CES 2026 is just around the cornerand the pre-show hype cycle / early reveals suggest, yes, there is an awful lot of AI-powered insert-product-category-here with, thankfully, some big announcements from the likes of Intel, Sony and NVIDIA.

Intel has finally unveiled its Panther Lake (Core Ultra Series 3) chips. The first chips built on Intel’s 2nm process can offer a 50 percent performance boost, which is much needed amid intense competition. NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang will be on stage for a keynote that is expected to have a lot of AI hype, while AMD’s Lisa Su will likely compete with the new Ryzen 9000-series chips and the latest in AI upscaling tech.

Over the years, CES has always been THE show for TV innovation and next generation shows. This year, we’re going to talk a lot about Micro RGB. LG introduced a new Micro RGB Evo panel with more than 1,000 dimming zones, while Samsung plans to launch a full range of Micro RGB TVs from 55 inches to 115 inches. In 2025, Sony introduced a new RGB LED panel that uses individual Mini LED backlights in red, green and blue to produce brighter, more accurate colors. The company has trademarked “True RGB,” which may be Sony’s spin on RGB displays.

We cover all the keynotes, press conferences and big reveals in person. And wondering which of the 100s of AI-branded devices and gadgets is worth reporting.

I’m also betting on the most niche celebrity appearance/endorsement at CES 2026. We saw 50 Cent, Big Bird, Martha Stewart, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Guillermo del Toro, Justin Bieber and will.i.am (many times), so who will join this pantheon of stars?

— Matt Smith

Other big stories this morning

Music Studio 5 and 7 will be shown at CES 2026.

It’s not just TVs with Samsung. The company is already teasing a pair of new understated speakers. Probably inspired by the Samsung Frame, the new Wi-Fi speakers, called Music Studio 5 and 7, blend into your living room. The Music Studio 5 has a four-inch woofer and dual tweeters, with a built-in waveguide to deliver better sound. Music Studio 7 features 3.1.1-channel spatial audio with top-, front-, left- and right-firing speakers. No prices yet. Expect to hear more at CES itself or once the speakers hit stores. And as the press image above suggests, we can’t wait to sit stoically in front of one, with a glass of water (?).

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And a 1-inch sensor, 200MP telephoto camera and 3,500 nit display.

Xiaomi’s latest smartphone is once again a spec beast. It features a 1-inch sensor 50MP f/1.67 main camera and a 1/1.4-inch 200MP periscope telephoto camera. And it also has an interesting new mechanical feature: a manual zoom ring. It surrounds the rear camera unit.

Both the regular Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Leica editions feature a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage, along with a 6.9-inch 120Hz AMOLED display that can hit up to 3,500 nits of peak brightness.

But the camera features are the standout elements. Leica’s 17 Ultra adds some very, very, Leica touches: a two-tone finish, red dot status symbol on the front, textured edges and film simulation, like Leica’s Monopan 50 black and white. Xiaomi says the zoom ring “(eliminates) the need for tiresome taps on the screen… It can also be reprogrammed for manual focus.

Xiaomi’s 17 Ultra by Leica and the regular 17 Ultra start at CNY 7,999 ($1,140) and CNY 6,999 ($995), the same as the latest high-end Pixel 10s and Galaxy S25s.

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A Google support page in Hindi says the feature is ‘gradually rolling out to all users.’

A Google support page in Hindi indicates the ability to change your Gmail address may be coming. The feature allows you to replace your current @gmail.com address with another one. Your old address will remain active as an account alias, and all your data will remain, unaffected. The support page (translated) says that “the ability to change your Google Account email address is gradually being rolled out to all users.”

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