00:00Hey guys, if you happen to be new here, I'm Kate and this will be my sixth CES with Tom's Guide,
00:07my fourth time actually on the show floor. And for our team of tech nerds, CES is what we look
00:13forward to all year. Tom's Guide has been covering CES for years and if you've been with this
00:19channel for a while, you know how it usually goes. We publish something like 30 videos in a single
00:25week. Hands-ons with TVs, laptops, robots, weird gadgets that may or may not ever come out. All
00:31the things. And don't worry, we're still doing that to some extent, but this year we're also
00:37launching something new. Welcome to the very first episode of Tom's Guide to CES.
00:48Tom's Guide to CES is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, our team being your literal guide to
00:54the biggest tech trade show in the world. That means highlights of the coolest stuff we see at
00:59the show, special behind the scenes moments, some branded video partnerships, and thank you in
01:05advance for supporting those. They genuinely help us do what we do. We'll also have a big exciting
01:11awards video, not sponsored obviously, plus some fun new series across TikTok, Instagram, and shorts
01:18here on YouTube. All of that is to say you're not going to want to miss this, so make sure you're
01:23subscribed to the channel. Now let's get into what you can actually expect to see from CES 2026.
01:33On the TV front, brands are pushing very hard this year, and RGB is the story. RGB TVs started
01:40showing up in concept format CES last year. Hisense showed it. Sony teased what it was working on around
01:46that time. Hopefully you had seen that preview on our channel. But this year we're expecting a lot
01:51more brands to throw their hats into the RGB ring. Samsung had already announced its first micro RGB TV
01:58a few months back, but now Samsung confirmed it'll be expanding with two more options, which we will
02:04definitely have at the top of the list to check out at their demo space. Then we also had LG confirm
02:09it's debuting its own micro RGB TV at CES. Again, really looking forward to getting to check these out,
02:15spend some time with it. Just from a reviewer's perspective, we really haven't had all that many
02:20opportunities to get some anecdotal experience with RGB TVs, and now they're landing here all at once.
02:26At a high level, RGB TVs use colored LEDs in the backlight instead of white or blue LEDs that then
02:33get filtered through quantum dots or color filters. The result is potentially much wider color coverage,
02:39better brightness control, and this is the big one for me, much better off-angle viewing. That off-angle
02:46performance is something OLED has dominated for years over mini LED, and from the prototypes I've
02:52seen so far, RGB could really change that. Will anyone actually be able to get it in their homes
02:58and afford it? Probably not, but we could be surprised. I will have some more details to share
03:03soon, hopefully. There are a couple of things I can't say quite yet, but trust me, this is the most
03:08important TV trend happening at CES 2026. Of course, we'll also see all of the things you guys look forward
03:15to every year. LG's latest OLED lineup, Samsung's QD OLED, and lifestyle updates, and then we have
03:20Sony, which won't be at the show, but that has been the case for a couple of years now. That's just
03:24to tell you not to expect anything. So we're definitely going to see LG and Samsung, but then
03:29we have the brands like Hisense and TCL, which I honestly don't even think it's fair to call them
03:34challengers anymore, given their increasing market share. Either way, I'm very excited to bring you
03:40their announcements from the show. On the computing side, CES is pretty much where we get the most
03:49laptops announced at once, maybe besides Computex. For 2026, though, CES will be no exception. HP,
03:56Dell, ASUS, Lenovo, all of them will have announcements. ASUS has confirmed that it will
04:01show the first Intel Panther Lake laptops, which also means Intel has publicly said Panther Lake is
04:07launching. Otherwise, we're expecting to get full lineups of AI PCs across the board. Let's talk more
04:13about the chips, though. We have AMD's Keynote. That's going to be a big one. New Ryzen chips are
04:18basically guaranteed. Intel, again, Panther Lake. And then we have Qualcomm heavily targeting laptops
04:24this year, which could mean even more Snapdragon PCs and possibly even the first Snapdragon X2 Elite or
04:32X2 Elite Premium laptops at CES. Also, Lenovo is doing what might be its biggest CES presentation
04:40ever at the Sphere. We were there last year for the Delta Keynote. It was just unreal, so we will
04:47absolutely be sharing updates from there across all of the socials. And yes, those announcements will
04:53probably have something to do with RGB. On the mobile front, CES tends to be a little bit quieter.
05:01I think instead of a ton of phones, we're going to be looking at the mobile category more in terms of
05:06smart glasses and like portable smart displays. But TCL usually does have some phones on display. And
05:14as for Samsung, they're not doing a traditional press conference this year. That focus is going to be on
05:19TVs, home entertainment, appliances. But that tri-fold phone that has started to, you know,
05:25pop up, just saying, you might want to be subscribed. Automotive and cars, EVs, isn't something we've been
05:31doing a ton of on the channel these days. But if you do want more of it, tell us now because CES should
05:37have some really cool stuff. The Sony Honda Afila car has a press conference scheduled. BMW is usually
05:43there. And yes, almost certainly we will see a few flying cars or vertical takeoff things that feel
05:50just kind of a little unhinged, if I'm honest, but they're always cool to check out. And they are very
05:55CES. Smart home is also classic CES. Cool robot vacuums, cleaning tech, appliances, and you know,
06:02we love a clean home. And then this will apply to every category I've already talked about. We have
06:10AI. And this year, I kind of like that it's not AI everything. Like AI isn't the big story going into
06:17CES. Everything just has AI now. I think it's been a nice change for the last two years. But you are
06:23going to hear the term agentic AI a lot more, meaning systems that don't just respond or predict,
06:29but can actually make some autonomous decisions on your behalf. Computing is where this will really
06:34show up and devices are hopefully going to feel noticeably smarter. Finally, we had gaming. Gaming
06:42is a little bit of a wild card this year. CES, gaming, sometimes there are cool things. Sometimes
06:47it kind of falls flat. There are basically no solid rumors about new gaming handhelds at CES, which is
06:55slightly concerning given how much you all love that content and come to the channel for that content.
07:02Just kidding. Kind of. You know, Phil, Paul, Tony, they love handhelds. So I'm hoping we get surprised.
07:08At the very least, expect some cool gaming peripherals. And if there are brands that you
07:12want us to prioritize, Razer, others, let us know. We are still locking in our calendars.
07:18All of our CES coverage kicks off January 4th and will be on the ground all week. Again, this is also the
07:25first time we are rolling out Tom's Guide 2 and I can't think of a better place to do it than at CES.
07:32We'll have more to share soon, but for the new year, CES is going to be the place to be.
07:37So this is Tom's Guide to CES and we will see you in Las Vegas.
07:50Be Ingalls.
08:02We'll see you in Las Vegas.
08:07We'll see you, in Las Vegas.
08:10We'll see you then and we'll see you in Las Vegas.
08:13Let's go.
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