CES 2023

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is always a welcome start to the year, bringing the world a fi rst look at some of the most zany and cutting-edge tech that some of the biggest names in consumer tech have been working on. This year Elliott Hodgeon and Harpreet Sahni were our eyes and ears at the event, meeting our vendors face to face and keeping a lookout for anything that could be coming your way in the near future. We’ll be looking at some of the most exciting hardware, from CES 2023, that we think could make a real impact on technology resellers and consumers alike.

Displays Aplenty

The evolution of display technology remains constant and this year there was no shortage of innovations to behold. While there was a lot to look out for at CES 2023, we were enamoured with all of the weird and wonderful new displays and monitors available, and given the sheer scope of the event, this ended up being a main attraction for us. With short throw laser projectors, wireless TVs, new display technologies and more, CES showed us that the future of displays is an exciting one to watch unfold.

Wireless TVs

One of the most exciting showings was the ‘world’s fi rst truly wireless TV’ from Displace, and the curious display instantly caught our attention. The 55” TV weighs less than 9 kilos and presents a new value proposition to TV’s, a truly wireless experience. Using proprietary active-loop vacuum technology, the Displace TV can be stuck to walls and windows without the need for brackets and wall mounting. The display is truly wireless, having no ports and no wires. It is powered by hot-swappable batteries that last a month on a single charge (based on 6h/day usage) and it can be snapped together with additional Displace TVs; combining 4 TVs creates a 110” display at an 8K resolution, with 16 TVs creating a 220” display at 16K.

While we don’t expect these to be everywhere, the idea of a portable TV that can be set-up without any wall-mounting is very appealing. Although these TVs might not make their way into every home in 2023, we expect to see more easy mounting solutions make their way across display devices in the near future.

Ultra Short-Throw Laser Projectors

It isn’t just TV’s and monitors that have been evolving, projectors have also made a lot of progress and the ultra-short projector (UST) is the latest innovation that has been making a splash in recent years. While there was a plethora of new and exciting projectors on display, nothing caught our eye quite like the UST laser projectors and laser TVs. Following their debut at CES in 2014 USTs have only gotten better and better, being able to show even 100” displays from just centimetres away while maintaining a high-fidelity, high-resolution image. The UST market has been growing rapidly and has trended towards ditching traditional lamps for lasers, for a much brighter and longer lasting light source that can also deliver HDR viewing experiences. There has also been a trend towards integrating speakers into the parts of the projector that face into the room, leading to a more direct and more impactful sound than many TV speakers. UST laser technology is still developing and becoming more accessible as a viable replacement for a TV, and this year Samsung and Hisense showed the latest evolution with their 8K resolution UST laser projectors.

While this wasn’t the first time 8K laser projectors have made their way to CES, with Hisense showing a prototype of their 8K projector at CES 2022, this has been the most impressive showing of how far the technology has come. Both Samsung and Hisense showed DLP models that use an RGB laser light source, a 0.94” Texas Instruments chipset, come with built-in Dolby Atmos sound systems, and are both capable of an on-screen peak light output of 400 cd/m². The details of the techniques being used to display at 8K haven’t been revealed, but we assume they are similar to the pixel shifting features found in 8K long throw projectors.

Hisense marketed their 8K UST laser projector as a laser TV and the from the stunning picture quality and vibrant display, it was easy to see why they opted for that comparison. We were impressed by how large the display area was and how close the projector was to the wall, while outputting an outstanding image that could compete with many traditional displays on the market. UST laser projectors have not overcome all of the limitations of projectors (e.g. struggling with maintaining a vivid and convincing image across different lighting conditions) but the significant and consistent improvements, to not only the technology but also the size of the market, are what make this an exciting area to keep your eyes on.