What to expect at CES 2026

CES 2026 is just around the corner, and the pre-show hype/early cycle suggests that, yes, there will be an awful lot of AI-powered-products here alongside, thankfully, some big announcements from the likes of Intel, Sony and NVIDIA.

Intel finally introduced its Panther Lake (Core Ultra Series 3) chips. The first chips built on Intel’s 2nm process can offer a 50 percent performance boost, which is much needed amid intense competition. NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang takes the stage for a keynote that is expected to include a lot of AI hype, while AMD’s Lisa Su will likely discuss the new Ryzen 9000-series chips and the latest in AI upscaling tech.

Over the years, CES has been around i a showcase for TV innovation and next-generation displays. This year, we’ll be talking a lot about Micro RGB. LG is introducing a new Micro RGB Evo panel with more than 1,000 dimming points, while Samsung plans to introduce a full range of Micro RGB TVs from 55 inches to 115 inches. In 2025, Sony introduced a new RGB LED panel that uses red, green and blue Mini LED backlights to produce brighter, more accurate colors. The company has tagged it as “True RGB,” which could be what Sony is calling its spin on RGB monitors.

We’ll be covering all the teasers, press conferences and big reveals in person. And figuring out which of the 100s of AI-branded devices and gadgets to report on.

I’m also betting on a lot of celebrity appearances/endorsements at CES 2026. We’ve seen 50 Cent, Big Bird, Martha Stewart, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Guillermo del Toro, Justin Bieber and will.i.am (many times), so who will join this constellation?

— Matt Smith

Some big news this morning

Music Studio 5 and 7 will be shown at CES 2026.

It’s not just TVs with Samsung. The company has already teased some new speakers. Possibly inspired by the Samsung Frame, the new Wi-Fi speakers, called Music Studio 5 and 7, join your living room. Music Studio 5 has a four-inch woofer and two tweeters, with a built-in waveguide to deliver better sound. Music Studio 7 comes with 3.1.1 channel surround sound with top, front, left and right firing speakers. There are no prices yet. Expect to hear more at CES itself or when the speakers hit stores. And as the press photo above shows, we can’t wait to sit in front of one, with a glass of water (?).

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It also has a 1-inch sensor, a 200MP telephoto camera and a 3,500 nit display.

Xiaomi’s latest smartphone has once again become something of a beast. It features a 1-inch sensor 50MP f/1.67 main camera and a 1/1.4-inch telephoto 200MP periscope camera. It also has an interesting new feature: the manual zoom ring. This surrounds the rear camera unit.

Both the standard version of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Leica come with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage, and a 6.9-inch 120Hz AMOLED display with up to 3,500 nits of maximum brightness.

But the camera features are the standout features. Leica’s 17 Ultra adds a lot of, well, that Leica touch: a two-tone finish, a red dot status symbol on the front, sculpted edges and film likeness, like Leica’s Monopan 50 black and white. Xiaomi says the zoom ring “[eliminates] the need for boring screen taps… and it can detect displacements as small as 0.03mm.” It can also be rearranged for manual focus.

Xiaomi’s 17 Ultra by Leica and the regular 17 Ultra start at CNY 7,999 ($1,140) and CNY 6,999 ($995), in line with the latest high-end Pixel 10 and Galaxy S25s.

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Google’s Hindi support page says the feature is ‘rolling out to all users first.’

Google’s support page in Hindi shows the ability to change your Gmail address may be coming. The feature can allow you to replace your current @gmail.com address with another one. Your old address will always work as a nickname on the account, and all your data will remain intact. The support page (translated) says “the ability to change your Google account email address is gradually available to all users.”

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