CES 2026: What to expect when tech's biggest conference starts on January 4

The caller twelvemonth is upon us, and that intends CES 2026 is imminent. The biggest tech waste and acquisition show of nan almanac comes pinch a bevy of caller and notable announcements that group nan reside for trends and expectations for nan consequent 12 months. The CES 2026 show level is officially unfastened from January 6 done 9, but nan nosy kicks disconnected pinch events connected Sunday January 4, followed by a big of property conferences connected Monday. As always, merchandise demos, announcements and networking will beryllium happening astatine nan Las Vegas Convention Center and different hotels each complete nan city. As usual, Engadget will beryllium covering nan arena in-person and remotely, bringing you news and hands-ons consecutive from nan show floor.

More circumstantial specifications and pre-announcements are already trickling retired arsenic CES approaches, and acknowledgment to nan schedule of nan Consumer Technology Association (the waste and acquisition statement that runs nan show) we person a afloat itinerary of property conferences. We’re besides utilizing our acquisition and expertise to foretell what tech trends could rear their heads astatine nan show.

The CES 2026 schedule

Press conferences and show level booths are nan breadstuff and food of CES. The CTA has already published a searchable directory of who will person an charismatic beingness astatine nan show, on pinch a schedule of each charismatic sheet and presentation. However, nan press convention schedule gives america a much digestible rundown of nan first 48 hours of large events.

On Sunday, January 4, Samsung will kick-off CES pinch "The First Look," a position hosted by TM Roh, nan CEO of Samsung's DX Division, connected nan company's "vision for nan DX (Device eXperience) Division successful 2026, on pinch caller AI-driven customer experiences." Ahead of that, though, Samsung has already outlined a assortment of much specifics (scroll down for details). Concurrent pinch nan Samsung position will beryllium nan charismatic CES Unveiled mini-show, which is mostly comprised of smaller and start-up vendors.

That'll beryllium followed by aggregate property conferences passim Monday, January 5. The LG CES 2026 property conference, titled "Innovation successful Tune pinch You," is ostensibly to stock "its imagination for elevating regular life done Affectionate Intelligence." But, for illustration Samsung, this chap Korean elephantine has already spent nan 3 weeks starring up to CES pre-announcing galore of its caller products, truthful this whitethorn beryllium much of a summary than breaking news.

Following LG, we’ll besides spot property conferences from Bosch and Hisense, arsenic good arsenic nan first-ever CES quality from Lego. As nan Las Vegas day rolls around, we get nan first of 3 spot giants: NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang takes nan shape connected January 5 astatine 1PM PT (4PM ET) and, according to nan website, his position will past astir 90 minutes. Based connected nan explanation connected nan listing, nan position will “showcase nan latest NVIDIA solutions driving invention and productivity crossed industries.” NVIDIA’s presser is concurrent pinch 1 from Hyundai, wherever nan Korean automotive institution will attraction connected in-cabin car tech and robotics.

Later successful nan day, we get to perceive from NVIDIA frenemies Intel and AMD. Intel’s 3PM PT (6PM PT) arena will ostensibly characteristic its caller Core Ultra Series 3 processors, and AMD CEO Lisa Su will screen AMD's upcoming spot announcements astatine a keynote reside that closes retired nan day. But expect some of them to beryllium very dense connected AI applications, of course. Sandwiched successful betwixt those spot manufacturers will beryllium Sony Honda Mobility. The associated task will beryllium offering yet much specifications connected its Afeela EV.

Finally, connected Tuesday, January 6, Lenovo CEO Yuanqing nan will big Lenovo's Tech World Conference astatine nan Las Vegas Sphere, utilizing nan ample and decidedly curved surface to stock nan company's "commitment to delivering smarter AI for each by perpetually redefining really exertion tin engage, inspire, and empower." It’s worthy noting that Lenovo is nan genitor institution of Motorola, which still makes phones and foldables that characteristic AI tools, truthful it’s imaginable those devices characteristic successful nan position arsenic well.

Samsung and LG vie for pre-show publicity

As noted above, some Samsung and LG person continued their caller inclination of spoiling astir each of their respective CES announcements successful nan days and weeks earlier nan show. LG, for example, has said it will debut its first Micro RGB tv astatine CES. While specifications are scarce, nan company’s property merchandise for nan LG Micro RGB evo did corroborate it has received certifications by Intertek for 100 percent colour gamut sum successful DCI-P3 an Adobe RGB, and that it has much than a 1000 dimming zones for brightness control.

Elsewhere successful nan TV space, LG is throwing its chapeau into nan “art TV” ringing that Samsung pioneered pinch its Frame TVs: The LG Gallery TV will debut successful 55- and 65-inch surface sizes, and it will of people show disconnected various artwork erstwhile it’s not different successful use. And if PC gaming displays are much your speed, LG will person that covered, too, pinch a caller statement of 5K-capable gaming monitors connected platform pinch built-in AI upscaling.

But LG’s not conscionable showing disconnected displays. The Korean multinational will besides present a Dolby-powered modular location audio system, a caller statement of its xboom speakers (developed pinch will.i.am) and nan institution will flex its automation muscles pinch a humanoid home automation robot named CLOiD.

Of course, Samsung refuses to beryllium outdone by its hometown rival, and has besides released a pre-CES property merchandise archive dump. Samsung will beryllium launching its ain lineup of Micro RGB TVs astatine CES, for starters. The institution already introduced its first Micro RGB TV astatine CES 2025, which was a 115-inch exemplary disposable for a cool $30,000. Next year, Samsung is expanding nan scope pinch 55-, 65-, 75-, 85-, 100- and 115-inch models that usage nan adjacent improvement of nan company’s Micro RGB technology.

Samsung is besides countering LG’s 5K monitors pinch a 6K model that intends to present glasses-free 3D (another long-time CES staple). It’ll beryllium 1 of respective caller displays successful nan company’s Odyssey gaming line.

And connected nan audio front, Samsung has teased respective caller soundbars and speakers, including Sonos-style Wi-Fi streaming models telephone nan Music Studio 5 and Studio 7.

Outside of nan general preamble of caller products and initiatives, reference nan beverage leaves of what was announced past twelvemonth and what companies are reportedly moving on, we tin make immoderate knowledgeable guesses astatine what we could spot astatine CES 2026.

New chips from AMD, Intel and Qualcomm

CES is often nan commencement of a cascade of caller spot announcements for a fixed year, and 1 of nan first places caller silicon appears successful existent user products. AMD will apt usage its keynote to present caller versions of its Ryzen chips, including nan precocious spotted Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which is expected to connection amended single-threaded performance, and nan Ryzen 9000G series, which could beryllium built pinch AMD's Zen 5 architecture. The institution mightiness besides usage its CES shape to spell complete its caller FSR Redstone AI upscaling tech.

Intel has already publicly announced that it'll motorboat its Panther Lake chips astatine CES 2026. The officially titled Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chips fresh into Intel's wide "AI PC" push, but are specifically meant for premium laptops. Based connected a preview from October 2025, Intel says nan first spot made pinch its 2-nanometer 18A process will connection 50 percent much processing capacity than erstwhile generations and for nan chip's Arc GPU, a 50 percent capacity bump from past generation.

Qualcomm is besides rumored to beryllium targeting laptops astatine nan show, building connected nan activity it's done moving its Snapdragon chips retired of phones and tablets and into different types of computers. The company's Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Premium chips should commencement appearing successful laptops astatine CES 2026, offering a look astatine nan improved velocity and AI capacity nan institution promised successful 2025.

Brighter, "truer" screens

As noted above, Samsung and LG look to beryllium going all-in connected Micro RGB show tech for TVs. Expect that to beryllium a immense buzzword astatine CES, pinch Hisense and Sony debuting caller models, too.

Sony announced a postulation of caller Bravia TVs successful April 2025, replacing nan company's flagship, filling successful its midrange options and adding a caller fund exemplary to nan mix. The prima of this updated Bravia lineup is nan Bravia 9, which features a QD-OLED panel, but Sony appears to beryllium prepping wholly caller show tech for 2026. In March 2025, Sony introduced a caller RGB LED panel that uses individual Mini LED backlights colored successful red, greenish and bluish to nutrient moreover brighter, much meticulous colors. In opposition to a QD-OLED, which filters a furniture of bluish integrated ray emitting diodes done quantum dots that alteration color, Sony's "General RGB LED Backlight Technology" tin get arsenic agleam arsenic a Mini LED sheet without needing an other select furniture aliases worrying astir OLED's problems pinch burn-in.

The institution has already trademarked nan sanction "True RGB," which could extremity up being what Sony calls this caller spirit of show if it decides to show them disconnected astatine CES. It seems wholly likely, because CES is thing if not a TV show — it’s a judge stake that we’ll spot caller TVs from nan likes of LG and Samsung successful summation to Sony. If nan institution doesn't present caller show tech for its TVs, it does person a caller 240Hz PlayStation monitor coming successful 2026 that it could show disconnected astatine CES instead.

Sony isn't nan only institution hyped connected agleam screens. Samsung is reportedly pushing an updated type of nan HDR10 and HDR10+ standards that could beryllium fresh to demo astatine CES 2026. The caller HDR10+ Advanced standard would beryllium Samsung's reply to Dolby Vision 2, which includes support for things bi-directional reside mapping and intelligent features that automatically accommodate sports and gaming content. Samsung's return will reportedly connection improved brightness, genre-based reside mapping and intelligent mobility smoothing options, among different improvements.

And possibly your early TV won’t request a powerfulness cord, either: Displace will beryllium showing disconnected a mounting action that includes a 15,000mAh artillery to juice up immoderate elephantine TV surface you take to attach.

Ballie Watch 2026

The ball-shaped yellowish robot lovingly known arsenic "Ballie" has been announced twice, first successful 2020 and past again successful 2024 pinch a projector successful tow. Samsung said Ballie would go connected waste successful 2025 astatine CES past twelvemonth and past shared successful April 2025 that Ballie would vessel this summertime pinch Google's Gemini onboard. But it's astir 2026, and Ballie is obscurity to beryllium seen. It's imaginable Samsung could make a 3rd effort astatine announcing its robot astatine CES 2026, but whether aliases not it does, robotics will still beryllium a large portion of nan show.

Robot vacuums and mops were a awesome item of CES 2025, and it's safe to expect notable improvements from nan caller models that are announced astatine CES 2026. Not each institution will adopt nan retractable limb of nan Roborock Saros Z70, but robot vacuums pinch legs for rising complete mini ledges for illustration nan Dreame X50 look for illustration they could go nan norm. Roborock could besides show disconnected its caller Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow, nan first of its robot vacuums to characteristic a retractable roller mop.

Beyond conscionable traversing spaces much efficiently, improving robots' navigation could besides beryllium a awesome interest astatine nan show. Prominent members of nan AI manufacture are turning their attraction from ample connection models to world models, which purpose to springiness AI a heavy knowing of beingness space. Those world models could beryllium nan cardinal to making robots — for illustration LG’s aforementioned CLOiD — competent astatine navigating homes and workplaces, and will apt beryllium a important talking constituent astatine CES 2026.

We’ll beryllium updating this article passim nan period arsenic much rumors aboveground and caller products are confirmed — stay tuned for early updates!

Update, December 11 2025, 11:03AM ET: This communicative has been updated to see item connected Lenovo being Motorola’s genitor institution and really nan second mightiness person a portion successful nan Tuesday presentation.

Update, December 16 2025, 1:33PM ET: This communicative has been updated to see nan NVIDIA property conference, which was added to nan CTA schedule wrong nan past 2 days.

Update, December 23 2025, 7:28AM ET: This communicative has been updated to see LG and Samsung’s Micro RGB TV announcements, which were made nationalist successful nan past 7 days. The intro was besides tweaked to bespeak really soon CES is astatine this point.

Update, December 29 2025, 11:03AM ET: This communicative has been updated to see further specifications connected pre-announcements from Samsung, LG and Displace.

Update, December 31 2025, 12:05PM ET: This communicative has been updated to see yet much early LG announcements.