It’s press day at CES 2026, the biggest and flashiest tech extravaganza of the year. And that means my fellow CNET editors and I are on the ground in Las Vegas, where we’re already on the hunt for the most important tech products of 2026. It also means a tangle of charging cables, towering wooden pallets as salespeople prepare their demos, and a frenzy of companies at press-only showcases.
Stay with us as we showcase the best in every key product category, from TVs to laptops, and we hope to ignite your imagination with fun, forward-looking concepts that give you a glimpse of what your next favorite gadget could look like.
Read on for top trends and expert predictions about what to expect.
Learn more: CNET picks the best of the CES 2026 awards
What else is happening at CES?
CES is one of the largest and most important technology shows in the world. All major established technology companies participate, as well as many emerging companies from around the world.
Samsung will have its biggest CES showcase at this year’s convention, and Lenovo will take over the Las Vegas Sphere for its keynote, which, if it can rival Delta’s on-site event last year, should be quite a spectacle. Another event we’re excited about is the Sony Honda Mobility Exhibit, where both companies will unveil the pre-production Afeela 1 EV, which is expected to go on sale in California in 2026.
Alongside media, investors and business leaders, these companies and others will gather in Las Vegas conference rooms and hotel suites to showcase their latest innovations and set the year’s agenda. CES 2025 attracted over 140,000 people, 40% of whom were from outside the United States, which should give you a good idea of the enormity and importance of this show.
Some of the products and ideas we will see at the show are concepts that anticipate next-generation technological developments. More devices will go on sale during or shortly after the show – and we’ll be sure to tell the early adopters among you exactly what they are.
What are the key dates?
The official dates for CES 2026 are January 6-9, but CNET has already arrived for a first look and exclusive media-only previews before the show doors even open.
Sunday January 4th will be the first big day of the show for us, and on Monday January 5th we will attend back-to-back press conferences, where the biggest names in technology will reveal their latest products and devices to the world.
How to watch
Don’t want to miss anything? The best place for all the latest CES news is right here on our CNET live blog. Our expert team of journalists and critics have decades of combined experience covering the show. We’ll show you everything we think is interesting and important, and we don’t just admire new products from afar. We touch them, tinker with them and try not to let them down, so be sure to also follow us on X, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Bluesky.
Big trends from CES 2026
We couldn’t escape AI at CES 2025, and we expect it to be much the same this year. One of our jobs – as eyes, ears and hands on the ground – is to discern between AI that is genuinely useful and elevates a product or device, and AI that is just marketing, or over-promising and under-delivering.
The NotePin S is Plaud’s second AI wearable.
Andrew Lanxon/CNETWe will also keep a close eye on the chip manufacturers: Arm, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and Nvidia. They are often at the forefront of advancements in AI, especially on-device AI, so we’re excited to see what they might have to say or show at this CES.
Another major trend we are expecting this year is a focus on digital health. This will likely be across devices and services, with companies such as Withings, Samsung and Ultrahuman showcasing developments in personal health technology.
Then there is automotive technology and mobility. Volvo is set to give a keynote at CES 2026, and we expect the focus to be on connected vehicles and transportation at this year’s show.
These are the three major trends highlighted by the Consumer Technology Association, organizer of the event. But CNET’s veteran experts also have their own predictions. Here’s what we’re passionate about.
CES predictions from our experts
Ty Pendlebury: television and audio
There will be two main improvements over the TVs announced at CES 2026: better brightness and better colors.
Samsung’s latest Dolby Vision 2 specification and HDR 10 Plus Advanced will help TVs be even brighter than before; in some cases they will be twice as bright. OLED TVs will also get a boost, and we’ll likely see more of the quad-battery technology LG launched last year. It basically stacks two OLEDs on top of each other for a brighter image.
When it comes to colors, we’ll see TVs featuring extended colors up to 100% of the BT.2020 standard – something that’s never been done before. One way TV makers will achieve both improvements is through new LCD backlights, including new color filters or Micro RGB technology, which Samsung launched last year.
Meanwhile, the best and most surprising sounds at CES usually come from new companies. Multiroom audio, desktop speakers, personal music players: These devices are usually featured at events the day before the show starts and are often the best things we’ll see all week.
Meanwhile, the biggest audio companies will also be present. The Harman Group, now owned by Samsung, is one of the most reliable presences at CES. Like every year, you can expect new soundbars, Bluetooth speakers and possibly AV splitters. With this in mind, Klipsch and its new partner, Onkyo, will likely introduce other soundbars and speakers. When it comes to high-end audio, though, it will be there, but hi-fi shows are bigger than CES today and its presence will be limited.
Josh Goldman: computers
This might come as a surprise, but CES is a very big show for what’s next in the world of PCs. There’s a huge variety being revealed – from ultraportables to the latest in gaming and content creation – so it’s truly a ‘something for everyone’ event. Additionally, there are usually major chip announcements; after all, you need to have something that powers all new laptops and desktops. CES is also where PC makers come to showcase stunning concepts and prototypes for computers and peripherals, so expect to see all of this and more.
Intel, AMD and Qualcomm are fighting over who can offer equally powerful and energy-efficient processors. We’re already seeing laptops with 24+ hour battery life and good processing performance. At CES, we can expect to see the first models from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung and others, featuring new laptops built around Intel’s Panther Lake chips. If the leaks are to be believed, these laptops will not only be thin and light with excellent battery life, but will also have significantly better graphics performance without the added cost – or heat – of a discrete GPU. Another version of these chips could also find its way into the new gaming handhelds at the show.
Abrar Al-Heeti: Mobile
Events like CES are always full of fun and futuristic concepts for personal devices, and I’m sure we’ll see our fair share of flexible displays and innovative wearable devices again. But over the past few months, two key descriptors have defined the most advanced smartphones: thin and foldable. And this is expected to continue until 2026.
Phone makers from Samsung to Honor to Huawei have released extremely thin handsets (some of which also fold), and Apple’s iPhone Air arguably helped legitimize the slim category. And these companies are just getting started. Get ready for Samsung’s new Galaxy Z TriFold, featuring three display panels instead of two, similar to Huawei’s Mate XT Ultimate Design. More concepts like this will likely be on display at CES, and some may even see the light of day. Many others will simply survive in our collective imagination.
Oh yeah, and lots of mobile AI. Companies are not yet ready to relax their policies.
David Watsky: Home
Advanced AI continues to drive home technology and, frankly, we’re not surprised. Last year, we were charmed by the first-ever robot vacuum with a robotic arm, although it didn’t impress our vacuum expert, Ajay Kumar, as much during testing. We expect more home robotics at CES that will make everyday tasks easier, including laundry, cleaning, cooking, home security, and general smart home management.
Major appliances continue to get smarter, offering varying degrees of utility. I expect refrigerators, ovens and washing machines to feature more advanced hub screens (in the future, all refrigerators will have them – mark my words) and smarter app integration to help housewives get through their to-do lists.
It’s unlikely that a laundry-folding robot that any of us can afford will be ready for prime time this year, but it gives me great comfort to know that it might not be too far away.
As with other parts of CES 2026, we expect AI advancements to be at the forefront for the smart home, including smarter video scanning for security cameras, a trend that has been growing all year.
We’ll also see AI-powered conversational voice assistants that can speak from your doorbell and help you set home routines, which generally makes smart home management less complicated and more convenient. Another technology trend to watch is occupancy detection, or the use of disruptions in Wi-Fi signals to map patterns of activity in the home for improved analysis. »
Scott Stein: Technology of the future
We’ve seen big tech companies trying to come up with smart glasses for years, but things are getting serial uses now that Google and Samsung are involved, with glasses on deck for 2026. CES is going to be a Wild West showcase for the evolving ideas of all the other glasses hopefuls and demonstrate how some in-house technologies could improve. Next-generation displays, wearable interfaces like rings and watches, as well as next-generation products from companies like TCL, Rokid, Even Realities and others are expected to be on deck.
I also expect a wide range of wearable AI accessories, in various forms, including bracelets, pendants and camera-equipped devices. OpenAI is expected to evolve its own AI device over the next few years, and while the ghosts of the Humane AI Pin haunt the space, there’s plenty of room for many more startups.
I’m keeping an eye on neural technology, especially now that Meta has come out with its own EMG-based neural strip.
And there is robotics. Weird robots have been eye candy at CES for decades, and it’ll be impossible to measure how practical any of them could be in the vacuum of a trade show, but we should see at least a few stunning demos.
Antuan Goodwin: Cars
Automotive technology is poised to shift into high gear at CES 2026, thanks to language-based AI rapidly gaining dominance in the dashboard experience. I expect we’ll see smarter cars, able to predict the driver’s habits and needs, and even identify their own maintenance issues. Consider natural language voice assistance, where you can simply chat with your car to get things done or get answers to random questions.
However, AI in cars is not limited to the dashboard. At CES 2026, it is also expected to significantly improve safety and autonomous driving technology. That means improved driver assistance systems and big news about autonomous driving and robotaxi services are all fighting for the spotlight.
I also expect big things in air mobility this year, particularly the emergence of more “flying car” prototypes and more detailed information on the testing and deployment of electric air taxi services in major cities. Additionally, you should keep an eye out for interesting consumer electronics announcements this year, focusing on dash cams and other aftermarket automotive equipment.
