CES 2021 Day 2: Razer’s Insane Concepts, Smart Lipstick, and a Flying Car

This story is part of THESE, where our editors will bring you the latest news and the hottest gadgets from fully virtual CES 2021.

THESEbeing fully digital is odd, admittedly, but the multitude of luxurious, weird, and wacky products on display on day one brought a sense of familiarity. Day 2 keeps that momentum going, although here things look a lot more futuristic. Literally, a flying car was one of the big concepts of the day.

Although day 2 is drawing to a close, the show is not over yet. In addition to a Microsoft keynote on Wednesday and a steady stream of new product announcements from companies around the world, Thursday will be Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event.

Let’s be conceptual

Razer has made a tradition of showing off conceptual gadgets at CES, and it has become a highlight of the show every year. In 2021, Razer has two such concepts: Project Brooklyn and Project Hazel.

The first is the Brooklyn project, a gaming chair with a rolling and wraparound screen. It’s also quite a screen: a transparent 180-degree OLED. In addition to this cutting-edge technology, Project Brooklyn also offers carbon fiber and leather bucket seats with haptic vibration and RBG lighting. Obviously.

The second is Project Hazel, a concept for life COVID-19. It’s an N95 mask filled with tech: audio processing pods that dampen your voice, active ventilation and self-sterilization, a companion case that doubles as a UV sterilizer. And RBG LED lighting.

Obviously.

So yes, both are intriguing. But Razer’s CES concepts don’t usually result in actual products, so don’t expect either. That said, Acer has a similar (albeit less stylish) chair in the seats. British company Binatone also showed its own tech mask at CES, an N95 mask with a Bluetooth headset. It’s not as fancy as Razer’s one, but it’s real and costs $ 50 – way less than Razer’s.

GM brings us closer to the Jetsons

On Monday, Samsung showcased a set of robots designed to help around the house, a baby step towards life like the Jetsons. General Motors is helping us take a giant leap, show off your flying car concept. This is called the eVTOL, or (electric) droid Verticle TakeOff and Landing.

“We are preparing for a world where advances in electric and autonomous technology make personal air travel possible,” said Michael Simcoe, GM’s chief design officer. GM now joins the likes of Archer and Aston Martin, companies that also work on flying vehicles.

Chip Wars

The first day of CES was marked by numerous television competitions between Samsung and LG, the two great Korean electronics giants. Day 2 was a battleground for processors, with Nvidia and AMD each holding their own keynotes.

Nvidia, the reigning graphics card champion, announced several new RTX GPUs. At the top of the line was the RTX 3080, for those who take their gaming really seriously (like esports seriously), which starts at $ 1,999. But while that delivers tremendous power for 4K gaming and intense video editing, the GPU at the bottom of the spectrum is equally remarkable. The RTX 3060 costs just $ 329, and Nvidia says it’s 10 times more powerful than the GTX 1060. In other words, you’ll be able to play most new games, although you may need to reduce the amount of power. resolution.

Although AMD makes GPUs, its talk on Tuesday was more about laptop processors. It’s announced Ryzen 5000 chips are coming to laptops, with brands like Lenovo, Asus, and HP committing to Ryzen 5000 laptops later this year. AMD insists it will mean thinner, lighter, and more powerful laptops. Those processors will compete with Intel’s 11th generation Tiger Lake H35 chips, announced on Tuesday.

Oh, and just for fun Samsung unveiled the Exynos 2100 chip which will power the international version of the Samsung Galaxy S21. The phone will have a full unveiling Thursday, but hey, it’s Chip Day so why not show some products early?

Single-screen laptops are outdated

Chips are cool, but what about the actual machines they’re housed in?

Just as phone makers are trying to get ahead with rolling and foldable screens, laptop makers are trying to differentiate themselves with useful new designs. Thinner, lighter and more powerful is good, but real innovation in such a mature industry is great.

For Asus, that means doubling down on its powerful dual-screen Duo line. At CES, he unveiled the Two 15 FR SE, which has a 15.6-inch display with a 14.1-inch secondary touchscreen that lives above the keyboard, as you can see above. It’s a beast, aimed at performance-obsessed gamers: it can be configured with a 4K 120Hz panel, with options for AMD or Nvidia graphics.

The company also ditched its new Strix Scar gaming laptop, which can be configured with a 360Hz display – the fastest on any laptop.

But while Asus is investing in brute force, Chinese brand Lenovo is betting on efficiency. In addition to the main screen, its new Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 2 i has an E-ink display on the lid so you can check notifications, your calendar, take notes and more without opening the machine. It can also be charged via a Lenovo charging mat, so that’s one less cable to worry about.

Smart lipstick, smarter scent

The Internet of Things industry is set to grow by the hundreds of millions of dollars each year. What this means in practice is that more parts of everyday life are filled with computational intelligence. A new example of CES? Lipstick.

Featured at last year’s CES and unveiled as a real product you can buy on Tuesday (coming spring, cost $ 299), Yves Saint Laurent’s Person is a device that contains three cartridges of liquid lipstick. Using an included brush, you can mix colors to get the exact color and shade you are looking for.

It’s a similar story with Ninu, a smart fragrance. Inside are three perfumes, in three different bottles. Ninu connects to your phone, and through an app you can mix scents together, personalizing them to your exact taste. Obviously, it could go very badly, so there is an AI assistant in the app that will help you not to smell the trash.

The future, eh?