9 More of the Wild and Strange Things We’ve Seen at CES 2023
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The doors to the main CES 2023 expo halls open to the general public today. The throngs of show attendees will descend on the Las Vegas Convention Center to touch, photograph, experience, and gawk at the consumer tech industry's various attempts to bring the future into the present. We in the technology press have spent the first part of this week attending demos and observing previews of the products being announced at this year's show. As such, we've gotten to go hands-on with a bunch of 2023's consumer tech products—some finished, some still prototypes—and gotten a glimpse at the most promising embodiments of tech's next wave. We showed you a bunch of neat ideas yesterday. Here are some more.
Photograph: Roger KisbyDyson Zone
We’ve written about Dyson’s insanely expensive, air-purifying face-mask-headset combo before. When I saw photos online, the headphones looked comically obtrusive. But in person, the headphones are … not that bad! Wearing them feels just like wearing a pair of high-end, over-the-ear wireless headphones—ones with a plastic ring that bathes your facial orifices in a steadily flowing stream of freshness. Of course, the mask is meant to provide fresh air in polluted environments, so it is not enclosed or sealed and does not protect you or others from transmitting or getting Covid, like, at all. That’s why Dyson recently added the Community Face Mask, which clips into the mouthpiece and sits over your mouth and nose. But regardless of what you might think about how it looks (or the $949 price tag!), it is a pretty remarkable feat of engineering to get a Dyson air-purifying filter that tiny. —Adrienne So
Photograph: Roger KisbyNiu BQi-C3 Electric Bike
We rate Niu’s electric scooter as our best overall for its reasonable price and extensive range. So it was exciting to see that the company recently launched an electric commuter bike too. The BQi-C3 has a 750-watt motor and dual batteries that increase the range to up to 62 miles and integrate seamlessly into the frame. The price is a competitive $1,999. It’s a pretty big and heavy bike, and at 5’ 2”, I’m barely tall enough to ride it. Still, it’s good-looking, and comes with several features that are pretty unusual at this price, like a height-adjustable stem and a Gates belt drive. —Adrienne So
Photograph: Roger KisbyCitizen CZ Smart
Citizen has a new watch, but not the kind you might be thinking about. The CZ Smart is a Wear 3 smartwatch, meaning it’s running the latest wearable operating system from Google. You can see and respond to your notifications, control your smart home devices, and so on, but Citizen is trying to make its own mark in the smartwatch space with an app that aims to help you stay at your best the whole day. The YouQ app is based on research from Nasa and utilizes IBM’s Watson machine intelligence platform to monitor your habits over a period of seven to 10 days. It uses the sensors on the watch to check your sleep and heart rate to establish some baseline measurements. After that, you’ll be able to see the times of the day where you seem to be the most productive. If the app notices you’re fatigued or not feeling your best, then it’ll suggest “power fixes” to help. These can be as simple as drinking a cup of coffee or going for a run. How well it works remains to be seen, but it’s nice to see an effort to distinguish a Wear OS watch with unique software smarts. —Julian Chokkattu
Roger KisbyBaracoda BHeart
We’ve seen a trend here at CES of fitness trackers that don’t look like fitness trackers. (A watch without a face! A sensor that goes in the potty!) The BHeart is one of the most useful of these trackers I’ve seen so far. This activity sensor and heart rate monitor can be worn as a bracelet on its own, or as a strap clipped onto your existing watch so you don’t have to sacrifice your beloved Casio just to track your movement. Tiny solar panels are also fitted into the chains, and the company claims the panels soak up enough energy that the tracker never needs to plug in to charge. When it goes on sale in April 2023, it’ll cost $100. —Adrienne So
Photograph: Roger KisbyFellow Opus
Fellow's latest product—like everything else from the couture coffee company—is designed to be eye candy for your counter. The Opus grinder is a sleek and adorable little thing, and it does the one thing I’ve wanted from a Fellow grinder for years: everything. Fellow promises this new grinder includes a set of conical burrs that can produce not only ground sizes perfect for killer drip coffee, but also a grind fine enough for espresso. Fellow’s previous grinder, the Ode, was capable of grinding great coffee for drip and pourover, but it couldn’t quite get the grounds fine enough for espresso. The Opus goes on sale in February 2023 for $195, putting it in the higher end of the burr grinder world, so we’ll have high expectations when we get a chance to test it out.—Jaina Grey
Photograph: Roger KisbyPivet
I wrote about Pivet two years ago when the company first entered the accessory scene, and now you can find its environmentally friendly cases on store shelves at Target and Best Buy. A Pivet case might look like a normal phone sheath, but each one is made from recycled plastic imbued with a material that helps it biodegrade in landfill conditions within two to three years. Well, the company is now using the same material on chargers—a wireless charging pad, a two-port 68-watt charger, and a single-port 30-watt charger. The charging bricks are by no means the best you’ll find—they use the first-generation Gallium Nitride technology (GaN), which doesn’t make them as compact as many of today’s chargers. The plugs also don’t fold up. But Pivet is part of a positive trend where more recycled materials are being used in the accessory space. And there’s some peace of mind knowing that if your case did end up in a landfill, it would biodegrade fairly quickly. —Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Roger KisbyEargo 7
The old way of buying a set of hearing aids involved making an appointment to see an audiologist, enduring some tests, and sitting for a fitting. The new way of buying some hearing aids: Head on down to your local retail store, select the ones you want, and buy them on the spot, no doctor required. A new set of FDA regulations allowing for over-the-counter, self-fitting hearing aids has resulted in several new lower-cost models quickly making their way to market. These from Eargo are not the first from the company to qualify for self-fitting—the Eargo 5 and 6 can be set up without a doctor’s help—but they are Eargo’s first to launch as an over-the-counter model. They are nearly invisible when worn, and they run on rechargeable batteries that are good for 16 hours. —Michael Calore
Photograph: Roger KisbyOtterGrip Symmetry
“Huh, neat,” is what I thought when I first saw OtterBox’s new OtterGrip Symmetry phone grip, and it’s exactly what I overheard someone else say when they took a look at it on the CES show floor. Think of a PopSockets grip, but completely integrated into the case so that it doesn’t stick out. Instead, when you need the grip to hold your phone securely, you just pull the grip out of the case. It also doubles as a kickstand, and because it sits flush with the case, it doesn’t interrupt wireless charging. It even supports Apple’s MagSafe accessory system. It’s available for the iPhone 14 series, iPhone 13 Pro Max, and iPhone 12/12 Pro. The case costs $60 and goes on sale in February. —Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Roger KisbyRoku TV
Following the lead of Amazon, which started selling Fire TV–branded television sets in 2021, Roku is launching its own television brand. The company will sell two lines of TVs, the budget Roku Select and the nicer Roku Plus. Both will still be cheap; the least expensive Select model is the 24-inch set, which costs $119. If you want the biggest Plus model, it’ll run you $999 for a 75-inch 4K beast. The televisions will, of course, run Roku’s streaming software. This move could be slightly confusing for casual TV buyers who have been seeing Roku-branded TCL televisions for years and will now be offered something that looks and works the same but has a new name and a new box. But with prices this low, it’s unlikely anyone will quibble over the finer points. Look for the TVs this spring. —Michael Calore
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