The best tech announced at CES 2026 so far

Following a couple of news-filled days of press conferences and preview events, the CES 2026 show floor officially opens today. If you’re struggling to stay on top of all the new tech, gadgets, concepts, and AI-powered devices announced at the show, we’ve rounded up some of the best hardware and upgrades that have debuted so far.

There’s still lots more to come, so you can check back here every day, or catch up on all of The Verge’s CES 2026 coverage here.

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 mostly like 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 race car 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 ten 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 oversized 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 6th: Added new announcements from the show.