The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, is one of the biggest and buzziest tech events of the year, offering a first look at next-generation TVs, laptops, smart home gadgets, cars, and more. In 2026, the event is being held in Las Vegas from January 6–9, and The Verge will be on the ground covering it all. Follow along here for the biggest news from the show floor.
This is Soramatex from Sora Materials. They wouldn’t tell me what it is, save that it uses carbon powder, which makes it sound like maybe it’s graphene aerogel — which, to be clear, already exists and can get even lighter. But it’s not every day I get to touch impossibly light lab material! (YouTube version here.)
External GPUs are rad but many need work — maybe they’ll take off now we’re throwing AI dollars at them? Gigabyte, Plugable, and newcomer Ugreen aren’t even calling them “eGPUs” anymore here at CES. Guess I can’t complain unless AI companies buy them all up.
AMD’s Strix Halo is a big, pricey chip with the best integrated graphics we’ve ever seen. The Asus TUF is the brand’s budget-friendly gaming line. So how “affordable” will Asus’s new TUF Gaming A14 laptop with Strix Halo be? We don’t know yet, because Asus hasn’t finalized pricing. But I look forward to testing this TUF.
*To be clear, this was with Intel’s XeSS upscaling, at 1080p resolution, with 4x frame gen — the actual framerate was a quarter of that. But the beefiest integrated GPU in Intel’s new Panther Lake chips never let the true framerate dip below 40fps, even unplugged, with settings that looked and felt good enough for single-player games.
RGB stripe subpixel arrangements are the next big thing in OLED gaming monitors, and my colleague Antonio took some great photos of Asus’s ROG Swift OLED PG27UCWM monitor at CES so you can see the arrangement on a real monitor. Sean snapped a few photos of RBG stripe screens, too.
Donut Lab says its solid-state batteries are in production. Is the startup blowing smoke?
As the gap in performance shrinks, and there’s less to separate the best from the rest, how will manufacturers react?
Ace Combat in real life? This folding VTOL foam aircraft gives you a first-person view from inside a tiny toy fighter jet cockpit. A head-tracking DJI drone camera beams video to DJI goggles over DJI’s long-range O4 wireless tech; Fly Wing claims 60-minute battery life and nearly 75mph top speed. $2,000, tentatively in March, for the complete kit.
After 2020’s pricey first effort, Asus is trying the Zephyrus Duo formula again.
But this time, it’s added extra space that could make its two-screen laptop setup worthwhile. Here’s Antonio with a closer look at the new Duo.
At CES 2026, the real Dominic tried out a clone from MyPersonas.ai, which is just one of many AI tools on the show floor this year.
That might be a good thing, though? When Andrew covered the announcement, he pointed out USB-C connectors are not designed to take a lot of the pressure the Extreme Fit drive might take bumping into things, but the extra housing (see image two) might reinforce it.
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The CleverK9 is one of the first, if not the first, smart pet crates on the market. As you’d expect from anything with the word “smart” in the title, it has an app for opening the doors, and you can even automate it so they’ll unlock in the event that smoke or CO2 is detected.
Unsurprisingly, the CleverK9 won’t be cheap, starting at $600 and going up to $2,000 based on size. But hey, at least there’s no subscription.
Here it is next to the Framework Desktop and Corsair’s AI Workstation 300, each of which are plenty small on their own (4.5 liters)! Nvidia’s Spark, already on sale, might be slightly smaller? I saw one earlier but don’t have it to compare. AMD’s Halo is coming Q2 2026, no price yet.
Is there anything more CES than a fire-breathing winged lizard guarding glowing potions? Allison and I both had to gawk. “I also asked the guy at the booth what the crystals do and he was like ‘you know. decor,’” says Allison.
The Verge’s Allison Johnson got to try out the 6.6-inch outside / 8.1-inch inside Razr Fold, which looks a bit thinner than Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold in her quick side-by-side of the two foldables.
The Wi-Fi 8 spec isn’t finalized, but Asus is showing a ROG NeoCore concept router at CES. Buying a router based on an unfinished reference design spec sounds risky, but I do hope this d20-like styling sets a trend.
The clear spider-like version you see here is Asus’s Wi-Fi 8 test model. A rep told me the NeoCore internalizes the antennas, which are the edges of the polyhedron. Neat.
Sentigent Technology was showing off this tiny rugged outdoor companion at CES, highlighting its ability to tackle tough terrain and stairs. Though, with a battery life of just six hours and standing only 1.5 feet tall, it’s not gonna be able to through-hike the Appalachian.
Sentigent also suggests sending it out to the playground with your kids as a robo-babysitter. But that seems even more ill-advised.
The HP Eliteboard G1a plays a bit off the old Commodore 64 formula of a desktop computer built into a keyboard, but for office use in 2026. While I feel it’s a charming and quirky idea, I was prepared to hate the typing feel of this latticeless membrane keyboard.
After trying it briefly? It’s serviceable.
The much promised AI-driven, do-it-all humanoid robots sure can dance in canned demos, but they bumble about slowly when faced with objects in the real world. Even when it’s just... carpet.
As my colleague Dom summed up yesterday, “We’re still not close to Rosey the Robot running our homes, but in the meantime the robot revolution is coming one single-purpose bot at a time.”
Dear numpad diehards, here’s a keyboard we can both enjoy. The Epomaker RT98 is a wireless mechanical keyboard featuring a repositionable number pad. You can move it to right or lefthanded positions by unscrewing the keyboard’s base plate. There’s also a detachable retro TV-style LCD. Because why not?
Pricing isn’t available yet, but it should launch soon on Kickstarter.
Today I toyed with the Lego Smart Brick, touted as the “most significant evolution” to the Lego system in 50 years, and I came away impressed. I have a whole hands-on preview story coming Wednesday, but here’s a whirlwind two-minute video tour of what it can actually do. (Also on YouTube.)
