CES 2026: The best tech announced so far

The CES show floor officially closes its doors at the end of the day, but there’s still a trickle of announcements and reveals coming out of Las Vegas. If you’re struggling to stay on top of all the new tech, gadgets, concepts, and AI-powered devices as the final day of CES gets underway, we’re still rounding up the best hardware and upgrades that have debuted so far so you can quickly get up to speed.

As the show draws to a close for another year, you can still catch up on all of The Verge’s CES 2026 coverage here.

Preset scenes are the easiest way to take advantage of color-changing smart lights in a room, but the effect isn’t as impactful as it could be when randomly spread across lamps and bulbs. Philips Hue’s solution is a new feature called SpatialAware. After installing smart bulbs and placing smart lamps around a room, you use the Hue app to scan the space with your smartphone’s AR capabilities. This generates a 3D model that SpatialAware uses to understand where every light is located so it can more intelligently distribute specific colors. To more accurately recreate a sunset, for example, SpatialAware will set the lights on one side of a room to warm yellow tones, while lights on the opposite side have darker tones.

The new feature will be released in Spring 2026 and will be compatible with Hue products connected to the Hue Bridge Pro.

The famous guitar maker announced its first pair of wireless headphones at CES this year, under its consumer electronics brand, Fender Audio. The Mix, as the headphones are simply called, feature 40mm “hyper-efficient Graphene drivers” and ANC with up to 52 hours of battery life while blocking noise, or up to 100 hours with ANC off. Hidden beneath the Mix’s ear cushions you’ll find an easily accessible and replaceable battery on one side, while the other holds a USB-C wireless transmitter enabling lossless 96kHz/24bit LHDC streaming, low-latency LC3, and Auracast wireless modes. They’re expected to launch this year for $299.99.

The Verge’s Sean Hollister went hands on with a fascinating new material called Soramatex. Its creator, a company called Sora Materials, wouldn’t reveal what it’s made from, other than saying it uses carbon powder. Soramatex could be useful as everything from insulation to sound proofing, but it will almost certainly find its way into aerospace applications because the material is so lightweight you can’t actually feel it while holding it in your hands.

Modular controllers that let you physically swap out buttons and joysticks aren’t a new idea. But Hyperkin and GameSir are delivering two innovations with their X5 Alteron controller that doesn’t yet have a release date. It’s the first clamp-on controller with an expanding mechanism to adapt to various mobile devices (including the Switch) to feature modular controls. It’s also the first modular controller that goes beyond just letting you rearrange buttons and joysticks or swap out their underlying hardware. The X5 Alteron will be upgradeable with optional modules turning it into an N64- 0r GameCube-style gamepad. There’s also plans for a module with a touchpad for replicating a mouse.

Satechi already sells several accessories designed to complement Apple’s Mac Mini and expand its capabilities. Its new Thunderbolt 5 CubeDock goes one step further and looks like the tiny desktop computer’s long lost twin. It’s a standalone hub with three Thunderbolt 5 ports offering up to 120Gbps speeds, slower USB-C and USB-A ports, a memory card reader, a 2.5Gb Ethernet port, HDMI ports supporting up to three 8K monitors on Windows, and a NVMe SSD slot adding up to an extra 8TB of storage. It’s available for preorder now for $399.99 and expected to ship in Q1 2026.

It’s a lofty claim, but startup Donut Lab, an EV startup that spun off from Verge Motorcycles (no relation), claims to already be in production of a solid-state battery with an an energy density of 400 Wh/kg. That would give an EV about 30 percent more range than if it was using a lithium-ion battery of the same weight. Donut Lab also says its solid-state batteries are cheaper to manufacture and have a much longer life cycle. They’ll first be used in the Verge TS Pro electric superbike that can be fully recharged in just 10 minutes, if the startup delivers on its claims.

There are some good reasons to upgrade your leaf blower this year. Following the debut of Hoto’s slick leaf blower last November, a company called Whisper Aero has announced the Tone T1 it claims is up to 40 percent quieter than other electric blowers on the market. At full power it sends leaves and debris flying with a 150mph blast but produces only 52 decibels of noise that’s quieter than a refrigerator. It’s available for preorder now starting at $599 and is expected to ship in September 2026.

Coming to Kickstarter in March 2026 and tentatively priced at $2,000 for a complete kit, Fly Wing’s X-Wing Fighter (we’ll see how long that name stays) is a folding foam drone that can take off and land vertically using four propellers, but fly like a plane. Inside its tiny cockpit is a head-tracking camera that sends live video to a pair of DJI goggles giving you a first-person view as you pilot the drone for up to 60 minutes on a full charge.

First announced at CES 2025 in sizes up to 31.5 inches, PocketBook has announced two larger versions of its InkPoster that now use a 40.5-inch version of E Ink’s Spectra 6 color screen. Both the InkPoster Tela and Duna can display and regularly cycle through photos and artwork customized through a mobile app. But the Duna is wrapped in a sculpted frame created by Pininfarina and has access to exclusive design sketches from the Italian design house’s archives. When available later this year the Duna’s pricing is expected to start at $6,000.

Two years ago at CES 2024, L’Oréal introduced its Airlight Pro hair dryer that added infrared light to speed up drying and reduce the amount of heat being applied to hair. Its new Light Straight features similar tech, but in the form of a flat iron that can be used to straighten or curl hair in just one pass. Similar hair-styling tools will heat up to more than 400 degrees Fahrenheit, but L’Oréal’s Light Straight maxes out at 320 degrees while still being faster and causing less damage. It’s set to release in 2027, when pricing will also be revealed.

Most of us haven’t upgraded to Wi-Fi 7 routers yet, but technology marches on, and CES 2026 saw the debut of Wi-Fi 8 routers and chips despite the fact the official IEEE 802.11bn specification may not be finalized until mid to late 2028. One of the more unusual designs at this year’s show is the Asus ROG NeoCore concept router that looks like a 20-sided role playing die with a hollow bottom. You can’t buy one yet, and the prototype broke when The Verge’s Sean Hollister picked it up, but the unusual router design hides its antennas along the internal edges of the polyhedron so it doesn’t look like an alien spider.

Motorola is no stranger to folding phones, but the company has so far stuck with clamshell-style handsets, inspired by its iconic ultrathin cellphone. At CES 2026, Motorola announced its first book-style folding smartphone featuring a 6.6-inch outer screen, an 8.1-inch 2K LTPO inner display, a trio of 50-megapixel cameras on the back, a 32-megapixel selfie camera on the front, and a 20-megapixel camera inside. The Verge’s Allison Johnson went hands-on with the new Razr Fold, but couldn’t get Motorola to reveal pricing for when the phone launches in North America this summer.

After releasing a cute donut-shaped wireless charger in December, Ikea announced two new Matter-compatible lighting products at CES 2026 including an upgraded version of its Varmblixt donut lamp. The original version had a glossy reflective finish, but the new Varmblixt has a matte finish to diffuse and accentuate its internal LED lighting. When it launches in April 2026 for $99.99, the smart donut lamp will come with one of Ikea’s new Bilresa remotes that can be used to cycle through 12 color presets. You can also pair the lamp to Ikea’s Dirigera hub and Ikea Home Smart app to gain access to additional color settings.

Most red and infrared light therapy masks are rigid and chunky, making you look like an old-timey hockey goalie ready for a game as you climb into bed. L’Oréal’s new LED face mask is instead made from a thin, lightweight, and flexible material that’s more comfortable and also positions its lighting closer to your face. As a result, instead of having to wear it for 10 to 20 minutes, the company says you only need to wear L’Oréal’s mask for five to 10 minutes to treat lines and wrinkles. Pricing isn’t known, and you’ll have to wait until at least 2027 to buy one, pending FDA clearance.

In addition to new Matter-compatible lamps, Ikea announced a new Bluetooth speaker during its CES debut. Besides its compact size (measuring just 3 inches on its longest side) and striking white, dark pink, and lime green color options, the Kallsup speaker’s most compelling feature will be its $10 price tag when it launches in April 2026. The Kallsup is “surprisingly loud,” according to The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, but if you need more decibels you can pair and sync up to 100 of them to fill your entire home with sound.

How does Lenovo plan to top the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 laptop it debuted at CES 2025 with a rollable screen that expands vertically from 14- to 16.7-inches? By turning the feature on its side. Lenovo’s new Pro Rollable gaming laptop’s screen expands horizontally from 16 inches with a 16:10 aspect ratio to an ultrawide 24 inches. It’s based on the Legion Pro 7i and will potentially feature an Intel Core Ultra processor paired with Nvidia’s flagship RTX 5090 laptop GPU, but the Pro Rollable is strictly a concept at this time.

A year ago, Roborock debuted its Saros Z70 robot vacuum at CES 2025 with an articulated robotic arm that could reach in front of the robovac to pick up items like socks instead of running them over. The company’s new Saros Rover vacuum also features appendages, but in the form of two extending legs with wheels the robot can use to climb and clean stairs. A robovac that can clean multiple floors of a home by navigating stairs isn’t a new idea, but the Saros Rover can also clean each step as it climbs — albeit very slowly based on demos at CES 2026. There’s no timeline for a release yet as Roborock says it’s still in development, but the Saros Rover isn’t just a concept.

For the first time since Corsair acquired Elgato in 2018, the company is incorporating Stream Deck controls into a wired mechanical gaming keyboard. The keyboard side of the Corsair Galleon 100 SD has features like an 8,000Hz polling rate and a hot-swappable PCB that uses MLX Pulse switches, while on the other side you’ll find an integrated Stream Deck Plus with 12 customizable buttons, a pair of rotary dials, and a 5-inch multipurpose 720 x 1280 IPS display. It will be available starting on January 29th but is now available for preorder for $349.99.

Originally announced as a concept design at IFA 2024, Lenovo is turning the Auto Twist AI PC into a real laptop, now called the ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist laptop. Like the original, it features a 14-inch screen mounted to a motorized pivoting hinge that can automatically open the laptop for you with a knock on the lid or track your head and adjust its orientation to match your posture or position. You’ll be able to buy one in June with prices starting at $1,649.

Razer thinks headphones, not glasses, are the future of AI wearables, as demonstrated by its Project Motoko concept headphones that The Verge’s Victoria Song tried at CES 2026. Project Motoko looks similar to Razer’s wireless gaming headphones but adds a pair of 4K cameras positioned at eye level, near and far field microphones, and AI. The headphones are powered by an unnamed Qualcomm Snapdragon chip and compatible with major AI models that are used to identify images and sounds, or respond to your requests. Battery life has been tested to up to 36 hours, which eclipses all the AI smart glasses on the market.

Anker’s solution to open-ear wireless headphones that can quiet the world around you is a transforming design that positions the AeroFit 2 Pro’s drivers closer to the ear canal. The new $249.95 Shokz OpenFit Pro take a different approach. Instead of true ANC that requires a sealed ear canal, the open-ear buds offer noise reduction using a triple microphone array, a new speaker design, and an adaptive algorithm that generates audio to dampen unwanted sounds. The Verge’s Victoria Song found they worked surprisingly well and was also impressed with the OpenFit Pro’s improved bass performance, which is one place where open-ear headphones often disappoint.

In need of a lot of pixels and ports on your desk? Dell’s UltraSharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor is the world’s first 52-inch 6K display and features a 21:9 aspect ratio, a resolution of up to 6,144 x 2,560 at 120Hz, and a slight curve. It also doubles as a dock and includes two HDMI 2.1 ports, two DisplayPort 1.4 ports, and a bunch of upstream and downstream USB-C and USB-A ports, including a Thunderbolt 4 port that can deliver up to 140W of power. It’s available now for $2,899 with a stand, or $2,799 if you want to provide your own.

Does your butt deserve more than just a comfy place to sit? Razer thinks so and has incorporated several of its existing gaming chair accessories into a proof of concept called Project Madison. It’s like the Frankenstein’s monster of gaming chairs incorporating THX-certified speakers with spatial audio, dual RGB light strips, and six haptic motors in the cushions pulsing force feedback effects into your back and below. There’s no pricing estimates, as Razer hasn’t announced if Project Madison will ever go into production.

Our biggest complaint with the original version of OhSnap’s MCON sliding gamepad is that it makes your phone too thick to slip into a pocket or comfortably carry while it’s attached. That problem is potentially being solved with two new versions that debuted at CES 2026. The $100 MCON Slim uses touchpads instead of thumbsticks, while the $60 MCON Lite uses joysticks similar to what’s found on the Nintendo 3Ds. But neither of the thinner versions features the original’s spring-loaded sliding mechanism, so there’s a definite tradeoff.

The Wolverine V3 BT isn’t just another wireless controller featuring drift-resistant tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) joysticks. It’s also the world’s first gamepad to use ultra-low latency Bluetooth with a a sub-3ms response time. But there’s a catch. As the first accessory to launch under LG’s “Designed for LG Gaming Portal” program, the Wolverine V3 BT only uses ultra-low latency Bluetooth when connected to an LG TV running webOS 25. All other devices will connect to it using standard Bluetooth. Pricing and availability haven’t been finalized.

New OLED gaming monitors making their debut in 2026 should have clearer and sharper text thanks to panel makers Samsung Display and LG Display now lining up the colors of their subpixels in vertical RGB stripes. The improved OLED panels are already being supplied to companies like MSI, and Gigabyte, and at CES 2026, Asus announced three gaming monitors featuring the new “RGB stripe” screen tech. Pricing and availability aren’t known, but the 27-inch ROG Swift OLED PG27UCWM will also use Tandem OLED tech for increased brightness and longevity, while the 34-inch ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDN and the ROG Strix OLED XG34WCDMS will feature quantum dot OLED panels.

Smart door locks that conveniently automatically unlock as you approach aren’t a new idea, but they typically rely on a mix of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, geofencing, and apps that are frequently unreliable. Aqara’s new $269.99 U400 smart deadbolt lock is the first to work with Apple’s Home Key’s hands-free unlocking using the U1 ultra-wideband (UWB) chip found in many iPhones and Apple Watches, without the need for a special app. The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy had the chance to test the new smart lock for a week and found it “worked every time without any waiting,” making it a “significant upgrade” for their front door.

Although it’s currently just an R&D concept, Samsung Display showcased a new folding OLED panel that doesn’t have the visible crease that every foldable phone on the market exhibits when they’re opened. Samsung Display has been a longtime panel provider for Apple, so could this be the OLED screen that will be used in the rumored foldable iPhone?

Acer announced several new laptops at CES 2026, but the standout is its Swift 16 AI featuring what the company claims is the world’s largest haptic trackpad. It will give your fingers a good workout as they slide back and forth across its wide expanse, but the laptop includes a stylus, turning the trackpad into a tablet for sketching or annotating documents. The Swift 16 AI will be available with Intel Panther Lake chips (up to the Core Ultra X9 388H), plenty of ports, and an optional OLED display when it launches in Q1 2026.

Want the portability of a laptop without the cramped keyboard? HP crammed an entire mini desktop computer into its new Eliteboard G1a keyboard, including an AMD Ryzen AI 300-series chip, stereo speakers, RAM, storage, a cooling fan, and ports. It can be connected to up to two 4K displays using a daisy-chain connection and paired to a Bluetooth mouse. Pricing hasn’t been announced, but the G1a is expected to launch in March.

Samsung debuted one of the more impressive TVs at CES this year with a monstrous 130-inch Micro RGB TV featuring a frame designed to “appear less like a television and more like a vast, immersive window that visually expands the room,” according to a release from the company. Pricing and availability haven’t been announced, but the TV will most likely be one of those upgrades that if you have to ask how much it costs, it’s probably not in your budget.

Lego doesn’t regularly exhibit at CES, but at this year’s show it announced its new Smart Play platform that’s debuting in three new Star Wars building sets in March. The platform relies on a new 2×4 Lego Smart Brick featuring interactive LED lighting, wireless connectivity, a speaker, microphone, and various sensors that can detect light, movements, tilting, and gestures. The Smart Brick works alongside NFC-equipped smart tags (Lego tile pieces) and minifigures to enable new interactive play opportunities. You can use the Smart Brick to trigger crash sounds when a Lego racecar flips over, for example, or start playing The Imperial March when the new Emperor Palpatine figure is placed on his throne.

Using an adjustable ear-hook design that repositions the drivers at the entrance of your ear canal, the Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pro are one of the first wireless open-ear headphones that can be converted to an earbuds mode with active noise cancellation. You have the option of naturally hearing the world around you along with your music or podcasts, or blocking out your environment entirely. They’re available now through Anker’s online store for $179.99, but battery life maxes out at just 7 hours with the headphones alone, or up to 34 when paired with their charging case.

Amazon is jumping on the art TV bandwagon with its new 4K edge-lit LED Ember Artline TV. Available this spring in 55 to 65-inch sizes starting at $899, the TV has a matte finish to make photos and artwork look less like a screen and more like artwork hanging on your wall. Amazon is giving customers their choice of 10 different frame styles to help match their room, while the TV can provide personalized recommendations for artwork that will best match the decor based on photos of the room where it’s installed.

Anker’s latest floor-mopping robovac will make your home smell better one way or another. Launching later this month for $1,599, the Eufy S2 is rated at up to 30,000Pa of suction, uses AI-powered obstacle detection and real-time 3D mapping to navigate your home and avoid obstacles, and has a retractable mop head that cleans itself with electrolyzed water. If that doesn’t alleviate bad smells, the Eufy S2 can instead mask them using a built-in aromatherapy dispenser with scents that include citrus, bamboo, basil, or sage.

Samsung hasn’t changed much with the design of its third-generation Freestyle projector. The new Freestyle Plus still looks like an oversize soda can and features an integrated stand, speakers, and Wi-Fi. But it’s nearly twice as bright as its predecessor at 430 ISO lumens, and it’s getting a host of new AI-powered automatic adjustment features. We got to try them out at CES 2026 and were impressed with the Freestyle Plus’ ability to automatically correct its alignment when projected on challenging surfaces like the corner of a room or even a wavy curtain.

8BitDo originally made a name for itself with budget-friendly but well-featured alternatives to Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft’s controllers. It’s still very good at that, but 8BitDo’s new Ultimate 3E Controller for Xbox will be its most expensive gamepad when it launches in Q2 of 2026 for $149.99 and one of its most customizable. If tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) joysticks, Hall effect triggers with adjustable stops, and official Xbox support (using a USB dongle) aren’t enough to sell you on the 3E, it also comes with interchangeable button modules letting you choose between membrane buttons and clicky micro switches.

First announced last month, The Verge’s Allison Johnson finally got some hands-on time with the Galaxy Z TriFold that uses a pair of inward-folding hinges to expand from a chunky phone to a large tablet. For now it’s only available in Korea, but the Z TriFold is expected to be available in the US sometime in Q1 2026 for what will most likely be a hefty chunk of change. Its biggest selling point, according to Johnson, is the potential to carry around a laptop replacement in your pocket. “The thing that makes the TriFold feel like it could finally be The One — the one device you can carry around, leaving all others behind — is none other than DeX. On the TriFold, DeX isn’t just a desktop environment when you pair it with an external display. It’s a whole standalone mode with windowing to your heart’s content.”

If you always seem to remember what groceries you need after you get home from the store, GE Appliances’ new package-scanning fridge can help you create a comprehensive shopping list. Launching in April 2026 for $4,899, the GE Profile Smart 4-Door French-Door Refrigerator with Kitchen Assistant has a scanner on the front you can use to scan empty packages, and you can manually add items to a shopping list using an 8-inch tablet on the door. There’s even a camera inside the fridge you can remotely access through an app to check if you’ve run out of something while you’re shopping.

Clicks is best known for its smartphone cases that add a physical BlackBerry-style compact keyboard. Its latest creation has that same keyboard, but also a 4.03-inch OLED screen, front and rear cameras, a headphone jack, and a 5G data connection, and it runs Android 16. The Clicks Communicator is designed to be an alternative to your daily driver smartphone that you can limit to essential apps to minimize distractions. At $499 it’s priced similarly to the Pixel 9A, but you can reserve one now for a limited time to get a discount.

As TCL and Hisense have done, LG is looking to usurp the dominance of Samsung’s The Frame in the art TV category. Its new LG Gallery TV leverages the company’s Gallery+ service that launched earlier this year to display everything from art to gaming scenes. The Gallery TV is a mini-LED TV with what is likely a matte coating, but LG describes it as having a “specialized screen that reduces glare and minimizes reflections for an art-like viewing experience.” It comes with a white frame, and while you can purchase additional wood-colored frames, pricing for the LG Gallery TV hasn’t been announced.

LG’s CLOiD is a home robot that can potentially do more than just clean your floors. The robot features a pair of articulated arms with seven degrees of motion mounted to a mobile base with a torso that can tilt and bend. LG says CLOiD can perform household tasks like folding and stacking laundry, putting food in the oven, or fetching something from your fridge. Can it do that faster or more reliably than you can? That remains to be seen, but CLOiD could be even more useful as a mobile smart home hub you can converse with as it follows you around the house.

Samsung’s Family Hub smart fridges aren’t new, but the company will soon be introducing a new feature for added convenience: voice-activated door opening and closing. When your hands are full of groceries, or are dirty while you’re whipping up a meal, you’ll be able to ask Bixby to “Shut the fridge door,” or “Open the door,” and it will open over 90 degrees giving you full access. If your mouth is full of food and you can’t properly articulate what you want, the door can also be opened or closed using a tap of your palm or the back of your hand.

If you pulled a Honey, I Shrunk the Kids on the Las Vegas Sphere, you’d end up with something like SwitchBot’s new dome-shaped Obboto RGB desk lamp. It’s wrapped in over 2,900 color-changing LEDs and can display preset animations, animated GIFs, AI-powered “mood animations,” music visualizers, or just the local weather and time if you want to be practical. Pricing and availability haven’t been announced yet.

Petkit’s new automatic pet feeder that can dole out up to seven days of wet food isn’t just about alleviating guilt about leaving your furry friend behind while you travel. The Yumshare Daily Feast uses an NFC tracking system to remove meals that haven’t been eaten in 48 hours and UVC lighting to sanitize the system for delivering fresh ones. What’s potentially even more useful is an AI-powered 1080p night vision camera that tracks when and how much your pet eats to provide insights on their diet and possible health issues. It’s expected to launch in April 2026 and will be sold through pet food companies.

Six years after its first Wallpaper TV debuted in 2017, LG has revived the line with its new LG OLED evo W6. The TV is 9mm thick thanks to its redesigned internal architecture and features a new mount so it can sit completely flush against a wall. Further improving installation is the W6’s use of LG’s Zero Connect Box which wireless sends a video signal from up to 33 feet away. The only physical cable you need to route to the W6 is for power. It will be available in 77 and 83-inch sizes.

GameSir may have already clinched the title for weirdest controller at CES 2026. The company shared more details about its upcoming Swift Drive gamepad that features a small steering wheel in the middle of the controller. The wheel’s connected to a high-precision Hall effect encoder and an equally small direct drive motor that provides force feedback effects while playing racing games and sims. There are additional haptic motors located in the gamepad’s Hall effect triggers to simulate effects like ABS braking, and it’s got RGB lighting effects that can be synced to your game. Pricing and availability haven’t been revealed yet.

It’s not quite as adorable as the furry Mirumi robot that debuted at last year’s CES, but Yukai Engineering’s new Baby FuFu is potentially more practical. It looks like a cuddly cat that’s huffing and puffing and features an internal fan that will keep young kids cool while preventing tiny fingers from reaching any dangerous moving parts. It’s expected to arrive in mid-2026 for $50 to $60.

Update, January 8th: Added new announcements from the show.

Update, January 7th: Added new announcements from the show.

Update, January 6th: Added new announcements from the show.