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We’re officially counting down the days until CES 2026 begins, and a quick glance at this week’s news cycle reveals just how packed the show will be this year.
Ahead of the Las Vegas trade show, which opens its doors to thousands of journalists, analysts, and industry professionals on Tuesday, January 6, we’re already seeing major announcements from the world’s leading consumer electronics brands, including Samsung, LG, and Hisense.
Also: The most exciting AI wearable at CES 2026 might not be smart glasses after all
This year’s agenda? Expect more ambitious pitches from companies, small and large, including how AI will assist and enhance our daily lives in various ways, modes of transportation that extend beyond city streets, and TVs that surpass conventional specifications, form factors, and sizes.
If we’re lucky, we’ll discover several notable products that you can actually buy shortly after the curtains close.
How to watch CES 2026
You can tune into CES through various livestreams and keynotes. The full schedule of presentations can be found here; some of them start as soon as this weekend.
For a more comprehensive overview of the biggest announcements this year, refer to ZDNET’s live news tracker below, curated by our ground team of reporters and editors, as well as individuals monitoring the latest announcements from home.
The latest news (refresh for updates)
By: Nina Raemont, Wearables and Health Editor / Jan. 3 at 7:10 p.m. ET
The latest smart home decor makes artwork out of your own words. Fraimic is an e-ink canvas that’s powered by OpenAI, and it generates artwork based on user-provided prompts. People can also upload their favorite artwork through the Fraimic app for further customization. The smart canvas gives home decorators further control of their space — as well as a personalized, changeable touch.
Could it make paper artwork prints obsolete? Not so fast, since it’ll run users $399 for the standard canvas and $999 for the large canvas. Kickstarter shipments begin in May and direct-to-consumer availability is estimated for June.
By: Nina Raemont, Wearables and Health Editor / Jan. 3 at 6:42 p.m. ET
It was 11 years ago when Pebble unveiled its first-generation round smartwatch, the Pebble Time Round. Eleven years later, the watch brand announced the Pebble Round 2 with updates that will please the veteran Pebble wearers and newcomers alike. The smartwatch is not as thin as the famously skinny Pebble Time Round (it’s .6mm thicker), but it’s got ten days worth of battery life and maximized the 1.3-inch e-paper display.
Widening the display made reading notifications and messages far easier and more legible on the new watch during a side-by-side demo. The watch isn’t made for hardcore exercise tracking, instead nailing the basic health tracking (sleep and steps) and keeping the watch, thin, elegant, and as close to analog as possible.
“With this product, we wanted it to be the most stylish, elegant Pebble ever, and one of the things is to make it feel like it isn’t a block of technology on your wrist. It feels more like a timepiece. To do that, it had to be thin,” Eric Migicovsky, Pebble’s CEO, told me in an interview.
Pre-orders for the Pebble Round 2 are now open.
Also: Cult favorite Pebble returns with Pebble Round 2 – and it’s built to look as analog as possible
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 3 at 12:56 p.m. ET
It’s been in the works for years now, but I was met with a surprise this morning when United announced at the gate that my flight from Newark to Las Vegas would support the new Starlink Wi-Fi service — free, faster internet speeds for streaming, work, and more, essentially.
If that’s not a sign for me to get work done these next five hours, then I don’t know what it is.
Also: High-speed Starlink internet rollout on United Airlines planes begins – and it’s free
And, so far, it’s legit. I have multiple tabs open in my Chrome browser, writing articles about news you’ll learn more about in the coming days, and downloading and uploading photos and videos without any issues. Here’s to hoping this holds for the rest of the flight.
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 3 at 12:40 p.m. ET
Smartphone enthusiasts — particularly those who long for the days of the BlackBerry – are likely familiar with the brand, Clicks. This year, the company is releasing two new accessories, one in the form of a MagSafe keyboard that doubles as a wireless charger, and another that functions like a BlackBerry.
The former, the Clicks Power Keyboard, is launching at a relatively accessible price of $79, and its snap-on nature allows you to operate your phone in both portrait and landscape orientations.
Also: My search for the ultimate MagSafe accessory is over: This keyboard checks all the boxes
The Clicks Communicator features a similar physical QWERTY keyboard, but also has a display, 3.5mm headphone jack, and microSD card slot, effectively serving as a secondary device for messaging. That will go on sale later this year for $499.
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 2 at 5:11 p.m. ET
The folks at RayNeo are showcasing two new pairs of smart glasses at CES this year: the Air 4 Pro, which extends off of your phone, computer, or gaming console, and the X3 Pro Project eSIM, which supports a built-in 4G connection, allowing you to browse the web or make phone calls without pairing the glasses to a cellular device.
Also: Can the world’s first HDR10 smart glasses replace your $2,000 OLED TV – these specs say yes
The latter of the two products is more intriguing to me, as it feels like a natural next step for smart glasses. The Meta Ray-Ban Display has given us a glimpse of what it’s like to compute without having to pick up our phones. What if we didn’t have to even have our phones present to get things done?
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 2 at 5:05 p.m. ET
Ahead of CES, TCL has unveiled the new Note A1 Nxtpaper tablet, an 11.5-inch digital notepad that competes with the likes of the Kindle Scribe and ReMarkable. There is one unique aspect with the TCL, though: It has both a full-color LCD display and a 120Hz refresh rate, yielding both vivid and smooth visuals as the user browses, sketches, and more.
Also: TCL’s newest E Ink tablet beats the Kindle and Remarkable with this display tech
The Note A1 Nxtpaper is priced at $549, and positions itself as a faster, more versatile hybrid for professionals and students who want a paper-like tablet experience without the traditional imitations of E Ink.
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 2 at 5:02 p.m. ET
CES is home to many things, including AI vaporware, but Project Luci may change that narrative. It’s a compact, magnetic AI pin designed to act as a searchable digital archive of your daily life.
Like the Meta Ray-Ban glasses, it features a 12MP ultra-wide camera and dual microphones capable of recording continuously for up to four hours.
Also: The most exciting AI wearable at CES 2026 might not be smart glasses after all
Using a proprietary AI model called Mavi, the device allows users to perform “semantic searches” to recall specific details, such as what they ate or who they met. To address privacy concerns, it includes a physical camera shutter and a dedicated companion hub for local data processing.
Priced at approximately $99, does a “memory-augmented” experience entice you at all?
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 2 at 5:00 p.m. ET
Alongside TVs, Samsung has unveiled a new batch of 6K monitors. Sorry, I should specify that they’re both 6K in
resolution and 3D in playback, allowing gamers to be more immersed in various titles and professionals to be a better feel for their digital creations.
We’ve seen 3D monitors before, especially at CES, but Samsung’s new Odyssey line may be the most polished, with glasses-free eye-tracking that makes the 3D feel more realistic. However, we’ll have to see these monitors in person before deciding if they’re worth it or not.
Also: Samsung unveils 6K 3D monitors ahead of CES 2026, and I’m already dreading the splurge
“It’s hard not to be skeptical. 3D TVs were all the rage a decade ago, only to fall out of favor due to their propensity to muddy colors, worsen image quality, and cause motion sickness,” says my ZDNET colleague, Cesar Cadenas. Here’s to hoping Samsung overpromises and overdelivers.
By Kerry Wan, Managing Editor / Jan. 2 at 4:50 p.m. ET
There’s never a dull moment with TVs, and I blame manufacturers and their extensive dictionary of tech jargon for that. This year’s hot word is “Micro RGB,” a meticulous arrangement of LEDs that produces enhanced light control and accuracy. Samsung has a version of this, LG has a version of this, Sony has a version of this, and so on.
The big question is how accessible this recent display tech will be, as most TV models in the market currently are both too large and too expensive.
Source: www.zdnet.com
