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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 can be this 12 months.
Forward of the Las Vegas commerce present, which opens its doorways to 1000’s of journalists, analysts, and trade 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: Essentially the most thrilling AI wearable at CES 2026 may not be sensible glasses in any case
This 12 months’s agenda? Count on extra formidable pitches from corporations, small and huge, together with how AI will help and improve our every day lives in numerous methods, modes of transportation that stretch past metropolis streets, and TVs that surpass typical specs, type components, and sizes.
If we’re fortunate, we’ll uncover a number of notable merchandise you could truly purchase shortly after the curtains shut.
Find out how to watch CES 2026
You may tune into CES by way of numerous livestreams and keynotes. The total schedule of shows will be 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, seek advice from ZDNET’s stay information tracker beneath, curated by our floor workforce of reporters and editors, in addition to people monitoring the newest bulletins from house.
The newest information (refresh for updates)
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 3 at 12:40 p.m. ET
Smartphone fanatics — significantly those that lengthy for the times of the BlackBerry – are seemingly accustomed to 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 lets you function your cellphone in each portrait and panorama orientations.
Additionally: My seek for the last word MagSafe accent is over: This keyboard checks all of the bins
The Clicks Communicator contains a comparable 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 can go on sale later this 12 months for $499.
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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 Venture 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 sensible glasses substitute your $2,000 OLED TV – these specs say sure
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 select up our telephones. What if we did not must even have our telephones current to get issues carried out?
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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’s one distinctive facet with the TCL, although: It has each a full-color LCD show and a 120Hz refresh charge, yielding each vivid and easy visuals because the consumer browses, sketches, and extra.
Additionally: TCL’s latest E Ink pill beats the Kindle and Exceptional with this show 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.
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By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 2 at 5:02 p.m. ET
CES is house to many issues, together with AI vaporware, however Venture Luci might change that narrative. It is a compact, magnetic AI pin designed to behave as a searchable digital archive of your every 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: Essentially the most thrilling AI wearable at CES 2026 may not be sensible glasses in any case
Utilizing a proprietary AI mannequin referred to as Mavi, the gadget permits customers to carry out “semantic searches” to recall particular particulars, corresponding to what they ate or who they met. To deal with privateness considerations, it features a bodily digicam shutter and a devoted companion hub for native knowledge processing.
Priced at roughly $99, does a “memory-augmented” expertise entice you in any respect?
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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 avid gamers 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 would be the most polished, with glasses-free eye-tracking that makes the 3D really feel extra life like. Nonetheless, we’ll must see these screens in individual earlier than deciding in the event that they’re value it or not.
Additionally: Samsung unveils 6K 3D screens forward of CES 2026, and I am already dreading the splurge
“It is laborious to not be skeptical. 3D TVs have been all the trend a decade in the past, solely to fall out of favor resulting from 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.
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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 scorching 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 large query is how accessible this latest show tech can be, as most TV fashions available in the market at present are each too massive and too costly.
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