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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 trade professionals on Tuesday, January 6, we’re already seeing main bulletins from the world’s main client 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 bold pitches from corporations, small and enormous, together with how AI will help and improve our each day lives in numerous methods, modes of transportation that reach past metropolis streets, and TVs that surpass standard specs, kind elements, and sizes.
If we’re fortunate, we’ll uncover a number of notable merchandise which you could really purchase shortly after the curtains shut.
Find out how to watch CES 2026
You’ll be able to tune into CES by means of numerous livestreams and keynotes. The total schedule of displays may be found here; a few of them begin as quickly as this weekend.
For a extra complete overview of the largest bulletins this 12 months, seek advice from ZDNET’s reside information tracker under, curated by our floor group of reporters and editors, in addition to people monitoring the most recent bulletins from residence.
The newest information (refresh for updates)
By: Nina Raemont, Wearables and Health Editor / Jan. 3 at 7:10 p.m. ET
The newest sensible residence decor makes paintings out of your personal phrases. Fraimic is an e-ink canvas that is powered by OpenAI, and it generates paintings based mostly on user-provided prompts. Folks can even add their favourite paintings by means of the Fraimic app for additional customization. The sensible canvas offers residence decorators additional management of their house — in addition to a personalised, changeable contact.
Might it make paper paintings prints out of date?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 Might 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 will not be as skinny because the famously skinny Pebble Time Spherical (it is .6mm thicker), nevertheless it’s obtained 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 preserving the watch, skinny, elegant, and as near analog as potential.
“With this product, we needed it to be essentially the most fashionable, 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 are actually 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 help the brand new Starlink Wi-Fi service — free, sooner web speeds for streaming, work, and extra, primarily.
If that is not an indication for me to get work carried out 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, to date, it is legit. I’ve a number of tabs open in my Chrome browser, writing articles about information you may be taught 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 fans — significantly those that lengthy for the times of the BlackBerry – are possible acquainted with 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 capabilities like a BlackBerry.
The previous, the Clicks Energy Keyboard, is launching at a comparatively accessible worth of $79, and its snap-on nature permits you to 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 contains a comparable bodily QWERTY keyboard, but in addition 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 oldsters 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 net 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 prefer to compute with out having to choose up our telephones. What if we did not must even have our telephones current to get issues carried out?
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 2 at 5:05 p.m. ET
Forward of CES, TCL has unveiled the brand new Word A1 Nxtpaper pill, an 11.5-inch digital notepad that competes with the likes of the Kindle Scribe and ReMarkable. There’s one distinctive facet with the TCL, although: It has each a full-color LCD show and a 120Hz refresh price, yielding each vivid and easy 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 Word A1 Nxtpaper is priced at $549, and positions itself as a sooner, 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 residence 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 each day life.
Just like the Meta Ray-Ban glasses, it contains a 12MP ultra-wide digicam 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 known as Mavi, the gadget permits customers to carry out “semantic searches” to recall particular particulars, equivalent to what they ate or who they met. To handle privateness issues, it features a bodily digicam shutter and a devoted companion hub for native information 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 will be the most polished, with glasses-free eye-tracking that makes the 3D really feel extra practical. Nevertheless, we’ll must 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 laborious to not be skeptical. 3D TVs were all the rage a decade ago, solely to fall out of favor because 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 uninteresting 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 gentle 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 latest show tech will probably be, as most TV fashions available in the market at present are each too giant and too costly.
