The 10 Biggest CES 2019 Rumors

New Year, New Products

With CES 2019 just a few weeks away, rumors are circulating about what new products could be in the works for the massive Las Vegas gadget show. CES 2019, which runs Jan. 8-11, is expected to have no shortage of major announcements. New devices, such as tablets, smartphones and laptops, are expected from vendors such as Lenovo and LG, as well as new processors from Intel, Nvidia and AMD.

What follows are the biggest CES rumors we've come across for 2019.

Nvidia GeForce RTX Graphics Cards For Laptops

Nvidia set the stage for its next generation of graphics cards with the reveal of its Turing GPU architecture In August that supports real-time ray tracing for cinema-quality graphics. Since then, the company has been revealing the first new products in the Turing line, starting with the Quadro RTX series for workstations, then the GeForce RTX series for desktops, the Telsa T4 GPU for AI reference and, most recently, the $2,499 Titan RTX desktop GPU. Now the company is reportedly expected to unveil its slate of Turing-based RTX Mobility GPUs for laptops at CES 2019. According to Wccftech, Nvidia will reveal the new laptop GPUs on or around Jan. 6, which is when Nvidia has scheduled a press conference. The rumor states that RTX-based laptops will then be available to buy the following month.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Graphics Card For Desktop

With Nvidia launching its first three Turing-based GeForce desktop products—the RTX 2080 Ti, 2080 and 2070—the company appears to be preparing for the reveal of a lower-tier option at CES 2019. According to Twitter user Andreas Schilling, marketing material has been leaked for the GeForce RTX 2060, which will come with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory. However, SegmentNext noted that Nvidia has already confirmed that real-time ray tracing, the core feature of Turing GPUs, would only be supported by the RTX 2070 or higher, raising questions as to whether the rumored RTX 2060 will support it. This new graphics card would likely be revealed alongside the GeForce RTX Mobility products at Nvidia's CES press conference, which is scheduled for Jan. 6.

AMD Ryzen 3000 Series Zen 2 CPUs

Still riding high off its advancements in 7-nanometer chip manufacturing, AMD may finally reveal the next iteration of its Ryzen desktop processors at CES 2019. Lisa Su, AMD's CEO, is scheduled to deliver a keynote at CES where she will likely discuss "world's first 7nm high-performance CPUs and GPUs," which the company referenced in a press release announcement on Su's keynote. YouTube channel AdoredTV reported that Su will reveal the details of the AMD Ryzen 3000 Series line of CPUs that are based on the company's 7nm Zen 2 architecture, with the top-tier processor expected to feature 16 cores and 32 threads. The company previously disclosed its 7nm Zen 2 architecture at its Next Horizon event, where AMD also served up details on its 7nm EPYC server CPU. AMD has publicly said that it would release its 7nm EPYC CPU before its 7nm Ryzen CPU, so it's unclear how many details Su will provide on the next-generation desktop processors.

Intel's Return To a Dedicated Graphics Card

Hype over Intel's return to the graphics card market has been slowly building since the company hired AMD bigshot Raja Koduri (pictured) last year to help the semiconductor giant build a line of discrete GPUs. Since Koduri was appointed to lead Intel's new Core and Visual Computing Group, the company has hired other AMD veterans, teased some details about the GPU and engaged with the community. Intel has publicly said that its first GPU won't arrive until 2020, but TweakTown reported earlier this year that the company could make its first public showing of the dedicated graphics card at CES 2019.

AMD 7nm Radeon Navi GPUs

AMD is expected to make a big splash at CES 2019 with its next-generation Ryzen desktop CPUs, and the company will likely have some new GPUs to share as well. Given that the company's CES press release references "world's first 7nm high-performance CPUs and GPUs," it seems certain that the company will show off its next-generation line of graphics cards. YouTube channel AdoredTV, however, has more specifics on AMD's rumored CES plans, saying that the company will reveal three new GPUs based on the company's 7-nanometer manufacturing process. The top-tier GPU, the Radeon RX 3080, will reportedly come with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and run 15 percent faster than AMD's Radeon RX Vega 64 GPU. The Radeon GPUs are expected to feature AMD's new Navi architecture.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, Seventh Gen

In recent years, Lenovo has been using CES to announce the annual update to its flagship business laptop, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Rumors suggest that Lenovo could do the same in 2019, with a seventh-generation update to the popular notebook line. Rumors suggest that upgrades may include the addition of processors from Intel's Whiskey Lake series of eighth-gen chips (which Lenovo just introduced to its ThinkPad line for the first time with the launch of the ThinkPad L390 and L390 Yoga). The ThinkPad X1 Carbon also did not receive a major change to its form factor in 2018, and so rumors suggest a redesigned form factor may be on the way for the X1 Carbon as well.

Asus Chrome OS Devices

In March, Acer teamed up with Google to introduce the first tablet to run Chrome OS, Google's simplified operating system used in Chromebooks. The Acer has teamed up with Google to introduce the first Google Chrome-powered tablet has been targeted as an alternative to Apple's iPad, and additional Chrome OS tablets followed during the year, including HP's Chromebook x2 detachable 2-in-1 and Google's Pixel Slate. Now, rumors are circulating that Asus may be looking to follow their lead with a 10-inch Chrome OS tablet planned for unveiling at CES 2019. Additional Chrome OS devices—Chromebooks rather than tablets—are also rumored to be on the way from Asus at CES.

Sony Xperia XA3

Several leaks dating back to October have revealed the Xperia XA3, a midrange Sony smartphone featuring reduced bezels above and below the screen for a nearly edge-to-edge design. Rumors point to a likely launch of the Sony Xperia XA3 at CES 2019, where Sony is holding a press conference on Jan. 7. Leaks suggest the smartphone will include a 5.9-inch display, a side-mounted fingerprint reader, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor, 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage.

Samsung Smartphone

With 2019 marking the 10th anniversary of the Samsung Galaxy premium smartphone line—and reports that Samsung has a wide array of new models planned—rumors suggest that the company may use the CES 2019 platform to introduce a new smartphone. While Samsung typically waits until Mobile World Congress in February to launch its new Galaxy S models, reports indicate that the company is actually working on three Galaxy S10 models (rather than the usual two) that range between 5.8 inches and 6.4 inches in size. Samsung is also reportedly developing a separate 5G-enabled Galaxy S10 variant with a 6.7-inch display, as well as its foldable "Infinity Flex Display" device. Given that Samsung said in November that the 7.3-inch Infinity Flex Display would be ready for mass production in coming months, we wouldn't be surprised to see an appearance from the device at CES—or from one of the other Galaxy smartphones under development.

LG Foldable Smartphone

Speaking of foldable phones, rumors have suggested that one of Samsung's chief rivals in the Android smartphone business, LG, has a foldable phone of its own in the works. And further, that LG foldable phone could be planned for a debut at CES 2019—where LG is holding a press conference the day before the show officially begins, on Jan. 7. Or that may not happen at all: one of the original sources of the rumor, Evan Blass (who has a good track record with device leaks), has since tweeted that he's heard LG is appearing less likely to debut its foldable smartphone at CES. So stay tuned.