[ad#ad-1]CES 2014 has come and gone, with a lot of new technologies devices and weird stuff. We saw a lot of cool new gadgets & technology, that will set the stage for 2014. Today we set our pick for best in show at CES 2014. The awards are broken down into categories of Mobile, PC/Tablets, TVs & Miscellaneous; comprised with picks selected by Sam & myself. So lets jump in.
Mobile: CES isn’t the avenue for many mobile announcements, but one caught our attention here at booredatwork. That was the Lenovo Vibe Z, the company’s first LTE smartphone that is priced aggressively at $549 and comes in packing the latest specs with a premium build to the device. For us here at booredatwork, the Vibe Z was Best in show in the mobile category at CES 2014
PC/Tablets: This is a category to which we have to winners: I will start with Sam pack the 2014 ThinkPad X1 Carbon, an ultrabook that knows no equal and pack quite a punch. With update to a much higher resolution touchscreen display. Also utilizes Rapid Charge technology, providing an 80% charge in under an hour. Coupled with an up to 9 hour battery life (over 70% improvement from the last generation) and optional built-in 4G capability, the new X1 Carbon has all the mobility and connectivity customers need wherever they go.
My pick is the new ThinkPad 8 Tablet, a priemium tablet that really shakes up the windows 8 tablet arena with its size and performance, ThinkPad Windows 8.1 tabletfrom Lenovo at an 8-inch screen size. One that offers a crisp, full HD and touchscreen display, pre-loaded with both Windows 8.1 and Microsoft Office. The ThinkPad 8 is equipped with USB3.0 and HDMI slots to enable a seamless sync to at-home desktops, and boasts an enhanced 8-hour battery life to help you do more, no matter where you go.
Both the Lenovo ThinPad X1 Carbon & the ThinkPad 8 Tablet are our best in show at CES 2014 for PCs and Tablets
TVs: While there were many offering of 4K UHD set available from the likes of Polaroid all the way to Sony. But the clear winner was LG: not just for their Curved OLED 4K displays. But also for their upgrade WebOS smartTV Upgrade. The whole idea here is all about simplicity. When you first turn on the TV, an animated character called Bean Bird appears to help guide you through various options. The SmartTV option overlay on your screen, allowing you to keep watching while you search for more options. Also LG has taken color coding of SmartTV apps the correct way, matching the logo colors of your favorite apps; like HULU, Netflix, Pandora and more
Miscellaneous: There are a few products that fall into our miscellaneous category, but we decided to highly on one product, actually company “Sensio“. Like me, most of you probably haven’t heard of Sensio, a chip manufacturer specializing in Video and HiFi chips for home displays (Televisions), but chances are you have or are using their technology in your TV set. However, what really stood out about this presentation was the fact that Sensio technology was not being utilized. The Sensio guys had put together this presentation just to highlight and debunk the idea that 4K TVs were useless without 4K content, and that impressed me.
After that presentation, I was taken over to another station where Sensio had their 3DGO software on a Vizio TV. The 3DGO app comes as a built in feature on supported devices, streaming 3D content to your display. The stand our feature of this app is that each video was compiled solely for viewing on a TV, this is not the same 3D experience you go in the theatre. Sensio has been able to acquire the Left and Right raw footage and combine them using their own processes to deliver the best 3D experience to your home.
Turtle Beach Hypersound: HyperSound . It is an amazing innovation in audio directing sound in a narrow beam keeping it in one specific location. With a traditional loud speaker system, the sound is sent in all directions. No matter where people are positioned, they will hear that sound as long as they are close enough to the source. They will know exactly where the sound is coming from. With Hypersound, it creates a specific zone of immersive audio. It is a “must-hear.” Step into the beam and you will be surrounded by 3d audio as if you’re wearing a surround sound headset, step out of the beam and you will no longer hear any audio. Stop by the Turtle Beach booth to experience it for yourself.
Kingston HyperX PCie Predator: Kingston showcases its fastest SSD, dubbed the Predator, which is a PCIe SSD. Yes it fits onto your motherboard and it is creaming fast; The HyperX Predator SSD, utilizes the LSI SandForce SF3700 Flash controller and will off read speeds of up to 1800 MB/s.
For the full list of Best of CES 2014 winners click here.