CES 2026 Live: Tech’s Big Event Kicks Off From Las Vegas

Jan. 5, 2026 6:00 p.m. PT

AMD’s CES 2026 press conference starts at 6:30 p.m. PT, and will feature CEO Lisa Su as the company makes its latest batch of tech announcements. AMD is expected to launch new hardware along with its own plans for artificial intelligence, with the company’s website stating that it plans to deliver “AI solutions — from cloud to enterprise, edge and devices.”

AMD’s livestream will be available on both AMD’s YouTube channel as well as on CNET’s YouTube channel.

Will CES 2026 bring the introduction of Motorola’s first book-style foldable phone? A social media teaser video from Motorola — in addition to information about a purported phone called the Motorola Fold posted by leaker Evan Blass — is heightening anticipation. Moto-owner Lenovo’s Tech World event at the Las Vegas Sphere on Jan. 6 could be where it first appears. For more, check out CNET’s coverage from Omar Gallaga.

Often, at the end of the workday, I’ll glance at a Post-it with notes I jotted down during a Zoom call, only to think to myself, “What did I write? I hope it wasn’t important.” 

CES 2026 has no shortage of AI-powered notetaking devices, although Thine wants to leverage your iPhone as the foundation of its app. Rather than having another piece of hardware, like a necklace, the Thine app simply lets you use your iPhone’s microphone and Siri functionality. The premise is that Thine doesn’t have to invest in creating a device that has a mic with good audio pickup and background noise cancellation, because most modern iPhones already have solid capabilities. 

Instead, the Thine app listens to your conversations, then you can theoretically ask a question such as, “What did I talk to a friend about yesterday at lunch?” and it will provide a summary, as you might get from a chatbot such as ChatGPT. CNET’s own Jon Reed demoed Thine at CES, where a conversation the previous day was accurately summarized. 

If you weren’t already concerned about your phone listening to you, Thine actively does — although the company promises that no audio recordings of your conversations are stored, and that exact transcripts aren’t yet available. But Thine CEO Pratyush Rai says that a new version of the app is forthcoming, with the ability to offer transcripts that you can upload into chatbots. 

But chances are, unless you’ve got deep pockets, you won’t be using Thine to transcribe work calls or class lectures. At a staggering $200 a month for a Thine subscription, it’s not cheap. According to Rai, Thine is currently tailored more for executives and founders who want to easily keep track of meetings and networking conversations. 

Sony Honda Mobility’s Afeela 1 electric vehicle brand will get new updates at the joint venture’s CES press conference, which will kick off at 5 p.m. PT. The Afeela 1 was first announced back at CES 2020, with pricing and preorders first announced at last year’s CES.

According to Sony Honda Mobility’s announcement of the event, there will be updates for both the first Afeela 1 vehicle and for an all-new concept model. 

The press conference will stream on both Afeela’s YouTube channel as well as on CNET’s YouTube channel.

I’ve never seen a security camera look so cute, nor have I seen one with so many hidden features. Lockly’s compact, battery-powered OwlGuard is here at CES, and it’s bringing new tricks for home security. 

This palm-size camera has 2K resolution and color night vision, plus a tiny screen to give you status updates. You don’t need an app or even a Wi-Fi signal to use it. That last part is especially handy if you’re worried about power outages or Wi-Fi jammers.

The OwlGuard, which will sell this spring for $100, has more add-ons than I’ve ever seen in a security camera. You can pop on a monocle to enable more powerful zooming, give it shades to reduce glare in sunny spots, pop on a silicone overcoat for more protection or add a privacy cover when not in use. It also works with Alexa and Google Home. 

Amazon’s branded TVs will now be called Ember, and they’ll have magnetic frames and sensors to detect when someone’s in the room. The first model, the Ember Artline TV, looks to be a direct competitor to Samsung’s The Frame TV, with its matte screen and access to more than 2,000 pieces of free art. 

The Ember Artline is a 4K QLED TV with support for Dolby Vision and HDR10 Plus, available at $900 for the 55-inch model and $1,100 for the 65-inch model.

For more on Amazon’s latest lineup, read CNET TV editor Ty Pendlebury’s coverage here.

Scribbling notes in work meetings could soon be a problem of the past because the Vocci AI smart ring will record and transcribe your meetings for you — in over 100 languages. All you have to do is press the button on the side of the ring, and it’ll get to work. 

When you want to remember an important moment during the meeting, press the same button, prompting Vocci to highlight that transcript section in red and provide AI-generated insights. It’s like a personal assistant, sitting on your finger. 

Samsung Display is known for showing off futuristic concepts that may or may not make it into the real world, but the company showed off a handful of uses at this year’s CES that I hope will someday hit the market. 

Foldable phones today still have a rather notable crease (even if they’re slowly becoming more subtle), but Samsung Display conjured up a concept that makes those lines practically invisible. With reports suggesting Apple is working with Samsung Display to develop a creaseless foldable iPhone, it’s possible we may see this application in a phone that actually hits the market. 

Samsung Display also showed off a vehicle model equipped with OLED displays, including a curved, 18.1-inch L-shaped center display for controlling climate, navigation and more. The curved display isn’t an entirely new concept, but it has been upgraded from the 14.4-inch version of previous years. 

The front-seat passenger can watch movies on a 13.8-inch display that can move into the dashboard when it’s not needed. There’s also an option in which a driver won’t be able to see what’s on the passenger’s screen from their vantage point, so they don’t get distracted. I’m not sure if there’s a need for more screens inside a car, but this is a solution I think could improve safety, while keeping passengers entertained.  

And there were robots. The one Samsung Display showed off is a concept for a teaching assistant that can guide students to classrooms, share information about professors and let you check assignments. We didn’t see it do more than display messages on its circular screen, so I’m not sure how to feel about the usefulness of this application. But points for the cute little robot arms on the sides. 

Monday morning, CNET Senior Editor James Bricknell and Senior Reporter David Lumb left the Las Vegas strip to go hiking at the Red Rock Canyon national conservation area. It was just for a short quarter-mile nature visit to get away from most technology at CES 2026. But to ease their way, they donned the Hypershell X Ultra exoskeleton as a mobility aid.

“I’ve been using the Hypershell X Ultra exoskeleton for about a month now, but this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with it at elevation,” James says. “I’m pretty unhealthy, and I was expecting to be exhausted very quickly. After the initial burst of effort, I quickly settled into a comfortable stride with the Hypershell helping reduce the strain on all my joints. It was great to keep up with everyone else without the outward appearance of exhaustion.”

“I’ve not used the Hypershell exoskeleton before, and indeed put one on right before hitting the trail,” David says. “As a seasoned hiker, I’m used to trudging up and down rough paths, my legs screaming louder and louder as fatigue sets in. But with the Hypershell wrapped around my waist and its carbon-fiber limbs reaching down to a cuff cinched above my knees, hiking up our short trail was noticeably easier. 

“I made sure to switch it off and on as I moved along the trail, and could tell that the Hypershell’s motor lifted my thighs enough with each step to keep my feet from dragging. At its highest motorized strength setting, the exoskeleton was almost leading my legs before I was ready to walk — and at the end of a long day of hiking, that could help me finish the last length of the trail, which always feels the longest.”

At CES 2026, robotics are on display. Qualcomm revealed a slate of robotics, aimed at everything from home use to human-like robotics. The company’s Dragonwing IQ10 Series is a “full-stack” AI architecture — meaning it affects both the front- and back-end of the technology. Or, in this case, the hardware and software. One of the most innovative designs was a humanoid created in partnership with VinMotion, the Motion 2 robot. In a video demo on YouTube, the Motion 2 robot can be seen crouching down and bending its back to pick a teddy bear up off the floor, as well as punching through a piece of wood. 

Qualcomm says that partnerships with companies including Figure, Kuka Robotics, Booster Robotics and Autocore are all in the works. By collaborating with robotics companies, Qualcomm is fusing its artificial intelligence technologies with humanoids. Qualcomm’s AI tech can already be found on a range of devices, from mobile devices like phones and tablets to automobiles, so the expansion further into robotics makes sense. In particular, Qualcomm can apply its expertise in automotive technology, making it potentially well-suited for the robotics industry, which may adopt the company’s chips and AI offerings. 

Chances are, we aren’t quite close to the Jetsons — don’t expect humanoid robots to be in every household by the end of 2026 — but maybe there will be a robot more capable and with better flexibility than me soon. Actually, maybe that’s a low bar. But you get the picture.

In one of the most exciting moments of CES 2026 so far, I just witnessed Boston Dynamics’ new Atlas robot strut out onto the stage at Hyundai’s press event. I say strut rather than walk, as this humanoid robot has a very human-like gait.

This new version of Atlas will be set to work in Hyundai’s factories around the world over the next year. The robot is at the core of Hyundai’s robot strategy, in which it envisions humans and robots working harmoniously and safely together.

If Samsung is willing to put AI in its refrigerators, then projectors don’t seem so farfetched. The Galaxy phone-maker has updated its Freestyle projector with a new “Plus” model, adding AI-powered features such as keystone correction, automatic screen fit and wall calibration. It’s part of a suite of features that the South Korean firm calls AI OptiScreen. 

Samsung is also using AI to help you navigate. You can interact with this projector using only your voice. No typing required. 

Read more: Samsung Updates Its Freestyle Plus Projector With ‘Additional’ AI

Samsung is going big at CES 2026 with a massive, Micro RGB backlit TV. The hefty 130-inch R95H has an easel-like design and Samsung’s proprietary Glare-Free technology. It promises more saturated colors and better brightness, offering another option for TV shoppers. It doesn’t have a price tag yet, but don’t expect it to be cheap.

The future’s so bright you’re not going to escape it with these HDR display glasses. The RayNeo Air Pro 4 is one of the first models to incorporate the super-bright micro-OLED panels, which can hit up to 1,200 nits. Even if it’s just a 1% window where it peaks (that’s just my guess), it’s close to your eyeballs and filling a lot of your field of view. 

Scott Stein had eyes-on time with these vivid, in-your-face displays and other new tech, so check out his coverage.

Nvidia’s press conference at CES 2026 is underway, with CEO Jensen Huang. Until recently, Nvidia was best known for its graphics cards and the GeForce Now game streaming service. Today’s conference, however, is expected to focus on Nvidia’s incredibly profitable AI efforts, with the company’s YouTube channel stating that part of the conference will include a panel on AI.

In addition to Nvidia’s own channel, its press conference is also streaming on CNET’s YouTube channel.

CNET’s Bridget Carey put RheoFit’s A1 to the test at CES. It’s a $380 AI-powered robotic roller that literally glides under your body to give you a full-body massage. In the video, she lies flat on the floor as the robot does its thing, slowly rolling beneath her from shoulders to toes. She called the experience “joy” and said it might be the best gadget she’s tested at CES so far.

Sweekar looks like a little Tamagotchi pet, starting its electronic life by hatching from an egg and eventually growing big enough to sit on your desk or shelf. The AI pet is priced at $150, and there could be more ways to play with it as it advances through the teen and adulthood stages.

CES 2026 is in full swing, and CNET is heads down in Las Vegas working to bring you all the reveals from the year’s biggest technology conference.

TCL is pushing the boundaries of TV brightness at CES with the X11L, a new 4K LCD set the company says can reach up to 10,000 nits. The X11L uses a Super Quantum Dot (SQ-LED) layer to boost color intensity and crank brightness to eye-searing levels. It’s paired with an almost bezel-free, edge-to-edge design that puts the focus squarely on the screen. 

The company says the X11L’s SQ-LED panel uses proprietary technology to show the widest range of colors possible in a television screen.

The TCL X11L will be available this month in 75-, 85-, and 98-inch options. Read more. 

Hisense will be broadcasting its CES press conference starting at 10 a.m. PT. The company will likely show off its next line of televisions and screens. This could include the recently unveiled S6 FollowMe, a 32-inch tablet-style display you can wheel around the home and use for video calls, watching movies or browsing the internet.

Hisense’s conference will be streaming on CNET’s YouTube channel as well as on Hisense’s YouTube channel.

The Aura V7 Max and Veno Pro are wireless smart locks that will never need to have their batteries replaced. They use a proprietary wireless charging technology called AuraCharge, to charge the lock with a beam of light from a base station. That base station doesn’t need to be plugged in, but it does need line of sight of the lock, within a 4-meter range.

The V7 Max has displays on both sides of the lock, allowing for two-way video. The Veno Pro, meanwhile, functions as a more standard deadbolt replacement.

For more about the V7 Max and Veno Pro, CNET Editor Ajay Kumar got extended time with both locks at CES.

A day ahead of Lenovo Tech World, Motorola appears to be teasing a new foldable phone that may be getting its first look at the Tuesday event. In this Instagram video posted by Motorola, the animated graphic initially shows a Motorola Razr, but then morphs into a book-style folding phone that’s similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold series. We’ll find out Tuesday if Motorola’s truly unveiling a new foldable as part of its CES lineup.

LG’s CES 2026 press conference includes a look at the CLOiD homemaker robot and new TVs among other announcements.

LG makes some of the best TVs on the market — I’ve been using an LG C2 OLED for some years, and am still blown away by its picture quality each time I sit down to watch a movie or a TV show. The company revealed its W6 Wallpaper TV at CES 2026. With its thin design, wireless connection box and the option to display artwork digitally, LG’s Wallpaper TV allows you to install a television in your living room while maintaining a clean setup that doesn’t, by default, make it the center of attention. Plus, enhancements to its panel make it better suited to living rooms while theoretically maintaining excellent video quality.

As the name suggests, the W6 Wallpaper TV is super thin at just 0.35 inches (9mm). It’s designed to sit flush against a wall, so if you wall-mount your television, it shouldn’t stick out too much. LG’s W6 Wallpaper TV has a wireless connection box for the audio/video inputs, like HDMI ports, that can be placed up to 30 feet away. So you can keep your home theater devices — streaming devices, game consoles and 4K Blu-ray players — tucked away in a media cabinet for a clutter-free living room. 

Despite the LG W6 Wallpaper TV’s wireless connectivity box, the company says it delivers visually lossless 4K audio and video. For gamers, the W6 Wallpaper can run games at up to 4K resolution with a blazing-fast 165Hz refresh rate and a super-low 0.1ms pixel response time — if you’ve got a PC capable of running high-resolution, high-frame-rate games, the W6 should be more than up to the task. Likewise, it should pair well with consoles such as the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2. 

LG claims that the W6 is “reflection free,” with the lowest reflectance of its 2026 panels. If you’re using the TV in your living room or another spot with lots of ambient light, the W6 may be an improvement over previous LG OLEDs. The W6 is supposedly 3.9 times brighter than the average OLED on the market, thanks to LG’s Brightness Booster Ultra and Hyper Radiant Color Technology.

LG’s Gallery Plus service lets you display artwork on your television, so you can use the app to make your wall-mounted TV masquerade as a painting or photograph. Gallery Plus is a paid service, but there’s a free light version available. The W6 Wallpaper TV comes in 77-inch and 83-inch variants.

On paper, the LG W6 Wallpaper TV seems to strike a balance in order to appease home theater enthusiasts who want a discreet setup in a living room or family room. Notably, LG also unveiled a Gallery TV, which aims to compete with other art televisions such as Samsung’s Frame TV. But it’s a Mini-LED, not an OLED, so you may not get the best possible image quality, even if it’s still solid. 

The AI Tails food bowl wants to help you find out how your cat is feeling. In addition to being a place for your cat to eat, it includes a built-in camera and sensors for monitoring the health of your pet. The food bowl will cost $199, and the company that makes it is researching a potential dog edition in the future.

Most phones tend to look much the same as one another, with almost identical rectangular bodies and little to choose between them when it comes to design — or even specs. Not so with Honor’s latest handset: The company’s “Robot Phone” has a camera module that flips out from its body.

It’s attached to a gimbal for stabilization, which makes the whole thing look like someone photoshopped the top of a DJI Osmo Pocket 3 onto an Android phone. Sure, that makes the phone pretty hefty, but, like many content creators, I’d be happy to sacrifice a bit of pocket space for better quality photos and videos on the move. Pity it’s only in the concept stage, but I’d certainly love to take it for a spin on my next photowalk. 

The Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold unfolds from a phone with standard dimensions into a thin 10-inch tablet, and while it’s already on sale in some international markets, we’ve gotten several pairs of hands on the new folding phone at CES 2026. 

To see how big the TriFold is when unfolded, here’s how it looks in the hands of CNET’s Social Producer Faith Chihil and Principal Video Producer Celso Bulgatti.

The Hisense S6 FollowMe smart TV reminds me of conference-calling equipment I’ve seen at the office, but this one is built for the home. Announced ahead of CES 2026, the FollowMe includes a 32-inch 4K display, far-field microphones and a built-in video camera.

Hisense says you can use it like a big tablet, including having it stream videos, take video calls and browse the internet. But because it’s so big, you wheel it around the house instead of carrying it around. Not sure how it would handle multilevel homes, though: This device does not look like it’s meant to be carried up and down the stairs.

Read more: Hisense FollowMe TV on Wheels Doesn’t Actually Follow You Around

Belkin’s CES 2026 lineup includes a variety of power banks, chargers and a new higher-end edition of its Nintendo Switch 2 case that includes its own portable charger inside.

These include the $100 UltraCharge Pro Power Bank 10K, which can charge two devices at the same time using either USB-C or wireless charging at 25 watts. The slightly cheaper BoostCharge Slim Magnetic Power Bank with Stand starts at $60, and also supports wired charging or 15-watt wireless charging.

The lineup also includes the $100 UltaCharge Pro 2-in-1, which supports wireless charging for both an iPhone and an Apple Watch, along with the $100 Belkin Charging Case Pro, which stores a Nintendo Switch 2 and charges it with an included 10,000 mAh power bank. The Switch 2 case also features an LED display to indicate the remaining battery life.

Belkin’s also announcing a variety of screen protectors and additional charging docks as part of its 2026 lineup. 

Read more: Belkin’s CES 2026 Lineup Can Keep Your Phone Charged for Days (and Protect Its Screen, Too)

Xreal’s latest display glasses are available at a lower price than the prior model and can connect directly with a Nintendo Switch 2 using a new dock accessory. The Xreal 1S costs $450, which is a substantial discount from the $649 price of the Xreal One Pro (but the same as a Switch 2). The new glasses feature a larger 52-degree field of view and a slightly higher 1,200-pixel resolution, compared to the 1080p offered on the Pro.

CNET’s Scott Stein got to try out the new glasses, along with a new $100 Neo dock that allows for connecting the Nintendo Switch 2 for game time inside the glasses.

Read more: Xreal’s Latest Glasses Get Better and Cheaper. And There’s a Switch Dock, Too

The Clicks Communicator, below, looks and feels like an old-style BlackBerry phone, in a handheld device that connects wirelessly to your smartphone. But if you want a clicky keyboard on your phone, Clicks has an option for that, too.

The $79 Clicks Power Keyboard fastens via a MagSafe or Qi2 magnetic connection, with a slider that enables the phone to be used in tall or wide orientation. Look for it “in the spring,” according to the company.

The iconic Tamogotchi virtual pet in the 1990s gave you the opportunity/responsibility of nurturing a virtual pet, but no matter how much you virtually fed it, the LCD creature always stayed locked in its keychain-sized egg. Now there’s a spiritual descendent that physically grows as it matures.

The Sweekar is also egg-shaped, but with a pair of round ears sticking out from the top. (It’s also larger than its predecessor, more comfortable on a table top than attached to a key ring.) As you take care of it, by petting the ears and interacting with basic language learning, the shell “cracks” to reveal the cute critter inside and gradually gets larger.

CNET Principal Writer Katie Collins declared Sweekar to be the first worthy successor to the Tamogotchi she nursed as a child.

The all-screen design of today’s smartphones is ubiquitous, but there are still pockets of people who long for the early days when mobile phones had clicky, hardware keyboards. (Maybe they could avoid the autocorrect and autocomplete annoyances we all struggle with.) A new device is bringing back that tactile experience, with a twist.

If you (or your parents) rocked a BlackBerry phone, the new Clicks Communicator, with its physical keyboard beneath a rectangular screen, will look immediately familiar. However, it’s not a phone.

Instead, the Communicator is a side device that connects to your smartphone to provide an experience that is less distracting than what your phone provides. “Doing, not doomscrolling,” is how the company describes its function.

Is a hardware keyboard worth the $499 price (with early-bird pricing down to $299)? If the retro styling appeals to you, one other feature might be what compels you to order: It has a 3.5mm headphone jack.

One of the biggest evening events on the Sunday before each CES officially begins is Unveiled, where hundreds of exhibitors show off their newest gadgets to a throng of eager journalists. Here’s a look at the show floor, and some of CNET’s team covering it from the press room.

Weight is just one measurement of your overall health, so why does your bathroom scale likely do just one thing? Withings has just introduced the Body Scan 2 at CES 2026, which measures 60 biomarkers to get a better picture of your current health — and also peek into your future. The company says the smart scale can do things such as assess risks of hypertension (high blood pressure) and look for signs of possible glycemic dysregulation (a precursor to diabetes).

It does this through sensors on the scale itself as well as a wand connected by a wire that you pull up (imagine yourself waterskiing in place, or cruising nowhere on a scooter before you’ve had your first coffee of the day). 

The goal is not just a dumb tool that takes a snapshot of your morning health, but an “at-home longevity station” that helps steer you toward better health. Vanessa Hand Orellana has all the details on the $600 device that is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2026 (pending clearance by the US Food and Drug Administration).

CES has been showcasing the newest technology for decades, dating all the way back to 1967 with a show in New York. Then known by its original name — the Consumer Electronics Show — it attracted 117 exhibitors. 

CNET’s newly named Editor-in-Chief, David Katzmaier, has gone through the decades of CES history in the lead-up to this year’s convention. Katzmaier, a CNET veteran who has been attending CES since 1999, goes over the many years of products that have come and gone from the trade show. This includes the game consoles, a failed precursor to Apple’s iPhone, various format wars and more.

Read more: PDAs, Tube TVs and $13,000 VCRs: How CES Jump-Starts the Tech of Tomorrow

LG’s CLOiD may be the real robot housekeeper that until now we’ve only seen imagined in movies. The robot is expected to get a bigger unveiling at CES 2026, with LG saying that it uses AI in order to perform more complex household tasks such as folding laundry or emptying your dishwasher.

This would represent a significant advancement over current home tech robots, which often have a single purpose, such as vacuuming or mopping. 

The robot’s first public demonstration is planned for CES 2026, where we’ll hopefully see how well CLOiD could potentially keep your home nice and tidy.

Read more: LG Brought a Robot That ‘Cooks, Folds Laundry and Empties the Dishwasher’ to CES

Voice recorders are a standard journalism tool, but various companies are launching AI note-taking devices that might combine the convenience of a recording device with AI transcriptions. CNET Principal Writer Katie Collins will be trying out the Plaud NotePin S at this year’s CES, which promises to record and highlight conversation moments with a few quick button presses. This device can be worn either as a shirt pin or as a wrist accessory, such as a watch.

Read more: My CES 2026 Secret Weapon? This New Wearable AI Note-Taking Pin From Plaud

The CNET Group — which includes experts from CNET, PCMag, ZDNET, Mashable, Lifehacker, IGN and Everyday Health — will officially choose the Best of CES 2026 awards. Journalists from throughout the group will hand-select the top highlights from this year’s convention, including categories such as Best AI, Best Gaming, Best Mobile, Best TV, and Best Overall.

The winners will be announced on Wednesday, Jan. 7, at 8 a.m. PT, and for in-person attendees, an awards show ceremony will take place at 4 p.m. PT on the CTA Stage at LVCC Central Hall Grand Lobby.

Check out this post for more details about the Best of CES 2026 awards.

While CES officially kicks off on Tuesday, many of the show’s big reveals often get announced just before the doors of the Las Vegas Convention Center open.

CNET Principal Writer Katie Collins gathered up our team’s big predictions for what we expect from this year’s show, including what developments we expect to see for TVs, computers, phones, cars and AI. Check out everything we expect from CES 2026 here.