TVs of CES 2018

If you care about TV technology, CES is the place to be. And if you can't make it Las Vegas in person, this collection of the newest, biggest screens is the next best thing.

Let's take a look at the TVs of tomorrow, and beyond.

First up is the craziest TV we've seen in, well, forever. 

We've seen bendy big-screen TVs before, but 2018 has brought the first that's flexible enough to spin up into a tube form and hide in a little box.

That's CNET TV guru David Katzmaier holding the remote that raises and lowers the TV.

One cool feature is that the TV can become smaller yet still play video. Here it is descended partway, exactly enough to show ultra-widescreen 21:9 movies without those pesky black letterbox bars above and below. 

Here it is rolled down to show just a small slice, perfect for a weather app.

And here it is completely rolled up into its little white box. The TV can basically disappear, which is great if you don't like staring at a big black rectangle all day when it's not in use.

A close-up of it descending onto its box. It's able to roll up because of the ultra-thin OLED display panel.

The rollable TV is just a concept for now, but it's so cool, and practical, that we wouldn't be surprised to see it go on sale in a year or two.

Another concept TV, meaning it's not going on sale anytime this year, is the largest OLED TV we've ever seen.

The largest currently available OLED TV is 77 inches, 4K resolution and $10,000. The 88-inch 8K version will probably cost more than a horse.

Like most high-end OLED TVs, the 88-incher was shown in the incredibly slim Wallpaper form factor.

LG Display went for the "art" look with this exhibit of its 77-inch 4K Wallpaper sets.

The mounting design really lets you appreciate how thin it is.

Here's a look at a 65-inch Wallpaper OLED, which LG Electronics will sell in 2018 as part of the W8 series. Pricing wasn't set, but the 2017 version costs $7,000.

LG's booth puts that wallpaper display to good use with a palm tree backdrop, custom frame and art on the screen.

This year LG added Google Assistant, summoned from a voice command into the remote. 

LG also makes OLED TVs with a relatively normal form factor.

The E8 still has a really cool stand, though.

OLED's main claim to fame is perfect black levels, which lead to amazing contrast and great overall picture quality.

Stepping away from OLED, Samsung's LCD TVs, which use QLED technology, are trying harder than ever to topple OLED's image quality dominance.

But the coolest Samsung TV at CES is definitely The Wall. It uses its MicroLED Cinema Screen technology to put a 146-inch TV in your home. 

Since it's modular, Samsung says The Wall can get even bigger.

MicroLED uses an array of millions of individual, tiny LEDs to create the image. Here's a close-up.

Winter comes to The Wall. The bookshelf gives a good perspective on just how huge a 146-inch TV is.

Forget 4K TVs, how 'bout this 8K from Samsung, what it calls the first 85-inch 8K TV with artificial intelligence.

The idea behind Samsung's AI for the 8K TV is to improve the conversion of lower-resolution content, like HD and 4K. That's a good thing, because there's basically no 8K content available.

Get a slice of that "easel" style.

Sony's on the protein powder, bulking its X900F series of TVs so that it now ranges from 49 inches all the way up to 85 inches. Last year's X900E series' 75 inches was, well, so last year.

Sony is also selling a matching sound bar, the HT-X9000F.

Improvements to the X900F include better processing, higher light output and new mode designed to combat motion blur.

Sony also had a new OLED TV, but it's exactly the same as last year's A1E model except for the styling. The new one has a more generic-looking stand and sits up straight, instead of leaning back. 

The back of the new Sony OLED TV is pretty standard.

Here's the 2017 model, with its anything-but-standard kickstand-style stand, in comparison. This model will remain in Sony's 2018 lineup.

You're not hearing or seeing things -- thanks to the Acoustic Surface speaker design, the same as last year's Sony A1E, the screen itself actually produces sound.

With its less-involved design, the A8F will probably be less expensive than A1E. We don't know for sure though because Sony (like pretty much every other TV maker at CES) didn't announce pricing.

Perhaps the coolest TV Sony introduced technically isn't a TV at all: It's a projector designed to blend into a room by looking like another piece of high-end furniture.

With aluminum legs, a faux marble top and even a wooden shelf is tough to tell from a credenza at first glance.

Using Sony's SXRD projection technology, at 4K resolution with a laser light source, the projected image passes out through an opening in the faux marble.

Set 9.6 inches from the wall, it can create an image 120 inches diagonal. 

Organic glass upfiring tweeters are stashed in the front legs, the main body hides center, left and right speakers, and there's a subwoofer underneath. 

The Sony LSPX-A1 goes on sale in spring for a cool $30,000.

Meanwhile Chinese TV brand Hisense has a short-throw 4K projector of its own. Its design is a lot more generic than the Sony's, and it costs a third as much at $10,000. The so-called laser TV has built-in speakers and a wireless subwoofer. 

Unlike Sony, which doesn't include a screen, the Hisense projector comes with a 100-inch screen by Screen Innovations. It's designed to reject ambient light from above so the projected light can be seen in a bright room.

Hisense also makes actual TVs, and its best for 2018 will be this 75-incher with full-array local dimming (with more than 1,000 zones), quantum dot color and Dolby Vision high-dynamic range.

Meanwhile the company's least expensive local dimming-equipped set, the H8E, offers standard HDR10 high-dynamic range and Alexa compatibility.

Hisense also has an exclusive app, called "Fox Sports GO: 2018 FIFA World Cup Edition" that offers live games and near-real-time highlights from 37 customizable camera angles, all in 4K resolution.

Last year, TCL's P series was 2017's best 55-inch TV for the money. Its successor, the 6 series, offers a 65-inch size, too, along with more local dimming zones and improved processing.

It keeps the P series' compatibility with both HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR formats, and Roku's excellent Smart TV system, and improves its styling.

Nvidia doesn't make TVs, and it doesn't make this one either: it leaves that up to its partners Asus, Acer and HP. 

And this isn't technically a TV. It's a king-size display for gamers, combining a high-performance, low-latency monitor with a big, fat TV.

Unlike other monitors, it supports true high-dynamic range (HDR) for games and other video sources. And it builds an Nvidia Shield right in-complete with an included game controller.

The BFGD is designed to hook up to gaming PCs, like this high-end HP Omen X, via DisplayPort. It also has standard HDMI for other gear, but it's version 2.0b, not 2.1 (which, to be fair, isn't found on any new TVs at CES). There's no antenna connection, however, because it's actually a monitor.

Here's another style of the BFGD, with a different stand supporting a sound bar. The display has a 120Hz native refresh rate that can be varied to match the game itself.

Another design variation of the BFGD, this one showing a mouse and keyboard to scale. Most people probably wouldn't want to sit this close.

A seating distance of about 4 feet, seen here, is more realistic. Of course most people don't want this kind of setup in their living room, but the BFGD isn't for most people.