The Best of CES 2018
Saturday, August 3, 2018 | Jay Doherty
Okay, I know this is a little bit late to be writing about CES, but this is something I’ve been working on for a long time, and actually wanted to post on my main site, but decided because this is News and Tech Enthusiasts in Their Natural Habitat, I thought this would be the more “appropriate” place to publish this article.
Of course, there were many examples of huge improvements in LCD and OLED TVs, and in some cases, those improvements will be available at lower prices—which is pretty big news on its own but there were also several examples of revolutionary new technologies that promise a bright and vibrant future for video displays (pun strongly intended)
To recognize these achievements, I, personally chose 3 of the best video products that represent the highest level of technological innovation and/or value at the Las Vegas show. In the future, I will award audio awards because that is definitely my expertise, more-so than video but the video products are pretty cool
Quick Disclaimer: I am not affiliated or associated financially with any products mentioned in the following article. The brand, or its affiliation also will not impact my written opinion.
Okay, now to the 3 best video products announced at CES
1. LG OLED Canyon
Historically, LG is known for building an impressive booth at CES, and this year was no exception. From video I saw, it was clear that visitors entered the booth through a winding OLED Canyon, which, technologically was a 246 55-Inch, custom-curved, 4K/Ultra HD OLED TVs in video walls that towered over the crowd.
If you do the math, there are over 2 billion pixels reproduced scenes of forests, waterfalls, glaciers, and canyons, accompanied by ambient sounds and music from a Dolby Atmos immersive-audio system. This was one of the coolest, most innovative, and visually pleasing objects at CES.
2. Samsung QLED LCD TV
This is, by far, my favorite piece of gear announced at CES. This new 2018 QLED TVs make many improvements over last year’s models. Also, this new 85″ 8K absolutely amazing screen with AI-based processor seen here. With all of this and more (as seen below), it makes this product my absolute favorite “thing” launched at CES 2018
The biggest improvement in this year’s Samsung QLED TVs is the switch from edge lighting to FALD (full-array local-dimming) backlighting in the top models, which results in deeper blacks, which is needed as this TV does not have an OLED. As the name, itself indicates, Samsung’s QLED TVs have quantum dots in their backlights to make nearly 100% of the DCI/P3 color gamut, and I am stressing the LCD part of that. Anyway, the only specific model announced at CES was the Q9S, an 85 inch 8K beast with an AI-based processor that uses machine learning to upscale lower resolutions to 8K/UHD. All I have to say is Wow!
3. Sony 10,000 Nit Display
First of all, if you don’t know what nits are, go ahead and check out this video made by a company, you’d never expect to mention nits in anything. Here is that video if you want to see it.
Several high dynamic-range (HDR) formats are based on a maximum light output of 10,000 nits from the display. However, there are no currently available displays are capable of producing anything close to that much light, approxamitely the equivalent to the light of 10,000 candles, a lot of light. The standard iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are capable of 1,000 nits at full brightness, so just think of this machine as ten times brighter, and 100 times bigger!
Sony very clearly demonstrated what such a display would look like, something not historically surprising but specular highlights were dazzling, and the overall image was far brighter than even Sony’s Z9D, one of the brightest flat panels on the market today. The engineering prototype won’t be a consumer product any time soon, but it clearly showed how bright the future of video really is.
Those are my three best products! Thanks for reading!
Sources include: AVS Forum, Digital Trends, Samsung, Sony, Apple, LG, Reuters, CNET, and other trusted content partners of Jay Doherty Enterprises
Jay Doherty
2018