It's Press Day at CES 2026, the largest, 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 palettes as vendors set up their demos and a frenzy of companies at press-only showcases.

Stick with us as we showcase the best across all key product categories, from TVs to laptops, and hopefully ignite your imagination with fun and future-facing concepts that give you a glimpse into what your next favorite gadget might look like. 

Read on for the major trends and expert predictions that shine a line on what to expect.

Read more: CNET Is Choosing the Best of CES 2026 Awards

What happens at CES again?

CES is one of the largest and most significant tech trade shows in the world. It's attended by all the major, established tech companies, as well as numerous up-and-coming companies from around the world. 

Samsung will be bringing its largest-ever CES showcase to this year's convention, and Lenovo is taking over the Las Vegas Sphere for its keynote, which, if it manages to rival Delta's event at the venue last year, should be quite a show. Another event we're excited about is the Sony Honda Mobility Exhibit, where the two companies will unveil the pre-production Afeela 1 EV, set to go on sale in California in 2026.

Together with the media, investors and business leaders, these companies and others will gather in the conference halls and hotel suites of Las Vegas to showcase their newest innovations and set the agenda for the year. CES 2025 drew over 140,000 people, 40% of whom came from outside of the US, which should give you a solid idea of the enormity and importance of this show.

Some of the products and ideas we'll see at the show are concepts that tease next-generation developments in technology. Other 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 Jan. 6 to 9, but CNET has already arrived for an early look and exclusive media-only previews before the show doors even open.

Sunday, Jan. 4, will be the first major day of the show for us, and on Monday, Jan. 5 we attend back-to-back news conferences, where the biggest names in tech unveil their latest products and devices to the world.

How to watch along

Don't want to miss out? The best place for all the latest CES news is right here on our CNET live blog. Our expert team of reporters and reviewers has decades of combined experience covering the show. We'll show you everything we deem interesting and important, and we're not just admiring new products from afar. We're touching, tinkering with and trying not to drop them, so be sure to follow us across X, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Bluesky, too.

CES 2026 major trends

We couldn't escape AI at CES 2025, and we expect this year to be much the same. One of our tasks -- as your eyes, ears and hands on the ground -- is to discern between AI that's genuinely useful and elevates a product or device, and AI that is simply marketing fluff, or overpromises and underdelivers. 

We'll also be keeping a close eye on the chip companies: Arm, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and Nvidia. They're often at the forefront of advances in AI -- on-device AI in particular -- so we're keen to see what they might have to say or show off at this CES.

Another major trend we're expecting to see this year is a focus on digital health. This is likely to span devices and services, with companies such as Withings, Samsung and Ultrahuman showcasing developments in personal health technology.

Then there's auto tech and mobility. Volvo is set to hold a keynote at CES 2026, and we expect to see an emphasis on connected vehicles and transportation at this year's show.

These are the three major trends highlighted by the Consumer Technology Association, which organizes the event. But CNET's veteran experts also have their own predictions. Here's what we're excited for.

Our experts' CES predictions

Ty Pendlebury: TV and audio

There'll be two main improvements from the TVs announced at CES 2026 -- better brightness and better colors. 

The newest Dolby Vision 2 specification, and Samsung's HDR 10 Plus Advanced, will help drive TVs to be even brighter than before; in some cases, they'll be over twice as bright. OLED TVs will also get a boost, and we'll likely see more of the four-stack technology LG debuted last year. It essentially stacks two OLEDs on top of each other for a brighter image.

As far as colors are concerned, we'll see TVs which boast expanded colors up to 100% of the BT.2020 standard -- something that hasn't been done before now. One of the ways TV manufacturers will accomplish both of these improvements is with new LCD backlights, including new color filters or the Micro RGB tech, which Samsung debuted last year.

Meanwhile, the best and most surprising audio of CES is usually from new companies. Multiroom audio, desktop speakers, personal music players: These devices are usually shown at events the day before the show starts and are often the best things we'll see all week. 

Meanwhile, the bigger audio companies will also be exhibiting. The Harman group, now owned by Samsung, is one of the most reliable presences at CES. As with every year, you can expect new soundbars, Bluetooth speakers and possibly AV separates. In that vein, Klipsch and its new partner, Onkyo, will likely have some more soundbars and speakers on display. As far as high-end audio, though, it will be there, but hi-fi shows are more important than CES nowadays and its presence will be limited.

Josh Goldman: Computers

It might come as a surprise, but CES is a pretty big show for what's coming next in the world of PCs. A wide variety gets unveiled -- from ultraportables to the latest for gaming and content creation -- so it really is a "something for everyone" kind of event. Additionally, there are usually major chip announcements; you have to have something powering all the new laptops and desktops, after all. CES is also where PC makers come to showcase eye-popping concepts and prototypes for both computers and peripherals, so expect to see all of this and more.

Intel, AMD and Qualcomm have been battling it out to see who can deliver processors that are equally powerful and power-efficient. We're already seeing laptops that get more than 24 hours of battery life and have 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 have significantly better graphics performance without the additional cost -- or heat -- of a discrete GPU. Another version of these chips might also find its way into new gaming handhelds at the show. 

Abrar Al-Heeti: Mobile

Events like CES are always packed with fun, futuristic concepts for personal devices, and I'm sure we'll see our fair share of bendy screens and innovative wearables again. But in the past several months, two key descriptors have defined the most cutting-edge smartphones: thin and foldable. And that's likely to continue into 2026.

Phone makers from Samsung to Honor to Huawei have debuted wildly slim handsets (some of which also fold), and Apple's iPhone Air arguably helped to legitimize the thin category. And these companies are just getting started. Get ready for Samsung's new Galaxy Z TriFold, which has three display panels instead of two -- similar to Huawei's Mate XT Ultimate Design. More concepts like this will probably be on display at CES, and some may even see the light of day. Several others will merely live on in our collective imagination.

Oh yeah, and lots of mobile AI. Companies aren't quite ready to ease up on that.

David Watsky: Home

Advanced AI continues to drive home tech 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 wow our vacuum expert, Ajay Kumar, quite as much in testing. We anticipate more home robotics at CES that assist in everyday chores, including laundry, cleaning, cooking, home security and general smart home management. 

Large appliances continue to become smarter, offering varying degrees of helpfulness. I anticipate fridges, ovens and washing machines with more advanced hub screens (in the future, all refrigerators will have them -- mark my words) and smarter app integration to help homemakers move through their to-do lists. 

It's unlikely that a laundry-folding robot that any of us can afford will be ready for primetime this year, but it soothes me greatly to know it might not be too far off.

As with other parts of CES 2026, we expect AI advances to be front and center for the smart home, including more intelligent video scanning for security cameras, a trend that's been on the rise all year. 

We'll also see AI-powered conversational voice assistants that can talk from your doorbell, help set home routines for you -- generally making smart home management less complicated and more hands-off. Another tech trend to look for is presence sensing, or using disturbances in Wi-Fi signals to map activity patterns around the home for better analysis."

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: Cars

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 car" prototypes emerging and more detailed information regarding the testing and rollout of electric air taxi services in major cities. Plus, you should keep an eye out for cool consumer electronics announcements this year, focusing on dashcams and other aftermarket automotive gear.