Vitebsk Kurier

The AI PC Era Begins

For years, the personal computer has remained surprisingly resilient to change. At CES 2026, that finally shifted. Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm all used the show to talk up new processors built around dedicated NPUs (Neural Processing Units), positioning AI performance as a baseline platform feature rather than a bolt-on extra.

The AI PC Era Begins

Intel’s “Panther Lake” processor generation, shipping in the form of Core Ultra Series 3 chips by the end of January, marries the efficiency and AI advances of last year’s Series 200V “Lunar Lake” processors for ultraportable laptops with the potency of Intel’s H-grade high-performance chips, topped off with a major GPU architecture upgrade.

Qualcomm unveiled a new set of next-generation X2 processors, dubbed Snapdragon X2 Plus, designed to power more affordable laptops than its X2 Elite and Elite Extreme models. Qualcomm is leaning heavily into neural processing, with 80 trillion operations per second (TOPS)—nearly double the 45 TOPS of the first-generation Snapdragon X family—and more on-SoC TOPS than any other consumer chip line seen to date.

AMD teased its Ryzen AI 400 series, set to launch in Q1 of 2026 with a focus on laptops and mini desktops, as well as the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which it bills as the world’s fastest gaming processor for desktops.

In practice, this hardware shift means everyday tasks like webcam image processing, background noise removal, live captions, image enhancement, and power management are all being handled directly on-device. These are small improvements individually, but together they add up to machines that feel faster, more responsive, and less dependent on cloud services.

Laptop makers followed suit, marketing machines around AI readiness and local processing rather than specific AI-powered apps. Lenovo showed off concept products including the Thinkpad Modular AI PC that packs a second screen, and a dual screen Yoga Book Pro with glasses-free 3D.

The PC market faces headwinds, however. RAM and NAND/SSD prices have surged due to shortages created by AI data center demand, with some stores having to sell memory like it’s lobster and prebuilt PC costs rising.

For consumers, the AI PC era promises machines that adapt to how we work rather than requiring us to adapt to them. The hardware is finally catching up to the software, creating platforms that can handle the intelligence we’ve been promised for years.

The Health Tech Revolution Goes Internal

At CES 2026, health technology took an intimate turn. As one Verge reporter observed, people kept asking what health tech revolution was on display, and the answer was simple: bodily fluids. Urine, blood, sweat, and saliva became the unlikely stars of the show.

The Health Tech Revolution Goes Internal

The Vivoo Smart Toilet, priced at $99, analyzes your urine and shares hydration data to a companion app. Kohler debuted a $600 model back in October that analyzes your poop. While these products may seem quirky, they represent a serious trend: health monitoring is moving from optional wearables to essential household fixtures.

Chinese brand LumiMind, specializing in neuro-technological innovation, released its first real-time brain-wave sleep regulator, LumiSleep, whose original technological breakthroughs have won multiple international awards. Teeni.AI developed an AI portable robot for teenagers to assist their growth, while KeYikeji’s desktop assistant robot promises everyone a dedicated work assistant.

Xpanceo returned to MWC with a digital demonstration of its next-gen contact lens tech, moving from standalone options to a more integrated design combining microdisplay, health monitoring, and wireless power. The company highlighted industrial and medical applications, including a Glaucoma Management lens that uses AI to replace routine doctor tests with a simple smartphone selfie. Founders promise to publicly wear the fully integrated lens in 2027.

TimeKettle’s W4 AI Interpreter Buds use “AI Bone-Conduction Pickup” to capture vibrations directly from the vocal cords, solving the problem of translator buds failing in noisy crowds. Paired with the new Babel OS 2.0 and an ‘SOTA Engine Selector’ that automatically picks the best translation engine for a specific language pair, these buds represent the most professional-grade version of smart, real-time translation available.

The health tech trend reflects a broader shift toward proactive, personalized wellness. Instead of waiting for symptoms to appear, consumers want continuous monitoring that can detect problems early and provide actionable insights. The challenge for manufacturers is balancing capability with privacy—these devices collect deeply personal data that must be protected.

For now, the flood of health-focused gadgets at CES and MWC signals that the quantified self movement is entering a new phase. We’re no longer just counting steps; we’re analyzing every drop, wave, and signal our bodies produce.

The Great Smart Home Standardization

For years, the smart home has been a mess of competing protocols, proprietary ecosystems, and frustrating setup experiences. At CES 2026, there was finally evidence that the industry is getting its act together. Matter, the connectivity standard backed by Apple, Google, Amazon, and hundreds of other companies, continued its momentum, with companies increasingly treating it as core infrastructure rather than an optional extra.

The Great Smart Home Standardization

Ikea announced expanded Matter support through its Dirigera hub, including updated versions of its Varmblixt lamps with app control, remotes, and broader colour options. Privacy-first design is also gaining ground. Eve used CES 2026 to debut a new Matter-over-Thread thermostat, emphasising local operation without subscriptions or mandatory cloud accounts. This approach resonates strongly with European consumers who have a huge appetite for tech that works without sending every bit of their data to the cloud.

Aqara leaned heavily into Matter and Thread across new products and platform updates, continuing the push towards a future where everything, regardless of brand, works seamlessly with its peers and rivals. The company’s Smart Lock U400 was recognized as one of the overall best smart home gadgets from the show.

Practicality was the overarching theme. New Ring sensors supposedly work out of the box without requiring you to establish a connection to a hub or even your own Wi-Fi router. The new Roborock Saros Rover vacuum has sprouted legs, allowing it to go up steps and climb over obstacles as it cleans. New smart blinds from Lutron keep the sun out of your eyes while potentially reducing your energy bill.

The smart home trends at CES 2026 weren’t about new product categories; they were about bringing better features and lower prices to smart home staples such as smart lighting, smart locks, cameras, and TVs. After years of promise, the industry is finally delivering on the basics: products that set up easily, work reliably, and play nicely with each other.

There’s still plenty of room for improvement, but at least we’re going in the right direction. The utopian vision of a fully integrated smart home still feels distant, but the foundation is finally being laid.

Smart Glasses Find Their Focus

The smart glasses category has been through a turbulent decade since Google Glass’s 2013 debut triggered a wave of privacy backlash. At CES 2026 and MWC 2026, the category finally showed signs of maturity, with more than 50 AI and AR glasses manufacturers collectively demonstrating that lightweight design, all-day wearability, and multi-modal interaction have become industry consensus.

Smart Glasses Find Their Focus

Chinese manufacturers were particularly prominent. Rokid launched its new AI smart glasses, Rokid Style, claimed to be “the lightest full-function AI glasses on the market” at just 38.5 grams. Rokid Glasses, already in mass production, look almost indistinguishable from ordinary glasses at 49 grams, supporting functions including taking photos and videos, intelligent prompting, 89-language translation, real-time navigation, AI Q&A, glance-to-pay, and meeting minutes.

XREAL announced an extended strategic partnership with Google, identified as the main hardware partner for Android XR. In 2026, the two sides will cooperate to launch the smart glasses Project Aura, introducing Android XR to optical see-through devices—one of the important signals for Google’s re-entry into the smart glasses market.

INMO’s new product, INMO GO3, made its overseas debut with a focus on aesthetics and detailed functions. Using a pure CNC five-axis precision carving process and 8mm temples, it completely sheds the traditional image of “bulky and ugly black frames”. The glasses are the first in the industry to achieve real-time two-way dialogue translation across 261 languages with 98% accuracy, using AI voice-imitation technology to replicate the speaker’s tone, intonation, and emotion.

At MWC 2026, Google showed off Android XR prototype smart glasses, very similar to the transparent-lensed wayfarer style of Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses. Full retail versions are expected later this year, with partnerships with Warby Parker and Monster already confirmed.

The numbers support the optimism. Global shipments of smart glasses surged 139% year over year in the second half of 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. Qualcomm’s Ziad Asghar noted that “we have seen the demand go way beyond what we had predicted, and that has given us a lot more confidence”.

For consumers, the message is clear: smart glasses are finally becoming practical, fashionable, and useful. The privacy concerns haven’t disappeared—always-on cameras and microphones remain controversial—but the technology is evolving with LED lights that activate during recording and deliberate design choices that prioritize user trust.

TV Technology’s Quantum Leap

For years, TV innovation followed a predictable pattern: brighter, sharper, bigger. At CES 2026, the formula changed. The buzz wasn’t just about peak brightness anymore—it was about how colors are rendered and how HDR performs in real living rooms, not just dark demo spaces.

TV Technology’s Quantum Leap

The headline-grabber was Samsung’s 130-inch Micro RGB TV, using microscopic red, green, and blue LEDs to improve colour precision and colour volume. It’s firmly high-end for now, but it signals a push towards better control over how colours and highlights are rendered, rather than simply pushing brightness higher.

Hisense showcased its 116UXS model featuring RGB MiniLED evo technology, while TCL showed off the industry-first X11L SQD LED (Super Quantum Dot Mini-LED), which the company claims has even better color than RGB LEDs. LG’s most boundary-pushing display was easily its wallpaper-thin model.

The key breakthrough is RGB LED technology. In the past, LEDs in TVs typically emitted only white or blue light. They could adjust to improve contrast, but not color vividness. TVs with RGB LEDs have clusters of red, green, and blue lights that individually adjust to improve not only contrast, but also color. It’s among the most promising display tech experts have seen in years.

HDR standards are evolving alongside the hardware. Dolby Vision 2 was shown off at CES, with Dolby confirming support from brands including Hisense, TCL, and Philips. The update focuses on improved tone mapping, better near-black detail, and more consistent results across different lighting conditions—aiming to make HDR behave more predictably in the real world.

The gap between premium and budget TV brands is quickly closing. Both TCL and Hisense have made impressive strides in performance, bringing them closer and closer to Sony, Samsung, and LG. And it’s not just incremental improvements; both companies have been innovating and leading with technology. Hisense was the first company to debut an RGB LED TV last year, and this year TCL’s X11L leads the way with reformulated quantum dots.

For consumers, this means better picture quality at every price point. The days of paying a massive premium for the “big three” brands may be numbered as Chinese manufacturers continue their relentless march up the quality curve.