The Shortcut CES 2026 Awards: the 25 hottest tech picks from Las Vegas
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CES 2026 was the best consumer electronics show I’ve attended in more than a decade, and part of that is how The Shortcut covered it and got more personal with our Substack audience. Our team of tech vets, donning gold jackets, tried something brand new in a world where AI Overviews are eating the content of our tech media peers – and it worked! We’re not beholden to search. From Substack to live video, we’re finding new ways to reach you.
Our content reached more than 1 million views over the course of four live broadcasts. We’re planning on bringing our daily show back to NYC in The Shortcut’s brand-new office this month.
We debuted The Shortcut Live, our daily live video show across all platforms – on X, YouTube, Substack, and Instagram – and so many of you tuned in. The CTA (the Consumer Technology Association), which owns and produces CES every year, believed in both our vision and our gold, Las Vegas-appropriate jacket attire, and gave our team a broadcast booth in West Hall at the center of all the action. What an honor!
The result? Our content reached more than 1 million views over the course of four live broadcasts. We had on guests from Qualcomm, Pebble, and Nomad, and we’re planning on bringing our daily show back to NYC in The Shortcut’s brand-new office this month.
Until then, here are our top 25 CES 2026 picks, in case you missed the live show, and a clip from the final show, where we highlight 3 of the 25 products mentioned below.
1. 📺 LG OLED evo W6
Best in Show
LG’s new “Wallpaper TV” – aka the LG OLED evo W6 – was a CES 2026 showstopper. It wowed us with its incredible 9mm thinness, so it virtually disappears when mounted flush against a wall. This paper-thin TV, when plastered to your wall, will make your other, thicker TVs look tear-able.
To help with the clean install, this TV comes with a Zero Connect Box so you can place all your consoles, Blu-ray players, and other HDMI-connected devices in an adjacent cabinet or room. LG has also outdone itself with a 20% brighter Hyper Radiant Color Technology OLED display and a new polarizer on the screen’s surface that reduces reflections to just 3%.
2. 💻 Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable
Best Concept
The Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable is a concept gaming laptop that widens its screen at the touch of a button. This 16-inch laptop features a rollable screen that expands to 21.5 inches and then 23.8 inches. Being able to go from a 16:10 screen to a 21:9 or 24:9 display is perfect for games that need a little more immersion, like flight sims and racing games. Even with its expandable screen, this concept looks like any old 16-inch laptop, and it’s powerful with up to an Nvidia RTX 5090.
More from Lenovo at CES 2026:
3. 🎮 Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo
Best Gaming
The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo finally brings the double-screen trend we’ve seen in sleeker laptops to a true gaming laptop. It’s the perfect solution for gamers who just want more screen space, whether duel-wielding games and gaming guides, scrolling through TikTok, adding a minimap, or doing all of the above simultaneously.
Of course, two screens also make this laptop perfect for split-screen multiplayer games like classic Halo Combat Evolved or the newer Split Fiction. This gaming laptop is also staggeringly thin, considering it can be outfitted with an Nvidia RTX 5090.
4. 👱♀️ Laifen Swift 4 Hair Dryer
Best Beauty Gadget
Laifen’s hairdryers have been known as affordable alternatives to a Dyson Supersonic, but now the Laifen Swift 4 does something unique while remaining affordable. The Laifen Swift 4 is the first hair dryer to help work essential oils into your hair while blow-drying. This lets you treat and nourish your hair while you style.
5. 📱 Samsung TriFold
Best phone
The Galaxy Z TriFold is the epitome of having a tablet in your pocket. Samsung added a second hinge to this device that lets it transform from a 6.5-inch brick-shaped smartphone to a 10-inch tablet, giving you even more room to watch your favorite movies, play games, and get work done. We got to demo it at CES and were blown away by how practical the whole experience was. Plus, it’s super thin and not as heavy as you’d think.
6. ⌨️ X-Origin AIPI Lite
Best computing
As one of the most affordable AI chatbots on the market, the $22 X-Origin AIPI Lite makes it easy to interact with AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini on the go. Its simplistic design is whimsical and inviting – you can customize the UI to exactly what you like – and there’s a button that makes it easy to trigger voice commands. It’s a neat little gadget that makes AI even more accessible.
7. 🔒 myQ Secure View 3-in-1 Smart Lock
Fun fact: The Shortcut team had an hour-long discussion about which smart home device to pick for a CES award this year, and the myQ Secure View 3-in-1 Smart Lock came out on top. Why? It has so much tech crammed into it that it was impossible to ignore. It’s a smart lock that doubles as a video doorbell and can scan your face to unlock your door. It can also automatically lock your door and garage if it detects an unfamiliar face. What’s more, it comes with intelligent notifications for when someone’s at your door, it supports fingerprints and PINs (as well as physical keys), and it lasts for six months on a charge.
8. 🤖 Dreame X60 Max Ultra Complete
Best Robot
The Dreame X60 Max Ultra Complete is the thinnest robot vacuum in the industry. Thanks to its new height advantage, this shorter robot vacuum can sneak into smaller spaces to hard-to-reach areas like under your couch and bed. Dreame has also improved the X60 Max Ultra Complete with a hotter wet-mop mode, dirt detection, and 200% faster AI-enhanced navigation.
More from Dreame at CES:
Dreame Leaptic Cube is an AI action camera that beats GoPro to 8K video recording
Dreame unveils three AI smart rings at CES 2026 – and one has haptic feedback
9. 🤖 Nvidia DLSS 4.5
Best AI
Nvidia DLSS 4.5 offers a massive upgrade for new and old PC gaming rigs in three ways. Firstly, the new Transformer Gen 2 model enhances up-rez details, including reflections, foliage, and light filtering. Secondly, DLSS 4.5 increases the maximum Multi-Frame Generation from four to six, further increasing maximum frame rates. And thirdly, Dynamic MFG adaptively adjusts frame generation levels from off to 6x, giving you the best balance between frame rate, image quality, and responsiveness while gaming.
10. 📺 Samsung 130-Inch Micro RGB TV
Best TV
The Samsung 130-Inch Micro RGB TV is the dream TV of CES. It’s a combination of pure insanity between its 130-inch screen size and Samsung’s latest Micro RGB technology, which replaces the QLED technology of the last decade with an RGB backlight that greatly enhances color. The TV also stands as a massive statement on its easel-like stand. Who wouldn’t want this massive, colorful TV?
11. 📺 TCL X11L SQD-Mini LED TV
Best Home Theater
The TCL X11L SQD-Mini LED TV is an all-in-one home theater system that features an ultra-bright 10,000-nit screen and Dolby Atmos-ready sound, including a built-in subwoofer and surround speakers. The super-quantum dot TV also promises the same 100% BT2020 color reproduction as RGB TVs, but by utilizing Mini LEDs, it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper.
More from TCL at CES:
TCL X11L next-generation SQD-Mini LED TV promises 10,000-nits of brightness
TCL’s RayNeo Air 4 Pro are surprisingly affordable AR glasses, and the first to do HDR
12. 🔉 Dolby Atmos FlexConnect
Best Home Audio
Dolby Atmos FlexConnect finally brings position-adjustable home theater sound to any TV with eARC HDMI. We got to try it first with LG Sound Suite and Sound Follow Tech, which let us move around the listening sweet spot to wherever we moved with a phone app. Additionally, Room Calibration Pro allows the speakers to listen to themselves and refine their output using AI processing.
13. 🐶 Pawport Smart Pet Door
Best Pet Gadget
Smart locks shouldn’t be limited to just humans. The Pawport Smart Pet Door aims to change that. It’s a smart pet door that works with a special collar. Strap it on your furry friend, and they’ll only have access to getting in, stopping intruders in their tracks. Plus, Pawport made its newest door bulletproof. Unnecessary? Sure, but awesome nonetheless.
14. 😎 Even Realities G2 Smart Glasses
Best AR/VR
As one of the most interesting tech companies in the smart glasses industry, Even Realities impressed us at CES with its new G2 glasses. With a modern design that looks a lot more like normal eyeglasses than competitors, the Even G2 integrates with your smartphone for quickly viewing notifications, news, your calendar, and more.
You can also use them for live AI translations between languages, as a teleprompter for meetings and presentations, and even get contextual answers to things brought up in conversations with others. In short, they had no issue standing out among the other glasses and wearables we saw at the show.
15. 😮 OneXPlayer OneXFly APEX
Best Gaming Handheld
OneXPlayer OneXFly APEX is the most powerful gaming handheld we’ve gotten our hands on, and it's powered by the same Halo Strix Point AMD Ryzen AI Max 395+ that powers larger systems like the Framework Desktop and Asus ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet. When hooked up to its liquid-cooling system, this handheld can reach its full 120W potential to play games at maxed-out settings and frame rates.
16. 📺 LG OLED evo C6
Best Gaming TV
The LG C-series of OLED TVs has always been our top gaming TV pick, and now the LG OLED evo C6 is brighter and faster than ever. The latest model features Hyper Radiant Color Technology, a tandem OLED panel, and the newest A11 AI processor, all pulled from LG’s higher-end LG G6 OLED evo TV. Lastly, LG has teamed up with Razer and MediaTek to develop a 1ms Bluetooth ultra-low latency controller that works exclusively with LG TVs.
17. 💻 Dell XPS 14
Best laptop
Dell finally did it. After “retiring” the XPS laptop line last year, the company brought it back, and fans couldn’t be more excited. The new XPS 14 and XPS 16 are two well-built laptops ready to compete with the MacBook Air, with premium designs, the latest Intel Core Series 3 processors, and longer battery life. Dell even teased the return of the famous XPS 13 at a more affordable price point. While they might not be the flashiest laptops at CES, the hype around the return of XPS is undeniable.
18. 🖥️ Dell UltraSharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor
Best Monitor
Our pick for the best monitor at CES is, by far, the Dell UltraSharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor. Its name is about as wide as this puppy is; with a 51.5-inch 6K 120Hz screen, there’s a ton of room for multitasking, watching movies, tracking stocks, coding, and more. You can use it with a single PC or connect up to four and use the same mouse and keyboard across each system (no additional hardware required). It’s meant to replace multi-monitor setups once and for all, and in the demos we saw, it looks like Dell might’ve pulled that off.
19. 🎧 Fender Mix Wireless Headphones
Best Audio
Fender isn’t the first company you think of for wireless headphones, but it delivered something truly unique at CES. The Fender Mix is the first pair of wireless headphones you can fully take apart and even replace the battery. Even more impressively, they last for 52 hours with ANC and come with a USB-C dongle that supports lossless wireless and low-latency audio.
20. 🔋 Belkin Charging Case Pro for Nintendo Switch 2
Best Lifestyle
Belkin launched an accessory at CES that seems like a pure-bred necessity for every Nintendo Switch 2 owner. The new Charging Case Pro is a souped-up case for your Switch 2 with an internal 10,000mAh battery, allowing you to keep the device juiced up while on the go. There’s a little display on the front that details how much charge is left in the case, and when you dock the Switch 2 on the adjustable stand inside, it starts charging. It also comes with a durable design that’s perfect for keeping your console safe.
21. 🚴 Segway Myon eBike
Best Auto Tech
The new Myon eBike from Segway promises to deliver a well-rounded experience for all types of riders. Available in a few different speed configurations (depending on how fast you need to get to the office or your favorite coffee shop), the Myon has a sleek design with easy-to-press controls on the handlebars for managing your speed. It’s also designed to reduce wear and tear over time, and you can make adjustments to your shifts in the companion app. There’s even a special TurboTuned mode that leans on an algorithm to balance performance and battery life. It’s priced at around $2,000.
22. ⌚️ Pebble Round 2
Best Wearable
Pebble is back. After re-entering the smartwatch market last year, the company has begun introducing some of the best E Ink watches we’ve ever seen, and one we’re particularly excited about is the Pebble Round 2. With a 1.3-inch color E Ink display, slim bezels, and two-week battery life, the watch offers a clean look that won’t bombard you with fitness activities, sleep scores, notifications, and diving features. It’s a way to see your notifications and check the time in a minimal way, which sounds particularly appealing for those of us who need some digital detoxing.
23. 👨🍳 Brisk Neoma AI Countertop Oven
Best Cooking Gadget
Brisk It makes some of the best smart outdoor grills on the market, and the company is bringing some of that same technology inside with the Neoma AI countertop oven. With a temperature range from 90 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, the oven lets you bake, roast, and air-fry just about anything you want. It uses AI to help you perfect every dish you create by recommending cooking times and ingredients, and it can even create shopping lists for you so you remember what to grab at the store.
24. 🚶Hypershell X Ultra
Best Innovation
Go farther, climb easier, and cycle faster with the Hypershell X Ultra. This exoskeleton combines lightweight materials with advanced sensors and AI to support your legs and lower back to make everything from hiking to running to cycling easier on your body. It’ll help reduce the load on your body and improve your heart rate, motor power ability, muscle load, and more. It can last all day on a charge, too, for longer adventures.
25. 🧱 Lego Smart Play System
Best Tech Toy
Playing with Legos has changed with the Lego Smart Play System. The Lego Smart Bricks pack a ton of tech into a tiny 2 x 4 brick, including lights, a speaker, light and inertia sensors, and Bluetooth mesh networking. From there, they can interact with other Lego Smart Tags and Minifigs that let you do anything from having a lightsaber battle between Lego Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker to a cop and robber interacting with each other in a police car. The Smart Play System has surprising and varied interactions that make playing with it exciting.
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