After canceling our CES plans in 2022 (and not even having the option of attending in person in 2021), the Engadget team sent a dozen staffers to CES 2023 this week, including reporters, editors and videographers. It's too soon to say how many stories and videos we've published -- in fact, we have more good stuff coming -- but suffice to say, it was a lot. Though our team swears the show still wasn't as busy as pre-pandemic years, they were kept busy enough that it felt like a true return to form, not just for us, but for the tech industry at large. One thing that never stopped was Engadget's annual Best of CES Awards program, although this year marks the first time in three years we've been able to base our judgments off of a full slate of in-person hands-on experiences. All told, we're handing out a dozen awards this year, including the most prestigious: Best of the Best.

I already own two 27-inch 1080p gaming monitors with decent refresh rates (Acer and ViewSonic), but they're several years old and due for an upgrade. I wouldn't have purchased an M9 monitor to replace either of them; the $899 price point is rather steep when a lower end monitor can easily get the job done. Still, the better colors, brightness and higher refresh rate on the M9 made a subtle difference when I gamed compared to the older models I already had. It's a welcome addition to my current gaming setup, especially when I play competitive modes.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is 25 years old. That means it's been 25 years since Americans first learned, sometimes painfully, that game consoles have an expiration date. It's not without good reason that the 16-bit followup to Nintendo's incredibly popular 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System is considered one of the all-time great gaming consoles. Kicking off with the massive, superbly designed Super Mario World, the cutting-edge tech in the SNES produced colorful graphics, nifty technological tricks, and high-fidelity soundtracks that powered the most impressive games of the pixel era. Just two years later, SNES games would have the power to handle real 3-D graphics, foreshadowing the industry's incipient shift from sprites to polygons. When Nintendo launched the SNES, videogame products didn't have official release dates.