CES 2026: Key Trends Shaping Consumer Technology

CES is where the tech industry shows its cards, and this year’s cards look bigger, brighter — and quite a bit more A.I.-heavy. From wall-dominating TVs to laptops supercharged with on-device artificial intelligence, the show floor will give us a look at how our next gadgets could look, feel and think.

There is a practical theme behind this spectacle. The Consumer Technology Association has been stressing demand-side performance, battery life, and connectivity that matters in everyday use. Look for fewer moonshots and more polished hardware bringing emerging categories to the mainstream.

Here’s what to watch in the week ahead and the coming buying cycle.

RGB Mega TVs Focus on Brightness, Color, and Scale

Television will again be the talk of the show, but this year’s headline is RGB emission at volume. White- or blue-colored backlights filtered to produce color are dispensed with in favor of dense arrays of red, green, and blue emitters used to construct images at the pixel level. The result is a wider color volume, highlights that are cleaner, and contrast that holds up in well-lit rooms.

They are coupling that with sheer size. More 75- to 98-inch options will feel typical, with top-shelf lines advertising 3,000 to 5,000 nits for HDR peaks, a refresh rate of at least 120 to 144 Hz, and anti-reflective treatments that may finally make giant screens truly usable in daylight. Omdia has observed consistent growth in the 75-inch-plus sector, and CES will underscore why that growth continues to hold.

AI PCs Are Here, Big Time, With On-Device Intelligence

Laptops and desktops are entering the AI-native era. For chipmakers, the focus will be on CPUs married to built-in NPUs that can handle continuous on-device inference, so you can use features such as live transcription, image creation, and camera effects without having to rely on the cloud. Get ready to hear much more about TOPS numbers, as mainstream systems clear the 45 to 50 TOPS bar that early AI PCs established.

One twist is that of memory and storage costs. TrendForce reported at the end of last year that during the AI server demand surge, there were also abrupt DRAM and NAND contract price hikes in late cycles, with double-digit spikes in some quarters. That squeeze may be enough to discourage some aggressive price points on fully loaded configs, forcing brands to instead focus on efficiency and clever software more than brute-force specs.

Foldables Expand and Experiment With New Form Factors

Here they come: Foldables that don’t follow the single-hinge playbook. Tri-fold ideas that unfurl into near-tablet canvases are ready for prime time demos, and rollable screens slowly roll out of the lab and closer to your living room. Design attention is moving to durability and comfort: slimmer hinges, tighter radii to minimize creasing, better IP ratings, and outer displays that feel like full phones — not compromises.

Software is just as important as glass. The large-screen APIs in Android have matured, and companies are promising smooth app continuity and multitasking without the awkward resizing that early models suffered from. IDC projects that foldable shipments will maintain double-digit growth until late in the decade, and CES should provide a glimpse of the next step to keep that prediction credible.

Home Robots Graduate From Gimmicks to Duties

Robots will be hard to avoid on the show floor, from lovable home companions to utilitarian bots.

Expect manufacturers to pair multimodal AI with more sensors so that machines can map rooms, identify objects, and take prompts from voice and gestures in real time. The most legitimate submissions will call attention to path planning around pets or kids, modular hands (or grippers), and self-maintenance-focused features such as auto-empty and self-clean docks.

A crucial marker of seriousness is compliance and safety. Look for mention of UL 3300 for service robots, camera feeds that don’t leave the device, and fallback modes that fail safe. The category has promised potential for years; this cycle is about demonstrating reliability and trust.

Smart Glasses Move Closer to the Norm for Daily Use

Smart glasses are graduating from novelty status. Picking up from camera-equipped eyewear and ultralight viewers, this year’s pairs focus on voice-forward assistants, glanceable overlays, and battery life that will get you from a commute to a block of meetings. Expect mentions of Qualcomm’s AR-geared platforms, waveguide optics with increased brightness, and weight goals that don’t exceed 70 grams.

Privacy will also move into the spotlight. Clear recording indicators, opt-in wake words, and on-device processing for common tasks will all be trumpeted to help assuage worries. IDC analysts have also highlighted the potential for head-worn wearables to grow in the near term, as use cases focus on messaging, navigation, and capture instead of trying to replace a phone entirely.

Cars Double Down on Software and In-Cabin Experience

Automotive tech is a CES staple. Search for software-defined vehicles with centralized compute power, richer in-cabin displays, and Level 2+ driver-assist that does a better job navigating busy traffic. Battery tech chatter will lean toward faster charging curves and longevity, not chasing headline range numbers. And as ever, the litmus test is whether the head unit will support over-the-air updates that add features after purchase.

The Internet of Things and the Smarter Home

Wi‑Fi 7 will be in all the things, offering lower latency via multi-link operation and speed headroom for multi-device households. At home, the newest Matter spec extends compatibility between devices and offers stronger reliability for scenes and automations. Think energy dashboards baked into hubs and routers, driving appliance makers to give access to usage data for demand response and savings.

Sustainability Becomes a Shopping Feature

Claims about environmental friendliness are moving, Hermanson says, from more or less ‘greenwashing’ claims to measurable specs. Look for EPEAT and TCO Certified labels, modular designs that make repairs easy, and power modes tailored to AI tasks that don’t beat the life out of your battery. Packaging is becoming lighter, and recycled ingredients are shifting from niche to default in mainstream lines.

How to Get the Hype and Spot What Really Matters

When you’re scanning the booths, pay no attention to the slogans. For TVs, look at peak nits, color volume claims, and how well they perform in bright light with anti-glare. With AI workloads in mind, AI PCs need to focus on NPU performance, memory bandwidth, and battery time. For foldables, test hinge feel, crease visibility, and app continuity. The show will glitter; the devil will be in the details of which investment themes win.