CES 2021 news: it's over – but here are the highlights and best tech

CES 2021
(Image credit: TechRadar)

CES 2021 is over and our deep dive into CES news and highlights is winding down. But we'll continue to update this page with hands-on experiences of the best CES gadgets we've checked out, many from from afar and a few in person.

We recapped all of the CES 2021 highlights and rounded up all the hottest tech from CES 2021, in case you missed the major announcements from the likes of LG, Samsung and Sony, among many others.

There's been a wave of big news across 8K TVs, rollable tablets, affordable 5G smartphones, terrifyingly capable drones, and faster laptop chipsets. Of course, there's also been a generous sprinkling of weird tech, including Moflin the AI pet robot, smart face masks and a spectacularly unnecessary gaming chair from Razer.

In short, there's a lot to catch up on. Despite being a remote, virtual experience this year, CES 2021 has shown that it's still a weird and wonderful way to get a taster of the tech year ahead. Day 4 was mostly just be a wrap up day – and dominated by the Samsung Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, and Galaxy S21 Ultra announcements.

Quick CES 2021 recap

The biggest story of CES 2021 has arguably been the LG Rollable smartphone, which we saw for the first time in a short teaser trailer. That doesn't mean there haven't been some other strong contenders for the CES limelight, though.

Day two was the turn of the graphics card titans, with Nvidia and AMD both delivering big news. The confirmation that Nvidia's RTX 3000 graphics cards are coming to gaming laptops is huge news that could see next-gen laptops arrive with a serious performance boost. Not to be outdone, AMD fought back by showing off its exciting Ryzen 5000 series of mobile processors.

This followed several big CES 2021 stories in TVs and home theater land on the previous day. A landmark announcement was LG Display's confirmation that 42-inch OLED TVs will launch this year. We've been waiting for OLED tech to arrive in smaller screen sizes for a while, so this could be big news if you've been thinking about getting a second screen for your home this year.

Keener to upgrade your home cinema audio? Samsung also announced a new Dolby Atmos soundbar, which could be its most immersive yet and pair nicely with its new flagship 8K TV, the Samsung Neo QN900 8K QLED TV. The tech giant also revealed some AI-powered washers and dryers for those of us who are unimpressed by the intelligence of our home appliances, and confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S21 will arrive on Thursday.

With Sony also showing off its Airpeak drone for the first time and TCL confirming that it'll be launching a rollable or foldable phone this year, CES 2021 has been a brilliant sneak peek of the biggest launches coming this year.

CES 2021 highlights

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TechRadar's Hottest at CES 2021 Awards
From drones and robot vacuums, to new mobile processors, laptops and TVs, the first virtual CES provided us plenty of new tech to keep our eyes on over the coming year. Which gadgets and gizmos won the hearts of our editors this week? Here’s our editors’ picks of the hottest tech of CES 2021.

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CES 2021: Why this new electronic ink-like TCL tablet seems perfect for comic book fans
The TCL NXTPAPER tablet could be a better solution to reading digital comics, in the same way that ereaders are a far more efficient way to read digital books. Here's why.

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At CES 2021, 4K gaming laptops are finally starting to die off
 among all the gaming laptops announced at the virtual event, very few embraced 4K gaming, and instead went all-in on FHD and QHD panels with higher refresh rates. And it's about damn time. 

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Phones at CES 2021: Rollable phones, Moto G series and more ahead of Samsung S21
While CES 2021 is certainly different than usual, plenty of phones have been revealed that are headed for retail shelves this year – and a few futuristic concepts have been teased, too. Here’s all the phones at CES 2021, from today’s best to tomorrow’s most promising ideas. 

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Razer's Project Hazel has us genuinely excited to wear a smart face mask
A smart face mask would have been a baffling arrival at previous CES shows, but in 2021 it makes perfect sense – and what a piece of face furniture the Razer Project Hazel is. Made from recycled materials, its RGB lighting lets you know when the filter needs replacing, while the clear face panel promises to help people read your lips rather than your wild gesticulations.


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Meet Moflin, the adorable AI pet robot that will learn to love you
No CES show is complete without a robot that sits right in that zone between cute and mildly disturbing, and this year that honor goes to Moflin. Resembling a fluffy guinea pig, this AI pet robot uses a bunch of sensors to interact with people differently depending on how they treat it. You've been warned: be nice to Moflin.

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LG Rollable finally shown off as a foldable phone alternative at CES 2021
It's finally official – LG has revealed the name for its take on the foldable phone (LG Rollable, predictably) and also given us a glimpse in a short teaser. The Rollable is a bit different from your average foldable, but the concept is similar, giving you the option of a smaller or larger screen in one portable device. The only question now is whether LG has signed up Limp Bizkit for the full reveal. 


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Samsung's new Dolby Atmos soundbar could be its most immersive yet
If you've been building a cinema-rivaling home theater system, then Samsung might just have delivered the final piece of the puzzle – a high-end Q-Series soundbar with Dolby Atmos support and some seriously innovative rear speakers. Could it be a serious rival for the Sonos Arc's soundbar crown?


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Sony shows off its Airpeak drone for the first time – and it's no DJI rival
Sony finally let us take a look at the Airpeak drone that it teased in the lead up to CES 2021. While it might disappoint those who wanted a small, consumer-grade rival to the DJI's mini drones, the Airpeak has professional camera operators written all over it. The prospect of flying a Sony A7S III camera with a Sony-made drone is a tantalizing prospect, if a wildly expensive one.

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At CES 2021, Lenovo has an answer to the Nintendo Switch and Dell Concept UFO
If you were fond of the Alienware Concept UFO from last year's CES, you'll be happy to see the Lenovo LaVie Mini – another fine take on the portable gaming PC concept. Okay, it's not quite capable of running Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing, but the LaVie Mini has plenty of power behind that 8-inch display. It might only be a concept, but we're keen to see more handheld designs like this.

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These microLED smart glasses might be the coolest we've seen
Powered by microLED technology, Vuzix has utilized ultra small display projectors fitted neatly into both sides of the glasses to make the product look as wearable as possible – and it may have paid off. Unlike other smart glasses we've seen, the American company seems to have developed a genuinely fashionable piece of wearable technology.

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Nvidia RTX 3000 graphics cards are finally coming to gaming laptops
The rumors have been growing for a while, but Nvidia used the CES 2021 stage to announce its mobile range of RTX 3000 graphics cards. For gaming fans, this is hugely exciting news and could give gaming laptops a big performance lift this year. 

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AMD Ryzen 5000 mobile processors arrive at CES 2021 to steal the laptop crown from Intel
AMD has thrown down the gauntlet to Intel at CES 2021 with the announcement of its long-awaited AMD Ryzen 5000 series of mobile processors. By the looks of it, these could seriously trouble Intel's position as the current laptop king. 


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Intel is making some of the thinnest gaming laptops ever at CES 2021
One of the biggest stories at CES 2021 for gamers is Intel's announcement of the 11th generation Tiger Lake-H35 processors, which should spark the arrival of the thinnest gaming laptops we've seen so far. The laptops will likely be pricey and there's no release date for the processors yet, but we reckon more info will follow very soon.

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New 42-inch OLED TVs are on the way – but which TV brands will get them?
In the market for a small TV this year? You might soon get the option of going for an OLED, with LG Display confirming at CES that new 42in OLED TV panels are coming in 2021. Right now, bargain bucket LCD TVs tend to dominate the smaller screen sizes, but we're looking forward to seeing OLEDs emerge as an alternative.    

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Nvidia's graphics card lineup just got a whole lot more confusing
At CES 2021, Nvidia launched a wide range of graphics cards, both for laptops and even a new Ampere desktop graphics card: the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060. One of the big things I noticed, however, is that a couple of the SKUs now have an inflated VRAM spec, and it kind of makes the entire Nvidia RTX 3000 lineup a bit confusing. 

All of the other big news