What to expect at CES 2020: 5G phones, 4K HDR TVs and HDMI 2.1, foldable and dual-screen laptops, gaming CPUs, smart home devices, game consoles, and more
CES will have a lot of little companies taking big swings — In 2020, this is what to expect in the world of consumer tech …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is one installment of a preview series that has run every January since at least the 2018 edition, and its value is in what carries over year to year. Foldables and 5G phones were already the headline bets in last year's CES 2019 preview; their return on this list signals those categories moved from concept demos to shipping products in a single cycle.
First-order effects
- Vendors showing 5G phones, foldable and dual-screen laptops, and HDMI 2.1 TVs at CES are committing to 2019's experimental categories as real product lines, with retail availability and pricing pressure following the show floor.
Second-order effects
- Once foldable and dual-screen laptop designs appear from multiple makers, every major PC vendor faces pressure to field a competing form factor rather than cede the premium segment, repeating the pattern that turned last year's foldable demos into this year's announcements.
Third-order effects
- If the recurrence holds — smart home devices appearing in the 2018, 2023, and 2025 previews, and AI integrations leading the 2026 list — CES functions less as a debut venue than as an annual synchronization point where the whole industry aligns on which categories get consumer attention that year.
The trend: CES has settled into a rhythm where each year's speculative demos become the next year's product announcements, with connectivity (5G), display form factors (foldables), and most recently AI marking the successive waves.