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Robots, laptops and a giant flash drive: All that matters from CES so far

A ton of new tech has already landed in Las Vegas and CES hasn't even officially started yet. Here's what CNET is following as the excitement builds.

Kent German Former senior managing editor / features
Kent was a senior managing editor at CNET News. A veteran of CNET since 2003, he reviewed the first iPhone and worked in both the London and San Francisco offices. When not working, he's planning his next vacation, walking his dog or watching planes land at the airport (yes, really).
Kent German
4 min read
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Shrug off that New Year's hangover, there's no time to rest as CES begins once again. The CNET team is on the ground in Las Vegas ready to bring you all the gadget goodness. Though the show doesn't formally open until Thursday, there's plenty that's already been announced, unveiled and revealed. Here's a breakdown on some of the most exciting tech we've handled, and ridden, so far.

Loads of laptops

CES has already delivered a large selection of laptops in all shapes and, well, sizes. If you have money to burn and a lap strong enough to support it, the Acer Predator 21X is a beast of a gaming machine that weighs 17 pounds and has a 21-inch screen. The rest of the specs, like five system fans, are just as ridiculous.

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The Predator 21 X is great for gaming and working out.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Though we first saw it last August at IFA in Berlin, Acer brought the 21 X back to CES with an official sky-high price tag of $8,999 (that's about £8,520 or AU$14,540 when you convert the 9,999 euro European price). Yes, you read that correctly... nine grand for a laptop. But as a conversation piece for the committed gamer, what more do you want?

For a slightly cheaper laptop option (about $8,000 cheaper to be exact), Dell 's Inspiron 15 7000 puts an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 or 1050 Ti graphics card into a sleek design with either a full HD or 4K screen. It goes on sale Thursday for $799 (£644 or AU$1,100).

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Dell's Inspiron 15 7000 has some excellent design touches.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Lenovo is rebranding its gaming line with the Legion series. The company has a rather long-winded explanation for the name (something about the Roman legionary sticking together), but for you that means two news machines, the Y720 and Y520. The Y720 is the most advanced of the two with built-in Dolby Atmos and an integrated Xbox One wireless receiver. Lenovo also showed the Thinkpad X1 family and the new Miix 720.

Also from Lenovo

Outside of laptops, Lenovo continued to keep us busy with announcements like the 500 multimedia controller, which has a QWERTY keyboard that's also a touch pad, and the Smart Assistant Amazon Alexa competitor. That device will debut in China this March.

Lenovo Smart Assistant with Amazon Alexa

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More than meets the eye

Sometimes the most interesting products also are the most ordinary. Take the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate GT flash drive. With a capacity of 2TB, it's (currently) the world's largest capacity flash drive. That may change as soon as tomorrow, and we'll have to wait on pricing when it's released next month. It looks a bit bloated, but with so much space for your holiday photos, that's a 1KB gripe.

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Meet the world's largest capacity flash drive.

Kingston

There's also the Samsung FlexWash + FlexDry Laundry System. It looks like a normal side-by-side front-load washer and dryer pair, but look closer. Both units also have a smaller top-loading washer or dryer inside. It's weird, yeah, but also perfect when you want to wash whites and colors at the same time.

Cars of CES

Even though the Detroit Auto Show is next week, cars are driving into CES in force. Chrysler's Portal concept looks like a minivan, but it promises much more. It's autonomous, it runs on batteries and its face and voice recognition features mean that it will configure itself for individual drivers and passengers.

Faraday Future finally debuted its electric FF 91. It self-parks, has a range of 378 miles and an ambitious (and crazy) set of promised features. We'll have to see whether they all pan out.

Holy crap, Faraday Future finally unveiled its first electric car!

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And much more

    Are you a new parent struggling to keep up with diapers, feeding times and sleep schedules? Then you may want Mattel's Aristotle. It's a fully-functioning Amazon Alexa, but when you address it as "Aristotle" it will send your baby to sleep with an lullaby and order more diapers when you're fresh out.

    A new Lego Boost kit combines coding and robot-building, and it uses old bricks.

      kerastase-hair-coach-1229-002.jpg

      Just what you've always wanted: a smart hairbrush.

      Josh Miller/CNET

        For brushing your luscious locks, try a smart hairbrush. The Kerastase Hair Coach has a microphone, an accelerometer, gyroscope and conductivity sensors.

        Earin's M-2 wireless earphones are a better-looking answer to Apple's Airpods.

        kuriproductphotos-5.jpg

        Is the Kuri creepy or cool?

        Chris Monroe/CNET

          The Kuri from Mayfield Robotics is a small robot that patrols your home and keeps an eye on things with a camera and a Bluetooth connection. It also has some personal assistant features and it's supposed to recognize faces and context and adapt its responses accordingly.

          Darqi's Smart Glasses promise to let you guide a colleague's work by seeing their point of view.

          The Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed warms your feet as you're falling asleep.

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          Scan yourself with Huawei's Honor Magic.

          Josh Miller

            Huawei brought two Honor phones to Vegas, the 6X and the Magic. The former is a pretty standard Moto G4 competitor, but the latter has infrared sensors that will scan your face to verify that you the owner are holding the phone before it shows notifications (the sensor works in tandem with a fingerprint reader).

            LeEco showed mountain and road bikes with built-in GPS and fitness tracking.