CES 2016

Every January, thousands of journalist, buyers, trade professionals, and more flock to Las Vegas for the largest electronics show in the world. The Consumer Electronics Show or CES as it is known is a massive showcase of new and pending technology which offers everything from the extreme high end to more affordable consumer electronics.

The show fills all the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center as well as several off site locales such as the Venetian Conference rooms and several vendors conduct business from hotel suites via private appointment as well.

The event keeps growing in size and duration as it now spans into Saturday after being a show that ran Tuesday-Thursday with Monday being reserved for press conferences, parties and presentations.

Trying to capture the vast size of the show is impossible as there are audio, medical, home, consumer, automotive, and so many other categories to cover, as well as companies who do not even offer their products in America on hand, but there is something for everyone.

I enjoyed seeing Skullcandy who showed off some new wireless headsets based on their popular wired lines as well as a new Bass intensive headset that will be out later this year. They also showed us the new Tournament mode A40 Astro headset with changeable ear and faceplates as well as a microphone options which go from omni to bi- directional to filter out noise.

Logitech, SanDisk, Corsair, BenQ, Razer, Creative, and Plantronics wowed us with their gaming devices and storage options and we will be covering this in greater detail down the road. Imagine a 200GB storage device that fits in your hand and allows up to three different devices to access content at once with blazing speeds. Or a curved gaming monitor that is at a $500.00 price point.

Samsung always has great stuff and this was no exception as they showed off their Quantum Dot tech for televisions which allows a new level of color, definition, and clarity that is beyond amazing.

One impressive showing was of their new Smart Refrigerators which offered numerous features such as a screen where users could write notes, lists, and even get help with keeping inventory and ordering as well as checking the contents inside remotely via an app on their phones.

Imagine being at the market and being able to look and see if you have eggs, milk, and butter without having to guess.

Virtual Reality was a big part of CES 2016 as Oculus announced $599.99 price for their pending set. Some speculated that this was too high of a price for market saturation. The HTC Vive and Playstation VR are also scheduled to arrive soon but have not set a price point yet, although Sony has said they expect their device to be “console priced” which if I on the lower end will allow for greater sales at launch.

Broadcasting is also gaining ground and companies such as Razer have Webcams and microphones to allow greater options for broadcasters to go with their always solid lineup of gaming technology.

Logitech impressed with their latest Proteus gaming mouse which has all of the features of the best-selling mouse as well as great features such as online profiles, color combinations, custom settings, and adjustable weights for the perfect and versatile gaming mouse.

This is just a very small sampling of the abundance of amazing items that were on hand as where else can you go from a custom car stereo to a massage chair and drones in one locale? CES 2016, simply a little bit of everything and utterly amazing.