The Morning After: The best of CES 2026
We're wrapping up coverage of the biggest tech show in the world. CES 2026 is almost over, and while we have more stories and wrap-ups to come, here are the most interesting products we've spotted, written about and critiqued/praised. That includes our picks for the best of CES. We gave out 15 awards as well as our best of show, and you might be surprised by some of our picks - I know I was.
Read on for some of the best things to come out of Las Vegas this week, but first up, our Best of the Best winner, which was Lego Smart Play. As Engadget's editor-in-chief Aaron Souppouris put it, Lego could almost be seen as the antithesis of the typical CES product."
Regardless of trends, Lego has always persisted. And in 2026, it's getting much smarter.
The system consists of a Smart Brick, Tags and Minifigures. They're packed with modern technology, so they can respond to how you play with them or the sets you build. The Smart Brick has a 4.1mm ASIC chip, which Lego says is smaller than a standard Lego stud. It senses things like motion, orientation and magnetic fields, but also has a tiny built-in speaker, which produces audio tied to live play actions," not just canned clips.
It's hard to explain it in only a few words (we've got a deep-dive hands-on right here), but what immediately drew me in was the lack of smartphone pairing and screens. The ability of each part to detect and interact with others can lead to some ridiculous setups, whether it's ducks and police officers or a helicopter or an X-Wing.
Naturally, it's a little pricier than basic Lego, but not out of the realm of being a special gift or birthday present. One of the first sets, with a smart Darth Vader Minifigure, one Smart Brick and one Smart Tag, is $70.
We'll be back to our regularly scheduled newsletter next week. Have a great weekend!
- Mat Smith
The other big stories (and deals) this morningAll the winners at CES 2026Wait, IKEA?With no further ado, here are our winners.
Best robot: Switchbot Onero H1
Best accessibility tech: WheelMove
Best TV: LG's Wallpaper TV
Best AI hardware: Subtle Voicebuds
Best smart home: IKEA Matter-compatible smart home
Best home theater: Samsung HW-QS90H
Best audio: Shokz OpenFit Pro
Best outdoor tech: Tone Outdoors T1
Best toy: Lego Smart Play
Best PC or laptop: Dell XPS 14 + 16
Best health tech: Eyebot eye test booth
Best gaming tech: ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo
Best mobile tech: Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold
Most promising concept: Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable
Best emerging technology: IXI autofocus lenses
Everything NVIDIA announced at CES 2026NVIDIA has started production of its Vera Rubin supercomputer.On Monday, which feels like an age ago, Jensen Huang shared the latest from NVIDIA. While the presentation was more a refresher than a barrage of new announcements, it was a pretty low-key presentation, with lots of AI chat. One announcement was Alpamayo, a family of open-source reasoning models designed to guide autonomous vehicles through difficult driving situations. The centerpiece is Alpamayo 1, a 10-billion-parameter chain-of-thought system NVIDIA says can drive more like a human.
When it comes to tech we all might use, we had to wait for a separate event, when NVIDIA announced DLSS 4.5 and G-Sync Pulsar. For both features, you'll need a 50-series GPU. You got one, right?
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-193045065.html?src=rss