CES doesn’t start until January, but rumors about possible products and announcements from tech’s largest annual conference are already starting to take shape. The CES 2026 show floor is officially open from January 6 to 9, but the show will hold an event on Sunday, January 4, and a series of press conferences on Monday. As always, product demonstrations, announcements and networking events will take place at the Las Vegas Convention Center and surrounding hotels throughout the city. As always, Engadget will be covering the event both live and remotely, bringing you news and practice straight from the show floor.
More specific details and advance announcements should be coming as CES approaches, but in the meantime, we do know which companies will be holding press conferences and which technology trends are likely to be notable at the show.
what we already know
Press conferences and showrooms are the backbone of CES. The Consumer Technology Association has released a searchable directory of show attendees, along with a schedule for each official panel and demo.
On Sunday, January 4, Samsung will kick off CES with “The First Look,” a speech hosted by TM Roh, CEO of Samsung’s DX division, to introduce the company’s “vision of the DX (device experience) division in 2026, as well as new artificial intelligence-driven customer experiences.”
This will be followed by multiple press conferences throughout Monday, January 5th. LG will hold an “Innovation in Tune with You” speech at the beginning of the day to share its “vision of improving daily life through soulful intelligence,” Intel will unveil its new Core Ultra Series 3 processors in the afternoon, Sony Honda Mobility will hold a press conference for its first car, and AMD CEO Lisa Su will introduce AMD’s upcoming chips in the day’s closing keynote.
Finally, on Tuesday, January 6, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing will host the Lenovo Technology World Conference at the Sphere, using the large curved screen to share the company’s “commitment to delivering smarter artificial intelligence for everyone by continually redefining how technology engages, inspires and empowers.” It’s worth noting that Lenovo is the parent company of Motorola, which still makes phones and foldable devices equipped with AI tools, so those devices may also appear in the demo.
In addition to the official launch of new products and initiatives, reading what was announced last year and what companies are reportedly working on allows us to make some educated guesses about what to expect at CES 2026.
New chips from AMD, Intel and Qualcomm
CES is typically the start of a series of new chip announcements in a given year and is one of the places where new chips first appear in actual consumer products. AMD may use its keynote to unveil new versions of Ryzen chips, including the recently announced Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which is expected to offer better single-threaded performance, as well as the Ryzen 9000G series, which may feature AMD’s Zen 5 architecture. The company may also use the CES stage to showcase its new FSR Redstone AI upgrade technology.
Intel has publicly announced that it will launch Panther Lake chips at CES 2026. The chip, officially called the Intel Core Ultra Series 3, is in line with Intel’s overall “AI PC” push, but is specifically aimed at high-end laptops. Based on a preview in October 2025, Intel said the first chip built on the 2nm 18A process will provide 50% more processing performance than previous generations, while the performance of the chip’s Arc GPU is 50% higher than the previous generation.
Qualcomm is also rumored to be targeting laptops at the show to move its Snapdragon chips from phones and tablets to other types of computers. The company’s Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Premium chips should start showing up in laptops at CES 2026, giving a look at the improved speed and AI performance the company promises by 2025.
Brighter, “more realistic” screens
Sony announced a new range of Bravia TVs in April 2025, replacing the company’s flagships, fleshing out its mid-range lineup and adding new budget models. The star of the updated Bravia range is the Bravia 9, which uses a QD-OLED panel, but Sony appears to be preparing an entirely new display technology for 2026. In March 2025, Sony launched a new RGB LED panel that uses separate Mini LED backlights for red, green, and blue to produce brighter, more accurate colors. Unlike QD-OLED, which uses quantum dots to filter a layer of blue organic light-emitting diodes to change colors, Sony’s “universal RGB LED backlight technology” can achieve the same brightness as a Mini LED panel without the need for additional filter layers or concerns about OLED screen burn-in.
The company has registered a trademark for “True RGB,” which could end up being what Sony calls the new display if it decides to show it off at CES. It seems entirely possible, since CES is nothing if not a TV show – in addition to Sony, we’ll definitely see new TVs from the likes of LG and Samsung. If the company doesn’t introduce new display technology to its TVs, it will indeed launch a new 240Hz PlayStation monitor in 2026 and possibly show it off at CES.
Sony isn’t the only company hyping bright screens. Samsung is reportedly launching updated versions of the HDR10 and HDR10+ standards, which may be demonstrated at CES 2026. The new HDR10+ Advanced standard will be Samsung’s answer to Dolby Vision 2, which includes support for bi-directional tone mapping and smart features that automatically adapt to sports and gaming content. Samsung’s offering will reportedly offer improved brightness, type-based tone mapping and smart motion smoothing options, among other improvements.
Bally Watch 2026
The spherical yellow robot affectionately known as “Ballie” has been released twice, first in 2020 and second in 2024, and it also comes with a projector. Samsung said Ballie would go on sale at CES in 2025, then said in April 2025 that Ballie would ship this summer alongside Google’s Gemini. But it’s almost 2026, and Barry is nowhere to be seen. Samsung may give its robots a third try at CES 2026, but whether it does or not, robots will still be a big part of the show.
Robot vacuums and mops are a highlight of CES 2025, and it’s certain that the new models released at CES 2026 will bring significant improvements. Not every company will adopt the telescopic arm of the Roborock Saros Z70, but robot vacuums with legs like the Dreame X50 seem to be becoming the norm. Roborock also showed off its new Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow, the first robot vacuum with a retractable roller mop.
In addition to moving through space more efficiently, improving robot navigation is also likely to be a major issue at the show. Prominent members of the AI industry are turning their attention from large language models to world models, aiming to give AI deep insights into physical space. These world models could be the key to building bipedal or other robots that can navigate homes and workplaces, and are likely to be a big topic at CES 2026.
We’ll be updating this article throughout the month as more rumors emerge and new products are confirmed – stay tuned for future updates!
Updated December 11, 2025 at 11:03 AM ET: The report has been updated to include details about Lenovo as Motorola’s parent company and how the latter will be involved in Tuesday’s presentation.
