While you may be ditching the wrappers and preparing your drinks for the countdown to the new year, some of us have already started preparing for CES 2025. Immediately after New Year’s Day, many of the Engadget team will start packing their bags. I’ll be flying to Las Vegas to cover the technology industry’s largest annual conference. As usual, our inboxes are already flooded with pitches from companies planning to participate, and our calendars are filled with information session and demo bookings.
Based on our experience and observations of recent industry trends, it’s pretty easy to make educated predictions about what’s going to happen in January. Over the years, the conference’s focus has ranged from TVs, cars, smart home products, personal health, and a little bit of laptops and accessories. At CES 2025, we expect AI to become even more prevalent in all sectors. A view of the show floor. But we’re also likely to get the usual slew of new processors and subsequent laptops, as well as all sorts of wearables, trackers, bathroom appliances, and massage chairs. Ah, a massage chair.
What we already know is coming
A quick look at the lineup published by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) already tells us what’s coming. In addition to numerous panels and talks, we will also be featuring NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian, and executives from companies such as Panasonic, SiriusXM, Waymo, and Volvo Group. There will also be a keynote speech. In addition, X (Twitter) CEO Linda Yaccarino will be interviewed by journalist Katherine Herridge at the keynote on January 7th, and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel will be interviewed in January. It was also learned that he was scheduled to talk about “the platform’s future goals.” 8.
Some companies didn’t wait until January to announce the news. For example, LG continued its annual tradition of sharing upcoming CES announcements weeks before the show, announcing the 2025 refresh of its QNED evo series of LCD TVs. The company continues to release more information, including announcing the 45-inch UltraGear bendable OLED gaming monitor along with a series of curved OLED screens.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Mobis has announced that it will be showing us what it claims is the world’s first “holographic windshield display.” Hyundai Mobis also released photos of what its booth will look like at CES 2025, in case you were excited to see photos of its booth at the convention center.
hyundai mobis
If you’re already looking ahead to 2025 and eagerly researching what’s coming in January, here’s what our team is expecting from the show.
New video cards from AMD and NVIDIA
There’s no doubt that 2025 will be a big year for PC gamers. NVIDIA is expected to unveil its long-awaited RTX 5000 video cards at CES, while AMD CEO Lisa Su confirmed that next-generation RDNA 4 GPUs will arrive early next year. Of the two companies, AMD may have more access to upgrades. The last batch of Radeon 7000 cards had decent mid-range performance, but fell far behind NVIDIA’s hardware when it came to ray tracing, and AMD’s FSR 3 upscaling also fell short of NVIDIA’s AI-powered DLSS. Couldn’t compete with 3.
“In addition to significantly improving gaming performance, RDNA 4 delivers significantly higher ray tracing performance and adds new AI capabilities,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said in an October earnings call. ” he said.
As for NVIDIA’s new hardware, rumors from leaker OneRaichu (via DigitalTrends) suggest that the RTX 5090 could be up to 70% faster than the RTX 4090 (which I previously described as “ridiculous”). (GPU described as having “no power”). Also note that other “high-level” cards may see a 30-40% performance increase. These benefits may be enough to tempt wealthy RTX 4090 owners to upgrade, but RTX 4070 and 4080 owners may want to skip this generation. However, for NVIDIA with RTX 3000 or older GPUs, next year could be the perfect time to upgrade. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior Reporter
AI PC Round 2
Last year, I predicted that AI PCs would take over CES, and that was mostly true. As 2024 approaches, chips from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm are starting to come equipped with more powerful NPUs. Microsoft also focused on developing AI PCs with its Copilot+ initiative, heavily marketing artificial intelligence features and premium specs (like having at least 16 GB of RAM).
Expect more of the same at CES 2025, with more AI crammed into products in every category imaginable. This year in particular, PC manufacturers may be gearing up to take advantage of Windows 10 support ending next year. Rather than upgrading your old computer to Windows 11, companies like Dell and HP want you to buy an entirely new AI PC with the new OS preinstalled.
2024 was the year of endless AI PC hype, but 2025 may finally be the year of reckoning. Microsoft’s long-delayed recall feature is slowly rolling out to more users, but some glaring security holes have already been discovered, including the inability to erase Social Security and credit card numbers from screenshots. I’ve also been mostly blown away by Apple Intelligence’s image generation capabilities. PC makers have long talked enthusiastically about the potential of AI-powered features, but in 2025 they’ll need to actually prove they can live up to their fanciful claims. — D.H.
Earbuds follow Apple’s lead on hearing health
We understand that not all audio companies are able to build clinical-grade audiometry or hearing aid functionality into their apps. But recent updates to Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 should prompt competitors to offer some form of hearing health tool on their flagship products. Jabra was probably best equipped to do this, as its parent company GN has extensive experience with hearing aids. Unfortunately, the company announced earlier this year that it would no longer make earphones.
Given both companies’ existing health platforms, Samsung and Google could likely integrate something similar to what Apple has developed for AirPods. Both companies prefer to host their own standalone hardware events throughout the year, so it’s unlikely that such an announcement would happen at CES.
This makes Sennheiser the largest audio company to consistently announce earphones and headphones at CES. Last year, we introduced several new models, including one with heart rate tracking for workouts. Additionally, we already offer hearing aids through dedicated devices like the completely wireless Conversation Clear Plus. These earbuds are more focused on hearing than general content consumption, so it’s great to see Sennheiser bring some features from its products to its flagship Momentum series of earbuds. We’ll probably see a Momentum True Wireless 4 Pro or Plus, but the current model is only 9 months old.
Of course, there’s plenty of room for other companies to innovate here, and there will be no shortage of new earbuds in Las Vegas next month. CES also tends to see a ton of assistive devices and technology being announced from big accessibility companies like OrCam and smaller brands all over. I hope that some of the new technology includes more general hearing tools in the models that many people will want to use. — Billy Steele, Senior Editor
Vehicle electrification is progressing rapidly
As the growth rate of new electric vehicle models sold in the U.S. approaches 10%, it’s easy to forget that wheeled vehicles aren’t the only form of transportation seeing a transition to battery power. Flying taxis have been a mainstay at CES in recent years, with concept cars from big brands like Hyundai dotting the Las Vegas show floor.
Indeed, these devices look more like giant drones with cockpits than the Jetsons imagined. But with companies like Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation pledging to actually launch eVTOL services in 2025, the age of air taxis may have officially arrived. I don’t know. — Sam Rutherford, Senior Reporter
Turn more phones into satellite phones
Since Apple introduced emergency SOS via satellite with the iPhone 14 in 2022, we’ve seen a significant acceleration in the development of satellite communications. Not only has Apple expanded its capabilities to enable non-emergency communications, but component manufacturers like Qualcomm have also sought to bring similar functionality to Android devices. Snapdragon Satellite was announced at CES 2023 as a project between Qualcomm and Iridium, but the effort did not gain traction among smartphone companies and was ultimately shut down in November of the same year.
Since then, Google has launched satellite calling on its Pixel 9 phones, and SpaceX’s Starlink satellite texting service has launched in New Zealand through telco One NZ. In the United States, T-Mobile began accepting sign-ups this year for a beta version of its Starlink-powered satellite cell phone service. The skies are also becoming more crowded as AT&T and partner AST SpaceMobile launch five satellites in September, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper seeks to power satellite internet networks with space lasers.
This year, Garmin launched inReach Messenger Plus. It is described as an “SOS satellite communicator with photo and voice messaging.” Satellite hotspots like this have been around for years, from companies like Iridium and GlobalSat, but have historically cost between $800 and $1,000, and the ability to send more than a few lines of text has been limited. There wasn’t. Garmin’s products may be a sign of things to come. Not only are the major cell phone manufacturers likely to include satellite communications capabilities in future phones, but in the meantime we’ll probably get a ton of hotspots, so we’re never out. No matter how far you are from the grid, you can stay connected. And I wouldn’t be surprised if CES 2025 is full of devices that use satellites to call for help and talk to other people. — Charlyn Lowe, Deputy Editor
Enhanced soundbar dialog improvements
When it comes to the main aspects of soundbars, there aren’t that many innovations from year to year. After all, Samsung’s biggest update last year was the addition of HDMI 2.1 support to its flagship models, which should have already been included. Companies are also focused on the transition to cableless everything, including wireless Dolby Atmos and wireless transmission boxes. Audio enhancements are where companies can truly rise above the fray, and tools like Sonos’ TV Audio Swap and Bose’s Personal Surround Sound are great examples. A key area that almost every company can improve on is dialog boosting. This is a feature that increases the volume and separates spoken words from background noise and music for better clarity.
Sonos has taken a big step forward in this regard with the Arc Ultra, offering two additional settings for so-called audio enhancement. Previously, this was simply an all-or-nothing switch, which is how most companies handled versions of this tool. Not only is Sonos’s update somewhat customizable, it’s even better thanks to the redesigned architecture of its new premium soundbar. This is an obvious area where other companies can improve.
LG and Samsung typically announce new soundbars at CES, but many smaller companies also do so. I’d like to see them all take dialog enhancements a step further and at least provide multiple options on how to apply it. LG has been using AI Sound Pro in its TVs since 2021, and Samsung offers something called Adaptive Sound in its home theater speakers. We expect the quality of features in both to improve in general, but we also expect them to expand in functionality. — B.S.
Updated, December 17, 2024, 12:40 PM ET: This article has been updated to include the companies and CEOs who will be keynote speakers at the show.
Updated, Dec. 20, 2024, 11:55 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include LG and Hyundai Mobis announcements ahead of CES 2025.
Updated December 25, 2024, 10am ET: This article has been updated to include predictions that satellite communication devices will be everywhere at CES 2025.
Updated, Dec. 30, 2024, 11:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add a section titled “What we already know is coming.” . This section includes new information about appearances by X CEO Linda Yaccarino and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. The latest information on LG’s UltraGear product line. Since we first published this piece, the intro has also been updated to be more accurate about the time period.
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