Last year, after scouring the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center and sifting through hundreds of gadgets, prototypes, and ambitious promises, we brought you our definitive list of the Best Tech of CES 2024. These products were the game-changers, the boundary-pushers, and the devices destined to shape the year ahead. Or, at least, that’s how they looked at the time.
But now that CES 2025 is just a few short days away, it’s time to ask the question every tech enthusiast wonders: What actually happened to those dazzling innovations? How did they fare in the real world? Did they make it to market, or are they still stuck in development limbo? If indeed they launched, were they sleeper hits or commercial flops?
We charged our expert analysts to look back and see how well their 21 picks stood up. Here’s what they found.
CES 2024’s Best Ultraportable Laptop: Dell XPS 14
CES 2024 Hands On: New Dell XPS 14 and XPS 16 Modernize Design, Add AI Oomph
We highlighted the Dell XPS 14 at CES 2024 for its hyper-modern redesign and updated Core Ultra processing, as well as for offering a dedicated GPU option in such a trim frame. Later, in April, we reviewed the ultraportable, and each of these items remained positive points—for the most part. Our review praised the fact that its GeForce RTX 4050 GPU offers uncommon power for this size, that the battery life is ample, and that the new design looks slick. On the flip side, the new-look flush keyboard proved less comfortable for typing than we’d have liked. Plus, Dell really needed to bundle a USB dongle, and the unit as a whole is a bit hefty for a 14-incher. Across this and the other XPS screen sizes, Dell’s updated design performs well and looks sharp, but we did ultimately have some misgivings about its practicality. —Matthew Buzzi, Lead Analyst, Hardware
CES 2024’s Best Gaming Laptop: Alienware M16 R2
CES 2024 Hands On: Alienware’s 16-Inch m16 R2 Gaming Laptop Goes Compact With Intel Core Ultra CPUs
After the original Alienware m16 impressed in 2023, we liked the look of the m16 R2 even more last year, as it trimmed 15% from the original’s total size while maintaining top-end power. For a premium gaming laptop that purports to be portable, this was a big draw, and we saw firsthand that this wasn’t just hot air when we reviewed the Alienware m16 R2 in February. The smaller design tops out at “only” a GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, but it pushed strong performance while being well-built, long-lasting, and even well-priced, considering the full package. This pick held up well. —Matthew Buzzi
CES 2024’s Best 2-in-1 Laptop: Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid
CES 2024 Hands On: Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid Is Two Systems in One
In June of 2024, we finally saw the Lenovo ThinkBook Gen 5 Hybrid come to market, bringing Lenovo’s funky Windows/Android hybrid convertible laptop to reality. But it wasn’t cheap—more than $2,500 in the version we ultimately got to test, which is more than you’d spend buying two capable devices running Windows 11 and Android separately. Even our own reviewer, when he reviewed the Gen 5 Hybrid late in the year, praised the innovation, if not the actual design. The tablet docking connection seemed finicky; the dual-device format was cumbersome; and the combination of Windows and Android wasn’t a case of one plus one equaling three. Bummer battery life and limited connectivity further hindered this experimental 2-in-1, making it a unique, but not uniquely exciting, product. It’s a little sad, but not every moonshot ends up being a smashing success. —Brian Westover, Lead Analyst, Hardware
CES 2024’s Best Gaming Device: MSI Claw
CES 2024 Hands On: MSI Claw Bets on Intel for Handheld Gaming Supremacy
We loved the idea of the MSI Claw, at the time the first Windows gaming handheld built on Intel’s then-current CPUs and Intel Arc Graphics. But when we actually got one in to review, its underwhelming performance, a flurry of driver issues, and a high price muted all of that potential. Its comfortable design, full Windows 11 integration, and advanced features like Wi-Fi 7 support were highlights, but glitchy software, spotty game performance, and AI functionality that felt undercooked undermined the appeal. Hopefully, this comfortable gaming handheld will get better in future iterations; we got a preview of a new Claw 8 AI+ 8-inch version with Intel’s latest mobile CPU, the Core 2 Ultra, just before CES 2025. —Brian Westover
CES 2024’s Best Phone: Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
Asus used CES 2024 to debut its flagship gaming phone, and the device made a big splash. It was one of the few phones to be revealed at the electronics confab, so it was easy to pick as a show winner. The good news is that the phone launched successfully in the US and beyond. We reviewed the ROG Phone 8 Pro Edition and found that it has excellent performance, solid battery life, decent cameras, and, of course, that flashy ROG design. It was a sound pick, in the end. —Eric Zeman, Managing Editor, Mobile
CES 2024’s Best Smart Home Product: Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra
(Credit: Roborock)
The Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra led our list of exciting robot vacuums at CES 2024 thanks to its impressive-on-paper 10,000Pa of rated suction power. (At the time, that number led the field.) But when we actually got a sample of it in for review, the suction wasn’t the powerful draw we had hoped: The vac struggled to pick up dirt from hardwood floors, and it ran over obstacles consistently. The Roborock Qrevo Curv debuted this fall with 18,500Pa of suction and did better in our testing. —Andrew Gebhart, Senior Analyst, Smart Home and Wearables
CES 2024’s Best Appliance: Eureka Dual Washing Bot
(Credit: Eureka)
We knew this machine was just a concept when it made our CES best list last year, but the idea of a washing machine with a robot vacuum embedded at its base was just so cool that we couldn’t resist. At IFA this fall, I saw the concept on display again. It’s still unique and still cool…but no closer to an actual release. Perhaps we’ll get more concrete news at the CES to come. —Andrew Gebhart
CES 2024’s Best Health and Fitness Device: Withings BeamO
(Credit: Withings)
This futuristic gadget wasn’t supposed to be just a concept—it was expected to launch in June after making its debut at CES 2024. A “multiscope” device for checking your health at home, the BeamO is basically a very fancy thermometer. Yes, it can check your temperature, but it can also take an ECG, check your blood oxygen levels, and even listen to your breathing. It promises to detect atrial fibrillation, heart murmurs, wheezing, and more. But first it needs to actually hit the market. Withings still has a page dedicated to it on the company site, so it isn’t verifiably vaporware quite yet, but it is well past its due date. —Andrew Gebhart
CES 2024’s Best Smart Glasses: XReal Air 2 Ultra
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
These video smart glasses from XReal are built on the Air 2 (which we reviewed right before CES 2024) but enhanced with built-in cameras for full augmented-reality functions with six-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) motion tracking and a best-in-class 52-degree field of view. They were indeed released, and while we didn’t review this model, it seems like a perfectly fine pair of glasses with extra sensors. The big question, though, is how to actually take advantage of them, and that’s something that hasn’t developed much on the consumer side over the last year. XReal’s Beam Pro hub has some 6DOF features, but few other devices do; nothing’s very polished yet. With XReal focused on its newer One and One Pro smart glasses (the Pro featuring a built-in spatial computing chip, though no cameras), it looks like the company is already moving on from the Air 2 Ultra. —Will Greenwald, Lead Analyst, Consumer Electronics
CES 2024’s Best AI Device: Rabbit r1
(Credit: Rabbit)
The Rabbit r1 was one of the most-talked-about devices of CES 2024. This pocket-size, AI-focused handheld companion was meant to answer questions and take specific actions. To our surprise, Rabbit actually brought the device to market a few months later with a splashy launch event in New York. In our review, however, we found the Rabbit r1 was barely capable of doing any of the things that Rabbit promised. The company has continued to update the r1, but its struggles at launch stewed this Rabbit before it could get hopping. It was widely panned. —Eric Zeman
CES 2024’s Best Prototype: Sony Spatial VR Headset
(Credit: Sony)
It’s a mystery! Sony announced its enterprise-level, content production-focused mixed-reality headset at last year’s CES, but we haven’t seen much of it since then, apart from a few scattered accounts of how it feels from other trade show encounters. It’s definitely an ambitious headset, with a resolution of 3,552 by 3,840 pixels per eye and a unique ring-shaped controller. It just isn’t out yet, and we don’t know when it will be, or how much it’ll cost. File it under, “Might be cool, still doesn’t exist.” —Will Greenwald
CES 2024’s Best Car: Honda 0 Series EV
(Credit: Emily Forlini)
The 0 Series EVs won’t launch until 2026, but in the meantime, Honda has found some surprising success with its 2024 Prologue. Great leasing deals, loyalty to the Honda badge, and an approachable yet modern design are drawing people to it, according to 25 owners who chatted with PCMag. Oddly enough, it’s built on GM’s battery platform, which is an interim step until the 0 Series EVs debut with Honda’s in-house platform. The 0 Series promises to be lightweight, charge in 10 to 15 minutes, and have 10% degradation or less. But it’s still more than a year away. —Emily Forlini, Senior Reporter
CES 2024’s Best Headphones: Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4
(Credit: Sennheiser)
Sennheiser often relies on CES to show off its stable of headphones, earphones, and other products for the year ahead. One of its 2024 standouts was the Momentum True Wireless 4. We were impressed with the True Wireless 3 earphones and had high expectations for the True Wireless 4. Unfortunately, these updated in-ears were merely good. We liked the high-end design, its bass-forward audio, and the customizable in-app EQ, but we found the noise cancellation merely adequate for the relatively high price. —Eric Zeman
CES 2024’s Best TV: Hisense 110UX
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
Hisense’s 110-inch micro-LED TV came out, we tested it, and it impressed us. It has a huge screen, a really bright picture with great color performance, and a 4.2.2-channel spatial-audio speaker system. It’s also $20,000 (though we spotted it on sale for “just” $15,000 during the holiday season), so it’s not realistic unless you have both a room big enough and a wallet deep enough for this monster. —Will Greenwald
Recommended by Our Editors
CES 2024’s Best Monitor: Alienware 32 4K QD-OLED Gaming Monitor (AW3225QF)
(Credit: Alienware)
This monitor launched as the “world’s first” 32-inch 4K OLED gaming monitor. As you’d expect from a leading-edge product, a gaggle of competitors soon joined it. We’ve reviewed several more with similar specs so far this year, and we’re expecting to test more next year. None of them, however, has so far managed to dethrone the AQ3225QF, whose fantastic performance and visuals make it our current top pick for high-end gaming monitors. —Tom Brant, Deputy Managing Editor, Hardware
CES 2024’s Best Projector: LG CineBeam Qube
(Credit: John A. Burek)
LG’s CineBeam Qube wasn’t groundbreaking, but it caught our eye at CES 2024 simply for being a really small, really elegant 4K projector that looked to have promise for indoor and outdoor use alike. Ultimately, it hit the street under a slightly different name—CineBeam Q—for $1,300, and, for the holidays, we spotted it on sale for just $800. We haven’t managed to get a sample into PC Labs for testing just yet, but it’s definitely a product that was released, which isn’t always the case for our Best of CES picks. (See Sony’s VR headset above.) —Will Greenwald
CES 2024’s Best Printer: HP Sprocket Photobooth
CES 2024 Hands-On: Throw a Picture Party With the HP Sprocket Photobooth
A whole new form factor is a rare thing with printers, so we welcomed HP’s innovative reimagining of the commercial photo station—the sort you might find rented for a wedding or installed in a restaurant—for home use. Since the Sprocket Photobooth’s debut at CES 2024, a few competitors have joined the fray, including Arcade1Up, whose own $399.99 Photobooth launched late in 2024. We recently reviewed HP’s entry, which uses inkless Zero Ink (Zink) photo stock, and found it a winner (and superior to the Arcade1Up effort). It will be interesting to see if, going into 2025, this emerging category of product will become a trend. —Tom Brant
CES 2024’s Best CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 8700G
(Credit: John A. Burek)
What pushed us to tag this desktop processor as CES 2024’s best new CPU? Its integrated graphics processor (IGP), built on the same underlying technology—RDNA 3—driving AMD’s Radeon 7000-series graphics cards. This CPU hit retail shortly after the show; we tested it just weeks later, giving it a “Good” 3.5-star rating and dubbing it “an excellent single-chip gaming solution, especially for small PCs that can’t house a graphics card.” Its $329 debut price made it less favorable than combining a budget CPU and GPU, which means it’s a good value mostly for mini gaming PCs. AMD has hinted toward an RDNA 4 debut in early 2025, which may well factor into AMD’s IGP plans before long. —Joe Osborne, Deputy Managing Editor, Hardware
CES 2024’s Best GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Super 16G Expert
(Credit: John A. Burek)
MSI’s take on the GeForce RTX 4080 Super was one of our first hands-on looks at Nvidia’s step-up graphics card that replaced the RTX 4080 with enhanced performance at a lower price. This product was sure to be released, and later that month, we reviewed Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4080 Super Founders Edition, handing it our Editors’ Choice award. This particular MSI model has been on sale throughout 2024, but at publishing time is out of stock at several retailers following the Black Friday and Cyber Monday rush. We’ll likely continue to see RTX 40-series GPUs sell into 2025 at discounted prices, especially since RTX 50-series graphics are expected to debut at CES 2025, if the many leaks and rumors hold true. —Joe Osborne
CES 2024’s Best Compact Desktop: Asus ROG NUC
CES 2024 Hands On: Asus ROG NUC Resurrects the Mighty Mini PC for Gaming
Armed with laptop processing and graphics, the pint-size (2.5-liter-size, actually) Asus ROG NUC was never going to challenge massive gaming desktops for performance supremacy. But it did deliver relatively potent performance in a distinct form factor, and even for a more affordable price than we expected. It’s a bit expensive in terms of the actual performance-per-dollar, but this space-saving gaming rig not only provides gaming power and some limited upgradability, but it’s also one of the best examples of CES promises being kept later in the year. —Brian Westover
CES 2024’s Best DIY PC Product/Technology: MSI Project Zero
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
This is one of those CES product reveals that we were able to get in hand in advance of its announcement, so it’s something you can absolutely buy today. Project Zero is an ecosystem of cases and motherboards that work in tandem to make hiding away cables easier, helping system builders create cleaner, more appealing gaming rigs. (In short: Most of the cable connectors are on the back of the motherboard, out of sight.) We covered the new products in a detailed MSI Project Zero build guide, and more recently, we tested Asus’ counterpart to Project Zero: its Back to the Future (BTF) platform, which features a slightly more refined solution for hiding the GPU power cable, using special cable-free BTF graphics cards that feed power wholly through a BTF-compliant motherboard. We don’t have any data into how successful either of these PC-building solutions has been so far, but with both cable-killer solutions landing just months apart, we doubt this race to innovate is over yet. —Joe Osborne
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