Tom's Hardware's CES 2016 Top Picks

We've seen just about all we can see at CES 2016, even if we could see it all. We had to dodge robots and duck under drones, we had to ignore the "smart everything" (although we did see some really smart refrigerators... or as one person put it: a fridge too far). Among all of that were some gems.

As always, many of you will disagree with our choices for top picks from CES 2016, or wonder why oh why we're fascinated by some of them. Often we have no grand explanation, other than we were simply struck by something that stood out in the sea of sameness that CES can be.

The typical caveats apply: we didn't test these products. We did ask serious questions about them, or get demonstrations of them. Now, onto our picks.

MORE: News From CES 2016

ASRock's Mini-STX Motherboard And Mini-PC

ASRock's upcoming mini-STX motherboard and PC gives users the ability to build their own SFF system. Smaller than mini-ITX, the new mini-STX form factor is designed to be approximately 5x5 inches in size. The motherboard uses a desktop H110 chipset and an LGA1151 socket, allowing you to install any desktop CPU with a TDP of 65 W. The case is only about 3.1-inches tall, but there is still sufficient space to fit the standard CPU cooler that Intel supplies with every desktop CPU.

Although at this time we have seen only one motherboard and two cases that use this form factor, as more mini-STX products are produced, users will soon have a wide variety of new components that can be used to build customized SFF sized mini-PCs.

MORE: ASRock To Deliver Mini-PC Using Intel's New STX Form Factor
MORE: All Systems News From CES

OCZ Storage Solutions RevoDrive 400 1 TB

OCZ's new RevoDrive 400 is the first performance-focused M.2 SSD to reach the 1 TB capacity size that power users and gamers demand. When demonstrated at CES 2016, the drive achieved nearly 2,700 MB/s sequential read and 1,600 MB/s sequential write speeds.

OCZ told us that the new NVMe 1.1b product, the first from the company, will be cost competitive with other NVMe products on the market today, while achieving a capacity size lead in the M.2 form factor class. Users will experience higher frame rates and lower game load times by choosing the RevoDrive 400 as a drop-in performance increasing replacement to existing hard disk drives. OCZ expects the drive to ship early in 2016.

MORE: OCZ Preps Second-Gen TLC, First NVMe SSDs For 2016
MORE: All Storage News From CES

Linksys WUSB6100M

MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) technology has taken the consumer networking market by storm, and rightly so. With the direction home network usage is headed, MU-MIMO is a much needed technology. Thus our networking award was focused on what we found to be the most compelling MU-MIMO product.

We saw a flurry of new MU-MIMO products released here at CES, but our award this year doesn't go to a fancy new router with a hundred bands and exorbitant speeds. Instead, it goes to the Linksys WUSB6100M, a simple AC600 USB MU-MIMO adapter.

Sure enough, potential customers looking to upgrade their home network with a MU-MIMO setup will want to get their hands on an enabled router as soon as possible. Little do they know, the devices connecting to their network (desktops, laptops, tablets, etc.) must be compatible with MU-MIMO to receive its benefits.

The WUSB6100M solves this issue, provided these devices have a USB port it can plug into. At $59.99, this dongle will allow users to upgrade to a MU-MIMO router without having to upgrade all of their wireless devices along with it.

MORE: Linksys Teases New MU-MIMO Products At CES 2016
MORE: All Networking News From CES

HTC Vive Pre

Although the updates to the new HTC Vive Pre developer kit could be seen as more evolutionary than revolutionary, the Vive was already arguably the best VR solution available. That makes the improvements just icing on the cake. But still, the brighter displays, with their new Mura correction technology, are far and away the best-looking we've seen on any platform. And content that we had already experienced on the original Vive developer kit simply looks significantly better.

What we've been told is that the big breakthrough, the enhanced "Tron Mode" chaperone system, doesn't seem like a big deal on the surface, but it really is. It improves the Vive's room-scale VR safety net, instilling in you the confidence to feel free to completely explore the virtual space with no fear.

This subconsciously and significantly improves presence. Other improvements like the better controllers and easier-to-set-up lighthouse base stations further improve the package. In fact, if this wasn't labeled a developer kit, we would think HTC and Valve would have no problem selling it today.

MORE: The Vive Pre, HTC’s New VR Developer Kit: First Look
MORE: All Virtual Reality News From CES

Huawei Mate 8

If you asked us a year ago who were the top smartphone OEMs, it's unlikely that we would have included Huawei on that list. But after being pleasantly surprised by the Nexus 6P, one of our favorite smartphones from 2015, we were eagerly waiting to see what would come next from the Chinese OEM.

The new 6-inch Mate 8 was announced this week at CES, and we were lucky enough to get one prior to the launch. Although we're a little iffy on Huawei's EMUI UI that runs on top of Marshmallow, every other aspect of the phone is superlative. It is an incredibly well-crafted device with a beautiful high-contrast 6-inch display, all in a body no bigger than other 5.7-inch devices thanks to its super-thin bezels.

It's also the most powerful Android phone we've tested, and it has outstanding battery life. The camera is excellent, utilizing a brand-new Sony image sensor. The only problem is that it isn't officially available in North America -- however, if you want one, you can order it online and import it over.

MORE: Huawei's Mate 8 6-inch Phablet Hands On
MORE: All Smartphones News From CES

In Win's H-Frame 2.0

In Win's H-Frame 2.0 chassis will retail for a heavy price of $799, but it easily translates to one of the best-looking cases on the CES show floor.

The front of the case has three USB 3.0 slots and one USB 3.1 Type-C. For cooling, it can have three 120 mm fans at the top and one 120 mm fan in the rear. For water cooling, you can place up to a 360 mm radiator at the top, and the CPU heat sink can be up to 185 mm in height.

Aside from the tempered-glass windows, the massive case also features orange LED lighting along with a lighting controller. In fact, the case is so unique that In Win created a special 1065 W PSU that fits the case. However, the spec sheet said you can use an ATX12V and EPS12V PSU as long as it's at or below 210 mm. The PSU also has orange LED lighting for its interior, along with a small window so you can look at its innards. It also has a slider to control fan activity in various scenarios. For example, you can set the fan to continue spinning while the PC is off, or give it a short delay before it begins spinning.

Just like some of its other high-end showpiece cases, In Win's H-Frame 2.0 will have a limited run, with only 500 cases available.

MORE: All Cases News From CES

Kingston E1000 NVMe Enterprise SSD

The Kingston E1000 AIC (Add In Card) melds four NVMe M.2 SSDs into a single AIC form factor card, which in turn provides dedicated power loss protection for each of the underlying SSDs. This allows users to reap the rewards of client SSD pricing while enjoying one of the key features of enterprise-class SSDs. Kingston developed the solution with IP from Liqid, a company that is still operating in stealth mode.

The Kingston E1000 AIC supports up to 8 TB of storage per card while providing up to 1.25 million IOPS of 4K random read performance and sequential throughput of 6 GBps. The E1000 also features heat sinks that provide additional cooling for the M.2 SSDs, which is an important consideration in demanding server environments. Kingston displayed a high performance flash array powered by six E1000's at CES with up to 3.25 million IOPS and 12.5 GBps of sequential throughput.

MORE: Kingston Unveils E1000 NVMe Enterprise SSD At CES 2016
MORE: All Enterprise Storage News From CES

Dell UltraSharp 30 Ultra HD 4K OLED Monitor

When we first looked at Dell's new top-of-the-range monitor, we couldn't believe its price tag of $5,000. But after spending a little more time with it at CES, we say to heck with the price. Yes, it's ridiculously expensive, especially when you compare it to even the highest-end 4K LCD monitor, but pricing is all relative.

The professional-grade Sony BVM-X300 30-inch 4K monitor is around $20,000, so the Dell UltraSharp 30 is a steal at $5,000 comparatively. Its OLED display is gorgeous and it has the best picture of any computer display we've ever laid our eyes on, with stunning inky blacks and colors that pop off OLED. It also has super thin bezels, a slim design, and uses USB Type-C for both power and video signals. Right now, it is the ultimate monitor, and if you can afford one, it should be on your desk.

MORE: Dell Introduces World's First 30-inch OLED Monitor
MORE: All Monitors News From CES

Virtuix Omni VR Treadmill

The Virtuix Omni is a new kind of peripheral called an omni-directional treadmill. It works in conjunction with a virtual reality HMD and allows you to run around in the virtual world, making it the perfect option for first person shooters in VR.

To use the hardware, you have to strap yourself into a harness similar to the type you would use for climbing. That harness is attached to the Omni on a swivel that will let you rotate in 360 degrees. The base of the unit is concave and made of hard plastic, so when you wear the special shoes for it, you can walk in place with very little friction.

Your steps are tracked by sensors that are placed on top of the shoes, and your body movement is tracked by the headset gyros and tracking sensors. Virtuix has also partnered with Vive and will support Lighthouse tracking for peripherals such as rifles or handguns.

"Active VR" is the term that Virtuix has coined to describe the experience, and we agree that it's an apt description.

MORE: Tom's Hardware Tries The Virtuix Omni VR Treadmill
MORE: All Peripherals News From CES

CyberpowerPC's ProStreamer Series Gaming Desktops

Streaming and eSports are some of the fastest-growing market segments in the industry today, and CyberpowerPC has created a solution for amateur and pro streamers that can help save enthusiasts money by putting your gaming PC and streaming rig into one chassis.

The ProStreamer Series systems can house a micro ATX and a mini-ITX motherboard, with the mini-ITX acting as a streaming system. The mini-ITX boards can be equipped with 6th generation (Skylake) Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processors and 8 GB of memory, and they use an Avermedia Live Gamer HD capture card. The dedicated system takes the encoding load off of the main rig (micro ATX system) and provides streamers with a dedicated streaming PC with as little or as much host processing power as you desire.

CyberpowerPC said that streaming rigs don't require huge graphics horsepower -- we were told that all that's really needed is a decent host processor, and therefore the mini-ITX board does not come equipped with a graphics card. Instead, it houses the Avermedia capture card. By combining two systems with dedicated purposes into one case, you can save some money on an additional PSU, liquid cooler and a chassis.

For anyone that streams on any level, CyberpowerPC is currently offering a one-of-a-kind solution that, despite its outlandish concept, should be practical for its intended use.

MORE: All Gaming News From CES
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QNAP TBS-453A

For the last few months, several NAS manufacturers have entered the home router market, but only QNAP has combined a private network router with a NAS and home theater PC technology. The new trifecta device is the TBS-453A, and it's about the same size as a netbook.

The system has up to 8 GB of system DRAM, four SATA m.2 SSD slots, a local WAN and four LAN ports. Those combined features would be an excellent start to a network attached storage device that doubles as the network, but the TBS-453A goes a step further by adding dual HDMI outputs, four USB 3.0 ports, audio ports and a card reader.

The HDMI ports allow for local display support (home theater PC with KODI or other supported software) and real-time 4K H.264 video transcoding to other network attached devices. The system will remain responsive thanks to a highly optimized Intel Braswell SoC processor that consumes very little power.

Regardless of how you use the device, it's small enough to fit in any location, or you can opt to take it on the road as a traveling all-in-one device that can double as a PC.

MORE: All Storage News From CES

PowerVR Wizard

From a company known for solid but not exactly flashy mobile graphics solutions, the PowerVR Wizard from Imagination looks to be something new. It's a PCI card, built with a specialized ray tracing processor. It's a low-powered, 10 watt card with passive cooling, but in a head-to-head demo, it rendered a scene five times faster than an Nvidia GeForce 980 Ti. Now, the test was undeniably set up in Imagination's favor, but we always love to see David take a shot at Goliath.

In addition to the head-to-head, we also got to see the four PowerVR Wizards running in tandem to render a flythrough of a scene. The rendering was done in Unity, which has worked with Imagination Technologies (maker of the PowerVR) to implement ray tracing in its APIs. The scene had more than 300 million light rays being rendered simultaneously, but the four little cards kept up an admirable 30 fps at 1080p.

MORE: Imagination Demos Realtime Ray Tracing
MORE: All Graphics News From CES

Razer Blade Stealth Ultrabook And Razer Core GPU Dock

You could argue that Razer swiped the idea of using a laptop paired with an external GPU dock from MSI and Alienware. You could further argue that Asus' new GPU dock is actually better than Razer's Core dock, because it uses PCIe x4 to pump full 40 Gbps over its USB-C connectors, whereas Thunderbolt 3 has an overhead penalty that drops its stated 40 Gbps to something lesser.

Those are strong arguments, but even so, we chose Razer's setup as our top pick. The docks from MSI, Alienware and Asus are all proprietary in some way and are thus married to a single device. It is true that so far, the Razer Core dock works just with the Razer Blade Stealth, and Razer reps wouldn't state definitively either way whether or not the Core would work with any device that had the correct USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3. But the Core (apparently) uses no secret sauce, so connecting other devices should theoretically work.

Further, there's the fact that Razer seems to have thought through an average gamer's ideal setup. You have the slim Ultrabook (with strong specs of its own), a powerful external GPU for when you need to rock and roll in demanding games, and a place to park all your peripherals. One cable connects that laptop to the whole schmeer, and charges it. (Asus' setup requires two cables.)

MORE: Razer's Blade Stealth Laptop And Core External GPU Dock
MORE: All Systems News From CES

Jaunt VR

VR and 360-degree cameras made a rush at CES this year, but most of them, as impressive as they were, are consumer-grade products -- the GoPro of the VR camera world, as it were. Which is to say, they offer excellent-enough quality for you and me. But for the big boys, there's Jaunt. It's really not a product you can buy. It's a massive, professional-grade VR camera intended for movie making or broadcast recording (the company isn't going after live VR entertainment yet). The focus, if it isn't obvious, is quality. It has 24 HD camera modules, each with one-inch sensors with global shutters and HDR.

Most cameras employ rolling shutter sensors, which record moving objects from top to bottom. This scan-line effect can cause severe distortion when recording swift-moving objects. This is not ideal for immersive motion capture and makes it nearly impossible to stitch all of those images together perfectly. Global shutter records all scan lines at once. There's much more going on here, though, like the memory arrays behind the pixel cells (each pixel has a memory cell). The video gets uploaded to a cloud-based rendering system that combines all of the data and then reconstructs it as stereo output -- a virtual camera output for each eye. The company only does content partnership deals (which allows Jaunt to distribute the content on its own player in its app).

Okay, so shoot me: This is not really a product that's for you and me (although it's output is -- there's some really compelling content in the Jaunt app), but it's another sign that VR is serious business, and it's more than just gaming. Jaunt has raised $100m so far, just in case you're still not convinced.

MORE: All Virtual Reality News From CES