The Best of CES 2026

The jetlag has rescinded, the luggage is unpacked, and the weather is miserable. This can only mean one thing: I'm back in the UK after attending CES 2026, and this year's show sure had a load of tech to show off.

Sure, we were more than a little disappointed by the relentless march of AI announcements, particularly in a show with "consumer" in the title, but we still managed to find a host of gaming gear to get excited about. It wasn't the richest of years for PC gamers, but hey, you can't win 'em all.

Below, I've listed all nine of our Best of CES 2026 award picks. Despite all the AI tomfoolery, we still managed to scythe our way through the inference stacks, agentic nonsense, and the odd weird sporting tie-in to find gaming gear worth shouting about, and you'll find the cream of the crop right here.

We've picked out some exciting new Intel chips, some monitor tech that looks to make a real difference to the way we display our games, a mahoosive graphics card, and much, much more. Let's get started, shall we?

Best gaming monitor of CES 2026

1. Best gaming monitor of CES 2026

MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36
Well, here's a kick-off for you—we've already reviewed the best gaming monitor we saw at CES this year, and it's the unfathomably-named MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36. It makes use of what MSI refers to as "5th gen" Samsung QD-OLED panel tech, complete with a vertical RGB stripe pixel configuration that delivers smoother font rendering, better text clarity, and simply sumptuous image quality.

Doesn't sound that exciting? Well, this latest panel tech essentially fixes one of the biggest issues with OLED gaming monitors—which leaves, err, price as the last big hurdle to conquer. Oh, and worries about burn-in, although the most recent long term testing suggests it's not quite as big an issue as many fear.

Anyway, at a CES filled with exceptional monitor tech (a genuine highlight in an otherwise fallow year), MSI's 34-inch ultrawide left us stunned, earning itself many admiring glances at the MSI booth and a 92% review score from our resident monitor expert, Jeremy Laird. That's a man who can tell you what panel a display is using from across a crowded room, so when he breaks out the big scores, you'd best believe you should start paying attention.

Best gaming PC of CES 2026

2. Best gaming PC of CES 2025

Asus ROG G1000
In a crowded show suite, the Asus G1000 stood out for two reasons. One, it's absolutely massive, dwarfing even the Alienware Area-51 in proportions. And two, it's been fitted with not one, not two, but three holographic fan displays.

I'm used to seeing whizzing fans with anime projections cast across them at these sorts of events, but the G1000 is the first world's first system to cram them into a PC case. The AniMe Holo tech lights up both the side window and the front panel with moving holographic imagery to create a show-stopping effect, leaving my jaw genuinely dropped.

Seeing this mega-rig in person is a bit like standing in front of a massive ship in dry dock. The proportions are difficult to express in words, and while the holo-imagery doesn't speak to my personal tastes, we as a team couldn't let this one slip without giving it an award. Remember when CES was all about outrageous PC gaming tech reveals? Asus has remembered, and for that, it gets a gold star.

Best graphics card of CES 2026

3. Best graphics card of CES 2026

MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G Lightning Z
While we're on an "outrageous gaming tech" kick, how about the most extreme variant of the already-silly RTX 5090? Yes, the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G Lightning Z takes the crown for the best graphics card we saw at this year's show, as MSI has thrown the kitchen sink at Nvidia's top-tier GPU to turn it into something that redefines PC gaming excess.

Or something like that, anyway. Yes, the reveal was full of overwrought fighter jet metaphors, and yes, it's likely to be incredibly expensive. But, as hardware enthusiasts, it's difficult not to admire a water cooled graphics card with its own 8-inch display, dual 16-pin power connectors, and a 1000 W power limit.

Actually, that last one's not strictly true. MSI says there'll be a 2500 W+ BIOS for "extreme overclockers", although the retail card will swap between 800 W and 1000 W versions with the help of a handy (and unfortunately lightning-bolt themed) keyring, or within the custom software.

There's even a mobile app for GPU tuning, which, in combination with the hand selected components and too many extra features to list here (dedicated multimeter connections, anyone?) makes the Lightning Z the most outrageous graphics card we've seen to date—gold-plated Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhabab Edition be damned.

Best gaming laptop of CES 2026

4. Best gaming laptop of CES 2026

Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo
I've never been particularly sold on the idea of multi-screen laptops, but the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo might be the one to change my mind. It's sort of a dual-screen tablet/gaming laptop hybrid, with a wireless magnetic keyboard that can be attached to the top of the bottom screen to create a traditional laptop format.

I'll be honest, it's pretty chonky when it's all put together, and heavy too. However, as someone carrying a relatively weighty, single-screened 15-inch laptop in their backpack for the majority of the show, I couldn't help but lust over the possibilities.

Juggling multiple windows and tabs around on the cramped screen of a traditional lappy can seriously slow down your workflow, and part of me wanted to slip the Asus machine into my backpack and ferret it back to my hotel room for an evening session.

The Zephyrus Duo can be specced to the hilt with one of the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 3 Panther Lake chips (see below), and even manages to cram the RTX 5090 mobile into one half of its frame for gaming duties. It's potentially a laptop that can do it all, with the extra bonus of being tent-able (my term) for local co-op gaming possibilities.

Will it all work in practice? We'll have to give one a proper review for ourselves. But in the meantime, this is a gaming laptop with serious potential—and for that, it gets a shiny badge.

Best processor of CES 2026

5. Best processor of CES 2026

Intel Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake)
The biggest launch of CES this year was undoubtedly the reveal of Intel's new mobile processors, the long awaited Core Ultra Series 3, Panther Lake-based chips built on Intel's previously-troubled 18A process. Despite the tech giant's wobbles in recent years, its new silicon looks very impressive, particularly in regard to iGPU options.

The Core Ultra X9 388H and Core Ultra X7 368H both sport the new Intel Arc B390 iGPU with 12 Xe3 cores and dedicated ray tracing hardware, while the Core Ultra 5 338H gets the B370 iGPU variant with 10 Xe3 cores. Call us gaming obsessed if you must (it's in the name, after all), but it's the on-chip graphics tile here that's got us really excited for the new chip's possibilities.

Thin and light, dGPU-less laptops with good gaming performance? You'd best believe it, at least from what I saw when I got a chance to do some quick and dirty benchmarking of the top end Core Ultra X9 388H at this year's show. The performance also bodes well for future gaming handhelds, especially if the excellent performance of the Lunar Lake-equipped MSI Claw 8 AI+ of yesteryear is anything to go by.

That particular Intel iGPU-sporting handheld managed to top our benchmark sheet for many moons, at least until the Asus ROG Ally Xbox X came along to steal its crown. And it only had eight Xe2 cores to play with. Should more handheld manufacturers opt for Intel chips, we could be seeing some seriously impressive Arc B390 performance coming to handheld gaming PCs in the very near future.

We've yet to put one of Intel's new beasties under the microscope, but when we do, we'll be anxious to see if those rough figures hold up. Until then, the blue team gets to take home our best processor of CES 2026 award—and a special mention for focussing on consumer hardware, not AI frippery, for its big reveal.

Best handheld gaming PC of CES 2026

6. Best handheld at CES 2026

Lenovo Legion Go 2 SteamOS Edition
We were big fans of the original Lenovo Legion Go, and fell head over heels for its slimmed down variant, the Legion Go S. In fact, the SteamOS variant of the latter handheld currently sits at the very top of our best handheld gaming PC guide, so we all anxiously clamoured around our respective monitors to check out the new Lenovo Legion Go 2.

As expected, Lenovo has done the obvious thing and imbued the new model with an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU. The original made do with the Z1 version (a mighty handheld chip, nonetheless), but Lenovo has brought the new edition bang up to date with some fresh AMD silicon.

So, now you get 16 RDNA 3.5 compute units (CUs) in comparison to the 12 RDNA 3 CUs found in the Z1 Extreme. This should translate to around 33% more graphics rendering performance, and it's not like the original Legion Go was a slouch to begin with.

All this is just as well, as the Legion Go 2's 8.8-inch, 1200p 144 Hz display will take some driving. It'll still likely need a hefty dose of upscaling to make the most of it, but hats off to Lenovo for pushing the hardware that one step further. Like the original, it's still got two removable side controllers, and otherwise looks like a very similar design overall.

That's fine by us. Up the internal power, keep the best bits of the original, and hopefully it's got a shot of landing in our good books once again. The only real bugbear, however, is the price tag: $1,100 is a serious chunk of change, especially when the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X (a handheld we've criticised many times for being too expensive) is a full $100 cheaper.

There wasn't a huge number of handhelds to choose from at this year's show, but Lenovo got the jump on the competition and looks to have delivered something we'll be very excited to test in the near future. Take a bow.

Best innovation at CES 2026

7. Best innovation at CES 2026

Lego Smart Play
Before you go thinking we're ignoring everything that isn't directly related to PC gaming in our awards, how about this for innovation—Lego's new Smart Brick. The Danish toy giant has managed to cram a ton of tech into a single Lego brick, including accelerometers, light and sound sensors, a mini speaker, and a custom ASIC.

To be fair, Lego says it consulted with experts from the "worlds of video gaming", electronic engineering, and a whole lot more to create its fancy new electro-brick, so there's a beating PC gaming heart somewhere in that tiny plastic frame.

Lego says the bricks can be combined with Smart Tags and Smart Minifigs to respond to actions with "appropriate sounds and behaviours", bringing the world of electronic digital fun times to its decidedly-analogue brick-building toys.

The Smart Brick can also respond to changes in acceleration and motion, and uses its speaker and ASIC combo to create audio via an onboard synthesiser. In essence, by changing audio frequencies, the Smart Brick can make itself sound like… well, almost anything, which should open up a whole new range of possibilities for creative builds and play.

As a Lego enthusiast myself, I can't wait to get my hands on one of these to see what it can do. And the kids might like it as well, I suppose. Hands off, small children. Electronics is my remit, and you'll have to take your turn.

Best upgrade of CES 2026

8. Best upgrade of CES 2026

Samsung V-Stripe OLED panel
Yes, this is the very same panel tech found in our best gaming monitor of CES 2026 award winner, the MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36. However, it's Samsung that's manufactured the panels here, and it's not just MSI making use of V-Stripe QD-OLED technology.

By re-arranging the subpixels into rows (similar to a technique used in LG panels) and making use of its quantum dot tech in tandem with a blue backlight, Samsung has managed to solve one of the biggest problems with OLED monitors in one fell swoop.

Many a time have I written that "text fringing may be an issue" when recommending an OLED monitor, but with this clever new pixel arrangement/backlight solution, it looks like I'll be typing it far less often in future.

Sure, the tech has its limits, as pixel density is still a little lower than we'd ideally like. But Samsung has delivered a panel that's had all of us in raptures since we first saw it, and it'll likely be coming to a slew of gaming monitors near you in the near future. Bright, bold, near-infinite contrast QD-OLED displays with crisp text? Yep, OLED tech just keeps getting better, and Samsung looks to be leading the charge.

Best gaming tech of CES 2026

9. Best gaming tech of CES 2026

Nvidia G-Sync Pulsar
Possibly the most impressive demo I saw at this year's show was at Nvidia's technology showcase, where I got the chance to gaze upon an Nvidia G-Sync Pulsar-equipped gaming monitor in action. It's difficult to describe in words just how good its refresh rate-matched backlight strobing tech looks in person (and even harder to capture on video), but I'll have a go anyway.

Essentially, the technology uses a gaming monitor's onboard MediaTek chip to strobe different areas of the screen with the backlight, moments before the scan out updates the image, while simultaneously adjusting the frequency in time with the refresh rate.

That's a complicated principle to wrap your brain around, but the end effect is easy to understand: it improves motion clarity by a factor of four.

In person, this means fast-moving text and objects appear crystal clear—and the difference this makes to the way your eye reads the image overall is profound. It's not just fast-paced games where the tech stands out, either, as even something sedate like Anno 117: Pax Romana is noticeably easier to "read" when the camera is moved around.

Think icons over a map staying in perfect clarity, even when you're quickly hunting around to find the one you want. I hadn't realised just how much perceived motion blur I was experiencing on a regular monitor until I saw G-Sync Pulsar in action, and now I can't unsee it. The difference really is night and day, and Pulsar-less gaming monitors have been ruined for me forever.

So, thanks Nvidia, for sending me back from Las Vegas a changed man. It wasn't the bright lights and never-ending consumerism that got to me in the end, nor the jetlag and the lack of sleep.

Nope, monitor tech is changing forever, and in a world where AI seems to be leading the (dubious) charge towards the future, it's good to see there are still hardware engineers beavering away to make our games better at the base level. I know, it was almost certainly AI-assisted at multiple points in the development process. I didn't say there were no benefits, now, did I?