Tag: Engadget

This year, over 4,000 exhibitors descended on Las Vegas, Nevada to showcase their wares at CES, and the Engadget team was out in full force. The week started with press conferences from the biggest companies at the show, which were often a flurry of AI buzzwords, vague promises and very little in the way of hard news.

More than one company even decided to forgo announcing things during their conferences to make way for more AI chatter, only to publish press releases later quietly admitting that, yes, actually, they did make some consumer technology. It’s appropriate, I guess, that as we’re beginning to feel the knock-on cost effects of the AI industry’s insatiable appetite for compute resources — higher utility bills and device prices — companies would rather use their flashy conferences to reinforce AI’s supposedly must-have attributes rather than actually inform the public about their new products.

We’re by no means AI luddites at Engadget, but it’s fair to say that our team is more excited by tangible products that enrich our lives than iterative improvements to large language models. So, away from all of the bombast of NVIDIA’s marathon keynote and Lenovo’s somehow simultaneously gaudy and dull Sphere show, it’s been a pleasure to evaluate the crowd of weird new gadgets, appliances, toys and robots vying for our attention.

Over the course of several days of exhaustive discussion and impassioned pitching, our CES team has whittled down the hundreds of products we saw to pick our favorites. Starting with an initial shortlist of around 50 candidates across a diverse range of product categories, we eventually landed on 15 winners and our singular best in show.

If you’ve been with us all week, stay tuned for a lot more to come — despite publishing almost 200 articles from the show already, there’s still plenty we have to tell you about. For now, though, here are our winners, each introduced by the editor most familiar with it. — Aaron Souppouris, Editor-in-chief

Best robot: Switchbot Onero H1

We saw a lot of robots showing off intriguing and useful capabilities at CES 2026. While a lot of robots impressed us, there were fewer companies willing to commit to actually making them available. But Switchbot’s Onero H1, which we watched pick up clothes and load a washing machine, is a helper robot the company intends to sell this year.

The demo we saw was limited, but Switchbot claims it can help with an array of household chores (even if it might do them more slowly than a human). It’s also kind of cute. The company hasn’t said how much Onero will cost, though it promises the droid will be less than $10,000. A five-figure price tag is still out of reach for most, but it at least gives us hope we’ll see it somewhere outside of the CES showfloor. — Karissa Bell, Senior reporter

Best accessibility tech: WheelMove

WheelMove offers a simple upgrade for manual wheelchairs that could make it much easier for the rider to navigate rough surfaces like grass and uneven dirt paths. The add-on is affixed to the front bars of the wheelchair and can lift the small caster wheels off the ground, in addition to providing power assistance with five speed options. It’s portable, has a decent range of about 15 miles — with the option to swap out its battery on the go — and could give wheelchair users greater access to areas that would otherwise be difficult to move about in. It can also keep the wheelchair from speeding up when a person is traveling on a downward slope.

This feels very much like a product that will actually see the light of day, and could be genuinely helpful. It builds upon an existing category of wheelchair accessories to address a real issue in a way that doesn’t overcomplicate things, and would work with the wheelchairs people already use. — Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend editor

Best TV: LG Wallpaper TV (OLED Evo W6)

I’ve seen plenty of TVs at CES this year, but few stopped me in my tracks like LG’s OLED Evo W6. It’s the resurrection of the company’s “Wallpaper TV,” but this time it’s even thinner (about the depth of a pencil), and it’s no longer tied to a soundbar. It also uses LG’s wireless control box to reduce cabling — the only cord you need to hide is the one for power.

And best of all, the OLED Evo W6 features LG’s latest OLED technology, which promises to be about 20 percent brighter than previous generations. Video demos looked absolutely stunning, with all of the wonderful contrast and black levels we’ve come to love from OLED. But it’s also a work of art when it’s turned off, one that practically disappears when viewed from an angle. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior reporter

Best AI hardware: Subtle Voicebuds

Subtle’s Voicebuds are earbuds with a twist: They feature an AI model that’s trained to transcribe your voice accurately in very noisy environments, or when it’s below a whisper in quiet spaces. We’ve seen these things in action on the bustling CES show floor, where they managed to transcribe several sentences amid the chaos. The only downsides is that the Voicebuds require internet access to use the best transcription models, and you need to subscribe to the Subtle app to use it. Without the app, it relies on a smaller local model for transcription.

While we still need to put the Voicebuds through their paces, they’re intriguing because we haven’t seen many genuinely useful AI hardware products. Plus, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a tiny startup deliver hardware trying to take on the likes of Apple. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior reporter

Best smart home: IKEA Matter-compatible smart home

The best smart home devices I saw at CES had nothing to do with AI or robots. It seems every other company, from Bosch to LG to Samsung, had one or both of the buzzy technologies baked into their new smart home offerings. But IKEA came to its first CES with a simple lineup of basic, Matter-enabled smart plugs, sensors, lamps and remotes at screamingly good prices. Function paired with accessible pricing is sort of what IKEA is known for, so the lineup didn’t exactly surprise me as much as make me appreciate that someone is finally simplifying and democratizing smart home stuff.

There are 21 Matter-compatible devices in all. They include a $6 smart bulb, an $8 smart plug, a $6 smart remote and a slew of home sensors. A slightly pricier ($15) globe bulb looks very lovely. Finally, there’s a smart bulb you’d actually want to look at — one that doesn’t cost $50. Another standout is the BILREA remote control. Not only is it an intuitive controller for IKEA’s smart devices and new smart lamps, it also has a magnetic mount so you don’t lose the thing. Matter devices require a hub to function. Here, you can either go for IKEA’s own DIRIGERA or use a Matter hub you already own. The new lineup should land at IKEA’s website and stores sometime in January. — Amy Skorheim, Senior reporter

Best home theater: Samsung HW-QS90H

Many companies claim their soundbars have enough bass that you don’t need a separate subwoofer. Those promises rarely pan out, even when the company devises new technology to solve the problem. With the HW-QS90H, Samsung is pledging to do the same with its Quad Bass woofer system. Those woofers move in two directions, producing a lot more low-end tone than most soundbars are capable of on their own. What’s more, Samsung included its Convertible Fit Design tech that debuted last year, so you can lay this speaker flat or mount it on a wall and the built-in sensors will automatically adjust the driver output accordingly. So, if you’ve longed for deep bass on a soundbar without a large or ugly sub in the corner, you may finally get your wish later this year. — Billy Steele, Deputy editor

Best audio: Shokz OpenFit Pro

When it comes to open fit earbuds, companies that claim to offer active noise cancellation (ANC) usually don’t deliver; It’s difficult to effectively block external sound when your ears aren’t completely sealed off. Shokz is one of the few that has cracked the code with its OpenFit Pro. The over-the-ear hook design allows the earbuds to sit outside of your ear for a clear line to your surroundings. When you need a bit more quiet, the company’s noise reduction tech does well to silence moderate sounds in a cafe, office and more. It’s seriously impressive how much noise reduction you’ll get here, and the fact that nothing is stuck in your ear canals makes them very comfortable to wear. Plus, Shokz improved overall sound quality with new drivers, and tacked on Dolby Atmos for good measure. — Billy Steele, Deputy editor

Best outdoor tech: Tone Outdoors T1

Outdoor tool companies have increasingly shown up at CES, especially the ones that offer a range of battery-powered gear. Tone Outdoors isn’t your usual power tool outfit though; it’s a spin-off of the aerospace engineering company Whisper Aero. Through its development of quieter electric airplane engines, Whisper Aero realized its technology had other uses. Enter the T1 leaf blower.

The T1 is significantly quieter than most handheld gas models, clocking in at just 52 decibels of peak noise on average. It’s also more powerful than most of them with 880 CFM of airflow volume. The T1 can run longer too, and an upcoming backpack will extend run time for several hours. But the most important advancement here is not annoying your neighbors — or yourself — when it’s time to do some yard work. — Billy Steele, Deputy editor

Best toy: Lego Smart Play

Lego is constantly evolving, but rarely does it make as big a move as it did with Smart Play. The system is designed to take standard Lego sets and make them more interactive thanks to a tech-packed Smart Brick. Those bricks have a tiny chip the size of a Lego stud that enables things like motion, color and proximity sensing. They also have a tiny speaker that further helps bring Lego builds to life.

The Smart Brick is mostly a blank slate, but pairing it with Lego’s Smart Tags and Smart Minifigures is what enables these new play scenarios. Unsurprisingly, Lego introduced the Smart Play system alongside Star Wars sets that make these new immersive elements more obvious. An X-Wing piloted by Luke Skywalker can get into a dogfight with Darth Vader’s TIE fighter, and you’ll hear the engines roar to life, the characters exclaim as they come under fire and the spaceship explodes if it gets hit too many times. And Smart Play requires no setup, meaning that the technology packed into the Smart Brick fades away and lets kids (and kids at heart) get down to the business of playing. You don’t need to know how it works — it just does. — Nathan Ingraham, Deputy editor

Best PC or laptop: Dell XPS 14 + 16

In a way, this award is for Dell’s latest flagship laptops but also the company itself. Last year, Dell showed up with a new naming scheme for all of its hardware that included replacing the iconic XPS line with the word “Premium.” And despite our objections, the company followed through with the rebrand. But now at CES 2026, not only has Dell admitted its mistake, it’s righting wrongs with two new members of the XPS family that are exactly what we wanted all along.

On the XPS 14 and XPS 16, we’re getting brand new chassis featuring the latest chips from Intel, gorgeous tandem OLED displays and precision engineering that embodies everything we loved about XPS laptops from previous years. Dell also streamlined its designs with the larger XPS 16 dropping an entire pound compared to the previous generation. The company even addressed a number of our previous critiques by switching from capacitive touch controls back to a classic row of function keys and reverting to segmented touchpads instead of seamless glass ones that made it hard to keep track of your cursor.

But perhaps the best part is that Dell isn’t stopping here, because the company also teased a new version of its legendary XPS 13 slated for later this year, the thinnest and lightest member of the family yet. There are also placeholders for two more XPS models slated to arrive in the not too distant future. — Sam Rutherford, Senior reporter

Best health tech: Eyebot vision test booth

Wouldn’t it be nice if getting an updated eyeglasses prescription wasn’t as lengthy a process as it is right now? Eyebot’s new kiosk is designed to automate the process of visiting a doctor’s office to three minutes rocking up to a machine. It uses a combination of analog and digital wizardry to identify what you need to see properly in no time at all. Even better is that the prescriptions have to be signed off by a licensed eye doctor, so you can still rely on a degree of professional rigor. We like Eyebot because it proved itself in our tests: its brief examination matched my professionally completed prescription from last year. But its ability to make effective eye care accessible and affordable in a way that it isn’t at present is even more compelling than the tech itself. — Daniel Cooper, Senior reporter

Best gaming tech: ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo is big, weird and potentially awkward to set up. But honestly, what kind of gamer doesn’t want more screens? Even if you can’t use its second display in the middle of a firefight, more real estate means extra room for Discord, build guides or anything else you might need. Furthermore, ASUS included not one but two brilliant OLED panels with up to 1,100 nits of brightness and color accuracy so good you won’t have a problem editing photos or videos. You also get a ton of ports, and with support for up to an NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPU, the ROG Zephyrus Duo has more than enough performance to handle anything you can throw at it. — Sam Rutherford, Senior reporter

Best mobile tech: Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold

Samsung might have announced the latest iteration of its foldable smartphones in Korea, but CES was the first chance for many of us to see the Galaxy Z TriFold in person. It’s a 10-inch Android tablet hidden within a 6.5-inch smartphone form factor.

The jump from the almost-square screen ratio of Samsung’s past foldables to approximately 4:3 is a major improvement. This is a device that I could happily watch entire movies on. There’s more horizontal space to read, more room to type and more bright, vivid AMOLED everything. Unfurling the sides is incredibly satisfying and, perhaps because it’s thicker, it has a reassuring heft, too. The rest of the spec sheet reflects another fashionable Galaxy phone with a 200-megapixel main camera and the biggest battery yet in a Samsung foldable.

It’ll likely be expensive though. Samsung hasn’t confirmed pricing in the US, but based on its launch cost in Korea, it could be around $2,500. — Mat Smith, UK bureau chief

Most promising concept: Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable

Concept devices are hard to judge because even the ones with a ton of potential might be too difficult to make or too niche to bring to market. But with the Legion Pro Rollable concept, Lenovo created something with a simple yet powerful premise: A gaming laptop with a screen that gets wider at the touch of a button.

To make the Legion Pro Rollable, Lenovo took a regular Legion Pro 7i and then swapped its standard 16-inch display for a flexible one that can expand all the way up to 23.8 inches — with a bonus stop in between. This means you have the option to choose from 16:10, 21:9 or even 24:9 depending on the situation, which feels like an incredible way to enhance racing games, flight sims and anything else that can take advantage of extra wide aspect ratios. Granted, when its screen is fully deployed, it does look a bit ungainly. But of all the concepts we saw this year at CES, the Legion Pro Rollable is the one we hope survives to become a proper retail product someday. — Sam Rutherford, Senior reporter

Best emerging technology: IXI autofocus lenses

IXI’s autofocusing glasses were a late addition to our discussions, but we were impressed by what could be a significant advancement in spectacle technology — something that’s been largely static since the 1950s. IXI’s glasses feature an elegant, unique, cameraless eye-tracking system that uses ultra-low-power LEDs and photodiodes to precisely monitor the user’s eye movement and focus convergence. This data drives a liquid crystal lens layer, enabling a focus switch between near and far distances in approximately 0.2 seconds. Focus your gaze elsewhere, and your glasses return to their normal prescription. Think of them as a high-tech take on the often thick and clunky multifocal lenses we’re currently stuck with.

IXI is now finalizing the production process, developing manufacturing and gaining the necessary medical certification to sell its glasses, but it has already struck deals with lens manufacturers in Europe. The company has a busy year ahead as it turns its technology into a consumer product. — Mat Smith, UK bureau chief

Best in show: Lego Smart Play

There’s perhaps no place better than CES to highlight how quickly industry trends die. Over the years the show has been a driver of cornerstone technologies like the VCR, DVD, flatscreen TVs, PDAs and more. Some trends stick, some don’t.

Lego could almost be seen as the antithesis of the typical CES product: The company’s core concept of creative play has remained in place throughout its long history, boosted by a gradual and ongoing evolution of block types and brand tie-ins.

Announced at its first-ever CES press conference, Smart Play represents a thoughtful integration of technology to the classic toy. A tiny chip the size of a single Lego stud allows the company’s Smart Bricks to sense what’s around them, opening up new ways to play. The system will debut with a trio of Star Wars sets, but we’re sure Lego has plans for a wide range of licensed and unlicensed options.

Our team instantly fell in love with Smart Play, and Deputy editor Nathan Ingraham had the opportunity to both build some sets and talk with some of the people behind the technology. Amid parental anxieties about screentime, it’s refreshing that Smart Play doesn’t require an app or a screen to get started. Kids can just get building. — Aaron Souppouris, Editor-in-chief