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We’re formally counting down the times till CES 2026 begins, and a fast look at this week’s information cycle reveals simply how packed the present will probably be this 12 months.
Forward of the Las Vegas commerce present, which opens its doorways to hundreds of journalists, analysts, and business professionals on Tuesday, January 6, we’re already seeing main bulletins from the world’s main shopper electronics manufacturers, together with Samsung, LG, and Hisense.
Additionally: The most exciting AI wearable at CES 2026 might not be smart glasses after all
This 12 months’s agenda? Anticipate extra formidable pitches from corporations, small and enormous, together with how AI will help and improve our day by day lives in numerous methods, modes of transportation that stretch past metropolis streets, and TVs that surpass typical specs, kind components, and sizes.
If we’re fortunate, we’ll uncover a number of notable merchandise you can really purchase shortly after the curtains shut.
Easy methods to watch CES 2026
You may tune into CES by way of numerous livestreams and keynotes. The total schedule of shows will be tech/” goal=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow” class=”c-regularLink”>discovered right here; a few of them begin as quickly as this weekend.
For a extra complete overview of the largest bulletins this 12 months, consult with ZDNET’s dwell information tracker under, curated by our floor workforce of reporters and editors, in addition to people monitoring the most recent bulletins from dwelling.
The most recent information (refresh for updates)
By: Nina Raemont, Wearables and Health Editor / Jan. 3 at 7:10 p.m. ET
The most recent sensible dwelling decor makes art work out of your individual phrases. Fraimic is an e-ink canvas that is powered by OpenAI, and it generates art work based mostly on user-provided prompts. Folks also can add their favourite art work by way of the Fraimic app for additional customization. The sensible canvas offers dwelling decorators additional management of their area — in addition to a personalised, changeable contact.
Might it make paper art work prints out of date? Not so quick, since it will run customers $399 for the usual canvas and $999 for the big canvas. Kickstarter shipments start in Could and direct-to-consumer availability is estimated for June.
By: Nina Raemont, Wearables and Health Editor / Jan. 3 at 6:42 p.m. ET
It was 11 years in the past when Pebble unveiled its first-generation spherical smartwatch, the Pebble Time Spherical. Eleven years later, the watch model introduced the Pebble Spherical 2 with updates that can please the veteran Pebble wearers and newcomers alike. The smartwatch isn’t as skinny because the famously skinny Pebble Time Spherical (it is .6mm thicker), however it’s acquired ten days price of battery life and maximized the 1.3-inch e-paper show.
Widening the show made studying notifications and messages far simpler and extra legible on the brand new watch throughout a side-by-side demo. The watch is not made for hardcore train monitoring, as a substitute nailing the essential well being monitoring (sleep and steps) and holding the watch, skinny, elegant, and as near analog as potential.
“With this product, we wished it to be probably the most trendy, elegant Pebble ever, and one of many issues is to make it really feel prefer it is not a block of know-how in your wrist. It feels extra like a timepiece. To do this, it needed to be skinny,” Eric Migicovsky, Pebble’s CEO, informed me in an interview.
Pre-orders for the Pebble Spherical 2 at the moment are open.
Additionally: Cult favorite Pebble returns with Pebble Round 2 – and it’s built to look as analog as possible
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 3 at 12:56 p.m. ET
It has been within the works for years now, however I used to be met with a shock this morning when United introduced on the gate that my flight from Newark to Las Vegas would assist the brand new Starlink Wi-Fi service — free, quicker web speeds for streaming, work, and extra, basically.
If that is not an indication for me to get work finished these subsequent 5 hours, then I do not know what it’s.
Additionally: High-speed Starlink internet rollout on United Airlines planes begins – and it’s free
And, thus far, it is legit. I’ve a number of tabs open in my Chrome browser, writing articles about information you will study extra about within the coming days, and downloading and importing pictures and movies with none points. Here is to hoping this holds for the remainder of the flight.
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 3 at 12:40 p.m. ET
Smartphone lovers — notably those that lengthy for the times of the BlackBerry – are doubtless conversant in the model, Clicks. This 12 months, the corporate is releasing two new equipment, one within the type of a MagSafe keyboard that doubles as a wi-fi charger, and one other that features like a BlackBerry.
The previous, the Clicks Energy Keyboard, is launching at a comparatively accessible worth of $79, and its snap-on nature means that you can function your cellphone in each portrait and panorama orientations.
Additionally: My search for the ultimate MagSafe accessory is over: This keyboard checks all the boxes
The Clicks Communicator includes a related bodily QWERTY keyboard, but additionally has a show, 3.5mm headphone jack, and microSD card slot, successfully serving as a secondary gadget for messaging. That may go on sale later this 12 months for $499.
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 2 at 5:11 p.m. ET
The parents at RayNeo are showcasing two new pairs of sensible glasses at CES this 12 months: the Air 4 Professional, which extends off of your cellphone, pc, or gaming console, and the X3 Professional Undertaking eSIM, which helps a built-in 4G connection, permitting you to browse the online or make cellphone calls with out pairing the glasses to a mobile gadget.
Additionally: Can the world’s first HDR10 smart glasses replace your $2,000 OLED TV – these specs say yes
The latter of the 2 merchandise is extra intriguing to me, because it seems like a pure subsequent step for sensible glasses. The Meta Ray-Ban Show has given us a glimpse of what it is wish to compute with out having to choose up our telephones. What if we did not need to even have our telephones current to get issues finished?
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 2 at 5:05 p.m. ET
Forward of CES, TCL has unveiled the brand new Notice A1 Nxtpaper pill, an 11.5-inch digital notepad that competes with the likes of the Kindle Scribe and ReMarkable. There may be one distinctive side with the TCL, although: It has each a full-color LCD show and a 120Hz refresh charge, yielding each vivid and clean visuals because the person browses, sketches, and extra.
Additionally: TCL’s newest E Ink tablet beats the Kindle and Remarkable with this display tech
The Notice A1 Nxtpaper is priced at $549, and positions itself as a quicker, extra versatile hybrid for professionals and college students who need a paper-like pill expertise with out the normal imitations of E Ink.
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 2 at 5:02 p.m. ET
CES is dwelling to many issues, together with AI vaporware, however Undertaking Luci could change that narrative. It is a compact, magnetic AI pin designed to behave as a searchable digital archive of your day by day life.
Just like the Meta Ray-Ban glasses, it includes a 12MP ultra-wide digital camera and twin microphones able to recording repeatedly for as much as 4 hours.
Additionally: The most exciting AI wearable at CES 2026 might not be smart glasses after all
Utilizing a proprietary AI mannequin referred to as Mavi, the gadget permits customers to carry out “semantic searches” to recall particular particulars, reminiscent of what they ate or who they met. To deal with privateness issues, it features a bodily digital camera shutter and a devoted companion hub for native knowledge processing.
Priced at roughly $99, does a “memory-augmented” expertise entice you in any respect?
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 2 at 5:00 p.m. ET
Alongside TVs, Samsung has unveiled a brand new batch of 6K screens. Sorry, I ought to specify that they are each 6K in
decision and 3D in playback, permitting players to be extra immersed in numerous titles and professionals to be a greater really feel for his or her digital creations.
We have seen 3D screens earlier than, particularly at CES, however Samsung’s new Odyssey line could be the most polished, with glasses-free eye-tracking that makes the 3D really feel extra lifelike. Nevertheless, we’ll need to see these screens in individual earlier than deciding in the event that they’re price it or not.
Additionally: Samsung unveils 6K 3D monitors ahead of CES 2026, and I’m already dreading the splurge
“It is onerous to not be skeptical. 3D TVs were all the rage a decade ago, solely to fall out of favor on account of their propensity to muddy colours, worsen picture high quality, and trigger movement illness,” says my ZDNET colleague, Cesar Cadenas. Here is to hoping Samsung overpromises and overdelivers.
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 2 at 4:50 p.m. ET
There’s by no means a boring second with TVs, and I blame producers and their intensive dictionary of tech jargon for that. This 12 months’s sizzling phrase is “Micro RGB,” a meticulous association of LEDs that produces enhanced mild management and accuracy. Samsung has a model of this, LG has a model of this, Sony has a model of this, and so forth.
The massive query is how accessible this current show tech will probably be, as most TV fashions available in the market at the moment are each too massive and too costly.
