Start the 12 months with a bang by touring with CNET to Las Vegas, the place our editors can be on the hunt for the defining tech merchandise of 2026. CES is the flashiest tech present of the 12 months and is ready to inject some much-needed pleasure into the January gloom. Stick with us as we showcase the very best throughout all key product classes, from TVs to laptops, and hopefully ignite your creativeness with enjoyable and future-facing ideas that offer you a glimpse into what your subsequent favourite gadget would possibly appear like. What is CES? CES is likely one of the largest and most important tech commerce reveals on the earth. It’s attended by all the massive, established tech firms, in addition to many up-and-coming firms from throughout the globe. Samsung can be bringing its largest-ever CES showcase to this 12 months’s conference, and Lenovo is taking up the Las Vegas Sphere for its keynote, which, if it manages to rival Delta’s occasion on the venue final 12 months, needs to be fairly a present. Another occasion we’re pumped for is the Sony Honda Mobility Exhibit, the place the 2 firms will unveil the pre-production Afeela 1 EV, because of go on sale in California in 2026.Together with press, traders and enterprise leaders, these firms and others will collect within the convention halls and lodge suites of Las Vegas to point out off their latest improvements and set the agenda for the 12 months. CES 2025 drew over 140,000 individuals, 40% of whom got here from exterior of the US, which ought to offer you a strong concept of the enormity and significance of this present. Some of the merchandise and concepts we’ll see on the present are ideas that tease next-generation developments in know-how. Other units will go on sale throughout or shortly after the present — and we’ll you should definitely inform the early adopters amongst you precisely what they’re. What are the important thing dates? The official dates for CES 2026 are Jan. 6 to 9, however CNET will arrive on the town a couple of days earlier than for an early look and unique press-only previews earlier than the present doorways even open. Some facet occasions are scheduled as early as Jan. 3. Jan. 5 would be the first main day of the present for us, as we attend back-to-back press conferences, the place the most important names in tech unveil their newest merchandise and units to the world. How to look at alongside Don’t wish to miss out? The finest place for all the newest CES information is true right here at CNET. Our professional staff of reporters and reviewers has a long time of mixed expertise masking the present. We’ll present you all the things we deem fascinating and essential, and we’re not simply admiring new merchandise from afar. We’re touching, tinkering with and making an attempt to not drop them, so you should definitely observe us throughout X (previously Twitter), TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky, too. CES 2026 main traits We could not escape AI at CES 2025, and we anticipate this 12 months to be a lot the identical. One of our duties — as your eyes, ears and arms on the bottom — is to discern between AI that is genuinely helpful and elevates a product or gadget, and AI that’s merely advertising fluff, or overpromises and underdelivers. We’ll even be holding an in depth eye on the chip firms: Arm, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and Nvidia. They’re typically on the forefront of advances in AI — on-device AI particularly — so we’re eager to see what they could must say or exhibit at this CES. Another main pattern we’re anticipating to see this 12 months is a concentrate on digital well being. This is prone to span units and companies, with firms akin to Withings, Samsung, and Ultrahuman showcasing developments in private well being know-how. Then there’s auto tech and mobility. Volvo is ready to carry a keynote at CES 2026, and we anticipate to see an emphasis on related autos and transportation at this 12 months’s present. These are the three main traits highlighted by the Consumer Technology Association, which organizes the occasion. But CNET’s veteran specialists even have their very own predictions. Here’s what we’re excited for. Our specialists’ CES predictions Ty Pendlebury (TV and audio) There’ll be two fundamental enhancements from the TVs introduced at CES 2026 — higher brightness and higher colours. The latest Dolby Vision 2 specification, and Samsung’s HDR 10 Plus Advanced, will assist drive TVs to be even brighter than earlier than; in some instances, they’re going to be over twice as vibrant. OLED TVs will even get a lift, and we’ll possible see extra of the four-stack know-how LG debuted final 12 months. It primarily stacks two OLEDs on high of one another for a brighter picture.As far as colours are involved, we’ll see TVs which boast expanded colours as much as 100% of the BT.2020 normal — one thing that hasn’t been accomplished prior to now. One of the methods TV producers will accomplish each of those enhancements is with new LCD backlights, together with new shade filters or the Micro RGB tech, which Samsung debuted final 12 months.Meanwhile, the very best and most stunning audio of CES is normally from new firms. Multiroom audio, desktop audio system, private music gamers: these units are normally proven at occasions the day earlier than the present begins and are sometimes the very best issues we’ll see all week. Meanwhile, the larger audio firms will even be exhibiting. The Harman group, now owned by Samsung, is likely one of the most dependable presences at CES. As with yearly, you possibly can anticipate new soundbars, Bluetooth audio system and probably AV separates. In that vein, Klipsch and its new accomplice, Onkyo, will possible have some extra soundbars and audio system on present. As far as high-end audio, although, will probably be there, however hi-fi reveals are extra essential than CES these days and its presence can be restricted. Josh Goldman (computer systems) It would possibly come as a shock, however CES is a fairly large present for what’s coming subsequent on the earth of PCs. All kinds will get unveiled, too — from ultraportables to the newest for gaming and content material creation — so it truly is a “something for everyone” sort of occasion. Additionally, there are normally main chip bulletins; it’s important to have one thing powering all the brand new laptops and desktops, in spite of everything. CES can be the place PC makers come to showcase eye-popping ideas and prototypes for each computer systems and peripherals, so anticipate to see all of this and extra. Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm have been battling it out to see who can ship processors which might be equally highly effective and power-efficient. We’re already seeing laptops that get greater than 24 hours of battery life and have good processing efficiency. At CES, we are able to anticipate to see the primary fashions from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung and others that includes new laptops constructed round Intel’s Panther Lake chips. If the leaks are to be believed, these laptops won’t solely be skinny and light-weight with wonderful battery life, however have considerably higher graphics efficiency with out the extra price — or warmth — of a discrete GPU. Another model of those chips may also discover its approach into new gaming handhelds on the present. Abrar Al-Heeti (cellular) Events like CES are all the time full of enjoyable, futuristic ideas for private units, and I’m positive we’ll see our fair proportion of flexible screens and modern wearables once more. But prior to now a number of months, two key descriptors have outlined probably the most cutting-edge smartphones: skinny and foldable. And that is prone to proceed into 2026. Phone makers from Samsung to Honor to Huawei have debuted wildly slim handsets (a few of which additionally fold), and Apple’s iPhone Air arguably helped to legitimize the skinny class. And these firms are simply getting began. Get prepared for Samsung’s new Galaxy Z TriFold, which has three show panels as a substitute of two — much like Huawei’s Mate XT Ultimate Design. More ideas like this may in all probability be on show at CES, and a few could even see the sunshine of day. Several others will merely reside on in our collective creativeness. Oh yeah, and many cellular AI. Companies aren’t fairly able to ease up on that. David Watsky (residence) Advanced AI continues to drive residence tech and, frankly, we’re not stunned. Last 12 months, we have been charmed by the first-ever robotic vacuum with a robotic arm, though it did not wow our vacuum professional, Ajay Jumar, fairly as a lot in testing. We anticipate extra residence robotics at CES that help in on a regular basis chores, together with laundry, cleansing, cooking, residence safety and basic sensible residence administration. Large home equipment proceed to change into smarter, providing various levels of helpfulness. I anticipate fridges, ovens and washing machines with extra superior hub screens (sooner or later, all fridges could have them — mark my phrases) and smarter app integration to assist homemakers transfer via their to-do lists. It’s unlikely {that a} laundry-folding robotic that any of us can afford can be prepared for primetime this 12 months, however it soothes me significantly to comprehend it won’t be too far off. As with different components of CES 2026, we anticipate AI advances to be entrance and heart for the sensible residence, together with extra clever video scanning for safety cameras, a pattern that is been on the rise all 12 months. We’ll additionally see AI-powered conversational voice assistants that may speak out of your doorbell, assist set residence routines for you — typically making sensible residence administration easier and extra hands-off. Another tech pattern to search for is presence sensing, or utilizing disturbances in Wi-Fi indicators to map exercise patterns across the residence for higher evaluation.” Scott Stein (future tech)We’ve seen big tech companies trying to figure out smart glasses for years, but things are getting serious now that Google and Samsung are involved, with glasses on deck for 2026. CES is going to be a wild west showcase for all the other glasses hopefuls’ evolving ideas and demonstrating how some of the internal tech could improve. Next-gen displays, wearable interfaces like rings and watches, and next-step products from companies like TCL, Rokid, Even Realities and others should be on deck. I also expect a wide range of wearable AI accessories, in various forms, including wristbands, pendants and camera-equipped devices. OpenAI is expected to evolve its own AI device in the next few years, and even though ghosts of the Humane AI Pin haunt the space, there’s a lot of room for plenty more startups. I’m keeping an eye on neural tech, especially now that Meta has come out of the gate with its own EMG-based neural band. And there’s robotics. Weird robots have been CES eye candy for decades, and it’ll be impossible to measure how practical any of them could be in a vacuum of a trade show, but we should see at least a few eye-popping demos. Antuan Goodwin (auto)Car technology is set to shift into high gear at CES 2026, driven by language-based AI that is rapidly gaining dominance in the dashboard experience. I expect we’ll see smarter cars that can predict the driver’s habits and needs, and even identify their own maintenance issues. Think natural language voice assistance, where you can just chat with your car to get things done or get answers to random questions. However, AI in cars isn’t limited to the dashboard. At CES 2026, it’s also set to significantly enhance safety and self-driving technology. That means souped-up driver assistance systems and big news about autonomous driving and robotaxi services are all fighting for the spotlight. I’m also expecting big things in air mobility this year, particularly more “flying automotive” prototypes rising and extra detailed info concerning the testing and rollout of electrical air taxi companies in main cities. Plus, it is best to maintain a watch out for cool shopper electronics bulletins this 12 months, specializing in dashcams and different aftermarket automotive gear.
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