The Biggest Trends At CES 2024
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is one of the biggest tech shows of the year in the U.S. Now that this year's show has come and gone, we can take a moment to kick back and reflect on the biggest trends at the show because they usually turn out to be the biggest trends in technology for the rest of the year. So it's important to digest and keep them in the back of your mind in the months to come.
This year saw a variety of trends stand out. Some of them were predictable; others were something of a surprise. Naturally, this is CES, so you need to roll with the chaos and pick up those trends as you find them. We saw tech products in a variety of sectors that bear some watching, along with a few products that epitomized those trends. So, without further ado, here are the biggest trends we saw emerging from the desert in Nevada.
Artificial Intelligence
Hopefully, you were lying down when you read this. As it turns out, AI was indeed a pretty big deal at CES 2024. It certainly falls under the category of "not surprising." Ever since ChatGPT sprang on the scene months ago, tech companies have been trying to shoehorn it into everything from glasses to next-generation concept vehicles. One epic example came in the form of concept vehicle systems from Honda. What better way to prove the potential for AI than placing it in a vehicle that looks like it came from the future?
We found some other good examples of AI-integrated products on the show floor — and some bad ones.
This is, of course, not a new trend for 2024. Indeed, Qualcomm (along with others) has been beating the AI drum for months now. At Snapdragon Summit this past fall, Qualcomm showed off its next-generation processors for phones and computers and in the same breath explained how they would be great for the oncoming AI trend.
We've already broken down the best and worst AI that we found on the show floor, but there were so many booths with the letters AI plastered all over them, that it seems inevitable that our robot overlords should be along any second now. Will they be Skynet? Will they be Rosie the robot? There's no way to tell. Just try to keep your head down once they arrive.
Emergency Preparedness
Between the onslaught of robots invading your home appliances and the fact that 2024 is a presidential election year, it should come as no surprise that emergency preparedness and off-the-grid living became something of a theme. From solar power to electrified mobile homes to whole-home battery backups, if things are about to hit the fan, CES has an answer for it.
EcoFlow is making a strong push into this category with not only a cloud-connected smart home electrical panel that allows you to monitor the power going to individual circuits and turn them off and on via an app if necessary. That capability is enhanced with the Delta Pro Ultra, a whole-home backup battery that you can connect and power your home if and when the power goes out.
In another booth, a company called Pebble showed off an electrified mobile home that can drive itself, and load itself onto your trailer hitch. The gains here are power for your mobile home, of course, but the trailer can self-drive itself and help take the strain off your electric truck that's towing it, helping considerably with range—in theory.
Computing and Gaming
CES usually deals a lot more in the computing space than other categories like mobile, but this year saw an exceptional range of computing and gaming hardware coming from some top names. Notably, two of our Best of CES award winners came from this category — the ASUS Zenbook Duo and the MSI Claw.
The ASUS Zenbook Duo is the latest dual-screened laptop to come from the company which is very comfortable in that space. Previously, ASUS's dual-screened laptops consisted of a main screen, and a secondary smaller screen just above the keyboard. The Zenbook Duo has two full screens and a kickstand meaning you can have two 14-inch screens side-by-side or top and bottom. Further, the detachable keyboard lives in between those screens when the laptop is closed, meaning you have just one self-contained unit.
Meanwhile, the MSI Claw is the latest in a more-crowded-by-the-day space of Windows-powered handheld gaming units. The handset has the typical Nintendo Switch-like configuration with a joystick on either side (though they're not detachable), but it's powered by an Intel processor and has a massive 53Wh battery on the inside which is an industry leader. PC gaming is going mobile, and MSI is the latest company to hop on board.
Health and Wellness
Health is becoming a hot topic of late and technology is allowing us to advance further and further every year. There were several health and wellness devices on hand to help you feel and be better. One of the more interesting ones comes from a company called Evolve MVMT. This Australian company has developed a pair of wearable devices that you wear on your ankles. These devices will track your gait — how you walk — and help you improve how you walk.
You may not consider your gait to be terribly important, but Evolve disagrees. This wearable can, over time teach you how to walk better and more efficiently. Eventually, the devices can help you burn up to 32% more calories per step, which adds up pretty quickly. Additionally, if you have trained with Evolve long enough, you will have a baseline score for how well you walk. If you then suffer any kind of lower-body injury, Evolve can give you a metric that you can work toward to get back to where you used to be.
It is previously unexplored territory, but when combined with health rings by a variety of companies, along with new smartwatches from companies like Garmin, CES was certainly a hub where you can find out how to be the best version of yourself that you can be.
Cleaning products
Finally, one would not have to explore the show floor for very long to notice a preponderance of cleaning devices from robot vacuums (like those from Roborock) to household appliances, but in one lucky instance, we found both. At the Eureka booth, the company which is celebrating its 115th year in 2024, showcased the Eukrea 8B. This is an all-in-one solution that includes a robot vacuum and a clothes washer in one unit.
The washer is a single unit that washes your clothes, while the robot vacuum lives in the base of the unit. This is a great idea for two reasons. First, it helps save space — a robot vacuum can have a pretty big footprint on its own. This compresses it down to space the washer would be taking up anyway. But the second reason is very smart.
Since the washing machine needs to be hooked up to the main water line for the house and has built-in drainage, the floor vac can take advantage of those as well, refreshing the water more frequently than would be possible on a standalone unit.