CES 2017 Review: A Showcase Of IoT, Smart Software, And Solid Workhorse Tech

A litany of consumer tech, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 in Las Vegas was chock full of all manner of gadgets, drones and phones. But amidst all this there was a vein of tech that could slot as nicely in the business world as it does in home life.

This year’s CES brought new workstation machines, pocketable computers, the spread of virtual assistants and an inevitable new routes into driverless cars.

Flexible working tech

Kicking off its CES showcase, Dell showcased a 2-in-1 hybrid version of its critically acclaimed XPS 13 laptop, which now offers a solid workhorse specification with Intel’s 7^th generation Kaby Lake processors that can be used as a traditional laptop and a powerful tablet.

It was a strong start for the PC maker that refused to believe the rumors that the PC market is dead. To this end the company went on to show-off the Dell Canvas, a 27 inch touchscreen secondary screen designed to work with workstation PC and laptops, offering a similar yet different take on Microsoft’s Surface Studio giant tablet-cum-all-in-one-PC.

But a big secondary screen is one thing, so Dell revealed its Workstation 5720 AIO, a speaker stuffed all-in-one desktop workstation, with a specification designed to take on heavy workloads, from parsing data to video editing. It then packed up a similar spec in to a laptop with its  Precision 7720 mobile workstation, which offers Kaby Lake processors and graphics power for either Nvidia and AMD.

Of course, Dell was not alone in showing off PCs for work and play. HP Inc presented its overhauled Spectre 15 ultraportable laptop, which brings in Intel’s latest processors and pairs them with dedicated graphics chips to offer a powerful laptop that does not compromise on the mobility of the device; useful for people that spend a lot of time skipping between meeting and working out in the field or remotely.

Lenovo also got into the overhaul game, revealing tweaked versions of its ThinkPad X1 Carbon and ThinkPad X1 Yoga laptops.

IoT innovations and more on page 2…

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