CES is the January trade show where the tech industry kicks off the year with new and notable announcements – and it’s less than a week away. The CES 2026 show floor is officially open from January 6 to 9, but the fun begins with events on Sunday January 4 and several press conferences on Monday. As always, product demos, announcements and networking will take place at the Las Vegas Convention Center and other hotels throughout the city. As always, Engadget will be covering the event in person and remotely, bringing you news and updates live from the ground.
Exact details and pre-announcements are already coming out as CES approaches, and thanks to the CTA program we also know which companies will be holding press conferences. We also use our knowledge and experience to predict what technology trends may be on display.
CES 2026 schedule
Press conferences and floor booths are the bread and butter of CES. The Consumer Technology Association has already published a searchable directory of who will be at the show, as well as a schedule of all the official panels and presentations.
On Sunday, January 4, Samsung will kick off CES with “The First Look,” a presentation hosted by TM Roh, CEO of Samsung’s DX Division, about the company’s vision for the “DX (Device eXperience) Division in 2026, and a new AI-driven customer experience.” Before that, however, Samsung has already revealed many other details.
That will be followed by several press conferences throughout Monday, January 5. LG held its “Innovation in Tune with You” presentation to share its “idea to elevate everyday life with Affectionate Intelligence” earlier in the day, Intel introduced its new Core Ultra Series 3 processors in the afternoon, Sony Honda Mobility held a press conference giving AMD’s first AMD details and will include more information about AMD’s upcoming car. in the keynote speech that closed the day.
In the week of December 15, CTA added an important note by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang to its schedule. The event will take place on January 5 at 1PM PT (4PM ET) and, according to the website, will last approximately 90 minutes. Based on the description in the listing, the presentation will “showcase NVIDIA’s latest solutions that drive intelligence and productivity across industries.”
Finally, on Tuesday, January 6, Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang will host the Lenovo Global Technology Conference at the Las Vegas Sphere, using a large and curved screen to share “the company’s commitment to bringing intelligent AI to all by constantly redefining how technology can engage, inspire, and empower.” It is worth noting that Lenovo is the parent company of Motorola, which also makes phones and folders that include AI tools, so it is possible that those devices will also be included in the presentation.
Samsung and LG battle it out for pre-show coverage
As they often do, some companies are already getting a head start on CES news by publicly sharing their announcements in the weeks leading up to January. LG, for example, said it will release its first Micro RGB television at CES. Although details are scarce, the company’s press release for the LG Micro RGB evo confirmed that it has been certified by Intertek with 100% color gamut coverage in DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB, and that it has more than a thousand dimming positions for light control. And if PC gaming monitors are more your speed, LG has you covered, too, with a new line of 5K-capable gaming monitors on deck with built-in AI.
But LG doesn’t just make displays. The Korean multinational will also introduce a Dolby-powered modular home audio system and flex its automation muscles with a home automation robot called CLOiD.
Of course, Samsung refuses to be outdone by its rival, and has also released a pre-CES press dump document. Samsung will introduce its own line of Micro RGB TVs at CES, for the first time. The company already presented its first Micro RGB TV at CES 2025, which was a 115-inch model available for a cool $30,000. Next year, Samsung expands the range with 55-, 65-, 75-, 85-, 100- and 115-inch models that use the next evolution of the company’s Micro RGB technology.
Samsung is also countering LG’s 5K monitors with a 6K model that aims to deliver glasses-free 3D (another longtime CES staple). It will be one of the new displays in the company’s Odyssey game line.
And on the audio front, Samsung teased new sound bars and speakers, including Sonos-style Wi-Fi streaming models called the Music Studio 5 and Studio 7.
Aside from the official launch of new products and programs, reading the tea leaves of what was announced last year and what companies are reportedly working on, we can make educated guesses about what we might see at CES 2026.
New chips from AMD, Intel and Qualcomm
CES is usually the start of a series of new chip announcements for a given year, and one of the first places new silicon appears in actual consumer products. AMD will likely use its keynote to introduce new versions of its Ryzen chips, including the newly spotted Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which is expected to offer better single-core performance, and the Ryzen 9000G series, which could be built with AMD’s Zen 5 architecture. The company may also use its CES stage to go over its new FSR Redstone AI technology.
Intel has already publicly announced that it will launch its Panther Lake chips at CES 2026. The officially titled Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chips fit into Intel’s general “AI PC” push, but are specifically designed for high-end laptops. Based on the October 2025 preview, Intel says the first chip made with its 2-nanometer 18A process will offer 50 percent more processing performance than previous generations and the chip’s Arc GPU, a 50 percent performance bump over the previous generation.
Qualcomm is also rumored to be targeting laptops at the show, building on the work it’s done getting its Snapdragon chips out of phones and tablets and into other types of computers. The company’s Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Premium chips should start appearing in laptops at CES 2026, giving a glimpse of the improved speed and AI performance the company promised by 2025.
Bright, “real” screens.
As noted above, Samsung and LG seem to be going all in on Micro RGB display technology in TVs. Expect that to be a big buzz at CES, where Hisense and Sony are releasing new models, too.
Sony has announced a range of new Bravia TVs for April 2025, replacing the company’s flagship, rounding out its midrange options and adding a new budget model to the mix. The star of this updated Bravia lineup is the Bravia 9, which features a QD-OLED panel, but Sony seems to be preparing for a new display technology for 2026. In March 2025, Sony introduced a new RGB LED panel that uses Mini LED backlights with red, blue colors to produce brighter, more accurate colors. Unlike QD-OLED, which filters a layer of diodes that emit blue organic light with color-changing quantum dots, Sony’s “General RGB LED Backlight Technology” can light up like a Mini LED panel without needing an additional filter layer or worrying about OLED burnout issues.
The company has already listed the term “True RGB,” which could end up being what Sony calls the new display flavor if it decides to show off at CES. It seems possible, because CES is nothing if not a TV show – it’s a sure bet that we’ll see new TVs from the likes of LG and Samsung in addition to Sony. If the company isn’t introducing new display technology to its TVs, it has a new 240Hz PlayStation monitor coming in 2026 to show off at CES instead.
Sony isn’t the only company to shine with bright screens. Samsung is reportedly pushing an updated version of the HDR10 and HDR10+ standards that may be ready to be demoed at CES 2026. The new HDR10+ Advanced standard will be Samsung’s answer to Dolby Vision 2, which includes support for both tone control and smart features that automatically sync sports and gaming content. Samsung’s take will reportedly offer improved brightness, type-based tone mapping and smart motion smoothing options, among other improvements.
And maybe your future TV won’t need a power cord, either: Displace will be showing off a mounting option that includes a 15,000mAh battery to power whatever large TV screen you choose to attach.
Ballie Watch for 2026
A yellow ball-shaped robot known as “Ballie” has been announced twice, first in 2020 and again in 2024 via a projector. Samsung said the Ballie would go on sale in 2025 at CES last year and then shared in April 2025 that the Ballie would ship this summer with Google’s Gemini. But it’s almost 2026, and Ballie is nowhere to be seen. It is possible that Samsung will make a third attempt to announce its robot at CES 2026, but whether it does or not, robots will still be a big part of the show.
Robot vacuums and mops were very prominent at CES 2025, and it is safe to expect significant improvements in the new models announced at CES 2026. Not all companies will use the retractable arm of the Roborock Saros Z70, but robot vacuums with legs to climb on small ledges such as the Dream X50 may appear similar to the Dream X50. Roborock may also show off its new Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow, its first robot vacuum to feature a retractable roller mop.
Besides traversing spaces effectively, improving robot navigation can also be a major concern of the show. Prominent members of the AI industry are shifting their attention from large linguistic models to global models, which aim to give AI a deeper understanding of the physical environment. Those global models could be the key to making robots – like LG’s CLOiD mentioned above – capable of navigating homes and workplaces, and will be a key talking point at CES 2026.
We’ll update this article throughout the month as more rumors emerge and new products are confirmed — stay tuned for future updates!
Update, December 11 2025, 11:03AM ET: This story has been updated to include information that Lenovo is Motorola’s parent company and how the latter may be involved in Tuesday’s presentation.
Update, December 16 2025, 1:33PM ET: This story has been updated to include NVIDIA’s press conference, which was added to the CTA schedule over the past two days.
Update, December 23 2025, 7:28AM ET: This story has been updated to include LG’s and Samsung’s Micro RGB TV announcements, which were made public seven days ago. The introduction has also been revised to reflect how early CES is at this point.
Update, December 29 2025, 11:03AM ET: This story has been updated to include more details on earlier announcements from Samsung, LG and Displace.
