Observation of the CES 2026 Inaugural Exhibition: The Battle of AI + Hardware Erupts, and the "Shenzhen Legion" Becomes the Absolute Star
At CES 2026, the largest reporting team in the history of Lei Technology has arrived in Las Vegas, USA, striving to bring on - site, in - depth, and three - dimensional professional reports. As usual, the "Unveiled Show" is the first stop of Lei Technology's annual CES coverage, and this year is no exception.
On the afternoon of January 4th local time, two days before the official opening of CES 2026, the "CES Unveiled" took the lead in Las Vegas.
Filmed on - site by Lei Technology at CES 2026
For the Unveiled Show that started at 4 p.m., a queue had formed after 3 p.m. As a member of the Lei Technology CES 2026 reporting team, when Xiao Lei entered the venue at 4 p.m., he saw a long queue with people three - deep both inside and outside. There is no doubt that this is the hottest CES Unveiled Show in history.
As the first major event of CES every year, the Unveiled Show aims to provide a special platform for global small and medium - sized science and technology innovation enterprises to showcase new products, technologies, and brands to a global audience. This year's Unveiled Show is special. There are not only many important new product releases but also global large companies and "Shenzhen - branded" enterprises.
Important New Products Launched at the Unveiled Show, Competing to Get a Head Start in the Main CES Exhibition
The CES Unveiled Show is a relatively small - scale special exhibition. However, with its increasing popularity in recent years and the more intense competition for attention in the main exhibition, many enterprises, including domestic brands, have started to choose to launch global new products at the CES Unveiled Show.
As a member of the Lei Technology CES reporting team, Xiao Lei saw many important new products at this year's Unveiled Show, with full - scale development in various categories.
The domestic smart lock brand Loock brought the so - called "world's first mass - produced smart lock with wireless charging for infinite battery life and true AI" - Loockin V7 Max to this year's CES Unveiled Show.
Filmed on - site by Lei Technology at CES 2026
The staff at the Loock booth told Lei Technology that this new product solves a major "pain point" in smart lock charging, that is, it can ensure that there is no need to change the battery and the device is always online.
Supported by the "light charging" technology similar to infrared, the lock can have a lot of interactions. It can integrate an AI assistant function, support a "six - in - one" unlocking method, and feature a dual - camera design for indoor and outdoor use, thus building more functions for the whole - house smart ecosystem. Obviously, smart locks have also joined the competition for whole - house smart central control devices.
In the home security product market, Ugreen has become the latest cross - border giant. At this year's CES Unveiled Show, Ugreen brought its new product categories - security cameras and doorbell products.
Filmed on - site by Lei Technology at CES 2026
The staff at the Ugreen booth told Lei Technology that the newly launched security camera and doorbell categories can be linked with the already launched data storage NAS devices in the future. For example, the footage captured by the security cameras can be directly stored on the NAS devices. From digital accessories, to storage accessories, and then to security accessories, Ugreen is going deeper and deeper on the path of the accessory ecosystem.
Komondor Technology, which mainly targets the European and American markets, brought the new flagship model of its lawn mowing robot, Luba 3 AWD, to this year's CES Unveiled Show. Its triple - fusion positioning system combining RTK + lidar + vision is also applied to the four - wheel - drive omnidirectional wheel product that can handle large - area complex terrains (such as steep slopes).
Filmed on - site by Lei Technology at CES 2026
Compared with the highly competitive courtyard scenario for domestic lawn mowing robots, Shitiehou's lawn mowing robot products target all scenarios outside the courtyard, such as public lawns in photovoltaic power plants and golf courses. The staff at the Shitiehou booth told Lei Technology that their lawn mowing robot products can achieve ten times the work efficiency of courtyard lawn mowers.
In this relatively niche outdoor intelligent cleaning market of lawn mowing robots, domestic manufacturers can cover all scenarios comprehensively. With such intense competition, how can overseas manufacturers cope?
Filmed on - site by Lei Technology at CES 2026
Even in the most competitive home cleaning scenario, niche markets can still be further explored. At this year's Unveiled Show, members of the Lei Technology CES reporting team saw the Robotin cleaning robot products that mainly focus on carpet cleaning.
In the year of robots, how can toy robots and companion robots be absent? The three toy robot products brought by Yuandian Intelligence, known as home embodied intelligent robots, attracted the attention of Japanese media at the Unveiled Show. This type of product used to be the strength of Japanese enterprises, but in recent years, it has become the winning move of Chinese startups, especially those targeting overseas markets.
Filmed on - site by Lei Technology at CES 2026
More new products premiered by domestic manufacturers at this year's CES Unveiled Show include:
The domestic AI recording hardware manufacturer Plaud brought the sequel to NotePin, the NotePin S. The biggest change compared to the previous generation is that there is an additional physical button on the front of the body;
The domestic board game robot manufacturer SenseRobot brought the Chess mini product targeting children;
The domestic pet health monitoring hardware manufacturer AmoPaw brought the world's first non - contact pet electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring device;
......
The Full - scale Explosion of AI + Hardware, Even Excavators Are Joining
There is a relatively obvious change at this year's CES Unveiled Show. That is, some giants in relatively traditional industries have started to try to gain exposure in this special exhibition, and some even have their booths right in the center of the venue.
As soon as the members of the Lei Technology CES 2026 reporting team entered the Unveiled Show venue, they were first attracted by Caterpillar's small excavator equipment. What's the connection between Caterpillar and CES? This century - old industrial leader is working hard to integrate AI, machine learning, and autonomous operation technologies to redefine the capabilities of heavy machinery. Its CEO, Joe Creed, will also give a keynote speech at CES 2026.
Filmed on - site by Lei Technology at CES 2026
In addition to Caterpillar, the members of the Lei Technology CES reporting team made an incomplete statistics on - site. Bosch, Tokyo Broadcasting System, Kajima Corporation, the American Waste Recycling Foundation, etc., all had booths at the Unveiled Show.
These giants and institutions in traditional industries are becoming "newcomers" in this major technology exhibition and showing their presence during the process of new technologies such as AI empowering all industries. This phenomenon will become more common.
Filmed on - site by Lei Technology at CES 2026
Of course, the absolute protagonists at this year's CES Unveiled Show are still those AI + hardware startups. There are a bunch of enterprises with the word "AI" in their brand names at the Unveiled Show, such as AI - Tails, Cache AI, Hope Valley AI, Kling AI Pte., Ludens AI, Memorence AI, OptAI, PercivAI, Takway AI, Tellers.ai, etc.
However, after technology giants and large enterprises in traditional industries start to fully embrace AI technology empowerment and the AI + hardware strategy, it has become much more difficult for current AI startups and their products to replicate the success of OpenAI. However, compared with the AI + hardware market, the probability of success in the AI application field is relatively higher. For example, the AI agent startup Manus was recently acquired by Meta for over $2 billion.
There Are Too Many Domestic Manufacturers, and "Shenzhen - branded" Enterprises Can Form a Super Group
AI + hardware is the "absolute focus" at this year's CES Unveiled Show, and domestic manufacturers (especially those from Shenzhen) are the biggest highlight among global exhibitors, without a doubt.
As a member of the Lei Technology CES reporting team, Xiao Lei visited every booth at this year's Unveiled Show. In almost every niche area, he could see a booth of a startup starting with "Shenzhen".
Overall, "Shenzhen - branded" enterprises can form a super group, not including those Shenzhen enterprises without the word "Shenzhen" in their names.
In addition to Shenzhen, enterprises starting with the names of cities and provinces such as Hangzhou, Chongqing, and Sichuan not only made their debut at the CES Unveiled Show but also promoted the new development stage of "Chinese science and technology innovation enterprises" moving towards "science and technology innovation enterprises from Shenzhen/Hangzhou/Chongqing/Sichuan, etc." to the world.
Filmed on - site by Lei Technology at CES 2026
In contrast, as the former largest overseas exhibitor countries at CES, both Japan and South Korea have become less prominent at this year's CES Unveiled Show, especially South Korea. This seems to reflect the emerging new pattern of science and technology startups in China, Japan, and South Korea.
In addition to the domestic manufacturers mentioned above, domestic smart cleaning brands such as Dreame, Roborock, and Yunjing, domestic smart glasses brands such as XREAL and Yingmu, and domestic smart office chair brands such as Qingxian all made their debut at this year's CES Unveiled Show.
Filmed on - site by Lei Technology at CES 2026
However, the main stage for these larger brands is the main CES 2026 exhibition that will start two days later. Therefore, their appearance at the Unveiled Show is mainly for brand image dissemination and enterprise popularity improvement, rather than for the display and premiere of important new products.
The largest CES reporting team in the history of Lei Technology has gathered in Las Vegas, USA. In the future, through in - depth observations, high - level dialogues, technical analyses, new product experiences, on - site exploration Vlogs, etc., they will present the technological innovations at CES 2026 in a three - dimensional way. We will also pay special attention to the dynamics of Chinese brands at CES, presenting the Chinese scientific and technological strength on the world stage in a three - dimensional way. Stay tuned.