CES 2026: The Latest Tech from Las Vegas

CES is where the tech year really kicks off.

Held every January in Las Vegas, CES 2026 is the world’s biggest consumer technology showcase and the first major chance for manufacturers to set the tone for the year ahead. If a product category is about to shift, or a new idea is being quietly pushed into the mainstream, it usually shows up here first.

For European readers, the easiest comparison is IFA in Berlin, the sprawling late-summer show I attend regularly. CES plays a similar role, but with a sharper focus on what’s coming next rather than what’s about to hit shelves. It’s where TVs get bigger, laptops get thinner, cars get smarter and startups try to convince the world they’re not just another concept demo.

Over the course of CES 2026, we’ve seen everything from practical upgrades to genuinely strange ideas that may or may not ever leave the show floor. This roundup pulls together the announcements that actually matter, the trends worth watching, and the noise you can safely ignore once the lights in Vegas go dim.

Belkin Shows Off Smart Charging Gear for Nintendo Switch 2

Belkin has form when it comes to accessories that quietly make everyday tech better, and its latest Nintendo-focused gear looks set to continue that trend. With Nintendo Switch 2 already here, the company used its latest showcase to debut a refreshed charging case designed specifically for the new console, alongside a pair of new power banks aimed at travellers and commuters.

Rather than going flashy for the sake of it, Belkin’s approach is reassuringly practical. This is about keeping your console alive on long journeys, hotel stays, or just stretched-out evenings on the sofa when the nearest socket is already spoken for.

The headline product is a new charging case for the Nintendo Switch 2, and it is far more than a bit of padded protection. Built into the case is a 10,000mAh power bank capable of delivering up to 30W of fast charging, enough to meaningfully top up the console rather than just slow the drain.

One of the nicest touches is the LCD display on the outside of the case. Instead of guessing how much power is left, you can see the remaining charge at a glance, which is exactly the kind of small quality-of-life feature that makes sense for portable gaming. There is also an integrated kickstand, letting you prop the console up for tabletop play while it charges.

Belkin has priced the Switch 2 charging case at $100 with EU pricing TBC.

UltraCharge Pro Targets Multi-Device Users

Alongside the Switch-specific gear, Belkin also showed off the new UltraCharge Pro Power Bank. This one is less about gaming and more about everyday carry for people juggling multiple devices.

Priced at $100, the UltraCharge Pro can charge two devices simultaneously, making it useful for topping up a phone and tablet, or a phone and headphones, at the same time. Belkin has confirmed it will launch next month, though European pricing has not yet been locked in. Expect something in the €90 to €100 range once it lands in Ireland.

For anyone who regularly travels with both work and personal devices, this is the sort of accessory that earns its place in a bag quickly.

LEGO’s CES Debut Shows A Push Toward Smarter Toys

At its first ever appearance at CES, LEGO signalled a clear desire to look more modern. The big reveal was the Smart Brick, a standard-sized LEGO brick packed with sensors, wireless tech and a tiny speaker, all designed to react dynamically to how it is built and played with.

The idea is simple and appealing. Build a LEGO car, push it along the floor and it makes appropriate driving noises. Tilt a spaceship and it responds with sound effects. It feels like a natural evolution in a world where interactive tech is everywhere, but it also raises an important question: is this something LEGO actually needs?

What Makes A Smart Brick Smart

Inside each Smart Brick is a 4.1mm ASIC chip, copper coils and a miniature speaker. LEGO says the brick runs on its Play Engine, allowing it to sense motion, orientation, magnetic fields and its position relative to other Smart Bricks.

These bricks do not work alone. Smart Tags and Smart Minifigures provide context, letting the system know what kind of build it is part of. Everything connects locally through BrickNet, a wireless layer that helps bricks understand how they are arranged within a model.

Technically, it is impressive. LEGO has managed to hide a lot of clever engineering inside something that still looks and feels like a normal brick, without relying on a phone or tablet. I do like the idea of building a car and this one brick adds to the immersion of the experience – a brick that knows it’s supposed to make engine noises.

But it leaves me wondering.

Cool Idea, Questionable Necessity

Where things get murkier is long-term appeal. A brick that knows it is in a car and makes car noises is fun at first, but it risks becoming a novelty. LEGO’s strength has always been open-ended play, and there is a danger that predefined sounds nudge kids toward more scripted experiences.

For adult LEGO fans, the appeal may be even more limited. Many value LEGO precisely because it is tactile, simple and screen-free. Adding electronics could feel like unnecessary complexity, especially if it pushes prices higher.

Irish pricing has not been confirmed, but these sets are likely to arrive at a premium through retailers like Smyths Toys and LEGO’s own store. Whether parents see enough value in the added tech remains to be seen.

Smart Bricks are a bold experiment, but for now, they feel more like LEGO testing the waters than redefining play.

Samsung at CES 2026

Samsung had plenty to show at CES, but the tri-fold phone is easily the most eye-catching. Having spent time using a folding handset like the Honor Magic V5, it is clear how compelling the form factor already is. Adding a second fold into the mix feels like a natural, if ambitious, evolution, and it is hard not to be intrigued by where Samsung plans to take it.

Away from phones, Samsung also showed off the S95H OLED. It is impressively thin and features a zero-gap wall mount, allowing the TV to sit completely flush against the wall. It is a small detail, but one that makes a big difference to how premium the set looks in a modern living space.

As expected, much of Samsung’s First Look presentation focused on the home. The company outlined updates to its smart fridges, including improved recipe suggestions, AI-powered cooling, and Google Gemini-driven AI Vision. This system can recognise more food items and help you track what needs topping up without manually checking your shelves. FoodNote adds a weekly summary showing what has gone in and out of the fridge.

Samsung also highlighted its Bespoke AI Laundry Combo with a new AI wash cycle, alongside an updated Air Dresser featuring Auto Wrinkle Care, with the ambitious goal of making ironing a thing of the past. Rounding things out was the Bespoke AI smart vacuum and mop, which can even keep an eye on your pets while you are out.

L’Oreal’s CES Beauty Tech Shows How Fast This Space Is Moving

You would not think it to look at me, but I find beauty tech genuinely fascinating. It probably started with my love of the Dyson Supersonic, but once you fall down that rabbit hole, it is hard not to notice how quickly this space is evolving. L’Oréal is a big part of that, and once again at CES, it showed up with ideas that feel equal parts clever and slightly futuristic.

The most immediate of the trio is an LED Eye Mask that uses red light and near-infrared light to target puffiness, discolouration and fine lines. LED masks are nothing new, but focusing specifically on the eye area makes a lot of sense, especially for people who do not want to commit to a full face setup every night.

There is also a full LED Face Mask, though this one is still very much a prototype. It is designed to be more flexible and wearable than the rigid masks we have seen from brands like Dr. Dennis Gross or Omnilux in recent years. Do not expect to buy it anytime soon though, as L’Oreal says it will not land until next year at the earliest.

The most ambitious device is the Light Straight Plus Multi-styler. It uses infrared light to dry and style hair, with sensors and machine learning designed to adapt to how you move it. L’Oreal claims it can straighten hair effectively without ever exceeding 320°F, well below the temperatures that can cause real damage. That one is still a long way off, with a 2027 launch pencilled in, but it shows just how seriously the company is taking hair health through technology.

Taken together, these gadgets are a good reminder that beauty tech is no longer a gimmick side show. It is becoming smarter, more targeted, and in some cases, genuinely useful.

Speediance Shows Early Fitness Tech Concepts at CES 2026

Speediance used its CES 2026 presence to look beyond finished consumer products, showcasing two early-stage prototypes alongside its existing fitness ecosystem. Rather than major launch announcements, the emphasis this year was on direction of travel and how connected fitness hardware might evolve over the next few years.

The company has already found its footing in the smart home gym category, and CES was positioned as a space to test ideas publicly rather than push polished devices. That approach felt deliberate, and refreshing, in a hall often dominated by over-promised concepts.

Gym Nano Explores Portability Without Abandoning Resistance Training

One of the more grounded prototypes on show was the Gym Nano. It is a compact, motor-driven cable system designed for strength training in smaller or more flexible spaces. Unlike full-frame smart gyms, the Nano appears to prioritise portability and adaptability, hinting at use cases beyond the spare room setup that dominates current smart gym thinking.

Details on resistance limits, power requirements, or pricing were not confirmed, but the intent is clear. Speediance is testing whether its digitally controlled resistance model can be scaled down without losing the consistency and safety that motor-driven systems offer over traditional weights.

If brought to market, this could appeal to apartment dwellers, frequent movers, or anyone who wants structured strength training without committing to a permanent installation.

Speediance Strap Looks at Fitness Data Beyond the Workout

More speculative is the Speediance Strap, a wearable prototype exploring how continuous physiological and behavioural data might feed into training and recovery recommendations. Unlike fitness trackers focused on steps or heart rate snapshots, the Strap is positioned as an always-on input layer for broader health insights.

At this stage, it is firmly a concept rather than a product. There was no confirmation of sensors, battery life, or consumer timelines. What it signals instead is Speediance’s interest in linking workouts with the rest of the day, including recovery, sleep, and general activity, rather than treating training sessions as isolated events.

Aqara’s Smart Home Ecosystem Keeps Expanding

Aqara has quietly become one of the most reliable smart home ecosystems around, especially for households that value flexibility, local control, and strong Apple Home integration. In my own home, and in supporting my Mum, Aqara gear has steadily taken over everything from lighting and heating to security and automation, largely because it just works and keeps getting better.

At CES 2026, Aqara used that momentum to unveil its latest vision for what it calls intelligent space technology. Rather than focusing on individual gadgets, the company showed how sensors, hubs, cameras, and locks can work together to understand how people actually move through and use a space. The promise is simple: smarter security, better comfort, and less friction in daily life.

This is not about futuristic gimmicks. It is about practical automation that responds to human presence, behaviour, and real-world conditions, whether that is a family home, a small business, or assisted living scenarios.

The Hub Becomes the Brain of the Home

One of the headline announcements is the Thermostat Hub W200. This is more than just a heating controller. It acts as a central brain, pulling in environmental data and adjusting heating intelligently. The standout feature here is Adaptive Temperature combined with Clean Energy Guidance from Apple, which aims to optimise comfort while nudging users towards more energy-efficient behaviour.

For Irish homes facing rising energy costs, this kind of guidance could be genuinely useful, especially if it integrates cleanly with existing radiators or underfloor heating setups. Irish compatibility, supported systems, and pricing are still to be confirmed, but the direction is encouraging.

Alongside it, Aqara showed its first Matter-enabled Camera Hub G350. This is significant because Matter support means better cross-platform compatibility, not just within Apple Home but also across broader smart home ecosystems. Acting as both a camera and a hub, the G350 analyses environmental data locally and can trigger automations without relying entirely on the cloud.

Sensors That Understand People, Not Just Motion

Where Aqara really leans into the idea of spatial intelligence is with its new sensors. The Spatial Multi-Sensor FP400 and the Multi-State Sensor P100 are designed to detect more than basic movement. They can interpret presence, posture, and environmental conditions to create automations that feel natural rather than abrupt.

Instead of lights snapping on because something moved, systems can respond to someone entering a room, sitting down, or even lingering in a space. This has obvious benefits for accessibility and elder care, where automation needs to be helpful without being intrusive.

In practical terms, this could mean heating only rooms that are actually in use, lights adjusting gradually based on time of day, or safety alerts that trigger if unusual inactivity is detected. For families supporting older relatives, this type of passive monitoring could offer peace of mind without cameras in private spaces.

Hands-Free Access With Apple Home Key

Security also got a notable upgrade with the Smart Lock U400. This lock supports hands-free unlocking using Apple Home Key on iPhone or Apple Watch, allowing users to unlock their door simply by approaching it. No fumbling for keys, no opening an app, just a tap or proximity-based access.

For busy households, short-term rentals, or anyone with mobility issues, this is a meaningful quality-of-life improvement. As with previous Aqara locks, the big question for Ireland will be availability, supported door types, and pricing in euro. If Aqara can match the value of its earlier models, this could be one of the more appealing smart lock options on the market.

Ambient Dreamie Wants To Replace Your Phone On Your Bedside Table

If your phone has become an unavoidable part of your bedtime routine, CES has a gadget that thinks it should not be. Dreamie combines a gradual sunrise-style wake-up light with built-in playback for music, podcasts and ambient sounds, all without notifications, apps or endless feeds. Ambient CEO and co-founder Adrian Canoso told us the idea came from frustration with phones doing far too much in the bedroom, encouraging late-night scrolling and restless sleep.

It is a deliberately simple pitch in a very noisy tech space: give people everything they actually use their phone for at night, and remove the rest. Pricing and Irish availability have not been confirmed yet, but for habitual doomscrollers, Dreamie is positioning itself as a small but meaningful step towards better sleep.

SwitchBot Doubles Down On AI-Powered Living

SwitchBot has never been short of ambition, but its CES 2026 showing makes it clear the company is thinking far beyond button pushers and curtain motors. Following a strong presence at IFA in Berlin last year, SwitchBot used CES 2026 to outline what it calls Smart Home 2.0, a deeply integrated ecosystem built around embodied AI, robotics and context-aware automation.

The core idea is simple enough: homes that can sense what is happening, understand intent and then act without constant user input. In practice, that means everything from robots that can handle physical tasks, to security products that recognise you, to desk gadgets that respond to mood and environment. It is an unusually broad showcase, even by CES standards.

Onero H1 Shows SwitchBot’s Long-Term Robotics Play

The headline announcement is the onero H1, described as SwitchBot’s most accessible AI household robot to date. Rather than being built for one specific job, onero H1 is positioned as a multi-task system designed to adapt over time. It features 22 degrees of freedom, on-device sensing and an OmniSense visual-language-action model that allows it to understand objects, depth and touch.

SwitchBot says this combination improves reliability for everyday tasks like grasping, opening, pushing and organising, the kinds of actions that have traditionally been difficult for consumer robots. Crucially, onero H1 is designed to work alongside SwitchBot’s existing ecosystem of smaller, task-focused devices, rather than replace them outright.

Pre-orders for onero H1 and its A1 robotic arms are expected to open soon via SwitchBot’s own website. Irish pricing and availability have not yet been confirmed.

Lock Vision Brings 3D Biometrics To Smart Security

Security is another major pillar of Smart Home 2.0, with the introduction of the SwitchBot Lock Vision Series. SwitchBot claims this is the world’s first deadbolt smart lock to use 3D structured-light facial recognition, projecting over 2,000 infrared points to build a precise facial map for near-instant unlocking.

Unlike basic camera-based systems, this approach is designed to work reliably with glasses, hats or makeup, and includes liveness detection to prevent spoofing. All biometric data is stored locally, a detail that will matter to privacy-conscious buyers.

The Lock Vision Series also supports Matter-over-Wi-Fi, allowing direct integration with Apple Home without a separate hub. A Pro model adds palm-vein recognition, useful when hands are wet or dirty. As with the robot, Irish pricing and retailer availability are still to be announced.

Comfort Tech Expands Beyond The Home

SwitchBot’s announcements were not limited to robots and locks. The company also introduced several new comfort and productivity devices aimed at everyday life.

The AI MindClip is a lightweight, clip-on AI assistant that records conversations and meetings, then turns them into summaries, reminders and a searchable personal knowledge base using a cloud-based AI service. At just 18 grams and supporting over 100 languages, it is pitched as a “second brain” for work and personal life, though subscription costs have not yet been detailed.

Meanwhile, the new SwitchBot Weather Station uses a large E-Ink display to show indoor conditions, forecasts, calendars and AI-generated daily weather briefings. Rounding things out is OBBOTO, an expressive pixel globe light with thousands of RGB LEDs, motion sensing and AI-driven animations designed to reflect mood, music and environment.