I'll never forget the biggest TV I've ever seen. Deep inside a convention center in Las Vegas, a PR representative for Samsung calmly ushered me past workers setting up for the evening event. They were preparing for Samsung's First Look, the annual unveiling of the company's most ambitious home entertainment hardware for the coming year. Hundreds of journalists and industry insiders would soon have access, but I was getting a behind-the-scenes preview.
We moved past kiosks in mid-construction devoted to PC monitors, smart TV features and wacky displays built into modernist bookshelves. I brushed by the Sero, a TV that could rotate its screen into portrait mode. Then, behind the half-constructed stage, I saw it: The Wall, 292 inches of micro-LED glory, brighter than any movie screen and so much larger than life.
That was at CES, the world's largest tech event, in 2020. Every year, Samsung is one of the show's most important exhibitors of consumer electronics, and I knew that its huge TV would be the talk of my industry. As it towered over me, I felt like I was part of technology history.
I've been attending CES for most of my adult life. With the exception of two years during the COVID pandemic, I've gone every year since 1999. I fly to Vegas in January, right after the holidays, to hustle for a solid week. There, alongside hundreds of other journalists and my CNET colleagues, I write articles and shoot videos about the coolest gadgets on the planet. Tough gig, I know.
Read more: CNET Is Choosing the Best of CES 2026 Awards
CNET has a long history at CES. Teaming up with the Consumer Technology Association, which hosts the show, we've bestowed the official Best of CES Award on a handful of select products. We're doing it again in 2026, this time in conjunction with our colleagues at PC Magazine, ZDNet, Mashable and other Ziff Davis publications. The massive show is scheduled for the week of Jan. 5, and we've spent months planning how to tackle it.
Huge TVs remain one of the most recognizable symbols of CES, and they've only grown in significance since the introduction of HDTV broadcasts in 1998.
"HDTV was the biggest thing in my lifetime for video, no question about it," says Gary Shapiro, president of the CTA. "HDTV fundamentally changed the viewing experience."
But there's a lot more to CES than TVs. Over the years, the consumer electronics extravaganza has been where we first got a glimpse of technology that we use every day — game consoles, cutting-edge phones, even streaming services — as well as more futuristic tech, including humanoid robots, AI-powered laundry machines, and personal electric aircraft. CES is where thousands of companies debut their splashiest innovations, and it's one of the most important predictors of the next big tech trend.
And even though bellwether companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Samsung hype their own events and livestreams throughout the year to launch major products, CES has endured.
... continue reading