Top 10 Best Tech from CES 2017 - Gear UP

Winner of the Last Gadget Standing award at CES, the Matrix PowerWatch is the world’s first smartwatch you don’t have to charge up. Yes, you heard that correctly. The PowerWatch gets its power from your body heat – “thermos-electric technology” -- so you never have to recharge or replace its battery. Take that Apple Watch with your stupid daily charge. Launched on Indiegogo, this watch can also measure calories burned and show power generated from the body, which is cool. The rugged aircraft-grade aluminum timepiece functions as a smartwatch that wirelessly syncs with your smartphone, automatically adjusts to the current time zone, and has changeable watch faces. It will retail for $169 and will ship in July.

OK, this is crazy. Changhong’s H2 is the world’s first molecular-sensing smartphone. In other words, this 6-inch Android lets you scan an object and immediately receive feedback on its chemical composition – whether it’s food items (like fruits and vegetables, dairy products and meat), medication, and even body parts. Simply place the infrared spectrometer over an item, then captured info is uploaded to a cloud database, and you’ll see an itemized list of properties on the screen. For example, scan a chicken breast and it'll tell you the amount of protein, fat, calories, and so on. The H2 will be out in China by the summer but later in the year by the end of 2017, and no price was announced.

Imagine on your keychain you could carry 768,000 photos, 531,344 songs, or nearly 1,800 full-length movies? While it might sound like science fiction, Kingston Technology Company chose the 2017 CES to unveil its 2-terabyte DataTraveler Ultimate Generation Terabyte (GT), the highest capacity USB Flash drive on the planet. With up to USB 3.1 performance, you could also speedily transfer large files to and from a laptop. Available in February and with no price announced just yet, this DataTraveler Ultimate GT is made of a zinc-alloy metal casing for shock resistance, and includes free technical support and a 5-year warranty.

Along with automotive tech, Hyundai made waves at the show because of its life-changing EXOSKELETON, a wearable robotic suit, of sorts, that reinforces the company’s commitment to the freedom of mobility. Imagine a device like this liberating people who live with disabilities as this could enable them to have a better quality of life by regaining mobility. Along with medical exoskeleton to help paraplegics, Hyundai’s technology could provide walking support for elderly people with mobility challenges, and another application is industrial or military exoskeletons to augment existing physical abilities. The South Korean car giant’s Iron Man-Inspired exoskeletons prove they’ve got a lot more to contribute to the world than just cars on the road.

Whether it’s a child playing in their room or story time while tucking in the little ones, a new line of products adds magical augmented reality experiences to its rug and bedding. From TILT, the SpinTales Jungle Rug and SpinTales Enchanted Duvet – both $99 -- wowed the crowds at CES as the cartoon characters seemingly come alive on the rug or duvet and pillows, when viewed through the lens on a smartphone or tablet (through free apps for iOS or Android). On the rug, characters like Milo and Huggy dance in the jungle, jump in a river and climb up a tree, while the bedding adds a modern twist to classic tales like Little Red, Three Pigs, and Magic Beans.

Televisions are a big draw at CES, and this year was certainly no exception. Amid much fanfare, Sony took the wraps off its first consumer OLED TVs, including its flagship A1E BRAVIA OLED TV. OLED TVs offer much higher contrast ratios compared to LED-backlit LCD televisions, as well as delivering better brightness, more vibrant colors, and wide viewing angles. OLED TVs are also much thinner – as no backlighting is required – plus they’re more energy efficient than other TV panel types. In sizes ranging from 55 inches to 77 inches, the A1E is a 4K HDR TV with impressive Acoustic Surface audio, too, with sound that emanates directly from the screen itself. The built-in Android TV platforms gives you access to thousands of apps and Google Home compatibility. No price or availability has been announced. LG’s OLED W-Series TVs were also a real looker at CES with wallpaper-thin panels. I kid you not.

Winning a CES 2017 Innovation Award Honoree award nod, Dell’s XPS 13 2-in-1 is the world’s smallest 13-inch 2-in-1 computer that squeezes a 13-inch InfinityEdge display into an 11-inch laptop frame. Like its award-winning predecessor, it’s called a “2-in-1” because the UltraSharp QHD+ screen is on a durable 360-degree hinge that lets you use it like a laptop or a tablet, when the display is bent back all the way. Powered by a 7th Gen Intel Core processor, this Windows 10 machine also boasts up to 10 hours of battery life between charges. The new Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 will be $999 and up.

While you might not think there’s much innovation when it comes to washing machines and dryers, Samsung’s FlexWash and FlexDry machines are in a word, brilliant. Sold separately or as a matching pair, the FlexWash is a front-loading washing machine with over five cubic feet of capacity – the largest in its class – while a top-loading second compartment adds another cubic foot of capacity that operates independently (or at the same time if you want). This top section is ideal for smaller loads, delicates, or to separate clothes by color – saving you on time and money. FlexDry also has two compartments: a larger front-loading drum and a smaller top-load drying compartment. The optional app notifies you when the load is done, and more. The pair should be available in March, but no price has been confirmed.

Unveiled at CES, Kuri is a cute but smart robot for your home. The white 20-inch tall and genderless robot on wheels has expressive black eyes and it can roam your premises and through its built-in camera analyze its surroundings to guard your home, it can recognize your face; it has a 4-Microphone array to hear your requests, and wifi and Bluetooth connectivity so he can play music and podcasts, read the kids a bedtime story, or follow you around your home while asking your trivia questions. Use your voice to have Kuri control your smart home appliances. When it’s time to recharge its battery Kuri returns himself to his charging dock for a quick charging nap. Kuri is available now for preorder, and costs $699.

After months of speculation, ASUS has unveiled its ZenFone AR, a next-generation Android smartphone that marks a significant advancement in mobile virtual and augmented reality technologies. In fact, this is the first phone that supports Google’s Tango AR and Daydream VR technologies. Tango detects your position relative to places and objects around you (without using GPS), therefore ideal for 3D mapping, indoor navigation and environmental recognition. The newly-launched Daydream is a high-quality mobile VR solution that works with upcoming headsets like the ZenFone AR. ASUS did not confirm price or availability.

Hey, thanks for watching Gear Up; I'm Marc Saltzman. Let us know in the comments section if there were other cool tech products you heard about at CES and want us to get our hands on them in the coming months. For a deeper dive on the 10 cool CES products we featured, you can find links in the description below. For more tech-tastic lists, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.