Technology Top phone trends from CES 2020: Cheaper foldables, 5G and more

The annual CES electronics show in Las Vegas is a fantastic launchpad for the most exciting, futuristic tech companies can dream up. But phones aren't typically part of that equation.

© Provided by CNET Angela Lang/CNET

Phone-makers are far more likely to save their whiz-bang features and high-powered specs for Mobile World Congress , the world's largest mobile show, which takes place from Feb. 24-27 in Barcelona.

© Angela Lang/CNET

But that doesn't mean CES was bereft of handsets. The phones that we did see, as you can see in the gallery below, hint at important trends we'll see in 2020.

Phones at CES 2020 so far: Cheap, shiny, 5G and concepts

Cheaper foldable phones are coming

The Motorola Razr costs $1,500. The Galaxy Fold is $2,000. And the Huawei Mate X is $2,400. Foldable phones are anything but cheap.

PS5 unveils logo, confirms holiday 2020 release

PS5 reveals its logo. It's a very nice logo. It looks a lot like the PS4's logo with one key difference.Sony's announcement comes on the heels of the debut of the Xbox Series X. Microsoft unveiled its new console -- the main competitor to the PS5 -- at the Gaming Awards in December. Sony had previously laid out some details of the PS5, like the solid state hard drive and the holiday 2020 release date, but Microsoft's announcement obviously raised the stakes. Like the PS5, the Series X will go on sale in time for the 2020 holidays and has similarly impressive hardware.

Check out our Top Tech of CES Awards, which award our favorite products in over ten categories, to see all the hottest gear. Expect more news on the Legacy 5 G in the coming months. Another prototype at CES 2020 was the TCL folding smartphone. We’ve seen foldable phones from screen

Annual tech trade show CES 2020 has seen the introduction of a variety of new smartphones, so we've put together a list of the best we've seen at the world's We've made a list of the six best phones we saw at CES 2020 , and we'll run you through them all below. Some are 5 G -ready, some are foldable

Foldable phones are an emerging category that shakes up an otherwise static world of phones by bending the display in half. The high cost of research and development and new manufacturing techniques make these early foldable designs at least double the cost of their 4G counterparts. The "privilege" of owning a cutting-edge device may also contribute to the price.

But the high price of these first foldables means that few people will actually be able to buy one. Lowering the price will also mean lowering the barrier to ownership, which foldable phones need if they're going to stick around.

At CES 2020, Alexa will help you sleep better -- for $5K

As usual, Amazon's assistant was everywhere at CES 2020. Now, you can even spend thousands to get Alexa under your mattress.I may be wrong, but aside from Alexa-enabled automobiles, I believe that's the most expensive "Alexa built-in" device that we've seen to date.

Best Budget Phone 2020 : Find a great cheap smartphone. Buying a cheap smartphone no longer means losing out on all of the latest features and The best budget phones are also more attractive in the long-term thanks to cheaper contract prices, though you might prefer to buy these smartphones

CES 2020 , then, will be an opportunity for tech makers to demonstrate that 5 G will be an actual thing this year, and they’re not going to hold back. Hands down though, this year’s most exciting TV trend is MicroLED. It’s similar to the more mature OLED technology, where each pixel on a TV acts as its

At CES, TCL showed us a working prototype of a foldable phone that's designed to cost less than the Motorola Razr. It features a 7.2-inch display and three rear cameras and will support 5G .

We also learned that Samsung's next foldable phone, which is rumored to cost $850, could be called the Galaxy Bloom.

TCL's new foldable, a $500 5G phone and this gorgeous Galaxy S10 clone

5G phone prices are already dropping

5G phones aren't as expensive as foldables, but they still cost more per device than 4G handsets with the same specs. The same rule also applies to the faster 5G data technology -- cheaper 5G options will get more people using these devices.

The Most Exciting Tech at CES 2020

The world’s biggest consumer electronics trade show is in full swing. Here are the products and gadgets that caught our eye.Dell promises premium, feature-rich devices for professionals in its new Latitude 9000 series. And that starts with the Latitude 9510. Available March 26 for $1,799 as either a laptop or a 2-in-1, the device is Dell’s first PC built with 5G capability. While the next generation wireless technology is still mostly in development, when it’s available to the masses, that tech will give the 9510 the ability to stream content at lightning speeds.

TCL, Lenovo and Dell have all shown off devices that fold down the screen at CES 2020 . Three tech companies have followed Samsung’s lead with their own foldable devices at CES 2020 this week. TCL also announced another high-end 5 G phone that will cost no more than 0. Some of the damage was caused by impact on the top and bottom exposed areas of the hinge, the company said.

Foldable phones from Huawei, Samsung, and Motorola generated a lot of buzzes last year, and they continued to do so in # CES 2020 . Chinese TV maker TCL is

And for carriers, the faster data speeds could translate into more profits as customers use more data per person.

For phone buyers, it's just nice to have more affordable ways to get 5G speeds. Enter the TCL Pro 5G for under $500, the CoolPad Legacy for $400 and Verizon's plan to sell 20 5G phones in 2020, including some that cost less than $600. Compared to the $1,300 Galaxy Note 10 5G, that's a pretty good deal. Just expect trade-offs in the features department.

Cameras continue to be a design element

Camera tech has always been essential for phones, but even the look and placement of the lenses elicit strong opinions.

The Galaxy Note 10 Lite and Galaxy S10 Lite both feature square and rectangular black camera mounts respectively, mimicking the Google Pixel 4 . Some industry-watchers think that Samsung is taking the bold road to counter the iPhone 11 , whose large, protruding cluster of rear lenses makes Apple's phone immediately identifiable.

The 5 most important things that happened at CES 2020

From high-tech food to folding computers to upgrading your health to a prototype city of the future, these trends mattered.Here are the ones that will have the biggest impact on the rest of 2020 and beyond.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the OnePlus Concept One phone uses an electrical current to either hide or reveal the phone's multiple cameras on its back. The concept is to make the phone look sleeker, especially at a time when camera lenses are proliferating.

Gaming phones continue to carve a niche

Phones aimed at gamers have made up a small but steady contingent of handsets. 5G data has a huge implication for gaming, promising far more immersive and sophisticated graphics through the kind of on-the-fly rendering that can be achieved through 5G's increased data delivery.

Processors, too, are getting into gaming, with the Snapdragon 765G, a midrange chipset that's specifically made for gaming phones. And more phone-makers are set to embrace displays with 120Hz refresh rates for smoother animations.

The Black Shark 2 Pro has neither of the first two things, but it's still possibly the best gaming phone we've seen, complete with a case that makes it work a little like the Nintendo Switch . A helpful gaming mode also makes this handset specifically geared toward gaming, rather than a mainstream phone that's powerful enough to play long sessions of resource-heavy games.

Top trends in phones from CES 2020: Cheaper foldables, 5G and more

What the phones at the annual tech confab tell us about some design and price trends for 5G, foldable and gaming phones this year.Phone-makers are far more likely to save their whiz-bang features and high-powered specs for Mobile World Congress , the world's largest mobile show, which takes place from Feb. 24-27 in Barcelona.

CES may be over, but for phones, the year is just beginning.

CNET's 20 favorite products of CES 2020