CES 2016, Day 1: Lenovo, ASUS, Faraday, and Acer galore

CES 2016 is here! Well, almost. It's a quick start to the year's biggest consumer technology show, with a slew of announcements from the likes of Acer and Lenovo and Asus, plus our first look at electric car manufacturer start-up Faraday Future. 04 January

Acer's new Windows 10 phone is flagship material

Continuum for you

The Lumia 950 and 950 XL set the stage as the first Continuum-capable Windows 10 Mobile devices, but they've now got company in the form of the Acer Liquid Jade Primo. Packing 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage under a 5.5-inch 1080p display, the Liquid Jade Primo doesn't come cheap, hitting €569, but you get what you pay for and this is the first non-Microsoft/Nokia flagship Windows Mobile offering we've seen in a good long while.

ThinkPad 13 Chromebook

Lenovo announces new ThinkPad 13 Chromebook with familiar design, high spec options

Rounding out the Chromebook ranks with a solid mid-ranger

Lenovo has previously targeted the education market and super low-end of the consumer market with its Chromebooks, but is now getting in on the mid-range segment with the ThinkPad 13 Chromebook. Challenging the likes of Dell and Toshiba, the new ThinkPad 13 starts at a similar $399 price point with many of the same draws. You have solid build quality, an improved trackpad, 1080p display, available Intel Core processors and up to 8GB of RAM.

It isn't going to challenge the Chromebook Pixel, but the new ThinkPad 13 Chromebook is going to be a good choice for those who want to spend a little more than the current bargain-priced models.

Lenovo's Windows 10 Palooza

There's a reason that Lenovo has claimed the crown of being the top Windows PC manufacturer on the planet, and it's in no small part because they offer something for everybody. The new Yoga 900S is a super-thin convertible ultrabook at just 12.5mm while still offering reasonable specs. And then there's the Ideacentre Y900, which is entirely unreasonable with its 17.3-inch display, desktop-class graphics, and 10-pound weight. And because they could, the Ideacentre 610S is designed for your living room and includes a detachable projector.

Farady Future FFZERO1

Faraday Future's FFZERO1 electric concept car is simply insane... and still somewhat a mystery

We know more, and still almost next to nothing.

The first post-Tesla electric car manufacturer is here, and while we've learned more about what Faraday Future has in mind, there's still a lot that's up in the air. But we can at least say this: the FFZERO1 electric concept car they revealed at CES is something entirely bonkers. It's almost certainly never going to see a production release, but it previews the technology, concepts, and designs that Faraday is working on for their future electric cars, which they expect to start producing in just a few years' time. We'll see.

LG announces new budget-minded K10 and K7 phones

LG keeps building its low-end offerings under the halo of the G series

There seems to be an endless stream of LG phones hitting every imaginable price point in each market, and the latest in the lower-end are the K10 and K7. They take LG's recent software design cues and pair them up with two contrasting external designs — but in either case you get the now-standard LG rear buttons.

Lower-end specs aren't surprising here, but you do get at least a 5-inch screen on both as well as high-megapixel cameras and Snapdragon processors. It'll do for a cheap phone you can snag off-contract, and LG's going to keep getting in done in that range.

Windows 10 for everyone everywhere all the time

Two. Hundred. Million. Installs.

It's not been long since Windows 10 was released into the world and the OS has already landed on more than 200 million devices. Not only is that the fastest roll-out for any Windows release, it actually is outpacing the growth of Windows 8 "by nearly 400%". That figure does include the roll-out of the Windows 10-based New Xbox One Experience, but it's still impressive nonetheless.

ASUS ZenFone Zoom

ASUS ZenFone Zoom to finally launch in February 2016, priced $399

Finally

A year after the optically-zooming smartphone was first announced at CES 2015, ASUS has announced the ZenFone Zoom's price and release date. The handset takes after ASUS' ZenFone 2 line of products, packing a 13-megapixel sensor behind a 10-element Hoya lens. That means you'll be able to shoot with up to 3X optical zoom, while avoiding the bulk associated with previous optically-zooming smartphone cameras. It's been a long time coming, but for fans following the cutting edge of smartphone photography, the ZenFone 2 could be worth the wait.

Going hands-on with the Lenovo Vibe S1 Lite

A $200 phone that doesn't just not suck

Following a year of really great affordable phones, Lenovo kicked off 2016 with the Vibe S1 Lite, metal-bodied smartphone that'll sell for just $199. As well as looking and feeling more premium than its price tag would suggest, the Vibe S1 packs an impressive 1080p IPS display, a decent rear camera and a front-facing selfie flash. There are no plans for a U.S. launch, but the Vibe S1 Lite shows what's possible at the $200 price point in 2016.

Derek Kessler

Derek Kessler is Special Projects Manager for Mobile Nations. He's been writing about tech since 2009, has far more phones than is considered humane, still carries a torch for Palm, and got a Tesla because it was the biggest gadget he could find. You can follow him on Twitter at @derekakessler.

12 Comments
  • I'm really liking how 2-in-1s are all coming with pen digitizers now. That's the major key to productive Tablet tasks you could only dream of accomplishing on a Laptop or Desktop, and I can't see myself buying any Tablet/2-in-1 device that doesn't have it. http://bit. ly/1Hruf8o
  • The surface spirit 
  • Same here, been a huge fan of pen digitizers for a while and had some Windows 7 devices mainly for use with OneNote in the past - Great that they are getting wider adoption. We gave our sales team Surface 3's and they seem to really like the Pen for taking notes etc.
  • Thinkpad with Chrome OS? Yeah sure...
  • Lol. exactly. I don't know who with right mind would put chrome os on such an iconic devices as Thinkpad. they could have made ideapad with chrome os instead. this move will sure hurt thinkpads stellar reputation.
  • finally a windows mobile with led notifications
  • That Jade Primo dock does look very good. The advantage is it looks tidier than the Microsoft DIsplayDock, with the downside being that it will only really fit that phone - The Microsoft Display Dock could be used with future Lumia phones, assuming that a new Display Dock isn't needed down the line with different hardware inside it. Continuum has had me tempted towards a new phone to replace my Lumia 930, but I know deep down I'll use it a couple of times and then never bother again - It could be very very useful for certain groups, but I'd probably have the dock connected to a monitor that's already part of my desktop PC setup (Triple monitors) so I can't see any reason why I'd ever use Continuum over my full PC when they are next to each other....Maybe connected up to the TV could be useful for me every now and again, but when I travel I'll tend to take my Surface Pro 3 absolutely everywhere. For TV use I'd rather see a number of universal apps come to the Xbox One, like Remote Desktop and TeamViewer so if I needed access from my TV I could always plug in the KB+M to my Xbox One (Negating any use of having Continuum on my TV I suppose). Microsoft do seem to be going down the route of more universal accessories - The new Surface Dock is more like a traditional dock that you just connect via USB, I don' think I saw a Surface Pro 4 version of the dock found on the earlier Surfaces (Could be wrong though)
  • Surface dock is not USB. It connects through the magnetic power connector.
  • Looking for abudget windows mobile with continum
  • Asus still hasn't delivered on.last years CES products. I have been waiting for the 128gig ssd version of the T100HA all fall and winter. The 64 gig is out but not 128.
  • "A $200 phone that doesn't just not suck"----Ummm...double negative....so it does suck. Great. Thanks for the heads up.
  • I'd like to see an ASUS Zenphone Zoom running Win10m. Posted via the Note 4/Nexus 7 (2013)/Lumia 1020/Lumia 2520