February 3), Canon unveiled Kokomo, an immersive virtual reality software that leverages VR to give users an immersive calling experience.

With Kokomo, users can now connect with their friends and family as if they’re there in person by using a compatible VR headset and smartphone. In a 3D call, Kokomo will emulate a photo-real environment and mirror the physical appearance of the user. CES 2023 participants were able to witness Kokomo in action at the Canon booth, where they were able to have a one-on-one Kokomo conversation with select characters from the movie Knock at the Cabin.

Aside from Kokomo, Canon also unveiled its Free Viewpoint Video System, which creates point-cloud-based 3D models for more immersive viewing experiences in larger areas like arenas and stadiums. At CES 2023, attendees were able to experience the Free Viewpoint System, which allowed them to watch an action scene from Knock at the Cabin from multiple viewpoints.

CES 2023 attendees also had the opportunity to see Canon’s mixed reality system MREAL in action, by experiencing a scene from Knock at the Cabin as if they were a character in the movie.

MICLEDI Demonstrates New Red µLEDs at CES 2023

MICLEDI Microdisplays, a technology company developing the microLED displays for the augmented reality market, also showcased its advancements in microLED display tech for AR glasses at CES 2023.

At the event, the company demonstrated its new red microLEDs on AllnGaP starting material. This development is in line with MICLEDI’s aim to create high-performance individual color-performing microLEDs that can be combined with the company’s full-color microLED display module.

Through MICLEDI’s innovations in microLED technology, users can begin to experience clearer and more precise digital images via AR glasses that are more portable and lightweight. The red AllnGaP microLEDs, along with MICLEDI’s three-panel full-color microLED display module, are poised to raise the standards of AR glasses in the coming years.

MICLEDI - Red GaN and Red AlInGaP microLED displays - CES 2023

“There is no one-size-fits-all solution for AR glasses,” said MICLEDI CEO, Sean Lord. “This achievement, with our previously announced blue, green, and red GaN µLEDs, opens the door to a broader offering of display module performance parameters which enables MICLEDI to serve customers developing AR glasses from medium to high resolution and medium to high brightness.”

Demonstration units of both Red GaN and Red AlInGaP were shown at the company’s booth at CES 2023.

NVIDIA Announces New Products and Innovations at CES 2023

NVIDIA announced new developments and NVIDIA Omniverse capabilities at CES 2023. The tech company, which is known for designing and building GPUs, unveiled its new GeForce RTX GPUs, which come with a host of new features that can be found in NVIDIA’s new studio laptops and GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics cards. This new series of portable laptops gives artists, creators, and gamers access to more powerful solutions and AI tools that will help them create 2D and 3D content faster.

NVIDIA also shared new developments to its Omniverse, including AI add-ons for Blender, access to new and free USD assets, and an update on the NVIDIA Canvas, which will be available for download in the future.

Aside from these updates, the company also released a major update to its Omniverse Enterprise, which enables users to access enhancements that will let them develop and operate more accurate virtual worlds. This major update is also set to expand the Omniverse’s capabilities through features such as new connectors, Omniverse Cloud, and Omniverse DeepSearch. More new partners are planning to use NVIDIA Omniverse to streamline their workflows and operations. These include Dentsu International, Zaha Hadid Architects, and Mercedes Benz.

NVIDIA Omniverse ACE - CES 2023 — *NVIDIA Omniverse ACE*

Moreover, this January, NVIDIA opened its early-access program for NVIDIA Omniverse Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE), allowing developers and teams to build interactive avatars and virtual assistants at scale.

Demos of VITURE One XR Glasses and Mobile Dock

Aside from these established tech companies, VITURE, a new XR startup that received accolades from CES, TIME, and the Fast Company for its flagship product, the VITURE One XR glasses, also prepared something interesting for the CES 2023 attendees.

The company made both their VITURE One XR glasses, compatible with Steam Deck, laptops, and PCs, and their Mobile Dock, which introduces co-op play and Nintendo Switch compatibility, available for testing.

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MeetKai Launches New Building Tools

AI, augmented reality, CES, developers, featured, metaverse, News, Software, virtual reality / Mike M. / January 12, 2023

MeetKai has been around since 2018 but some of its first publicly enjoyable content hit the streets a few months ago. Now, the company is releasing a suite of software solutions and developer tools to help the rest of us build the metaverse.

From Innovation to Product

ARPost met MeetKai in July 2022, when the company was launching a limited engagement in Time Square. Since then, the company has been working with the Los Angeles Chargers.

“The purpose of the Time Square activation and campaign was really to test things out in the browser,” CEO and co-founder, James Kaplan, said in a video call. “With 3D spaces, there’s a question of whether the user views it as a game, or as something else.”

MeetKai Metaverse Editor - Los Angeles Chargers — *MeetKai Metaverse Editor – Los Angeles Chargers*

Those insights have informed their subsequent outward-facing work with the Chargers, but the company has also been working on some more behind-the-scenes products that were just released at CES.

“We’re moving from an innovation technology company to a product company,” co-founder and Executive Chairwoman, Weili Dai, said in the call. “Technology innovation is great, but show me the value for the end user. That’s where MeetKai is.”

Build the Metaverse With MeetKai

At CES, MeetKai announced three new product offerings: MeetKai Cloud AI, MeetKai Reality, and MeetKai Metaverse Editor. The first of those offerings is more in line with the company’s history as a conversational AI service provider. The second two offerings are tools for creating digital twins and for building and editing virtual spaces respectively.

“The biggest request that we get from people is that they want to build their own stuff, they don’t just want to see the stuff that we made,” said Kaplan. “So, we’ve been trying to say ‘how do we let people build things?’ even when they’re not engineers or artists.”

Users of the new tools can use them individually to create projects for internal or outward-facing projects. For example, a user could choose to create an exact digital twin of a physical environment with MeetKai Reality or create an entirely new virtual space with MeetKai Editor.

However, some of the most interesting projects come when the tools are used together. One example of this is an agricultural organization with early access to the products that used these two tools together to create a digital twin of real areas on their premises and then used the Editor for simulation and training use cases.

“AI as an Enabling Tool”

The formula for creating usable but robust tools was to combine conventional building tools like scanning and game engines with some help from artificial intelligence. In that way, these products look a lot less like a deviation from the company’s history and look a lot more like what the company has been doing all along.

MeetKai Cloud AI – Avatar sample

“We see AI as an enabling tool. That was our premise from the beginning,” said Kaplan. “If you start a project and then add AI, it’s always going to be worse than if you say, ‘What kinds of AI do we have or what kinds of AI can we build?’ and see what kind of products can follow that.”

So the first hurdle is building the tools and the second hurdle is making the tools usable. Most companies in the space either build tools which remain forever overly complex, or they make tools that work but have limited potential because they were only designed for one specific use or for use within one specific environment.

“The core technology is AI and the capability needs to be presented in the most friendly way, and that’s what we do,” said Weili. “The AI capability, the technology, the innovation has to be leading.”

The company’s approach to software isn’t the only way they stand out. They also have a somewhat conservative approach when it comes to the hardware that they build for.

“I think 2025 is going to be the year that a lot of this hardware is going to start to level up. … Once the hardware is available, you have to let people build from day one,” said Kaplan. “Right now a lot of what’s coming out, even from these big companies, looks really silly because they’re assuming that the hardware isn’t going to improve.”

A More Mature Vision of the Metaverse

This duo has a lot to say about the competition. But, fortunately for the rest of us, it isn’t all bad. As they’ve made their way around CES, they’ve made one more observation that might be a nice closing note for this article. It has to do with how companies are approaching “the M-word.”

“Last CES, we saw a lot of things about the metaverse and I think that this year we’re really excited because a lot of the really bad ideas about the metaverse have collapsed,” said Kaplan. “Now, the focus is what brings value to the user as opposed to what brings value to some opaque idea of a conceptual user.”

Kaplan sees our augmented reality future as like a mountain, but the mountain doesn’t just go straight up. We reach apparent summits only to encounter steep valleys between us and the next summit. Where most companies climb one peak at a time, Kaplan and Weili are trying to plan a road across the whole mountain chain which means designing “in parallel.”

“The moment hardware is ready, we’re going to leapfrog … we prepare MeetKai for the long run,” said Weili. “We have partners working with us. This isn’t just a technology demonstration.”

How MeetKai Climbs the Mountain

This team’s journey along that mountain road might be more apparent than we realize. After all, when we last talked to them and “metaverse” was the word on everyone’s lips, they appeared with a ready-made solution. Now as AI developer tools are the hot thing, here they come with a ready-made solution. Wherever we go next, it’s likely MeetKai will have been there first.

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