CES 2020: 5 crazy expensive pieces of tech nobody needs but everybody wants

By Daniel Bader
published

(Image credit: iMore)

Charmin Rollbot

Source: Android Central (Image credit: Source: Android Central)

CES is the place of tech dreams, where spectacle is paramount and the price of products is often out of the public's reach. From massive 8K TVs to waterproof drones to AI-powered washing machines to... Alexa-powered Lamborghinis, there was an out-of-reach product for everyone at the show.

With over 4,500 exhibitors showing off hundreds of thousands of products, we're rounding up some of the more garish and aspirational products we saw at CES 2020.

Lamborghini Huracan Evo with Amazon Alexa

  • Availability: Now, at select Lamborghini dealers
  • Price: $267,000+
  • Cheaper alternatives: Literally anything else?
  • More info here

Coming in at over $300,000 for most models, the new 2020 Lamborghini Huracan Evo is likely the most expensive Alexa speaker ever made (unless you count the diamond-encrusted Echo Dot I'm sure someone received for Christmas this year).

Alexa integration in a car is nothing new — it's possible through the company's dismally-inefficient Echo Auto or many third-party accessories — but Lamborghini's integration is a bit more full-featured. Through a software update, drivers will be able to call and text friends, of course, but also change heating or air conditioning temperature, activate drivetrain features, and even recoil the moonroof.

I'll be honest: I've never had a great experience talking with Google Assistant, Siri or Alexa in the car, and that's unlikely to change, even with tighter integration in this one. But if I were driving a Lamborghini Huracan, using Alexa would probably be the furthest thing from my mind.

Happy driving!

Samsung Q950TS 8K TV (2020)

It wouldn't be CES without outrageous televisions, and Samsung's new Q950TS is an 8K television with 99% screen to body ratio, the highest in the industry. At 15mm thin, it would seem impossible to include speakers directly on the thing, but Samsung's managed to add tweeters and a subwoofer, imitating 5.1 surround sound.

Now, no one actually needs an 8K television just yet, especially since there's a dearth of content available to watch on it (outside of the occasional RED-recorded YouTube video), but the Q950 benefits from Samsung's latest processing advancements, too, including 8K upscaling of 1080p and 4K content, instant phone mirroring and casting from a Samsung device, as well as improved Bixby assistant integration, if you're into that sort of thing.

The Q950 doesn't have a price just yet, but you can expect it to debut at around $4,000 when it goes on sale in a few months.

BrainRobotics Artificially Intelligent EMG Prosthetic Hand

  • Availability: Mid-2020
  • Price: ~$10,000
  • Cheaper alternatives: None
  • More info here

While medical technology breakthroughs are often overlooked because they aren't consumer-facing, BrainCo's AI-powered EMG Prosthetic Hand is incredible for its ability to provide amputees the ability to manipulate objects with a precision and granularity that has heretofore been impossible.

The machine takes advantage of a user's brain waves to manipulate the muscles in the upper arm of the amputee, turning those into precise motions that can control fingers individually. This used to be the stuff of science fiction, but BrainRobotics has managed to create a product that, at around $10,000 not only significantly cheaper than the average prosthetic, but much more functional.

LG OLED TV R9

LG OLED TV R9

Source: LG (Image credit: Source: LG)
  • Availability: Coming soon
  • Price: $60,000
  • Cheaper alternatives: Any LG OLED TV
  • More info here

This one's kind of cheating, since it actually debuted at CES 2019, but LG's 65-inch roll-up OLED television is scheduled to ship in 2020. And even though it's a year late, it still costs $60,000.

The good news is that it's been updated with all of the same guts as its cheaper, non-rolling LG OLED TV counterparts, including a faster processor, better imaging, and far-field microphones with built-in Alexa or Google Assistant.

See more

The craziest part? The cloth-covered housing doubles as a Dolby-powered soundbar, and there's a "line view" where the TV only rolls up a few inches to reveal part of the screen for music playback.

Charmin Rollbot

  • Availability: Hopefully never
  • Price: Priceless
  • Cheaper alternatives: Your significant other
  • More info here

You may have heard the term "shitty robot" before, but the Charmin Rollbot takes the term to a whole new level.

It's a small delivery robot that appears, via two small wheels and a bear-faced display, with an emergency roll of toilet paper whenever you need it.

Obviously a marketing ploy more than an actual product, Rollbot is possibly the cutest and most helpful of the delivery robots we saw at CES, and another example of how innovation is always the number one priority — when it comes to number two.

That's it from us at CES 2020. Thanks so much for following along with all of our news, editorials, and videos. Let us know what you liked best from the show, and perhaps what you'd want to see at CES 2021. It's only 362 days away!

Daniel Bader
Daniel Bader

Daniel Bader is a Senior Editor at iMore, offering his Canadian analysis on Apple and its awesome products. In addition to writing and producing, Daniel regularly appears on Canadian networks CBC and CTV as a technology analyst.