Best of CES part 2: all the screens

 

Screens, the thing I'm interacting with right now, the thing your interacting with right now, screens are an integral part of our lives. Especially now during the pandemic. CES was and still is a treasure trove of screens that soared to high 8K resolution, they folded, rolled, projectors put screens on your wall, and some were just gaming monitors that were bigger than ISS (figuratively speaking of course). Either way CES 2021 still brought tons of screens of all types, shapes, sizes, and form-factors so let's hop in with my favorite screens from CES. 

ASUS Latte L1

So, first before I explain just how much I like this product let me explain why I count a projector as a screen. The projectors of yore needed screens to be seen clearly by the audience; of course, that was circa 2005 and this is 2021. Projectors of today are basically a screen in a can and for some that experience only gets better with a dedicated projector screen, but even so projectors are screens that can be placed mostly anywhere and still be seen. Of course, it won't be 4K and of course it's not 120Hz refresh but their still novelty products that allow you to have a bigger display than having to grab....an actual bigger display. With that being said let's continue with the article. 

Image Credit: Asus

The Latte is a mini projector made by Asus, it can project at sizes up to 3m, across 300 LED lumens, at 720p. You can stream to the latte over WI-FI or plug in via HDMI with a USB port although Asus has yet to specify which type of USB although as an exceedingly small and mobile device, I would guess USB-C. There's also a 6000 mAh battery inside for 3 hours of projecting, and as a speaker it can go up to 12 hours. Oh, right, the audio.... the Latte can be used as a Bluetooth speaker and has 3 sound modes that also apply when projecting, movie, music, and gaming each optimized for their respective names. It even has an OS built into it (specifically the Aptoide platform) to stream from services such as Netflix and Hulu; some Asus Marketing material does include a remote but I'm not sure if this is included or separate from the device.  

 

Before I go into design and my thoughts, I want to make sure you know that Asus has not shared a release date (what does second quarter of 2021 even mean?) or a price, all we know it that it should eventually come to the US. That means.... what exactly? For all we know this could just disappear into the abyss of forgotten products announced at CES that was just never released. However, Asus is a very reputable company, so I have some grain of faith in that soon we should see this product.  

 

 

The Latte according to Asus was inspired by the classic 16Oz coffee cup that most of us have likely once had from any coffee show and/or any restaurant in the world that serves some form of coffee. However, the design is more of a tiny Febreze to me, with tones of the original Google home SmartSpeaker, the design simply does not scream "COFFEE" to me. The Verge did note the lack of a brown color of any kind, and I agree, even with a fabric cover (surely not paper) it lacks any resemblance or really anything that would trigger a neural link and make us say "ah yes a coffee cup". Now don't get me wrong, having a 720p projector in the size of a coffee cup is amazing and Asus had to engineer the case to fit the parts, and I would have liked the design if it was called anything other than the "Latte L1". However, I digress and leave this product in your hands, as for me I just thought it was interesting and I hope you did too.  

 
 

The Rollables 

 
Ever since the introduction of OLED and mainstream flexible displays companies such as LG, TCL, and Samsung have all made efforts and concept devices centered around a flexible screen. Samsung, Motorola, Huawei, and yes Royole have all invested in Foldable technology with remarkable success in products such as the Razer, Galaxy Z Fold 2, and Z Flip 2. 

However, LG and TCL, somewhere in the corner went in a different direction, instead of folding the screen LG began to experiment with a TV that rolled out of a base station, and TCL began to experiment with a phone whose screen could roll out of its side to extend screen size and space (please note that the concept had a fake paper screen that was not functional). Present day 2021 LG has released the rollable TV for $87,000 and TCL showed off some interesting concepts during CES, so let's get started.  

 

Image Credit: LG

 

The LG rollable was teased at CES 2021 at the end of the keynote and honestly it doesn't give us much to go on. LG has said that it has a "unique resizable screen", what that means is that like a foldable is promises to extend from a phone sized display to a tablet sized display also meaning it rolls from the side where you would normally find a power button. It's posed to launch sometime in 2021 as part of the LG's "Explorer Project". 

Image Credit: LG

That's as far as official information gets us. I'm a bit skeptical of this product especially considering reports that LG is considering exiting the phone space, even though I trust LG to eventually release the phone (hey they released the wing, right?). However, such a revolutionary device I honestly don't think it will come in 2021, if the release was so soon couldn't they have teased an event on a certain date? At the very least something other than "later in 2021", regardless the device has the potential to offer some alternative form-factor to foldables. Here's a video from CNET to explain a bit more: https://www.cnet.com/news/the-lg-rollable-phone-with-expandable-display-is-real-and-coming-in-2021/. 

 

TCL has also experimented on and released a concept rollable that's similar to LG's but with a twist. TCL's device instead extends from the top with TCL claiming it extends from 6.7-inches to 7.8-inches vertically, they also claim its less than 10mm thick. Honestly, I feel that this is one of the weirder and less useful versions of a foldable; we don't need taller phones, phones as they are huge and making it taller when it's already unimaginably tall is just wasteful. Of course, for some it might make sense but for right now what's the use of a tall phone that can take advantage of horizontal space provided by other solution such as foldables. Maybe a better version would be an iPod sized device that rolls up to 6.8-inches or anywhere in-between! Either way TCL wasn't exactly bringing its best ideas to this device. 

Image Credit: The Verge and TCL

Image credit: The Verge and TCL

Now for the final item on our list, the scroll-type rollable, and I absolutely love this concept. TCL has really done nothing other than show off the concept but regardless I feel like it has potential. Now just to be clear the hiker video above is not the prototype, the gif below is a short video provided by The Verge and TCL. This Scroll design somewhat makes sense as a product, but I would still have concerns, is it just bare screen when rolled out? What could happen if I dropped the scroll? There are so many unanswered questions we'll just have to wait until possibly next CES for Answers. 

Image Credit: The Verge and TCL

Here's an interview from Android Authority and TCL explaining their thoughts on the devices.

https://www.androidauthority.com/tcl-ces-2021-1191884/

Best, BenTechCoder

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