It's impossible for one person to see everything on display at CES each year. I had three staffers helping me cover the show, and PCMag had a dozen people on the ground in Las Vegas for its coverage.
Being at CES provides valuable hands-on time with gadgets on the floor and in closed-door briefings. Based on what I saw, it's clear that some amazing new gadgets will hit the market in 2017, some of which could be game changers. Here are several particularly intriguing devices.
Corning's Smart Car Smart Glass
Corning Glass had an eye-catching demo of a car covered in touch-based smart glass. The entire dashboard was a glass display, while a head-up display was built into the driver's side for on-windshield navigation. On the right side of the dash, there was a full video screen so passengers could watch video. There was even a smart screen in the steering wheel for quick access to all of the car's controls. The roof, meanwhile, was an all-glass panel that could switch from clear to shades of colors that made the vehicle visually unique.
Norton Core
Wi-Fi routers typically aren't the sexiest of products, but Norton challenged that assertion at CES this year with the Norton Core. This cube-shaped gadget offers advanced security features like deep packet inspection, automatic updating, customizable guest networks that expire at a set period of time, and more. What's most interesting to me, though, is that the Core secures Wi-Fi based IoT devices, many of which are vulnerable out of the box. The Norton Core will retail for $279.99, but is available for pre-order for a limited time at $199.99. Subscriptions for the Core software will also cost $9.99 per month after the first year.
Omron BP Watch
Wearable health devices continue to evolve beyond fitness trackers to gadgets that can impact our total health experience. Omron showed off a smartwatch—the Project Zero Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor (BP6000)—that doubles as a blood pressure device, which should be of interest to millions of heart patients.
Lenovo Yoga Book
Lenovo's Android-based Yoga Book arrived last year, but was on display at CES 2017 and won an Innovation Award at the show. It's easy to see why; it has a clamshell laptop-like design in which the bottom half is a Wacom touchpad that doubles as a very flat virtual keyboard. Although the keyboard on this version is a bit hard to use, it is ultrathin and very light and has the potential to force other tablet vendors to innovate.
Nvidia Shield TV
Nvidia introduced a lot of new products at CES, but its Shield TV was important because it brings console gaming to a set-top box. While Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV are great streaming media devices, the Shield TV adds the dimension of a high-quality gaming experience that rivals some existing dedicated consoles. The addition of Google Assistant is also a nice touch.
LG Signature W (OLEDW7P) Series
LG had a TV that was so thin it looked like it was just part of the wall. You had to see it to believe that LG could get an OLED screen this thin that still offered amazing colors and resolution. In fact, I walked around the demo at least four times to try and figure out where the electronics were as its profile defied logical physics. This TV is still in its early stages and once released will be very expensive. But it showed us how thin an 4K OLED TV can be, and you can bet this will only rev up the "who has the thinnest TV" battle.
These are just a few of the many products that caught my eye at CES 2017 (and I hope to purchase one day). Even after 50 years, CES continues to offer great gadgets and even some surprises; it's a must-see trade show for geeks like me.
For more, check out PCMag's picks for the Best of CES 2017.