Presenting the Best of CES 2018 winners!


Finally, after long hours of debating about which of our finalists should win our Best of CES awards this year, we've made our decisions. Below is our list of winners for each category, as well as Best of the Best and People's Choice. Congratulations to all winners and finalists!

Best Accessibility Tech: Xenoma e-skin pajamas

Accessibility has become a major theme at CES, and it's one of the harder categories to judge because of all the potentially life-changing tech on the floor. But Xenoma's e-skin pajamas took the prize this year thanks to its innovative fabric sensors that can stand up to the abuse of a washing machine and don't need any sort of liquid or gel to keep conductivity with your skin. -- Terrence O'Brien, Managing Editor

Best Startup: Black Box VR

Black Box VR is building the gym of the future. Using the HTC Vive, motion-tracking controllers and specially designed workout equipment, Black Box turns exercise into a video game. The plan is to set up a boutique gym in San Francisco this year, where members can strap into a game, work out and attempt to land on the local leaderboards. This is just the beginning of the VR fitness market. -- Jessica Conditt, Senior Reporter

Best Digital Health and Fitness Product: L'Oreal UV Sense

The smaller a device is, the more wearable it becomes, and that's one of the reasons that L'Oreal's UV Sense is so intriguing. It's a UV sensor no bigger than a thumbnail that tells you, via your smartphone, how much sun exposure you've received each day. The benefits are twofold: Not only could this help prevent skin cancer, it's also a key step on a micro-wearable computing journey that could revolutionize the world. -- Dan Cooper, Senior Editor

Best Wearable: L'Oreal UV Sense

For a while, the phrase "wearable" was primarily synonymous with "fitness tracker you probably wear on your wrist." L'Oreal's tiny UV Sense tracker shows just how much the definition of wearable has changed, while also providing a very concrete, specific benefit. The tiny sensor requires no battery; it just attaches to your fingernail and tracks UV exposure -- the data are picked up by your phone. Hopefully, this is a precursor to other minimally-invasive health trackers we'll see in the future. -- Dan Cooper, Senior Editor

Best Transportation Technology: Toyota e-Palette

The automotive world is flooded with the word mobility. It's become shorthand for ride-hailing and car sharing. Toyota saw mobility and decided that in addition to getting people around, it's important to transport their goods and their small business. The e-Palette is a vehicle that resembles a train car, but more than that, it's an opportunity for businesses big and small to take retail and delivery to the next level. It can be a taxi, food truck, flower mart, delivery truck, office or even a place to sleep. It's a blank slate on wheels, and in this quickly changing world, that might be exactly what we need. -- Roberto Baldwin, Senior Editor

Best Home-Theater Product: Optoma 4K Alexa Projector

Why don't you already have a projector? Thanks to recent advances in DLP tech, we're running out of excuses for sticking with smallish TVs. The Optoma HD51A combines quality and convenience -- courtesy of its new link to Alexa voice commands -- with a price that will fit many home-theater budgets. -- Richard Lawler, Senior News Editor

Best Connected-Home Product: Lenovo Smart Display

At a show full of connected fridges and smart appliances, it's the Lenovo Smart Display that gets the prize for Best Connected Home. It's one of the first smart displays in the Google ecosystem and it's -- at this point, anyway -- definitely the best. Its stellar Google Assistant implementation combined with great design makes this everything we wish the Echo Show was, and more. -- Nicole Lee, Senior Editor

Best Innovation (Disruptive Tech): Toyota e-Palette

If Toyota has its way, in the not-so-distant future your favorite retail store or restaurant will come to you. The potential for the e-Palette to bring an autonomous vehicle that can not only change the delivery market, but bring an entire small shop to you, is pretty insane. Ditto for a food truck or ride-sharing service. There are a lot of uses for this vehicle, all of which take us further into our self-driving future. And with e-Palette, Toyota shows how technology can affect not only cars, trucks or buses but business as a whole. -- Billy Steele, Senior News Editor

Best Phone or Mobile Device: Lenovo Miix 630

This Windows 10 2-in-1 may seem like an odd choice, but it fits the bill because of what's inside it: a Snapdragon 835 chipset, just like the one in your phone. As a result, the Lenovo Miix 630 is incredibly fast to wake up, and its battery can withstand as many as 20 hours of use on a single charge. Throw in an excellent keyboard and the ability to add a SIM card inside for on-the-go data and we just might have the perfect machine for road warriors -- Chris Velazco, Senior Mobile Editor

Best TV Product: LG 2018 C-Series OLED

LG's next OLED TVs are even smarter and better-looking than before. The C8-series, the step above the entry-level B8, sports the company's fast new A9 processor, which is put to good use powering the newly added Google Assistant. LG's own tech isn't going anywhere; instead, it's now working together with Google to deliver a complete TV experience. -- Devindra Hardawar, Senior Editor

Best Gaming Product: HTC Vive Pro

HTC is already a leader of the PC VR world with the Vive, and its latest headset upgrades the original model in a few crucial ways. The HTC Vive Pro adds integrated 3D audio, a more comfortable head strap, dual front-facing cameras, two mics and beefed-up resolution -- 2,880 x 1,600 combined and 615 pixels per inch. The Vive Pro is a slight but welcome update that keeps the VR industry moving in the right direction. -- Jessica Conditt, Senior Reporter

Best Unexpected Product: My Special Aflac Duck

A corporate cuddly toy isn't typical fare for the Best of CES, but Aflac's Special Duck certainly deserved a place. Designed to support children diagnosed with cancer, it has features like a port-a-cath with an RFID chip for children to familiarize themselves with chemotherapy treatment, as well as emoji cards which allow the duck to express the child's emotions for them. It's also cute, fluffy and cuddly. Aflac has plans to get the toy to all children diagnosed with cancer in the US, free of charge. It's hard to argue with that plan. -- Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief

Best Sports Tech: Prevention Biometrics Head Impact Monitor System (HIMS)

Prevent Biometrics' mouthguard combines advanced sensors with connectivity that could improve and save the lives of athletes. When a severe collision is detected, medical staff on the sidelines are alerted immediately, offering the best chance of a proper response to injury. With long-running controversy concerning concussions in football and other competitive sports, it's sports tech with significance. -- Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief

Best PC or Tablet: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

Not content with an incremental update to its popular Thinkpad X1 line of flagship laptops this year, Lenovo added meaningful improvements like a built-in privacy shutter and twin far-field mics for excellent voice control from a distance. Add a sumptuous Dolby Vision HDR display, a comfortable keyboard, embedded eSIM and Alexa support incoming, and the Thinkpad X1 Carbon is a well-rounded laptop that bundles the best tech of 2018. -- Cherlynn Low, Senior Reviews Editor

Best Robot or Drone: Sony AIBO

Sony's adorable robot dog is back. This time, AIBO is more intelligent, connected and agile. As well as being a pettable companion, it has an onboard camera allows it to act as an adorably mobile webcam. Its OLED eyes are extremely expressive, and its WiFi and LTE connectivity allow it to function on the move. It's a true return to form for perhaps the most popular consumer robot ever. -- Aaron Souppouris, Features Editor

Best Vision of the Future (Smart City): Wi-Fiber Intelli-Platform Integrated Streetlights

We want our cities to be smart, but often the cost of accomplishing such a feat would be eye-watering even for the most-flush of folks. Consequently, companies are looking for ways to bolt on smart-city equipment to existing infrastructure. Wi-Fiber has built a lamppost head that contains security cameras, IoT and municipal WiFi equipment within its slender body. It even gives basic street lighting an upgrade, offering the ability to change color or flash to direct emergency services straight to where the crisis is. -- Dan Cooper, Senior Editor

Best of the Best: Toyota e-Palette

Technology is supposed to open up new opportunities. But sometimes it keeps us in a well-defined box based on a company's profit plan. At CES, Toyota introduced its own sort of box, the e-Palette. The rolling rectangle will be whatever the owners dream up. A delivery van, a mobile retail space, an office, maybe even the most obvious, a food truck. Available in different sizes and open to whatever its owner can come up with, Toyota's concept represents opportunity to large corporations. But more important, to small businesses. -- Roberto Baldwin, Senior Editor

People's Choice Winner: Dell x Nikki Reed Circular Collection Jewelry

Nearly 29,000 people voted in our People's Choice poll, and after 24 hours, there was a clear, undisputed winner. With over 30 percent of the vote (for context: second place only received 9 percent of the vote), the winner of our People's Choice award this year is the Dell x Nikki Reed Circular Collection Jewelry. It turns out that thousands of people were big fans of Dell and Nikki Reed's collaboration to recycle expired computer parts and make them into rings and earrings. Congratulations! -- Nicole Lee, Senior Editor

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

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