Our BIG Show Highlights of 2017 CES #CES2017

Concept Cars and Virtual Reality ruled 2017 CES. Dragons from the east and the west arise to level the playing field.

www.wheelsandheelsmag.com / Py Pai

CES is synonymous to present and future gadget galore in the tech industry. It's the biggest in the consumer products of all things with an electrical plug or powered by batteries.

What's the newest trend in 2017? Well, pretty you can follow the money and find out where it is spent, and you will find the X marks. This year, there is a lot of pre-hype about self driving cars and electrical vehicles. For sure, we found a lot of spaces were dedicated just to this segment of hot topics.

Concept Cars and Mobility Products in 2017 CES

The funny thing is, the technology for once has not caught up to the hype yet. So there were a lot of concept cars spotlighted in various car manufacturers' floor space. From the VW's I.D., to Honda's NEU-V, as well as LeEco's sculptural interior concept, to Panasonic concept interior and many more.

These are sleek in appearance, and function as a model, and inspire as a Marvel comic series. Most of them are presented as functional concept cars. We would love to see them driving on the I-15 freeway backdropped by the desert and mountains...

Last year we saw a crude prototype of 3D printed car frames. It was a good concept in 3D printing and car making. However, it was just rough on the edge and lacked the grace of a finished product.

This year, we saw the totally different display. The beautiful curves of chassis frames, exotic colors on the outside, as well as intricate and 3D printing signature looks of grills and intakes. Now this is the adult version of a polished product, not an adolescent garage proof of concept.

Of course, many car manufacturing companies and car audio companies must put their signature show cars on display. They are indeed eye feasts.

Our Cover Models and Feature Models at CES

We have to say that this year's CES is unlike any other years that we have covered. The amount of model at the show was minuscule. They were few and sparse and you have to find them with eagle eyes and background intelligence. Nonetheless, we still managed to bring quite a few awesome models into the coverage.

Arley Eliizabheth for Chic Technologies.

Ashley Twomey for Hyundai

Veronika Skylee for Hyundai

Mobility Gadgets and Products

Mobility is totally an exploding subject in this year's CES. It's like the urban lifestyle is coming back to the big time. Everybody seems to need to get to one city block to the next not by foot as much as possible.

Segway has the new product ONE as their monwheel mobility equipment, while the original hoverboard inventor CHIC technologies, brought their real famously patented products to the show floor. Foldable bicycle is definitely a trend in CES. They were everywhere. Either in front of the registration tent, or on the vast show floors, or people just brought in to show off their works outside the convention center. You can tell some are made with quality and some with quick assembly and some are just flooding the market.

And certainly we have to bring your attention to this gigantic showcase mobile monster.

We are still on drones?

Interestingly, just in one year, drones have become a yesteryear's favorite. So much invested and so soon they are already an old product category. Obviously, flying from 0 to top of the hall was quick, but the swam of copy cats followed like a chasing flying squadron right behind. The flooded market last year has made few survivors and also made the drone technologies mature much quicker than one would like.

One interesting spotlight is when we heard the Star Wars music playing afar, we said, no way. But way! Star Wars franchise has brought a series of products that outfit their iconic T-65 X-WING fighter, TIE Advanced fighter, as well as 74-Z Speeder Bike with propellers. Now they are perfect holiday presents, like the Valentine's day that is coming up.

We love the Germany designed glide plane by Toby with a propeller, and BT controlled. The joysticks is a pair of rubber buttons stick to the screen and off you can fly the little plane around in the room.

VR and More Gadgets

VR was everywhere in CES, from the main floor to the start ups. This is definitely the it-technology in this year's CES. Samsung has bought a major space in the central connecting corridor area where estimated 90% of the CES attendees would pass through... They had theater seating around the wall to showcase their VR wares. Also they brought in the 360 rotating capsule to let the attendees to experience the flying in the air and traveling in space highs. Everybody stepped out of the theater would applaud for the great memories that they will bring back to home.