CNET goes to Las Vegas and we’re taking you with us. Many of you’ll be having fun with a sluggish begin to the brand new yr, however we’re diving headfirst into 2025 with our first vacation spot: CES, the large kahuna of expertise exhibits. From wild robots to next-generation automobiles to cutting-edge TVs, we’ll be getting up shut and private with the tech that can outline the following yr of our lives.
What is CES?
CES, which previously stood for Consumer Electronics Show, is among the largest technology-focused commerce conferences on this planet. It takes place yearly in Las Vegas, Nevada and is attended by most main tech corporations together with Samsung, Sony, LG, Google, Meta, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm and Lenovo, in addition to automotive makers like Honda, Volvo BMW and Waymo, satellite tv for pc telecom corporations like Iridium, Globalstar and SpaceX’s Starlink, and 1000’s of different exhibitors. Last yr CES drew greater than 135,000 attendees in keeping with the CTA, the business group that hosts the present.
Read extra: Best Press Events, Conferences and Trade Shows, Rated by CNET
Many of the merchandise we’ll see at CES shall be ideas — high-tech concepts which were delivered to life however which can be nonetheless works in progress that will or could not make it into the true world as completed merchandise. There can even be loads of units accessible so that you can purchase both instantly or within the close to future. We’ll let you already know what they’re and whether or not they’re price your hard-earned money.
When is the convention?
The official dates for CES 2025 are Jan. 7 to 10, however we’ll arrive on the town a couple of days earlier than that for an early look and unique press-only previews earlier than the present doorways even open. Some aspect occasions are scheduled as early as Saturday, Jan. 4. Monday, Jan. 6, is a day of back-to-back press conferences, the place the most important names in tech will unveil their newest merchandise and units to the world.
How to look at CES
The finest place for all the newest CES information is correct right here at CNET. Our skilled workforce of reporters and reviewers has many years of mixed expertise overlaying the present. We’re dedicated to exhibiting you all the things we deem attention-grabbing and essential, and we can’t simply be admiring new merchandise from afar. We’ll be touching them, tinkering with them and making an attempt to not drop them, so make sure to observe us throughout X (previously twitter), TikTook, Instagram, YouTube and Bluesky, too.
This yr CNET is teaming up with our sister Ziff Davis publications ZDNET, PCMag, Mashable and Lifehacker to current the official Best of CES Awards. Our editors and consultants will crown winners throughout a spread of classes and identify considered one of them the Best Overall services or products at CES 2025. Winners shall be introduced on Jan. 9 and we’re taking submissions now.
Watch this: Best of Show: The Coolest Gadgets of CES 2024
CES 2025 predictions
At CES 2024 we noticed thrilling tech traits emerge, from clear screens to new options to take your own home off the grid. We’re again for one more yr to see how these traits have advanced within the intervening 12 months, in addition to what’s new for 2025. These are what we anticipate to be the defining themes of the present.
AI and its brokers
AI was all over the place at CES 2024, and whereas there have been some cool examples of the fast-moving expertise, there was additionally a whole lot of empty hype. At CES 2025, we’ll be in search of clear proof that AI is making a distinction to any merchandise it is embedded in and is not simply lending itself to a label on a field or one other bullet level on a spec sheet.
At this yr’s present, we anticipate to listen to a lot about “agentic AI,” which can put good assistants on the forefront of gadget interfaces. It’s an concept that’s been closely hinted at by tech corporations, and it is even the topic of experiments, in ways in which recommend it might ultimately kill off apps. It has but to be executed in a method that makes us satisfied it will be the longer term.
We could possibly be taken unexpectedly by extra standalone AI units. At CES 2024, the Rabbit R1 and Humane AI Pin unexpectedly stole the present however later didn’t dwell as much as the promise. More possible we’ll see AI built-in into present merchandise, from TVs to telephones to snowblowers to toothbrushes.
CNET Senior Editor Lisa Eadiccico examined the Rabbit R1 and stated it felt half-baked.
Last yr we noticed the emergence of Copilot Plus PCs with devoted AI buttons, and we anticipate to see extra this yr. Samsung with its “screens all over the place” technique shall be packing AI into its new washer and dryer, in addition to its wall oven. LG, in the meantime, is placing AI sensing tech into automobiles to “detect and reply to the wants of car occupants whereas optimizing situations throughout the cabin.”
Hot new chips
As a lot as you go to CES hoping to see the leaps and bounds in expertise, you additionally go along with the notice that many merchandise will symbolize the following era of what you already know already. These enhancements cannot occur with out the work of chipmakers, who design the tech that enhances the efficiency and energy of our most-used units.
At this upcoming CES, we anticipate each Nvidia and AMD to announce new chips, and for the businesses they accomplice with to unveil units with these chips inside. For Nvidia, that is prone to imply Acer, Asus, Razer, Lenovo and Dell.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will kick off the present with a keynote tackle through which he is anticipated to make bulletins in regards to the firm’s next-generation CPUs and GPUs, which can possible be excellent news for the laptop computer avid gamers amongst us. Already the corporate has teased its GeForce RTX 50 sequence GPUs on-line, and extra particulars appeared in a leak concerning Acer Predator Orion PCs.
Meanwhile, AMD has already confirmed that we’ll see RDNA 4 GPUs on the present. As for Qualcomm, the corporate had its massive annual launch occasion again in October, however it often retains one thing up its sleeve for CES.
The Supernal electrical air taxi debuted at CES 2024.
Car tech within the quick lane
Over the previous decade, automobiles have more and more nudged their method onto heart stage at CES. EVs are one of many hottest classes in tech, and CES 2025 will showcase the newest in futuristic electrical automobiles and transportation ideas.
Quite a lot of prime automakers shall be at CES once more this yr, unveiling all the things from infotainment system updates to brand-new EVs. Hyundai is ready to indicate off the world’s first full-windshield holographic show, which can span from the driving force’s seat to the entrance passenger seat, whereas BMW is ready to debut its Panoramic iDrive show. Honda has already teased two glossy prototype 0 Series electrical automobiles, which it’ll unveil on the present.
Traditional tech corporations are additionally in search of a slice of the auto pie, with Sony rumored to be exhibiting off the Sony-Honda Afeela automotive with a built-in PS5. Powering a lot of the next-gen automotive tech are chip corporations similar to Qualcomm, which can possible have updates of its personal to announce on the present.
On the mobility aspect of the business, Waymo, which simply introduced the worldwide enlargement of its autonomous automobiles to Tokyo, is ready to stipulate its imaginative and prescient for the longer term in an unique keynote session.
CNET’s David Katzmaier has been overlaying CES for greater than twenty years. And by some means, he is survived.
CNET’s skilled predictions
Many of CNET’s seasoned expertise consultants shall be on the bottom in Vegas, able to embrace the bizarre, wacky and great. For most of us, this is not our first rodeo, and we’re heading into the present with excessive expectations. Here are a few of our predictions:
David Katzmaier — Editorial Director, Personal Tech
I’ve been attending CES and reviewing TVs for greater than 20 years, and this present is the Super Bowl for screens. At CES 2025 I anticipate to see greater TVs than ever, possible topping final yr’s champ, the 115-inch TCL. My favourite TVs are the wacky ideas on the bleeding fringe of usefulness versus cool (veering towards the latter), like LG’s Transparent TV and C-Seed’s $200K folding Micro-LED TV. CES can be the place I see newfangled, nerd-worthy show tech that surprises even this jaded reviewer, like rollable TVs, flippable telephones, electroluminescent quantum dots, cutting-edge VR and shows inside a contact lens. My fingers are crossed that CES 2025 blows my thoughts once more with some sudden future TV tech!
Lisa Eadiccico — Senior Editor, Mobile
This shall be my seventh CES, and similar to in years previous, I’m anticipating to see wild ideas (like versatile cellphone screens that bend in several instructions); new wearables that measure your well being in several methods; and many screens all over the place, from the kitchen to the automotive. I feel synthetic intelligence, which has formally been the tech buzzword of the final two years, will proceed to dominate the present in 2025. Last yr, we obtained a style of how corporations are infusing AI into all the things from new handheld units to automobiles and residential robots, however the expertise is certain to be much more of a spotlight this yr. The problem shall be slicing by means of the hype to search out the merchandise which can be really utilizing AI to meaningfully enhance how their choices work slightly than simply utilizing the time period to spice up their advertising and marketing.
Eli Blumenthal — Senior Editor, Mobile
I’ve misplaced monitor of what number of CES exhibits I’ve been lucky sufficient to attend, however I absolutely anticipate to be intrigued by loads of loopy ideas, lots of which can nearly assuredly not materialize into merchandise we are able to purchase in 2025 (or purchase at an inexpensive worth anyway). Last yr we noticed wild concepts for a color-changing BMW and an electrical air taxi from Hyundai, to go along with rollable and clear micro-LED screens from Samsung.
Were any of this stuff available for shoppers in 2024? No, however that is not at all times the purpose. To me, CES has turn into a technique to peek behind the R&D curtains to see what a number of the world’s largest tech corporations are as much as. Although these ideas will not be prepared for completed units or retailer cabinets simply but, they provide us an opportunity to see what’s coming. I anticipate this yr’s present shall be no totally different, with plenty of loopy idea automobiles, larger high quality or bigger rollable and foldable shows, and loads of merchandise absolutely immersed in abbreviations like AI, AR and VR.
The Oro robotic, which debuted at CES final yr, promised to look at your pets.
Katie Collins — Senior European Correspondent
As for me, I’ve spent many a CES enjoying with robots — whether or not that be ping-pong or Cards Against Humanity — and I’m excited to see what droids I can befriend this yr. What I’m actually hoping to see is a number of the progress that is been made towards embedding AI into robots in methods that may assist them transition out of the present and into the true world, ideally into our properties. It’s a bounce they’ve lengthy struggled to make. I’m additionally excited to see how developments in well being and wonder tech can empower us to take extra management over our wellness — for instance, utilizing AI to assist diagnose and deal with pores and skin situations. I’ll be preserving a detailed eye out too for the businesses which can be utilizing tech to enhance sustainability and accessibility. Plus, I do know Delta’s keynote occasion on the Las Vegas Sphere goes to be a spotlight of the present for me.
One of the most effective issues about CES is that regardless of our years of expertise and our deep business contacts, the present at all times manages to shock us with one thing bizarre and wacky we by no means noticed coming. So make sure to observe our protection proper right here at CNET for the newest, as we kick off one other high-tech new yr. See ya quickly in Vegas.
