Top 10 gadgets from CES 2017 that impressed us

The consumer electronics exhibition CES 2017, with all its wonders, unfortunately, is over. The event was attended by hundreds of companies that brought with them several thousand interesting devices. Of course, with all the desire we would not be able to circumvent and test all this diversity in our work, so we didn’t even try. Instead, we have compiled a list of what will be interesting, first of all, to ourselves. The assessment was carried out according to various criteria, among which is the relevance of devices for Russian users.

First of all, we were interested in smart toys, children's gadgets, selfie drones, wireless headphones, radio tags and trackers to search for things, action cameras with accessories to them, plus a few more categories of devices. The list formed by all these criteria turned out to be several dozens of devices, which we tried to study. The personal preferences rating was compiled on the basis of the gadgets that impressed us more than others. We present the ten most interesting positions of this rating on Geektimes today. By the way, there is also an anti-rating of those devices that looked promising, but disappointed us. There are not many such gadgets, but they are there, we will tell about them in one of the following publications.

We divided the devices that we would like to talk about into several categories, which is more convenient.
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Toys - radio-controlled tanks Zega

Zega Galaxy is one of the few game sets presented at CES. We liked it because it is an interactive gaming system that allows several people to take part in a tank battle at once to try out their own tactics and strategy on the battlefield . Here elements of a computer game and radio-controlled toys are put together.

For example, as points accumulate and the number of victories increases, participants can increase their level, which opens up new opportunities and functions for tanks. The player can do the usual any gamer business - to pump his typewriter and collect game currency. In addition, there is a table of participants rating - you can compare your results with the results of other players.

The game consists of two components. The first - in fact, tanks. The set includes several radio-controlled machines, which differ in characteristics and special properties. All of them shoot each other with a laser and perform various maneuvers on a team of players. Management is made from a mobile phone via Bluetooth.

The second component is the playing field. In addition to the tanks, the player receives special X-field tiles that allow you to create difficult levels with various obstacles and refueling / treatment stations. In-game currency, you can buy upgrades that give the machine (and its "driver") benefits. In general, the laser battle on the battlefield is great fun. We have not seen anything like this before - Galaxy Zega is the first serious project to merge into a single gaming system, "numbers" and the real world.

Fitness Trackers - Mio Slice

Mio Slice is the first tracker in the world, which uses cardiocommunity rather than the number of steps to analyze user activity. The tests of the device were quite unexpected for us: d I wore the Mio Slice for four days of the exhibition, and for two days in a row not a single PAI (about the rating system below) was recruited. There was a question "Why?". After all, the day passed almost 20 km. We are used to the fact that the more you walk, the better our activity is with the tracker. Mio Slice is different.

In order to help the user assess the level of physical activity for the day, the creators of the tracker have introduced a new personal activity calculation indicator, PAI (Personal Activity Intelligence). This indicator is derived from the results of many years of research work of Norwegian experts, which is called the HUNT Study . The purpose of the study is to assess the effect of physical stress on the cardiovascular system and the likelihood of heart disease. Norwegians were the first to propose the use of such a coefficient, arguing that its long-term maintenance by a person at a level above 100 can increase the life expectancy by about 10 years.


So, the tracker we are testing has determined that for Nicholas all these thousands of steps are almost useless, since the load on the heart is minimal. So Mio Slice will not give you points for the user, you have to work. The bracelet can also do what all other fitness trackers are capable of: it counts the steps taken, the calories expended, measures the pulse and informs the user about calendar events, missed calls and SMS.

Personal Audio Systems - Lucidsound LS30 Wireless Headphones

We somehow immediately liked the LS30 universal wireless headphones from Lucidsound . They were created by the same people who founded the Tritton Audio brand, which, without exaggeration, can be called legendary. In my memory, this is the first device of this type, fully compatible with both the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platform, Mac, mobile devices. It is clear that we didn’t just look at the headphones, we tested the device. The sound was great.

Here the most important thing to talk about is the possibility of separately adjusting the volume of the main sound and chat. In fact, the headphones work with two separate digital stereo channels that are already mixed on the audio system itself.

As an example, I will cite watching a movie on a PC or Mac. You can assign different programs (video player and Skype in our example) to each channel, and if necessary, reduce the volume of the movie playback (or turn off the sound altogether) by adding the volume to the Skype channel. After talking on Skype, we remove the sound here and turn on the sound of the movie again.

Similarly, you can play shooters. When you need a team game, and the sound is very loud, turn down the volume of the game channel, and listen to everything that the team members say, without any problems. There is no need to switch between applications, you do not need to also bring up the system volume settings.

Headphone control is distributed between both cups: on the left is the wheel to adjust the sound of the game and the central button, which temporarily mutes the sound of the game or chat; using the rotating wheel of the right headphone cup, you can control the volume of the chat, the central button turns off / on the microphone. The microphone remains active. If you turn it off, the LED located on the microphone starts flashing.

The battery life of these headphones is 15 hours. They can work both in music playback mode and in wireless headset mode. By the way, if an external microphone interferes, you can remove it - it is removable. The headphones also have a built-in microphone, which remains active. It is useful, for example, on a walk, when headphones are used as a headset. The LS30 has five modes at once; in addition, they can reproduce the sound of the whole spectrum heard by a person: from 20 Hz to 20 GHz. If desired, they can be connected to a sound source, to a standard 3.5 mm jack with a cable.


Made headphones from premium materials. The headband and a number of other elements of the design - aluminum, with high-quality leather skin. Very conveniently made the system of fastening the headphones to the headband. Ambyushury here - with a memory effect. They sit tight, as much as possible to erode external noise, but gently, without causing inconvenience.

Charging can be done from USB or from the factory adapter. Headphones weight is 355 grams. In our general (subjective, we repeat) opinion, these are almost ideal headphones for both audiophiles and gamers who appreciate and love high-quality sound.

Climate systems - Evapolar personal air conditioning

This is a small device - personal desktop (or floor - as you please) air conditioning. Until you test it live, the work of the device seems to be pure magic. Evapolar performs two functions - it cools the air on an area of ​​3-4 square meters by about 10 C, at the same time cleaning it from dust particles. Plus, this system humidifies the air, because the cooling is done with the help of the smallest drops of water.

During the test, it became clear that the air conditioner gently lowers the temperature by a few degrees, doing it gradually, instead of almost instantly, as usual air conditioners do, knocking it indoors by 10 degrees Celsius and below. The intensity of evaporation, through which it is possible to regulate the temperature of the air, is regulated by the device in automatic mode. There is no external smell, as in the case of cooling with the help of air conditioners (this happens often), in any case, we did not catch anything like that.

How it works? From basalt fibers (they are 1000 times thinner than cellulose fiber), the developers have created evaporating plates. Such material can absorb a large amount of moisture. Plates provide a uniform and fairly intense moistening of the cooling cartridge, which allows to cool the air within a radius of 2-4 meters.

The technology used to create Evapolar is not unique. It is used in industrial evaporative coolers. But, unlike these large systems, Evapolar creates a personal microclimate zone in a very small amount of space. It is quite convenient, because in fact you need moist air exactly near the workplace or a place of rest. Such a system and electricity consumes much less than air conditioners, so you can save.



The container where the water is poured is protected from mold and bacteria, so that the reproduction of harmful microorganisms does not threaten the device. Evapolar it works from the electrical network - the device has no batteries. However, due to low power consumption, it is possible to power the air conditioner from an external battery.

Despite the simplicity of the idea, Indiegogo users really enjoyed this device. I liked it so much that the amount of fees exceeded $ 1 million. And yes, Russia is the birthplace of personal air conditioning, the development team is located in St. Petersburg.

Gadgets for children and parents - Doki Smart Watch

Doki Smart Watch - the world's first smart watch with video call function. Watches impressed with the quality - as the assembly, and individual elements. Here is an excellent bright display, nice-to-touch plastic. Video quality when calling also managed to test.
High-quality assembly, expensive components in the end give a feeling of expensive things.

This device allows you to monitor the location of the child, as well as contact him at any time. Children themselves can call their parents if necessary. If necessary, the child presses the button, and the SOS signal will go to the mobile device of the parents, along with the coordinates of the last place where the child was.

Games, applications, the ability to take pictures, all this - the functions of Doki Smart Watch . The watch is also equipped with a fitness tracker function, they show how active the child was during the day. All this is relevant in light of the fears of parents and doctors about children who are sitting at home in front of computers and do not go anywhere. Doki Smart Watch allows you to monitor the user's activity, the results of monitoring sees both the child and his parents. For children, the gadget can also be interesting because owners of watches can add each other as a friend.

We are familiar with almost all existing models of watches for children, so we can compare. General conclusion - Doki made a really high-quality product.

Lighting Systems - Nanoleaf Aurora

The modular lighting system Nanoleaf Aurora at the exhibition, we noticed immediately. By contemplation, Nanoleaf can be compared to a fireplace - you can look at it endlessly during work. It is universal: you can use it at home and in the office. Such panels can be placed anywhere, along the wall, on the ceiling or any other place. Such a system is called modular because it consists of a series of modules of a triangular shape. From these modules it is possible to form a complex of almost any complexity. Accordingly, it is possible to customize both the entire panel as a whole, and each module individually. You can make Nanoleaf panels change their color when you receive a message, a missed call, or a number of other events.

The range of settings is large. Soon the creators of Nanoleaf promise to add another setting that will synchronize the color change and music playback on your phone or tablet.

In general, we think this system is just great.

Portable Drone Category - Hover Camera Passport

At CES this year, the copters had a lot of different: large and small, portable and not very. As for portable devices, we really liked the selfie-drone Hover Camera Passport . Its charm is that the copter is very easy to operate. It is easy to start, difficult to damage, easy to manage.

It is designed so that the user can take pictures of himself or take pictures in motion (cycling, running, etc.). The device is equipped with 32 GB of internal memory, the main 13 MP camera that can record video in 4K quality, as well as an additional 3 MP camera.


Special mention deserve the propellers copter. They are enclosed in a carbon fiber “cage” that protects the device itself from damage, and people from wounds, in case something goes wrong. In fact, if you carelessly handle devices of this type represent a known danger, so the protection will not be superfluous. Well, the fact that the drone is added up, adds another plus point to its advantages. At Geektimes, we published a more extensive review of the Hover Camera Passport, here it is .

Camera category - Insta360 Nano and Pro

Insta360 Company presented several of its cameras at CES 2017. We really liked Insta360 Nano . It is a module for iPhone 6/7 smartphones. By connecting it to the phone with Lightning, the user turns his smartphone into a full-fledged spherical camera for shooting 360-degree photos and videos. You can work with the camera autonomously - for this there is a built-in battery with a capacity of 800 mAh. The battery life is about an hour. All data is written to the built-in microSD drive.

Excellent opportunity - support for broadcasting video to the network. Broadcasting works only when the camera is connected to the phone via a wireless Wi-Fi network. In general, very cool - from any event you can set up a broadcast, it will take no more than a couple of minutes.

Another camera, which was remembered - Insta360 Pro, which is aimed at professionals, and not at ordinary users (this is also indicated by the estimated price of the device - about $ 3000). At CES, the company showed only a prototype of the camera, and not the final version. But to judge its capabilities is quite possible. So, Insta360 Pro is a circular camera that can shoot video in 8K quality. The camera body is a ball with lenses placed around the circumference. Each of them is equipped with an F / 2.4 aperture for operation in low light conditions. When recording at 8K fps is 30, at 4K - 100. This is one of the first, if not the first, panoramic camera capable of shooting video in such quality.

It would be superfluous to say that Insta360 Pro can broadcast 360-degree video on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in real time. The device is equipped with wireless communication modules Wi-Fi and 4G. You can connect the system to the network using Ethernet.

Search tags

Here we liked several devices at once, so we will not give preference to any of them. In particular, I liked the label from Chipolo companies, the Orbit wallet and the Tracker label.

Chipolo produces the smallest search tags in the world. Two products of the company, Sticker and Clip, have become an addition to the existing line of trackers Chipolo Plus (“the loudest tracker in the world”) and Chipolo Classic . Such devices are intended for fixing on objects that the user needs to track (suitcase. Wallet, phone, etc.). The tracker supports communication with the user's mobile device. If the phone no longer picks up the radio signals of the tag, the user receives a notification indicating the coordinates where the lost item was at the time of the last “communication session”.

Usually, the batteries in such devices either need to be replaced after they are exhausted, or else the entire device needs to be replaced. Sticker is different: new Chipolo trackers have batteries that last about two weeks of work. This is not too much, but the company has added a new feature - charging through the air, Energous' WattUp technology.

This novelty allows the system to charge without any problems, and the same function distinguishes the device from its own kind.

As for Clip, this is a tracker with a body thickness of only 1.8 mm. It can be easily placed in your wallet or even in your passport. There is no rechargeable battery here, instead a non-removable battery is installed, which should be enough for a year of operation of the device.



Other search tags were introduced at CES 2017, and quite a lot. In particular, TrackR showed a new version of the TrackR wallet system . The thickness of this device is only 2 mm, and it is called “wallet” because it easily fits in any wallet. And there is the possibility of replacing the battery, as in almost any other device from TrackR. The tag is equipped with a Bluetooth communication module. The range of the gadget is 30 meters.

We liked the fact that there is support for Crowd GPS technology. It allows you to determine where and when your label found its "relatives". The tag application for the smartphone now works with the “cloud”, where impersonal information about all the tags that are present next to it is sent. It is easy to imagine a situation where a user has lost a thing that has remained outside the range of work available for the tag. But if another owner of the TrackR tag passed next to the lost item, his device will automatically send the information about the find to the common server, and this data will become available to the owner of the loss.

Crowd GPS is a great idea that allows you to go beyond the boundaries of the mentioned 30 meters.



HButler Orbit Wallet is a practical wallet that is equipped with a number of technological innovations. First of all, it is a battery for charging a smartphone. In fact, why not embed this necessary gadget into a wallet that is always with you? You can connect both iOS and Android devices to the 2500 mAh battery thanks to two charging cables.

Another interesting point - the presence of departments for plastic cards with protection against RFID-signals. Thanks to protection, it is impossible to read or duplicate information of documents or cards of the purse holder.

An additional feature is a built-in tracking tracker (radio tag) with Bluetooth support. If the wallet is forgotten somewhere, the branded application installed on the smartphone will show where the wallet was last located. When you click on the “Find Orbit” button in the application, the wallet starts to play a loud melody.

The same company also showed Orbit Card thin tags, which also easily fit into a wallet (bag, backpack, etc.) and track its location. If something goes wrong, a signal is given.

Bragi Headphone Portable Wireless Headset Category

Bragi Headphone is a simplified version of Bragi Dash without fitness features. The guys from Bragi realized that the abundance of functions that Bragi Dash could boast is superfluous, most users need ordinary high-quality wireless headphones. And the Bragi Headphone turned out to be the same - quality and relatively simple. With their help, you can listen to music, and you can talk on the phone by connecting to a smartphone wirelessly.

In general, these are universal wireless mini headphones that can be used by athletes, business people, ordinary users. Mount in the ear they have a reliable - headphones do not fall out when performing active actions (for example, in training).

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