CES 2026: Gaming trends to expect at the show

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) isn't a gaming showcase, but gamers should pay attention, anyway.

CES 2026 kicks off this week, running Jan. 6 to 9, meaning all the biggest tech brands in the world have converged on Las Vegas to show off their wares. For people who love video games, CES is less a chance to see up and coming titles from big publishers and more a way to find out about upcoming video game hardware, specifically in the PC space. In other words, don't expect to hear much from Nintendo, PlayStation, or Xbox directly, even taking into account that parent companies like Sony and Microsoft will have some presence at the show.

Still, that doesn't mean gamers should tune out CES entirely. Here are some gaming trends you can expect to hear about at CES 2026.

Gaming laptops galore, but how much will they cost?

Gaming-focused laptops are always on display at CES, and this year shouldn't be an outlier in that regard. We know that manufacturers like Razer and Asus will be at the show in one way or another, so don't be surprised to see powerful new laptops from them at CES.

In terms of what has come out ahead of the event, we do know that Asus is reportedly working on a new dual-screen gaming laptop because the company all but announced it on X in December. This appears to be a rework of the ROG Zephyrus Duo laptop from a few years ago. Asus hasn't touched it since 2023, so maybe a redesign is in order. Don't be shocked to see that at CES.

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Beyond that, Lenovo is said to have a gaming laptop with a horizontal rollable display in the works, which could very well end up at CES this year. Lenovo has experimented with rollable displays in its non-gaming laptops before, but this one supposedly has Legion branding, which is what Lenovo uses for gaming devices. The display supposedly has a 21:9 aspect ratio when fully unrolled and an Intel core processor of some kind.

Speaking of Intel, the company has already confirmed that it will show off its new Panther Lake CPUs at CES. It's totally possible (though not certain) that we will see some powerful gaming laptops with these inside of them. The same goes for AMD, which is holding a keynote on Monday. We could see some devices with its powerful new Ryzen CPU built in, too.

The only problem with all of this is that widespread memory shortages due to the proliferation of AI data centers has made computer components enormously expensive. This has implications for both console and PC gaming, and it will be worth watching at CES for which gaming laptops have prices attached to them and which ones do not. Will companies jack prices up, or stick with lower specs to keep prices down? We'll have to wait and see.

Updates to handheld gaming PCs, perhaps

All of these new chips could potentially find their way into handheld gaming PCs, as well. We know that Lenovo has a new Legion Go with SteamOS built in for anyone who doesn't want to use Windows anymore, so that could show up at CES.

This is still a growing and emerging market category, and it seems ripe for more devices beyond the Legion Go 2 to appear at CES. We'll keep our eyes peeled for these as we explore the show floor.

Flashy new gaming monitors

Monitors are kind of the unsung heroes of any gaming PC build. Fortunately, they aren't forgotten at CES.

As usual, expect to see monitors with higher resolutions and refresh rates than you're used to seeing. Back in December, Philips announced a 1440p monitor with a blazing fast 500Hz refresh rate. That's wild in its own right, but it also reportedly has 1080p/1000Hz modes, too. Those are big numbers! It will definitely be worth checking those out if they appear at CES, which seems likely given the timing of the announcement.

Aside from that, Chinese monitor company HKC announced an RGB mini LED monitor recently, too. Rather than focusing on higher refresh rates, the idea here is to achieve better color accuracy through the use of RGB technology. Don't think they're skimping on the other specs, though, as this monitor evidently will run at 4K with a 165Hz refresh rate. That's no slouch.

Head to the Mashable CES 2026 hub for the latest news and live updates from the biggest show in tech, where Mashable journalists are reporting live.