The US Department of Defense has added tech giant Tencent and lithium-ion battery maker CATL to its list of Chinese military companies, as reported earlier by Bloomberg. The designation doesn’t impose sanctions or a ban, but it could make it more difficult for the companies to do business in the US.

Along with owning the popular messaging app WeChat, Tencent is a major name in the gaming industry, as it owns League of Legends developer Riot Games and has invested in many others, including Epic Games, Larian Studios, Ubisoft, and FromSoftware. Meanwhile, CATL is the world’s biggest electric vehicle battery maker, with its products appearing across EVs from Tesla, Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, and more.

The designations originate from President-elect Donald Trump’s executive order in 2020, which prevented US companies from investing in entities with ties to the Chinese military. DJI, which was put on the list in 2022, says US Customs is blocking its drone imports and eventually filed a lawsuit claiming the designation has resulted in “lost business deals” and a stigma “as a national security threat.”

These companies don’t always stay on the Department of Defense’s list, as the US removed Chinese phone maker Xiaomi just months after adding it in 2021. Both Tencent and CATL plan to push back on the designations. “We are not a military company or supplier,” Tencent spokesperson Danny Marti said in a statement to The Verge. “Unlike sanctions or export controls, this listing has no impact on our business. We will nonetheless work with the Department of Defense to address any misunderstanding.” CATL similarly told Bloomberg that its inclusion was “clearly a mistake.”

The Verge reached out to CATL with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

Is Samsung’s round robot finally ready to roll out of CES demos and into actual homes?

Ballie, the rolling robot that reemerged at CES last year, will be shipping to consumers as an actual product sometime in 2025. That’s what Samsung is saying at the moment, anyway. We were first introduced to Ballie at CES five years ago. Since then, the robot has undergone a more practical redesign, so maybe it’s really going to happen — but I’m still more skeptical than not.

Am I the only one who thinks those wheels look a bit flimsy? Maybe Samsung is intentionally building in a weak spot and planning ahead for whenever Ballie secretly amasses an army and turns against us.

Either way, Ballie is putting in yet another CES appearance here in Las Vegas. During Samsung’s First Look event last night, I watched the latest canned demo of the round bot. Its operator asked for information about a nearby attraction, The Sphere, which Ballie first projected onto the ground. But when more details and driving directions were requested, Ballie automatically turned around and beamed its image onto a nearby wall instead so that it would have more room to work with.

From there, Ballie was asked to show a movie. It brought up Sony’s Uncharted, and when commanded to make the picture bigger, Ballie was smart enough to look for a wall that could accommodate the enlarged projection. The image wasn’t particularly bright; Ballie does better in that regard when beaming onto the floor immediately in front of itself. Don’t expect any ANSI lumen miracles from this rather small gadget. The built-in speakers were plenty loud, at least, and didn’t sound tinny.

In another interaction, the person demoing Ballie held up a pair of wine bottles and asked the robot which would make a better pairing for his dinner, showing that Ballie has some visual AI powers at its disposal. Responses to most queries came within a couple of seconds without any hiccups. But again, I only saw a very controlled demo, and for all I know, it’s possible that this Ballie already had these answers programmed in. I trust absolutely nothing at this show.

You communicate with Ballie through voice, and at times, the robot also projects virtual buttons onto the floor that can be stepped on to make a selection. (I’m curious as to what its accessibility features might entail.) Samsung has also given Ballie plenty of power over the smart home; you can tell it to control your lights and various routines.

Samsung told outlets including CNET and TechCrunch, that Ballie is indeed rolling out this year. TechRadar got an even more specific “first half of 2025” timeframe. It’s possible Samsung could share more details during its CES keynote later today. As for price, your guess is as good as mine. What’s a fair amount to pay for a robot you’ll insist on showing everyone you know for a few weeks? That is, until you grow to resent Ballie for paling in comparison to the expectations set by BB-8 and WALL-E.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

First announced in late November, Satechi has confirmed that its Mac Mini M4 Stand & Hub will be available in limited quantities starting February 17th, 2025 through its online store for $99.99. A wider release will begin sometime in March, according to an announcement by the company at CES 2025 today.

The hub, made from aluminum with a soft-touch silicone coating, is designed to expand the functionality of the Apple Mac Mini M4 with two front-facing USB-A 3.2 ports, a USB-A 2.0 port, and an SD card reader.

Image: Satechi

The hub connects to the Mac Mini M4 using an integrated USB-C cable that can be stored on the underside when not in use. A recessed area on the top of the hub “maintains airflow without obstructing the Mac Mini’s fan,” while a notch in the back corner makes it easier to reach the computer’s underside power button.

Image: Satechi

A removable panel on the bottom of the hub also allows the Mac Mini M4’s storage to be expanded by installing an NVMe SSD; the hub supports multiple widths and lengths of SSDs with capacities up to 4TB. For comparison, a 4TB NVMe SSD from Western Digital is $299.99. Upgrading the base version of the Mac Mini M4 from 256GB to 2TB of storage through Apple adds $800 to the price tag, while upgrading the 12-core version of the Mac Mini from 512GB to 4TB of storage is an extra $1,200.

First, they sprouted arms; now, robot vacuums are getting legs. The latest bot from Dreame has two small legs that can push it up and over a step as high as 6cm (about 2.5 inches).

The Dreame X50 Ultra robot vacuum uses a system called ProLeap, which the company first demoed at the IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany, last year. Dreame calls the device’s appendage a “motorized swing arm” that “enables step navigation up to 6 cm in height.” But they’re clearly legs.

Image: Dreame

While this isn’t quite the stair climbing we’ve all been hoping for, it could be very useful for helping a robot vacuum reach more areas of your home without manual intervention.

Several current robot vacuums have a lifting capability that can help them get over high room transitions or bulky rugs; Roborock’s Qrevo Curv can handle 3cm, and Shark’s latest can go up to 2cm. Six centimeters is a big leap.

The Dreame X50 Ultra is the next generation of the company’s flagship X40 Ultra (which is our current pick for the best robot vacuum / mop hybrid). A robot vacuum with oscillating mopping pads, the X50 has advanced obstacle recognition and lidar navigation. It comes with a multifunction charging dock that can empty its bin and wash its mops with hot water and heated air. It can also automatically remove and reattach its mops. It will be available for $1,699.99 starting on February 14th. A presale featuring discounts starts on January 7th on Dreame’s website.

AMD has just officially announced its full lineup of Ryzen Z2 chips for handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck, after a brief tease this fall — but as of today, it’s pretty muddy who they’re for or what they’re going to do for handheld PC gaming.

First off, although AMD told journalists in a pre-recorded briefing that Valve’s Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go, and Asus ROG Ally lineups would all feature the new chips, it’s not clear that’s actually true.

While we’re expecting Lenovo handhelds later this week that could come with Z2, Valve has categorically denied that a new Steam Deck will include one. “There is and will be no Z2 Steam Deck,” Valve designer Pierre-Loup Griffais posted on Bluesky today, correcting the record after VideoCardz leaked a portion of AMD’s briefing.

While that denial seems pretty clear, AMD strangely wouldn’t correct the record on Steam Deck (or ROG Ally) when we asked. The company would only say that its slide was “designed to highlight our current handheld design wins,” and that it’s not “preannouncing any partner handheld devices.” That’s not a denial. Asus won't announce a Z2 ROG Ally here at CES, rep Anthony Spence confirms to me, but couldn't comment on Asus' future plans.

It’s also not clear what the new Z2 chips can do. While AMD is promising “more performance and capabilities than prior generations” with “hours and hours of battery life,” the three chips are each built differently.

The Z2 Extreme is an intriguing mix of Zen 3 and Zen 5c CPU cores with RDNA 3.5 graphics, four more GPU cores than last-gen, and can boost 5 watts higher for a combined total of what should almost certainly be more performance than before — though AMD hasn’t provided any benches this time around.

Image: AMD

But stepping away from the Extreme, the vanilla Z2 has the same number of cores as today’s existing Z1 Extreme with the same RDNA 3 and possibly the same CPU cores, and AMD hasn’t mentioned any improvements over that chip yet. The Z2 Go has fewer CPU cores than even a vanilla Z1, and is on older RDNA 2 like the Steam Deck’s chip — but it does have 12 graphics cores, triple that of the Z1 and four more GPU cores than the Deck.

And, each of these new chips has a higher minimum TDP than the previous generation (a quoted 15 watts, up from a quoted 9 watts), which could potentially mean less battery life when you crank down the CPU’s power mode for less intensive games. (Not everyone changes power modes, though, so the TDP manufacturers ship it at may matter more; the Z1 Extreme’s sweet spot was around 15-17W TDP, while the Steam Deck’s chip nominally runs at 15W but can dip as low as 4W.)

Anyhow: it’s weird! But maybe the AMD-Lenovo-Valve-Microsoft handheld gaming event tomorrow will make things clearer.

AMD promised eventual “mobile gaming dominance” back in 2022, and it feels like we’re getting closer every day. Today, the company is announcing not one, not two, but three different families of chips designed to take it there, including final confirmation of the long-rumored “Strix Halo” and “Fire Range” laptop chips.

The former is now known as the Ryzen AI Max and Ryzen AI Max Plus, boasting the most powerful graphics AMD’s ever put in a chip, with up to 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units, 16 Zen 5 CPU cores, and a new memory interface with 256GB per second of bandwidth. AMD claims the highest-end AI Max Plus 395 has over 1.4x the graphics performance and 2.6x the 3D rendering performance of Intel’s highest-end Lunar Lake chip, the Intel Core 9 288V — and enough power to frequently beat Apple’s M4 Pro MacBook Pro.

As you can see in the chart above, not all AI Max parts are equal — but they all consume up to a monstrous 120W of power, making them most suitable for machines that’ll be plugged in and / or docked. HP will offer a Z2 Mini G1a desktop and a ZBook Ultra G1a laptop, while Asus will offer the ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet with the new parts.

Fire Range, meanwhile, is AMD’s codename for its new HX- and X3D-series laptop parts, which don’t come with their own groundbreaking integrated GPUs but are designed to be paired with discrete ones. They do, however, contain the new version of its flagship gaming laptop chip with the 3D V-Cache that’s been so popular for boosting frame rate in AMD’s desktop chips. Previously only available in the 7945HX3D, the new 9955HX3D has the same incredible 144MB of cache, though there are a couple of lower-end parts, too:

AMD is also announcing two new X3D desktop chips today, declaring that it now has a CPU that’s “the world’s best processor for gamers and creators.” You can read more about the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D here.

Last and possibly least are AMD’s Z2 Extreme chips for handheld gaming PC competitors to the Steam Deck, which, strangely, raise the low-end TDP up to 15W from just 9W with previous-gen parts and each contain a different generation of GPU: RDNA 3.5 on the Z2 Extreme, RDNA 3 on the Z2, and RDNA 2 on the Z2 Go.

Image: AMD

AMD hasn’t yet offered any concrete idea of performance from its Fire Range or Z2 chips, or of battery life from any of these chips in its prerecorded briefing for journalists, though it did promise the Z2 will offer “more performance and capabilities than prior generations” and with “hours and hours of battery life.”

Dell has made its latest UltraSharp 4K monitors more attractive to PC gamers by doubling the previous generation’s 60Hz refresh rate. The 27-inch and 32-inch 4K UltraSharp Thunderbolt displays announced at CES have been updated with new IPS panels that provide 120Hz refresh rates alongside features designed to enhance visual comfort.

The UltraSharp line is a popular choice for working professionals who need a no-frills 4K monitor that supports Windows, macOS, and multi-monitor setups — the 27-inch model in particular tops a lot of lists for best 4K monitor. 120Hz refresh rates are usually targeted toward gamers who can benefit from higher frame rates and smoother, more responsive gameplay, which now makes the 27-inch UltraSharp 4K in particular a decent solution for people who want a single display that’s suitable for both work and play.

The improvements come at a cost though: the 27-inch UltraSharp 4K is increasing to $699.99 (up from $639.99 for the 60Hz model), and the larger 32-inch UltraSharp 4K now costs $949.99 (up from $919.99). Both will be available to buy globally starting February 25th, according to Dell.

Image: Dell

Dell introduced several 120Hz monitors to the UltraSharp lineup in 2023 and 2024, but this is the first time that the popular 27-inch 4K model has seen a similar refresh rate boost. Other improvements for the new UltraSharp 4K models include up to 140W power delivery via USB-C (up from 90W), and a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, thanks to its use of “enhanced IPS Black technology” that provides 47 percent deeper blacks compared to conventional IPS panels, according to Dell. The prior version of IPS Black offered a 2,000:1 contrast ratio. A comparison showing improvements in contrast ratio can be seen in this YouTube video.

Image: Dell

Dell says the monitors include an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts brightness and color temperature to help reduce eye fatigue. Otherwise, the 27-inch and 32-inch 4K UltraSharp share near-identical designs with their predecessors. The new models include VESA DisplayHDR 600 and ports for USB-A, USB-C, Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, and DisplayPort, with ventilation grills now surrounding the ports located on the back of the monitors.

Acer is revealing new all-in-one and mini PCs at CES 2025, and they’re among the first non-laptop computers to get Copilot Plus AI features.

The new Acer Aspire S AI all-in-ones, offered in a “minimalist white profile,” come in two sizes, according to a press release. The Aspire S24 AI has a 23.8-inch 1080p screen, and the Aspire S27 AI has a 27-inch panel in 1080p or 4K. You can get both with touchscreens, too. They’re equipped with “up to” Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2), support Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7, and have an HDMI 2.0 port, two USB 3.2 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port.

The Aspire S24 AI will start at $1,199.99, while the Aspire S27 AI will start at $1,299.99. Both are set to launch in Q2 of this year.

Acer’s new Aspire C AI all-in-ones also come in 23.8-inch and 27-inch screen sizes, and both can be configured with up to QHD (1440p) screens. They’re powered by AMD Ryzen AI processors and AMD Radeon 800M-series GPUs, and you can get them with up to 64GB of DDR5 memory and 1TB of M2 PCIe SSD storage. However, unlike the Aspire S all-in-ones, the Aspire C all-in-ones only support Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6.

The Acer Aspire C24 AI is set to start at $999.99, with the Acer Aspire C27 AI starting at $1,099.99, and both are also scheduled to launch in Q2.

Image: Acer

The Acer Revo Box AI is a new version of its mini PC line, and the company says this one “measures just 0.75 liters and weighs a mere 0.5 kg.” It also has Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2) and can be purchased with up to 32GB of LPDDR5X 8533 memory. It will start at $799.99 and is also set for Q2.

In addition to supporting Copilot Plus features, Acer says these computers all have “Acer Intelligence Space,” which is “a central hub that automatically detects hardware and provides the appropriate AI tools to optimize performance, generate images, and enhance gameplay.”

AMD is previewing its next generation of GPUs at CES today, based on its latest RDNA 4 architecture that includes AI-powered FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4) upscaling. The Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 will both be available in Q1 from a variety of video card manufacturers, but AMD isn’t detailing specifications, pricing, or exact release dates just yet.

The announcement is light on concrete information. AMD says it has built this architecture from the ground up and that the GPUs built on RDNA 4 will include “a significant boost in AI.” AMD has optimized the compute units in RNDA 4, improved its ray-tracing engine and performance, and upgraded its media encoding quality. Built on a 4nm process, the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 cards will include AMD’s second-generation AI accelerators, third-generation ray-tracing accelerators, and second-generation radiance display engine.

Image: AMD

This RDNA 4 architecture will also enable AMD to launch FSR 4 with these 9000-series GPUs. FSR 4 is a machine learning-powered update to AMD’s upscaling and frame-generation technology that’s been developed specifically for RDNA 4 and its dedicated AI accelerator hardware. That means you’ll only be able to get FSR 4 with a Radeon RX 9070-series graphics card right now, and it will be supported in games with FSR 3.1 already integrated.

Matt Booty, president of game content and studios at Microsoft, appeared on stage at AMD’s CES keynote earlier today to confirm FSR 4 will be available in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 later this year.

AMD hasn’t hinted at how FSR 4 will compare to Nvidia’s DLSS technology or what type of performance uplift or image quality improvement we should expect to see with this next generation of FSR.

It’s also not clear exactly what performance the RX 9070 series of GPUs will deliver against the competition, but in a branding slide for RDNA 4, AMD appears to suggest the 9070 series will offer similar performance to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 4070 Super. Nvidia is expected to announce its RTX 50-series GPUs later today.

Image: AMD

AMD is also adding new AI-powered features to its Adrenalin software. These include the ability to generate images with AI models, summarize local documents, and ask an AMD chatbot questions about graphics settings and more.

If you’re wondering why AMD has jumped from the Radeon 7000 series straight to 9000-series GPUs, the company says it will use the 8000-series branding for RDNA 3.5 mobile GPUs. AMD is only previewing FSR 4 at CES and promises to provide more details on the upscaling technology and its latest RDNA 4 GPUs ahead of the Q1 launch.

AMD is unveiling its latest flagship desktop CPU, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, today at CES. After the 9800X3D wowed us with its gaming performance, we’ve been waiting to see what AMD’s second generation of 3D V-Cache technology could do with more cores and higher boost frequencies. AMD is now claiming the 9950X3D will be “the world’s best processor for gamers and creators.”

The 9950X3D includes 16 Zen 5 CPU cores (32 threads), a max boost frequency of 5.7GHz, and 144MB of total cache. It has a higher TDP over the 9800X3D at 170 watts instead of 120 watts, but this extra power appears to translate to big improvements in creator benchmarks and gaming.

Image: AMD

AMD says the 9950X3D should be around 8 percent faster on average than the previous 7950X3D, based on benchmarks run on 40 games at 1080p. The gaming performance should be similar to the 9800X3D, with AMD claiming it’s within 1 percent. AMD even claims the 9950X3D is 20 percent faster than Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K in those same games, but Intel is about to deliver a performance update for the 285K that could close that gap.

In content creation tasks, the 9950X3D should be around 6 percent faster than the 7950X3D in Premiere Pro tasks and around 13 percent faster in Photoshop. On average, AMD says the 9950X3D will be 13 percent faster for creator tasks than the 7950X3D, based on 20 apps tested. The big claim from AMD is that the 9950X3D will be 10 percent faster than Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K, something that could make the 9950X3D an easy pick for anyone wanting great desktop and gaming performance in a single CPU.

AMD is also launching a Ryzen 9 9900X3D processor with 12 cores (24 threads), a 5.5GHz max boost, 140MB of cache, and a 120-watt TDP. Much like the 9800X3D, both of these new X3D chips use the second generation of AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology that sees the cache now sit below the processor cores. This change allows the processor cores to have better access to cooling, and the cache is now less sensitive to high temperatures, allowing the CPU to boost to higher frequencies and deliver better performance in both gaming and creator tasks.

AMD says both the 9950X3D and 9900X3D will be available at some point in March, but it’s not detailing pricing just yet.

AMD is also announcing new “Fire Range” mobile CPUs today, which are the latest X3D-series laptop parts. You can read more about the flagship 9955HX3D laptop chip and other mobile-focused AMD announcements right here.

Acer is announcing two new Nitro Blaze gaming handhelds at CES 2025, and one of them, the Nitro Blaze 11, is truly giant with a massive 10.95-inch screen.

Seriously, it’s huge — just look at this photo of a person holding it! It’s absurd!

Image: Acer

In addition to that enormous screen — which is a 144 Hz WQXGA touch display that can top out at 500 nits of brightness — the Nitro Blaze 11 is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 8040HS processor, 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and up to 2TB of storage, according to a press release. The Nitro Blaze 11 also has detachable controllers, a built-in kickstand, Hall Effect joysticks, and two back buttons. (The original Blaze, announced last year with a 7-inch screen, lacked back buttons.)

Image: Acer

Acer’s other new handheld PC, the Nitro Blaze 8, is mercifully smaller, with an 8.8-inch screen. It has many of the same specs as the Nitro Blaze 11, though it lacks the detachable controllers and built-in stand.

Both new Blazes will be available in Q2 2025, Acer says. The Nitro Blaze 11 will start at $1,099.99, while the Nitro Blaze 8 will start at $899.99.

Acer is putting AMD chips in its ultra-thin Swift Go 16 AI and Swift Go 14 AI Copilot Plus laptops, both of which come with up to an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor. Until now, Acer only offered its Swift Go 14 Copilot Plus laptop with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor.

The AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor has eight cores, 16 threads, and an up to 5.0GHz boost clock. The Swift Go AI laptops feature a neural processing unit (NPU) running AMD’s XDNA 2 architecture with up to 50 TOPS, as well as AMD Radeon 800M graphics.

Both the 16- and 14-inch Swift Go AI come with the option for either an OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate or an IPS touch panel. There’s also up to 32GB of low-power DDR5X SDRAM, a 1440p HDR webcam, and up to 24.9 hours of video playback on the Swift Go 14 AI (or up to 18 hours of video playback on the Swift Go 16 AI).

The Swift Go 14 AI will launch in May with a starting price of $899.99, while the Swift Go 16 AI will arrive in April starting at $949.99. Over the past few months, Microsoft has been gradually expanding AI features, such as Recall and live translation, to Copilot Plus PCs running AMD and Intel chips, as these features were previously only available on Qualcomm-equipped devices.

Along with these laptops, Acer also revealed a pair of non-AI Swift Go laptops powered by Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285H processor and Intel Arc graphics, with the 14- and 16-inch options starting at the same prices as their Copilot Plus counterparts.

Image: Acer

There’s a new Aspire Vero 16 laptop as well, which Acer says has an “easy-to-repair” design with a chassis made of more than 70 percent “post-consumer recycled plastic and bio-based oyster shell material.” The Aspire Vero features up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor and Intel Arc graphics. It will start at $799.99 when it launches in April.

Dell’s new monitor can beam audio directly toward your ears. The Dell 32 Plus 4K QD-OLED uses a camera beneath its display for AI-powered head tracking, allowing it to adjust the sound coming out of its five 5W speakers based on your position.

As it directs audio toward each of your ears, the monitor also blocks sound at the opposite ear using destructive interference, which occurs when sound waves in different phases interact and cancel each other out. It’s the same type of technology used in active noise-canceling headphones.

Dell isn’t the only company to use head tracking to deliver audio; Razer’s Leviathan soundbar has a similar feature, and so does the 3D monitor Acer revealed in 2023.

Image: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

But it seems like Dell’s new monitor might be an ideal choice for gaming, as it comes with a 32-inch 4K OLED display, along with up to 120Hz refresh rate, a speedy 0.03ms response time, and support for AMD FreeSync Premium.

At $799.99, the Dell 32 Plus 4K QD-OLED is a little cheaper than similar monitors like the $899.99 MSI Mag 321UPX and the $1,399.99 LG Ultragear ‎32GS95UE (though these two monitors have higher refresh rates). The Dell 32 Plus 4K QD-OLED launches in the US on May 22nd, 2025.

Qualcomm teased Copilot Plus mini PCs earlier today, but HP is already announcing its own Copilot Plus mini PC and all-in-one desktop PCs, and neither will be powered by Qualcomm. HP has opted for AMD’s new Ryzen AI Max chips for its mini PC and Intel’s latest Core Ultra 200V series processors for the all-in-one.

The OmniStudio X all-in-one will come in both 31.5-inch and 27-inch variants, with the ability to configure the PC with up to Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processors. These chips include a 47 TOPS NPU that’s powerful enough to handle Microsoft’s latest Copilot Plus PC features.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

The 31.5-inch model comes with a 4K IPS panel that supports HDR 600 and up to 550 nits of brightness, but it’s not a touchscreen display. You’ll have to opt for the 27-inch model if you want a touchscreen, but HP has opted for a 1080p IPS display here that can hit up to 300 nits of brightness. The 27-inch model also comes in a non-touch variant at 1080p and even a 4K IPS option that doesn’t support HDR or touch and can reach up to 350 nits.

Both sizes come with built-in speakers and microphones and a five-megapixel IR camera above the display. The larger model even includes the ability to charge and control your laptop through a USB-C 20Gbps port at the rear that also supports DisplayPort in and out. Both also have 10Gbps USB-A and USB-C ports at the side, with a single USB-C 20Gbps port at the rear, alongside 2 USB-A 10Gbps ports, a single HDMI 1.4 out port, a single HDMI 2.1 in port, an ethernet port, and a headphone jack. Both also come with Wi-Fi 7 support.

Image: HP

If you’re looking for a mini PC instead, HP’s new Z2 Mini G1a looks like it might be one of the most interesting miniature PCs at CES this year. HP is calling it the “world’s most powerful mini workstation,” and it has packed AMD’s latest Ryzen AI Max Plus Pro chips inside with support for up to 16 CPU cores, up to 8TB of SSD storage thanks to dual NVMe modules, up to 128GB of unified memory, and the ability to assign up to 96GB of RAM to the GPU for graphical tasks or AI projects. You’ll also be able to pick between AMD Radeon 8040S, 8050S, and 8060S integrated graphics. It can support up to four 4K monitors.

This mini PC is also a Copilot Plus PC, so it can deliver the AI performance required for features like Recall, Click to Do, and AI-powered image generation and editing in Windows 11.

Image: HP

Like many other mini PCs being announced at CES this week, it has a built-in power supply, so it’s ideal for sitting on a desk. It’s also small enough to slot inside a rack, with up to five of these mini PCs able to fill up a 4U rack. HP will even offer a choice of Windows 11 Home or Pro or Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

HP’s Z2 Mini G1a also has a great port selection, with a single USB-C 10Gbps port at the side, alongside a USB-A 10Gbps port, and a headphone jack. At the rear, there are two USB-A 10Gbps ports, two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 40Gbps ports with USB Power Delivery and DisplayPort 2.1 support, two USB-A 480Mbps ports, two mini DisplayPort 2.1, and an ethernet port. You can also add optional ports at the top of the rear section, with options for additional USB-A and USB-C ports and a variety of ethernet ports.

While HP is announcing its latest all-in-one and mini PCs today, it has not yet provided release dates or pricing.

Rather than roll out a whole series of new TVs here at CES, TCL has decided to take a staggered approach in 2025. So it came to Las Vegas with just one model to show off: the QM6K Mini LED. The company is claiming that this TV, the first of a new Precise Dimming series, “offers a level of picture quality that has never been offered in its price band before.” TCL has found itself in a fierce battle with Hisense in the Mini LED category; both brands have delivered fantastic TVs in recent years that set new expectations for their pricing tiers.

Highlights include up to 500 local dimming zones, a 144Hz panel (which can be pushed to 288Hz VRR in Game Accelerator mode), a new Dolby Vision Filmmaker Mode, hands-free voice controls for the Google TV software, and even a “sleep sounds” mode. The latter could prove useful if you end up putting one of these in a bedroom.

But beyond the usual talking points, TCL is really putting emphasis on its newly enhanced backlight technology:

TCL has also upgraded to a Bi-directional 23-bit Backlight Controller, allowing granular control of over 65,000 levels of brightness for each LED. In addition, TCL includes a new Dynamic Light Algorithm, which intelligently optimizes the incoming video signal so that SDR signals render at near HDR level, for consistently great picture quality, regardless of the content metadata.

The company is also doing its best to fully eradicate blooming — the halo effect that can surround bright objects on a dark background — which has traditionally been one downside of Mini LED compared to the pixel-level control of OLEDs. TCL is also emphasizing sound performance with this “affordable premium” TV: it comes with an Onkyo-branded 2.1 system built in.

It’s unusual to get pricing for new TVs at CES, but TCL is getting right to it. The QM6K comes in sizes ranging from 50 inches to the XXL 98-inch behemoth, and preorders for several of them are beginning today.

• 98-inch: $3,499.99
• 85-inch: $1,999.99
• 75-inch: $1,299.99
• 65-inch: $999.99
• 55-inch: $799.99
• 50-inch: $749.99

This staggered release cadence means TCL isn’t ready to show off its very best 2025 TVs yet, so a follow-up to the excellent QM8 will have to wait for a few more months.

Look, I haven’t picked up the TCL 60 XE, but I can already tell you the name of its best feature: Max Ink Mode. The 60 XE is the latest of TCL’s phones to use its Nxtpaper display technology, aimed to go easy on the eyes with reduced glare and an E Ink-like monochrome mode.

The phone has a full-color 6.8-inch display by default, but if you flip a slider on the side of the device, you enter Max Ink Mode. In addition to being a kind of e-reader mode, it can also silence notifications so you can get a little peace and quiet while you do some reading. How lovely! TCL introduced this “Nxtpaper key” on some phones last year, but they never made it to the US. It’s our turn now, because the 60 XE is a North American exclusive.

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

The TCL 60 XE also features a 50-megapixel rear camera and a 32-megapixel selfie camera and comes with a healthy 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. It’ll start at $199, going on sale first in Canada in May 2025, with US availability later in the year.

TCL has a couple of other non-TV things to show off at CES 2025: a Nxtpaper 11 Plus tablet with the company’s next-gen Nxtpaper 4.0 technology, which is supposed to offer better clarity and sharpness. The Nxtpaper 11 Plus emphasizes eye comfort with viewing modes designed to ease strain, offering an 11.5-inch 2.2K display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The company isn’t announcing its pricing or availability yet.

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

There’s also a new projector — the Playcube, which uses a “modular concept integrating aesthetics and functionality,” according to a press release. No price or availability on that one, either.

With the Marvel Rivals train firmly on its way, it’s time to start the game’s first official season. In a short trailer, Marvel Rivals developer Net Ease has announced that season 1 begins later this week on January 10th.

According to the trailer, season 1 features the arrival of Dracula who plunges New York City into eternal night by *checks notes* teaming up with Dr. Doom to tamper with the moon’s orbit. (Hey, it’s a comic book game, weird nonsensical stuff is supposed to happen.) Apparently Dracula has imprisoned Dr. Strange in a pocket dimension and has also unleashed a horde of vampires because messing with the moon just wasn’t enough.

To fight against this nefarious plot, Rivals will add four new characters to the game’s roster — The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, and The Thing — the hero collective known as The Fantastic Four. Throughout the week leading up to season’s launch, players will be get a first look at the new heroes and their abilities starting January 7th. The addition also has a bit of synergy with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe as The Fantastic Four movie starring Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby releases in July of this year.

Marvel Rivals appears to be scratching the hero shooter itch reminiscent of the early days of the original Overwatch. Developer Net Ease announced that the game has surpassed 20 million players shortly after the free-to-play game’s launch in early December.

The next time you pass a farm tractor tilling a field, check to make sure there’s somebody in the cab. Chances are, there won’t be.

Today at CES, John Deere announced a host of new fully autonomous vehicles that it says will revolutionize farming, landscaping, and construction. Among the new vehicles the company will have to show off are an autonomous tractor, a robot lawn mower, a crewless dump truck, and another driverless tractor, but this one designed specifically for orchards.

“We’re taking our tech stack, which is nearly three decades in the making, and we’re extending it to more of our machines to safely run autonomously in these unique and complex environments that our customers work in every day,” said Jahmy Hindman, chief technology officer at John Deere.

“When we talk about autonomy, we mean full autonomy,” he added. “No one’s in the machine.”

It’s been three years since John Deere unveiled its first autonomous tractor. Commercial deliveries began in 2022, and now Hindman says that many farms have put the company’s robot equipment to work. “Those tractors are already being used by farmers to prepare the soil for planting in the next year,” he said.

Now the company is doubling down on autonomy, at a time when other vehicle manufacturers are cutting their losses. John Deere says its autonomous machines can help farmers address labor shortages, while also meeting the growing demand for food, infrastructure, and housing.

Tractor or computer?

The company’s second-generation tractor is designed for large-scale agricultural operations. And in order to ensure a full, 360-degree view of the world, John Deere added 16 cameras all around the cab of the tractor that provide for triple overlapping feeds.

The images are then sent for processing to an onboard Nvidia GPU because John Deere wanted to be sure the tractor’s edge AI system was doing all of its predictions and planning on the vehicle itself, and not up in the cloud.

“This ensures that the machine is running safe and reliable,” said Willy Pell, CEO of John Deere subsidiary Blue River Technology, which designs machine learning systems for agricultural operations.

John Deere’s first-generation tractors were designed specifically for the slowest and easiest works, which is fall tillage with a chisel file. The second-generation system will be for a broader set of operations, with John Deere setting the goal for a fully autonomous farming system for corn and soybeans in the US by 2030.

Dusty the dump truck

John Deere’s next robot vehicle is the company’s first for construction sites: an articulated dump truck (ADT). The heavy-duty truck is 34 feet long, 12 feet tall, and can carry over 92,000 pounds of construction materials — the equivalent of seven African elephants — in its front bucket. John Deere’s executives have given it the nickname “Dusty.”

The job of a dump truck operator in quarries and other sites is tough but also repetitive and boring. By removing the driver, John Deere hopes to improve safety while also helping improve productivity.

The ADT operates using the same tech stack as its farming siblings, with the added ability to dynamically change its routing information to get around people and other vehicles on narrow roads through construction sites. The truck can also receive directions from remote operators about location and timing — but that doesn’t make it remote-controlled.

“It’s unsupervised, it’s capable of making decisions and operating safely on its own,” said Maya Sripadam, senior product manager at Blue River Technology. “So it’s segmenting the world into different classes, it’s using StarFire GPS to localize itself on the road, and it’s navigating between a load zone and a haul zone.”

In the orchard

John Deere also revealed another autonomous tractor, this one designed to run on diesel for pulling air blast sprayers through nut orchards. Sprayers are used to apply pesticides, growth regulators, and nutrients to ensure a healthy crop.

Nuts are a huge business in the US, especially in California. And with 80 percent of the world’s almond crop grown in the Golden State, labor shortages have proven to be a perennial problem.

Workers typically drive up and down endless rows of orchards up to 10 hours a day at 2.5 mph. Every single tree needs to be sprayed six to eight times per year, with work starting in February and going through July or August — right into the hottest times of the year.

“The work is exhausting and it’s repetitive,” said Igino Cafiero, director of High Value Crop Autonomy, “but it’s also absolutely essential to protect the trees from pests and disease.”

But nut orchards, with their dense canopies of trees, are a much different environment than corn or soybean fields. John Deere had to add lidar laser sensors to help improve the tractor’s sensing and guidance capabilities because GPS is often obstructed. Aside from that, the tractor uses the same second-generation technology stack as its tractors for field tillage.

Robo-scaping

The last machine John Deere revealed was an autonomous lawn mower for large-scale commercial landscaping jobs.

The all-electric mower features four pairs of stereo cameras, one in the front, one in the back, and one on each side. They’re positioned as high as possible on the machine to give a complete 360-degree view around the mower. That’s fewer cameras than the tractor or dump truck, but enough for the size of the machine.

A large office park or campus yard is very similar to a field or construction, in that it’s a “constrained environment” with much less chance for unpredictable behavior, Blue River’s Pell said.

“The use cases we have, the tech just really fits these environments so well,” he added. “And it’s combined with this deep customer pain around labor availability and quality that just makes all this the perfect time for everything.”

John Deere didn’t announce pricing for any of its autonomous vehicles, but past reports have noted that the premium over non-robotic equipment would be “significant” — perhaps as much as 10 percent. A regular 8R tractor and the 2430 chisel plow can cost as much as $500,000, which suggests an added $50,000 for an autonomous version.

That could irk some farmers, especially those at odds with John Deere over the company’s recalcitrance over self-repairs. The Federal Trade Commission is currently investigating whether John Deere used unfair practices related to the repair of its agricultural equipment.

“Pricing will vary based on specific products and configurations and will be shared at a later date,” John Deere spokesperson Diego Rivera said.

The Wireless Power Consortium announced at CES on Monday that more Android devices will use the MagSafe-based Qi2 charging standard in 2025. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll all have magnets, though; the WPC says it now has a “Qi2 Ready” certification for phones that need a case to add the magnetic alignment ring but otherwise meet the charging standard’s spec.

The announcement of Qi2 Ready could explain recent rumors that you’ll need a case to add magnetic charging to Galaxy S25 phones from Samsung, which says it’s releasing Qi2 Galaxy devices later this year. Meanwhile, Google says it’s “committed to the Qi2 wireless charging standard” and is contributing “its own high-power wireless charging technology to WPC.”

At the moment, you need a case with an embedded magnet for most Android phones to have MagSafe-style wireless charging. Apart from phones like the HMD Skyline, Apple has been alone in equipping its phones with the magnetic ring that normal Qi2 certification now requires.

The WPC also announced that a coming part of the Qi2 standard will be in-car wireless charging with a moving coil that shifts to keep aligned with the coil in your phone, using tech contributed by Panasonic Automotive Systems. Both the moving coil and Qi2 Ready certification are part of the Qi v2.1 update.

CES is always a showcase of giant-sized TVs, and true to form, Hisense has brought two enormous new models to Las Vegas this year: the 136-inch MicroLED 136MX, and the 116-inch TriChroma LED TV.

It seems like, for five or six years now, we’ve been hearing how MicroLED will usher in the next era of home theater and leapfrog OLED in terms of picture quality — without any of the potential risks such as burn-in or panel degradation over time. But the technology remains prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of consumers. Hisense probably won’t be changing that with the 136MX, which is described as the company’s first “consumer-ready MicroLED display.”

Hisense has surged in TV market share by balancing price and performance better than just about any other TV manufacturer besides TCL. Today’s press release describes the 136MX as “a pivotal milestone in making cutting-edge display technology more accessible to households.” But a milestone doesn’t mean that this specific — and very large — TV will be anything close to affordable unless you lead a life of luxury.

It sure does sound nice, though:

The 136MX builds on Hisense’s legacy of display innovation, leveraging a high-density array of over 24.88 million microscopic LEDs to deliver unparalleled brightness, resolution, and precision. Each pixel is its own light source, composed of independent red, green, and blue LEDs, eliminating the need for a traditional backlight. This self-emissive design achieves a near-infinite dynamic contrast ratio, delivering deep blacks, dazzling brightness, and remarkable clarity. Unlike OLED, which can degrade or suffer burn-in with static content, MicroLED offers consistent, high-quality visuals for years, making it ideal for bright living spaces and dedicated home theater rooms alike.

Hisense’s MicroLED display can hit a blinding peak brightness of 10,000 nits. It checks off support for all the modern musts, including Dolby Vision, Atmos, HDR 10 Plus, 120Hz gaming, auto low-latency mode, and more. But the reality is that it’s another very stunning screen that none of us will ever have in our homes.

For some people, there’s at least more of a chance of actually owning the also-new 116-inch TriChroma LED TV. That’s because, at its core, this is still a Mini LED set. But Hisense has developed a new local dimming system that it calls “RGB Local Dimming Technology.” The key benefit here seems to be color vibrance:

Unlike traditional systems that rely on white or blue backlights filtered through a quantum dot filter to create color, RGB Local Dimming Technology introduces independent red, green, and blue LEDs that generate pure colors directly at the source. This approach achieves richer reds, deeper greens, and more vibrant blues, delivering an industry-leading 97% of the BT.2020 color space — the widest color gamut ever achieved in a Mini LED display.

This precision is made possible by tens of thousands of RGB Local Dimming optical lenses, each containing individual red, blue and green LEDs. These lenses operate as independently controlled clusters, allowing for multi-level dimming at both the RGB chip level and the cluster level.

The company says RGB Local Dimming also helps to prevent loss of brightness and reduces blue light emissions by 38 percent. From what Hisense claims, the TriChroma TV can hit a peak brightness of 10,000 nits. It runs Google TV software and supports Dolby Vision IQ and IMAX Enhanced. On the sound front, there’s “a 6.2.2 multi-channel CineStage X surround sound system” built into the 116-inch frame.

There’s no price or release date for the TriChroma TV just yet, but Hisense says it “not only pushes the boundaries of what MiniLED displays can achieve, but also sets the stage for the future of display innovation.” Stay tuned for some impressions of both of these very, very big TVs once the CES show floor opens this week.