The Tech Wrangler is a bi-weekly column in which Forbes Vetted Senior Editor Dave Johnson explores the best values in consumer tech. These are not necessarily the least expensive products in their class, but represent the crossroad of price and performance—in other words, money well spent.
This week saw the conclusion of CES 2022—the annual Consumer Electronics Show, chock full of the hottest new tech for home, entertainment, automotive and a hundred other categories. Not all journalists appreciate the show, but I love to attend, always on the lookout to be among the first to discover hidden and unexpected gems. Of course, it’s a lot easier to find weird and outright misguided or terrible products, like the robot back massager I tried out in 2018 or the voice command software that—true story—I watched the designer literally get into an argument with in 2012. This year is no different, and I’ve found a few products worth calling out.
This week I decided to highlight three products from the show—innovations I consider the best, the worst and the craziest from this year’s CES. And because you can’t buy any of them quite yet even if you wanted to, I will contrast them with available versions of that tech you can get right now. So join me on a slightly unusual tour of CES 2022.
The Worst Idea From CES
Masonite’s Smart Door Has A Smart Doorbell and Smart Lock Built In
I can sort of understand where Masonite is coming from here; its M-Pwr Smart Door is a powered, networked and connected smart door that has a Ring Video Doorbell, Yale Home smart lock, LED lighting, battery backup and more built right in. The product designers at Masonite probably said something like “everyone’s buying smart home gadgets, so let’s build all that stuff into a door and sell a single smart door that does it all!”
Unfortunately, this doesn’t quite land. What happens if one of those components fails? Now you have to fix, service or replace a door rather than a smart doorbell that’s bolted to the wall on your porch. How easy will it be to service all the electronics packed into that door? Especially since it has elements that will degrade over time, like the backup battery. And what if I don’t happen to like Yale’s smart lock? Now a door manufacturer is deciding what smart home products I get based on the corporate partnerships it establishes. It seems limiting; I’d rather choose my smart home tech a la carte, thank you.
What You Can Buy Right Now
The Latest Ring Doorbell Costs Just $100
Masonite did make one smart choice: The brand is partnering with Ring to include a Ring Video Doorbell in the doorframe. Well, you don’t have to wait for the M-Pwr to hit the streets; the latest Ring costs just $100 and is available right now. I’ve owned a ring and installed it myself, so I can assure you it’s easy to get up and running. This model has 1080p video recording, two-way audio and is highly customizable so you don’t get a lot of false alerts from people and animals crossing the motion sensors.
The August Smart Lock Retrofits Over Almost Any Existing Door
This sits on my front door right now, in fact. I love the August lock; it installs in a matter of minutes, and you don’t need to remove or replace your existing deadbolt, so you can still use your existing physical keys if you like (though I can’t imagine why) and it’s just as good for renters as it is for homeowners. I love the fact that you can program your August lock to automatically unlock the front door as you approach, so you never even need to pull your phone out of your pocket when you arrive home.
The Best Idea From CES
Roborock’s New Vacuum Trumps All Other Vacuums For Convenience
If you read this Tech Wrangler column, you might already know that I am a big fan of Roborock—in my opinion, they beat iRobot’s better-known Roomba at its own game. Well, the new S7 MaxV Ultra isn’t just a vacuum with a clumsy name; it’s the most promising robot vacuum I’ve ever seen. It does double duty as a vacuum and mop, and unlike most vacuums which struggle with mop usability, this one actually retracts the mop up into the chassis when it encounters a rug, allowing it to mop and vacuum at the same time without any traditional compromises.
That’s not all; the self-empty dock also cleans the mop pad and refiulls the water from a large reservoir. That’s the hat trick of combo vacuums, and means this vacuum is truly hands-off for weeks at a time. There’s more here, like a built-in camera and two-way audio, letting you use the vacuum like a roving family intercom. But the bottom line is that this robot vacuum may have set a new standard for smart home cleaning. I can’t wait to get my hands on one to test it out and see how it works in real life.
What You Can Buy Right Now
The Roborock S7 Plus Is Last Year’s Version of the MaxV Ultra
Until the MaxV Ultra came along at CES this year, the Roborock S7+ was the state of the art in robot vacuums. It’s a combo vacuum and mop with its own self-emptying dock that works great on both hard floors and carpet with an automatic power setting that increases suction as needed. It has LiDAR sensors for navigation and can intelligently map and route itself around obstacles.
Using the mobile app, it can make maps of multiple floors in your home which you can easily mark with no-go zones to avoid areas you don’t want it to enter. And thanks to a water tank and mop pad attachment, it can both vacuum and mop your floors for you. The only downside? Now that I know the S7 MaxV Ultra exists, the idea of cleaning the mop pad and refilling the water reservoir myself is a lot less appealing. On the other hand, it’s available for purchase right now, and it’s a few hundred dollars cheaper.
The Craziest Idea From CES
Asus Has Unveiled a 17-Inch Laptop That Folds Like Sci-Fi
This is crazy, but in a good way. I’ve said for years—decades, in fact—that eventually we’ll be able to fold up our technology, slipping the equivalent of a laptop into our pocket thanks to nanotechnology. Well, it’s sort of here, at least in a very rudimentary way, thanks to flexible displays. Asus is releasing a 17-inch OLED display with a fully integrated PC that is sort of like a tablet, in that it features one enormous 2560 x 1920-pixel touch screen. You can unfold it and stand it up like a monitor, pairing it with a separate wireless keyboard, or bend it and use the lower half flat on the tabletop with a virtual on-screen keyboard. Or fold it completely and it slims down to just 12.5 inches for transport or storage.
It’s a peek at the future; it’s crazy; it’s decadent; it’s amazing and the sort of thing the total tech geek in me desperately wants. What will it cost when it comes out mid-year? Hard to say, but it won’t be super cheap.
What You Can Buy Right Now
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3 Got The Folding Screen Party Started
Samsung has been dabbling in the folding-screen space for a while now, and the Galaxy Z Fold 3 that the brand released in 2021 is a stunning achievement; it’s finally sturdy enough for regular use (the first gen in particular had a problematic hinge), is gorgeous with a huge tablet-sized 7.6-inch display, and even a second screen that makes the phone thoroughly usable when it’s folded up.
There’s something magical about unfolding a narrow phone into a small tablet, and Samsung really thought through how you might use this day-to-day, with app continuity that moves apps from the outer screen to the inner one when opened, along with desktop connectivity and a snazzy camera system as well. Is it the best phone ever made? No, not in all areas, but it’s good enough that I occasionally consider abandoning iOS to switch. Want to know more? Read the full Forbes Vetted review of the Galaxy Z Fold 3. You may agree with me that you don’t need to wait for Asus to release its folding laptop, because Samsung already sells an amazing folding phone.
What do you think? Tell me if you agree with my opinion, and what other essential tech I should write about by nudging me on Twitter at @davejoh.
