CES 2020 Liveblog (Tuesday): Photos and News of All the CES Gadget Madness
Updated all day Tuesday. The WIRED crew is in Las Vegas to bring you up-to-the-minute coverage of news from the first…
Foldable phones, like 5G phones, are very expensive at the moment. The Samsung Galaxy Fold, for example, costs almost $2,000. As all tech, these phones will get cheaper over time, and TCL thinks it can make and sell one for around half the price of Samsung’s before 2020 ends; that would make it cheaper than Motorola’s $1,500 folding Razr.
The phone, pictured above is a concept. It looks like a miniature book, but unfortunately there’s no screen on the exterior (just a neat crystal shard-like pattern), so you would have to open it up every time you want to use it. Like Motorola’s upcoming Razr, TCL’s phone doesn’t have a gap when you fold it up, so the screens sit flush against each other.
—Julian Chokkattu
Kindle + Laptop
Lenovo’s getting weird at CES this year, and we’re here for it. In addition to its new foldable ThinkPad, the PC maker is showing off a laptop with an E Ink top cover. Yup, you read that correctly.
The ThinkBook Plus has an 11-inch monochromatic E Ink touchscreen (like a Kindle) on the outside of it—the part of the laptop where you’d typically see a backlight logo or choose to display a garish assemblage of stickers. You can catch a glimpse of your upcoming calendar appointments while running from meeting to meeting, scribble something on the top of your laptop with a stylus, or even read a Kindle book when the laptop is closed on your lap. The rest of the ThinkBook is pretty standard. It’s made of anodized aluminum, has a matte finish, contains a 13-inch diagonal Full HD display, is powered by a 10th-generation Intel Core processor, and runs Windows 10 Pro out of the box. It will start at $1,199 when it ships this March, although the charging stand will cost extra (it ships later in the year).
Oh! Did we forget to mention the charging stand? In case the E Ink cover wasn’t enough excitement for you, Lenovo has also developed an angled charging dock that connects to pogo pins on the bottom of the ThinkBook. It might not be as transportable as a charging cable, but at least you won’t constantly trip over your USB-C.
—Lauren Goode
Samsung’s Infinite Galaxies
Samsung, you’re making too many phones! Last year it announced the Galaxy S10, S10E, S10 Plus, S10 5G, (take a breath) Note 10, Note 10 Plus, Note 10 5G, and the Galaxy Fold. That’s without mentioning the more affordable options, like the Galaxy A50. Yikes. Well, prepare to be even more confused; the Galaxy S11 is around the corner, but new to the party are the Galaxy S10 Lite, Note 10 Lite, and the A51 and A71.
These phones have pretty nice specs, with the S10 Lite even equipping the same flagship Snapdragon 855 processor as the 2019 S10 range, but the compromises come with the hardware, which feels cheap and plasticky. You still get ultra slim bezels, a gorgeous screen, three cameras, and big batteries. Samsung hasn’t said how much these phones will cost or where and when they’re launching, but expect them to sit somewhere between $350 to $700, with the A51 being the cheapest and the S10 Lite the most expensive.
—Julian Chokkattu
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