Tech’s splashiest showcase is packing up with all the internet-connected gadgets and tools you could ever need. From the show floor to private demo rooms, CES 2026 is serving up things you can actually buy alongside outlandish prototypes, with home robots, MicroRGB TVs and foldable gizmos grabbing early attention.
The theme this year is clear: practical AI everywhere. And while established brands are combining on-device intelligence with hardware polish, startups are racing after a mix of delight and utility. Here are the most noteworthy announcements and coolest discoveries driving the conversation.
AI Robots Star on Stage With Smarter Home Helpers
Home robots are back, and they’re having another moment — a more durable one. Sitting on the horizon from SwitchBot is what its makers are calling the most affordable housebot with a humanoid form yet, created to do household chores without requiring manual-guided (or walled-off) setup. LG’s CLOi D home helper showcases task breadth, learning to move room-to-room and take care of common tasks using multimodal AI and spatial mapping.
Floor-care players will not be benched: Narwal’s latest robovac is leading with this year’s most advanced robotic mop, showing just how far edge AI and smarter docking stations have taken autonomy. On the whimsical end, Ludens AI is demoing companion concepts Cocomo and INU — cuddly bots intended to live with you, rather than just near you — and Fuzozo, a developer that’s really leaning into “emotional AI,” whose more-than-classic pet-bot chatter is promised with newer responses.
The real upgrade is what is under the hood. Here’s to more silent motion planning, less dangerous human–robot interaction and swifter on-device inference. Robots in the home are also guided by the IEEE’s Society of Robotics and Automation and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) service-robot safety standards, which continue to shape how robots for domestic use not only move but also stop and communicate when taking up space.
MicroRGB and Art TVs Take It to the Next Level
Display manufacturers are in a pixel arms race. Samsung is expanding its MicroRGB range, spreading the self-emissive tech that promises room-scorching brightness, ink-black blacks and better color control to more sizes, including a 115-inch showpiece. LG is striking back with its first flagship Micro RGB evo series employing the company’s smallest-ever RGB LEDs for better efficiency and punchier color volume.
For living rooms where design is as important as specs, LG’s new Gallery TV walks right into the art-TV ring. It combines a matte-coated Mini LED panel with curated galleries — over 4,500 artworks — as well as AI-generated works and your own photos. It’s being positioned as a premium competitor to Samsung’s popular Frame series, offering the anti-glare look without sacrificing the brightness that characterizes Mini LED backlights.
Analysts from Omdia and DSCC have noted cost and yield challenges in microLED manufacturing for some time; scaling it up while ensuring uniformity is a technical feat. For buyers, that means early MicroRGB models will probably remain premium, with Mini LED and OLED still anchoring price-to-performance sweet spots.
Foldables and Wild Form Factors Steal the Spotlight
On mobile, now the headline-grabber is Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold — at present only available in Korea, it shows how tri-panel designs can allow a handset to expand and become a tablet-class canvas. U.S. availability is a little more up in the air, but it’s clear: foldables are going from curiosity to category.
Beneath the glass and plastic, durability and battery density continue to be the battlefields. Ultra-thin glass, hinge dust resistance and crease relief get better from generation to generation, and suppliers cited by Display Supply Chain Consultants say that panel reliability is increasing as costs are coming down. Anticipate more pen-ready foldable devices and accessories that transform pocket-size phones into portable workstations.
Chips, AI PCs and Graphics Power the Next Wave
CES is also the backdrop for AI PCs and graphics. For NVIDIA, its showings usually mix several new RTX features, creator tools and automotive partnerships onstage; while AMD typically uses the week to come into focus as it prepares for launches of both mobile silicon but also desktop hardware — potentially including NPUs designed specifically for on-device generative workloads. The rewards are great: IDC forecasts that AI PCs will take over the majority share in a few years, potentially hitting 60% of shipments as software pivots toward local inference.
For consumers, that means smarter battery use, real-time noise removal and image enhancement, as well as faster AI assistants that can operate without a connection. And for creators and gamers, more steps forward in AI upscaling, ray-tracing efficiency, and video-encode pipelines that will also cut render times significantly.
Smart Home Highlights and Cool Finds to Watch
But there are practical delights throughout the floor, and at many stands important breakthroughs have absolutely nothing to do with millennial buzz.
Energy-wise, smart home gear — think smarter thermostats, load-balancing panels and Matter-enabled hubs — speaks to the Consumer Technology Association’s emphasis on efficiency and interoperability:
- Smarter thermostats
- Load-balancing panels
- Matter-enabled hubs
The robots have big wins in their corner: robots are cleaning up — cleaner and quieter robot vac-mop stations, connected kitchen gadgets slimming down to simple voice or widget control by shedding the app bloat.
Wearables bring ever more variety to consumers, with smart rings, sensor-laden earbuds and health watches that experiment with cuffless blood pressure and sophisticated sleep staging. Expect companies to repeatedly boast of clinical validation; many will claim that their devices have been tested in university labs or adhered to protocols accepted by UL Solutions and other medical-device regulators.
And just in case there’s no CES without a curveball, transparent displays, color e-paper signage and modular handheld gaming PCs are also luring attention — because even as AI matures, attention‑grabbing hardware still draws attention.
What To Expect During The Week at CES 2026
Chipmakers and platform owners take the stage for keynotes that will add all-important pricing (availability, too) and software roadmaps, but it’s winners of “Best of CES” honors that accentuate the most polished products.
Watch TV lineup news, hands-on robot demos showing how fast and safe they are in the actual world, and whether any foldables firm up broader release plans. The showcase momentum is clear: AI is evolving from a feature into an ingredient, and the best devices here make that feel seamless.