If there’s one thing that’s never lacking at CES, it’s televisions. This is the Consumer Electronics Show. And whether it’s your first, or your 15th, TVs remain some of the biggest draws not just for the manufactures of such devices, but for those of us there to take it all in.
But that’s just the tip of the old metaphorical iceberg of what we expect at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Some of what awaits us is already known. A good bit remains a mystery, for now. Here’s a look at what we know and what we hope we’ll know soon.
2024 televisions at CES
Like we said, CES is going to be pretty loaded with televisions from all the usual suspects. And as usually is the case, LG has announced its new lineups ahead of CES. And as you’d expect, these things are lousy with “AI Inside.” (If that’s not a trademarked phrase yet, it should be. We’ll gladly accept the royalties.)
LG has been quick to talk up the processing power in both its new QNED lineup (that’s a mini-LED panel with quantum dots), as well as its 2024 high-end OLED sets. The former now comes as large as a whopping 98 inches. And the latter packs even more AI processing in a range as “small” as 65 inches, and its wireless tech is now even better. The QNED sets will be more affordable, of course, but it’s always fun to see how many tens of thousands of dollars the really big OLED sets will hit.
That’s what we know. What we’re still expecting is new fare from the other big players — mainly Samsung, TCL, and Hisense, with the latter having already teased a monster 110-inch television that should be brighter than the sun. And TCL should be an interesting one, given its partnership with the NFL. WE Figure AI will feature prominently from each company, because everyone knows which way the marketing wind is blowing. And AI processing requires, well, processors. So expect plenty of talk along that front as well. And many of the manufacturers also have their own flavors of software — think LG’s webOS and Samsung’s Tizen, for starters — so expect a good bit of that as well.
The wild card? Sony. In a pretty big surprise move at CES 2023, Sony opted not to roll out anything new and to instead break out on its own later in the year. Will it do so again in 2024? We wouldn’t bet against it.
Soundbars and speakers and other things
This being CES, and thus the domain of televisions and the like, we’re also expecting a fair amount on the audio side of things, particularly when it comes to the TV folks. And once again LG tipped its hand ahead of the show, with a bevy of new soundbars on the way that promise to work even better (and look even better) alongside LG’s TVs.
We’ll get very much the same sort of tune from the other usual suspects mentioned above.
And we already have a contender for the “what the heck is that?!?!?” award as LG rolled out something it calls the DukeBox. It’s an old-school tube amp and speakers, with a transparent OLED display built in. It looks cool as hell. Chances are it’ll sound cool as hell, too. Because tube amps are cool like that.
And speaking of cool, we’re very much going to want a closer look at the LG CineBeam Qube projector. Let’s hope the image it projects is at least half as cool as the way the thing looks. And chances are LG isn’t the only one with new projectors on the way.
And then there are the headphones and earbuds. While we’re not expecting anything new from most of the major players, there are some CES mainstays. (JBL is one name that always comes to mind.) And it’s the perfect time for some of the lesser-known companies to get eyeballs on their products, so stay tuned for that.
It’s going to be a busy few days, for sure. And if not? We’ll just pull up in front of The Sphere to see what we can see.
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