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From driverless cars to the Samsung Galaxy S9: What we can expect from CES 2018
With the close of New Year's festivities comes the launch of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the biggest event in the tech calendar, showcasing the latest developments in robotics, smart homes, TVs, cars and smartphones.
CES is seen as a guide for some of the biggest upcoming tech trends, such as smart homes, self-driving cars and virtual reality.
For more than 50 years the annual event has revealed some of the biggest new consumer products and innovations. Held in Las Vegas, Nevada, the show runs over four days from Tuesday to Friday, although many tech companies reveal their new products to the media this weekend.
CES has seen unexpected successes over the years, such as the launch of Tetris in 1988, as well as big reveals such as the Xbox in 2000. However some big names, including Apple and several major smartphone makers, do not use CES to launch new products, preferring their own events.
When and where is it?
CES has been held in Las Vegas, Nevada, in its current format since 1998. This year the show runs from Tuesday January 9 to Friday January 12. The show lasts for four days for ordinary visitors, while media briefings and press conferences are held over Sunday to Monday.
What big trends can we expect to see?
Several companies have teased the kind of products we can expect to see come CES 2018.
In previous years major trends have included wearable technology, although after a difficult year for many fitness tracking companies this could change, while last year smart home tech dominated the show.
Over recent years CES has become more of a car show, with displays from the likes of Faraday Future and driverless car innovations on show. Plus every year brings a helping of sometimes exciting but mostly weird robotics.
Driverless cars and electric vehicles
This year punters at CES will have the opportunity to be some of the first people to catch a ride in an autonomous taxi. Uber arch-rival Lyft and newly-formed vehicle manufacturing group Aptiv will be bringing a ride-hailing service to Las Vegas, offering a point-to-point service in a driverless car. Guests will be able to book a ride to more than 20 destinations around the City and conference area.
Last year, Faraday Futures stole the show with its electric concept car, set to be fully debuted this year. However, Faraday has had a rocky end to 2017, with its new chief executive ordered to return to China over mounting debts at his companies.
Despite this, Faraday is set to launch its fully electric SUV, a so-called "Tesla killer", at this year's CES.
Meanwhile Nissan is also set to attend CES, debuting its "brain-to-vehicle" concept which will see cars connected to their driver to decode and predict their actions, according to Bloomberg.
TVs
New advances in TV sets are a regular at CES as the biggest electronics manufacturers unveil their line up of high-end models. So far, we have already seen Korean electronics giant LG report it is to bring an 88-inch 8K television to this year's event.
It's the sort of TV that will probably not make it into ordinary living rooms, given LG currently sells a 77-inch 4K TV for £12,000, but with 8K resolution this luxury TV will have a resolution of 7680 x 4320, or 33 million pixels.
Laptops and monitors
CES tends to be more of a conference for showing off the very latest innovations in design when it comes to laptops and PC technology, rather than launch much new tech. Last year, laptop and gaming tech maker Razer unveiled a prototype triple-screened laptop, wowing attendees. Unfortunately it attracted unwanted attention, with two of the laptops being stolen despite the tight security.
So far this year Samsung have announced they will be releasing a 34-inch QLED monitor screen which can be used to connect to devices including Apple Macs.
Smart home devices
Every year more smart home technology appears at CES, from infamous connected fridges which have been appearing to varying degrees of derision since the 1990s to the most advanced smart speakers. Google and Amazon will both have a presence at CES, mainly to show off their current wares from the Google Home and Amazon Alexa smart speakers.
Dozens of other smaller smart home suppliers with products from smart lights to smart locks will also be appearing to demo their gadgets.
Smartphones
Smartphones have in recent years not been given much love at CES, given that Mobile World Congress, the largest mobile phone showcase in the tech calendar, is held just weeks after.
Samsung recently announced its new mid-range Galaxy A8 and A8 Plus smartphones, so these could receive some attention. Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy S9 is slated to make a "cameo" at the event, according to VentureBeat, although an official launch event for the phone could be several months away.
Weird gadgets and plenty of robots
Every year there are plenty of bizarre gadgets making their debut at CES as well as dozens of robots. Last year robots such as the Kuri nanny robot and LG's Hub robot. This year Sony could show off its Aibo pet dog, which it announced last year, although it has only been available in Japan.
Robots often make for exciting headlines, although their uses have often been limited. Many of the robots in previous years have been little more than singing, dancing, Wi-Fi connected tablets with arms.
The Telegraph will be attending CES so check back for the latest coverage and analysis throughout the week.