CES 2026: What to expect from the biggest tech show this year

A new year is almost here, and you know what that means: the world’s biggest annual tech event begins in just a few days.

Yes, CES 2026 is scheduled to kick off on January 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada, bringing together tens of thousands of enthusiasts to experience what’s new in the world of consumer technology. We’ll see a whole new generation of TVs, new foldable phones, self-driving cars, weird gadgets, powerful chips, and lots and lots of announcements related to AI and robotics. Unsurprisingly, these are some of the top tech trends we predict in 2026.

Mashable will be on the ground in Las Vegas covering CES 2026 as it unfolds. For now, let’s take a look at what we expect from the biggest exhibitors this year.

Micro-RGB TVs

Can they get OLED-like picture quality at a lower price? It remains to be seen.
Credit: LG

Forget OLEDs and QLEDs: this year, you’ll mostly hear about Micro RGB TVs. Two TV giants, Samsung and LG, have pre-announced their Micro RGB TV lines, which will hit the market in different sizes this year. We don’t have a verdict on their quality yet, but you can learn more about the technology behind them in our handy explainer.

Of course, all the other major TV makers will also be present at CES 2026. Sony is likely to show off its True RGB TVs, a new version of Mini-LED TVs that promise higher brightness and contrast with more accurate colors (don’t they all?).

We’ll also likely hear a lot about new HDR formats; Samsung announced its HDR10+ Advanced, the company’s answer to Dolby Vision 2, last October, with a planned launch in early 2026.

Foldable phones

Why fold a phone once when you can fold it twice?
Credit: Samsung

CES isn’t exactly a phone-in show, with most major companies opting to launch their flagship products at standalone events. That doesn’t mean we won’t see a bunch of new devices, though, and we’re betting a lot of them will be foldable.

Samsung, for example, recently launched its first tri-folding phone, the Galaxy Z TriFold, but the company is rumored to be working on another foldable device that isn’t a new iteration of its Galaxy Z Fold. We don’t know if this one will be present at CES 2026, but we’re sure that Samsung’s booth will feature at least a few new devices with foldable screens.

Motorola is rumored to launch a book-style foldable phone at CES; a first for the company (Motorola already sells the foldable flip-phone style Motorola Razr).

Robots, robots everywhere

Roborock’s Qrevo Curv 2 Flow already combines a vacuum with a self-cleaning roller mop, but we bet the company has something even more advanced up its sleeve.
Credit: Roborock

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is counting on the company’s Optimus robot to be the next big thing, and other tech companies are taking note.

LG is a big company that has already announced a new robot. The company will launch its CLOiD home help robot, designed to improve your quality of life by performing a “wide range of indoor household tasks.” We don’t have any photos, specs, or a release date for this one, so forgive us for not getting too excited until we know more about CLOiD.

Samsung has a robot called Ballie that it continues to relaunch at CES (it originally launched in 2020, followed by a remake in 2024), and we wouldn’t be too surprised if the company brought a new version to CES 2026.

Companies like Roborock will likely introduce even more advanced robot vacuums. Since we’re talking about the smart home, we’ll likely also see new, smarter home security cameras, among other smart gadgets aimed at the home.

And while we can’t reveal more at this point, we know for sure that several companies will be bringing new humanoid and non-humanoid robots to the show.

Autonomous cars

These would look great in front of my garage.
Credit: Honda

Look, it’s CES. There will be cars. And if you’re launching a car these days, it better be capable of autonomous driving.

We already know that the joint venture between Sony and Honda (Sony Honda Mobility or SHM) will present its retro-futuristic electric cars at the show. These will have Level 3 battery life, and we’ll likely know more about specs like battery life and charging times.

Self-driving powerhouse Mobileye will also deliver a keynote on January 6, with CEO Amnon Shashua speaking about the company’s technology roadmap for the future.

Overall, we expect to see plenty of announcements related to autonomous driving technology, whether in the form of new cars, new chips and artificial intelligence powering autonomous driving, or even an expansion of robotaxi services.

Powerful new chips

Intel Core Ultra 3 series chips (codenamed Panther Lake) will go on sale in January 2026.
Credit: Intel

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will give a speech on January 5, and while that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see any major new products, we’ll likely learn more about Nvidia’s strategy for fueling the AI ​​revolution in the future. A rumor claimed that Nvidia might launch new GeForce RTX 50 Super graphics cards at CES, but later reports indicated that the launch was delayed until later in the year.

AMD is likely introducing new Ryzen chips, including the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D. Intel has announced in advance the announcement of its Panther Lake chips, which will be officially launched at CES. Qualcomm is launching its Snapdragon X Elite and X Elite Extreme chips in laptops for the first time. In short, you shouldn’t worry about your next computer, phone, or tablet lacking power (if you can afford the RAM, of course).

AI everything

This should come as no surprise. Every tech event over the past two years has had a heavy focus on, or at least implied, artificial intelligence, and we expect to see even more of it this year. AI will be talked about by chipmakers. It will be sworn in by car manufacturers. Every robot, phone, tablet, and home security camera we see at CES 2026 will likely have a whole new AI brain powering it. Hell, even news TVs will have artificial intelligence for smart picture upscaling and enhancement.