Today we will be looking at the Alienware Area-51m, the LG Signature OLED TV R, and cover the latest VR dreams on Day 2 of the Consumer Electronics Show 2019.
Dell kicked off its press conference at CES 2019 touting its position as the largest PC company, at least in terms of revenue. But it proved the point more literally when it introduced the Alienware Area-51m — an enormous 17-inch gaming system that the company calls “the world’s most powerful gaming laptop.”
The Signature OLED TV R is built on a concept unveiled last year, in which the screen retracts into a base when not in use so it is less obtrusive. LG plans to sell the device in the US before the end of 2019, but has yet to reveal the month or price. Experts say the technology is unlikely to become a mass-market proposition for many years to come. “It’s a 4K set rather than 8K, so you could argue there’s a compromise there – but otherwise this is a very high-end design that is going to be very costly,” commented Jack Wetherill from the consultancy Futuresource.
In 2019, VR is a sideshow in a theme park, a marketing stunt, a slide in a PR PowerPoint presentation, a niche hobby for people locked in rooms with a ton of money to spend, and — worse — no one seems to know what direction we’re headed in, or even what virtual reality should be.