CES 2020: What to look out for at the smartest festival on Earth

The annual tech extravaganza starts in Las Vegas this week 
The first of the consumer tech shows, CES, starts this week in Las Vegas
ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
Amelia Heathman3 January 2020

Afternoons spent watching trash TV and eating mince pies are just memories now. It’s January, folks, and in the tech world that means one thing: CES. The annual extravaganza in Las Vegas, the first of the big consumer tech conferences, starts on Sunday.

Here’s what to look out for:

Top of the trends

Artificial intelligence and 5G will continue to dominate at CES. Jean Foster, SVP of marketing and communications for the conference, expects AI to be the central theme for the next two or three years at least.

Delta Airlines, one of the traditionally non-tech companies now exhibiting at CES, will talk about how it uses AI to improve customer experience.

CES 2019 in Las Vegas

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Supersized TVs

LG and Samsung often use CES to highlight their latest TV tech so expect a lot of chat about the magic of 8K displays (a resolution of about 8,000 pixels) and larger-than-life screens. LG is predicted to debut its transparent OLED prototype — the pixels produce their own light so there’s no need for a backlight, presenting the perfect opportunity for transparent screens.

Samsung’s vision for the future is thought to be a QLED TV with no bezel around the screen. The company registered the brand name “Zero Bezel” with the EU Intellectual Property Office in October so we’re excited to see what this looks like at the company’s keynote speech.

First-timers

For the first time in 28 years, Apple will be at CES, though not to unveil new tech — its senior director of privacy, Jane Hovarth, will discuss consumer privacy at a round- table with Facebook execs. Last year, Apple promoted its privacy features with huge billboards around Las Vegas, so it will be interesting to hear what Hovarth has to say.

A monorail train featuring a Google ad passes by a billboard advertising Apple's iPhone security during CES 2019
David Becker/Getty Images

Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus is also holding a CES event — a first for the company — to showcase its first concept phone. There aren’t many details on what the OnePlus Concept One will look like — the company says only that it offers “an ever smoother, faster and more ‘burdenless’ experience” — a folding phone, perhaps?

Beyond the gadgets

At tech shows, it’s easy to focus on the shiniest new gadget or robot. But the Consumer Technology Association, which holds CES, now supports the wider start-up ecosystem and companies using tech to tackle global issues.

Last year, it pledged to invest $10 million (£7.6 million) in funds that support women and founders from under-represented backgrounds. Another initiative will see the World Bank on stage to announce new tech challenges, in partnership with the CTA, for companies tackling issues such as gender diversity.

The industry is still very much a boys’ club — CES was criticised last year for removing an innovation award for a female-focused sex toy on the grounds it was “immoral and obscene” despite allowing VR pornography exhibits — so it’s good to see the CTA making up for this.

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