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CES is the big tech event that kicks off the new year, and we’re in Las Vegas to take it all in. We’ve dug through the announcements and navigated the show floor to find our favorite products of CES 2023.
Best in Show:Samsung The Premiere 8K Projector
There are a lot of products to choose from for “Best in Show.” All of the products in this list as the “best” in some regard. However, there’s something extra impressive about an 8K projector. CES is flooded with 8K TVs, but 8K projectors are still relatively new.
Samsung’s The Premiereis an ultra-short throw projector with 8K resolution.Short-throw projectorscan be placed only a few inches away from your wall or projector screen, which is much more convenient than projectors that need to be mounted on the ceiling across the room. Of course, 8K is the big deal here, though.
Related:How Much Space Do You Need for a Home Theater Projector?
This is actually Samsung’s second The Premiere projector. The first one was launched in 2020 with “only” 4K resolution. Not much is known about the 8K model yet—the body of the device was covered on the show floor. Beyond 8K, it has also been upgraded withDolby Atmos sound.
But how much will it cost? Samsung also didn’t share that information, but it will likely be very expensive. Similar 8K projectors cost around $10,000. We also don’t know when the 2023 version of The Premiere will be available, but it’s certainly an exciting product.
Best Laptop:CyberPowerPC Tracer VII Edge-117E With Liquid Cooling
We’ve been impressed withNVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 40 Series of laptop GPUs, and we’ve seen a lot of great laptops that use them. CyberPowerPC’s laptop stands out not just because water cooling is so cool in a laptop, but because the company says the liquid cooling system delivers a 10% performance increase and helps the laptop run much cooler than a traditional cooling system.
Let’s rewind: The 17-inch CyberPowerPC Tracer VII Edge-117E is a strong laptop on its own with the option of a GeForce RTX 4090 GPU as well as a powerful Intel 13th Gen Core i9-13900HX CPU and a mechanical keyboard with Cherry switches. It also has a smaller sibling, the 16-inch Tracer VII Edge-I16G.
Both laptops support an optional liquid cooling system. Fill the reservoir with water and connect it to the back of the laptop using a magnetic connector, and the laptop will run with liquid cooling. The connection is very secure, but you can unplug it at any time and, in our experience, only a single drop of water will be present in the connector and leak out. The connector really impressed us.
The laptop also has a more traditional cooling system, of course, which it can use when it’s away from the liquid cooling unit.
Liquid cooling is just super cool, and the connector is impressively well-designed and easy to use. Improved performance, cooler temperatures for your hands, less whirring of fans, and a longer hardware lifespan all sound great. In a world wherelaptop cooling padsare becoming increasingly common, a liquid cooling system sounds even better.
Best Router:ASUS RT-BE96U Wi-Fi 7 Router
ASUS routers take four of our top picks for thebest Wi-Fi routers on the market, so we were thrilled to see ASUS debuting some of the first routers supporting the ultrafastWi-Fi 7 standardat CES 2023. TheRT-BE96Uis a router sporting two 10GbEthernetports (oneLANand one WLAN/LAN) and a 2.6GHz quad-core processor with the RangeBoost Plus technology developed by ASUS.
Related:These Are the First Wi-Fi 7 Routers From ASUS
The triband router features the 6Ghz band that debuted withWi-Fi 6E, in addition to the5Ghz and 2.4Ghz bands. Together they form an impressive aggregate bandwidth of 19,000 Mbps. Compare that to ASUS’RT-AX88U(currently our favorite router overall) rated at 6,000 Mbps, and you can see what kind of potency the RT-BE96U carries.
The RT-BE96U won’t become available until later in 2023, and ASUS hasn’t announced a price either. ASUS has hinted at announcing wireless devices supporting Wi-Fi 7 soon as well.
Best Lightweight Laptop:ASUS ExpertBook B9 OLED
Late last year,ASUS announced the ExpertBook B9and claimed it was the world’s lightest 14-inch laptop. Now, at CES 2023, the company is back with the same laptop, but this timeit has an OLED displayinstead of IPS.
In fact, OLED isn’t the only upgrade over the previous model. ASUS also swapped the CPU to the Intel 13-gen chips from the 12th-gen, upped the RAM to 64GB from 16GB, and still claims it’s the lightest 14-inch laptop on the market with those upgrades. We held it and were impressed by just how light it was.
Back to that display, though. The 14-inch OLED panel makes for super dark pure blacks and vivid colors. It comes in at a resolution of 2,880 x 1,800. The IPS model cost $1,840 at launch, but ASUS did not share pricing or release information for the OLED model.
Best Chromebook:ASUS Chromebook Vibe CX34 Flip
Probably cloud gaming’s biggest selling point is that you don’t need powerful hardware to play demanding titles. AChromebookis seemingly a perfect marriage if you want the controls and experience of a full-size PC or console without the price tag. At CES 2022, ASUS aimed to officiate that marriage with theASUS Chromebook Vibe CX34 Flip.
The CX34 Flip follows theC55 Flipreleased in October 2022, bringing a major improvement by upgrading the wireless standard toWi-Fi 6E. An impeccable internet connection is key in cloud gaming, and the 6E upgrade should minimize lag. You get a 12th-gen Intel Core i7 processor for performance in productivity, and ASUS also added a customizable RGB backlight to the keyboard (something noticeably absent from the C55).
ASUS hasn’t announced a price for the CX34, but we do know the Chromebook will come bundled with a SteelSeries Rival 3 wirelessgaming mouseand, for a limited time, three-month subscriptions toNVIDIA GeForce NOW Ultimateand Amazon Luna+cloud gaming services.
Best Computer Accessory:Kingston IronKey Vault Privacy 50 Series
We love recommending Kingston products for everything frombuying storagetospeeding up your laptop. If you need secure removable storage that works with USB ports you’ll find on modern laptops, Kingston announced aUSB-C versionof itsIronKey Vault Privacy 50line of encrypted flash drives.
TheFIPS 197certified flash drive usesXTS-AES 256-bit encryptionto protect your files and has defenses against threats likeBadUSBandbrute-force attacks. The built-in virtual keyboard keeps your password from the prying eyes ofkeyloggingand screenlogging spyware, too.
Speaking of passwords, you also have a ton of options when you set up the IronKey, including passphrases, numeric PINs, multiple passwords, one-time recovery passwords, and more. If you’re serious about portable storage security, the Kingston IronKey Vault 50 Series is worth a look.
Best TV:Samsung QN95C 4K TV
Samsung’s displays never fail to impress, and their showing at CES 2023 is no exception. The new Samsung QN95C is built around Samsung’s Neo QLED technology — their take onmini-LED backlights.
The QN95C is a 75 inch, 4K television with a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz, making it an excellent choice for gaming or a home theater setup. The Samsung QN95C also incorporates top-firing speakers for full Dolby Atmos support.
Related:What Is a Mini-LED TV, and Why Would You Want One?
The real standout feature is the mini-LED backlight. Historically, LCD screens have had significantly worse contrast than OLEDs, Plasma TVs, and even CRTs. Mini-LED displays allow the screen’s brightness to be controlled in discrete blocks rather than adjusting the brightness of the entire screen uniformly. More blocks mean you’re able to get better contrast between light and dark portions of a scene, and that is one of the big improvements we have with the QN95C. It quadruples the number of dimming blocks over last year’s model, providing even better contrast performance.
Samsung has paired the mini-LED backlight with special software that is designed to intelligently adjust the dimming zones, so that standard dynamic range (SDR) content, like older TV shows and movies, is automatically remastered to take advantage of the TV’s high dynamic range (HDR) capabilities.
Samsung says the combination should allow the QN95C, an LCD TV, to rival OLED TVs in detail and lighting control — an impressive achievement.
Best Smartphone:Samsung Galaxy A14 5G
Smartphone announcements aren’t a big part of CES anymore. High-end flagship phones are typically announced at dedicated events now, but there are still a few shown off at CES. Samsung revealed itsGalaxy A14 5Gthis year, and it’s a pretty great deal.
The Galaxy A14 5G is the follow-up to last year’s A13 5G, and it has a lot in common. The A14 5G retains the MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset, 90 Hz display, 50 MP (f/1.8) main camera,2 MP depth camera, 2 MP macro camera, and a big 5,000mAh battery. You also get the increasingly rare 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot.
New this year is an upgraded 13MP front-facing camera (from 5MP last year) and a very slightly larger 6.6-inch display. However, the best thing about the A14 5G is its software support. Samsung is promising at least two Android OS updates and four years of security updates. For a phone that costs only $199, that’s pretty awesome. Samsung didn’t announce a release date.
Best Smart Home:Eve MotionBlinds Upgrade Kit
Last year Eve released MotionBlinds at CES 2022. We loved the simplicity of the design but it came with a not-insignificant catch. The catch? You had to scrap your blinds and purchase everything all over again because the ultra-sleek design only came prepackaged with new blind sets.
This year, Eve announced a welcome addition to the MotionBlinds family, theMotionBlinds Upgrade Kit. Now you don’t have to rip out all your old roller blinds, you can simply motorize the whole assembly with Eve’s drop-in retrofit kit. Then your dumb blinds will not only be smart but will have all the advantages of the MotionBlinds system, including a year-long battery life, easy USB-C recharging, and an ultra-slim profile that completely conceals the motor and battery.
The MotionBlinds Upgrade Kit will retail for $199.99 andbe available on August 07, 2025 directly from Eve.
Best Smart Home Lawn and Garden:Rachio Smart Hose Timer
Smart home tech is always a big part of CES, but a lot of the products require you to fully replace existing things you have. Smart home products that inject some smarts into things you already own are even better, and that’s what theRachio Smart Hose Timerdoes.
The idea behind this device is pretty simple. You connect the Rachio Smart Hose Timer to a standard water spigot, and then the water hose connects to the device. It controls when water can go through the hose and whatever is connected to the other end, such as a sprinkler. It’s a similar concept to a smart plug.
With Rachio’s app, you’re able to create schedules for when the water should turn on and how long it should stay on before turning off. It also has built-in “Weather Intelligence,” which can automatically adjust things based on the weather and seasons. The Rachio Smart Hose Timer will be available in March 2023 for $99.
