The 10 Strangest CES 2026 Gadgets You Need To See To Believe

The Consumer Electronics Show is a yearly expo in Vegas for manufacturers of all kinds to wow both the media and public with weird and wonderful bleeding-edge technology; from rollable OLED screens that unfurl to several times their original size, to household robots that can barely fold laundry at the level of a two-year old. But away from the usual assortment of increasingly thin TVs and "smart" fridges that no one asked for lies an entirely stranger set of products. These products either wow you for their creativity, or utter stupidity. It's a fine line, and I'll let you be the ultimate judge of which side these products lie on. 

In truth, much of the concepts in this list will never see the light of day. Some are an obvious ploy to garner exposure from media outlets (guilty!), some are prototypes of products that might eventually come to market with a vastly different feature set, while some are available for pre-order now. You don't even have to wait to buy some of the best CES gadgets. But these are the strangest, in their own special way. 

The quanitifed-self movement of the early 2000s introduced the concept of measuring everything in your daily life, but early attempts were limited to self analysis of primitive sensor data. Nowadays you can track everything, from the number of times you've sipped a water bottle to diaper changes, and it's not unusual to pull out your Apple Health records when you visit the GP. So it was only a matter of time before gut health got in on the game. 

Equipped with a camera and microphone, the Throne One from Throne Science sits on the side of your bowl to analyze everything about your stool and urinary habits, and lets you know when something is amiss. While this might sound like a joke, if you can make it past the ick factor, gut health is perhaps one of the most overlooked early indicators for a wide range of health issues. While temporary color or consistency changes are usually down to a change in diet, consistent issues point toward something more serious. Available for pre-order and shipping in February, the Throne One will cost $400 as well as requiring a monthly subscription for the analysis software. 

Developed by interactive sex tech makers Lovense, Emily is a lifesize silicone companion doll that integrates a sultry voice-capable AI, a series of expressive facial motors, and embedded sensors throughout her body. She's web-connected and features a choice of five different personalities and roleplay scenarios, while a virtual cloud copy of your companion means you'll be able to talk to her outside of the home through the accompanying smartphone app — and she remembers previous conversations to shape future ones (ChatGPT offers a similar "memory" feature). If reading that didn't already make this feel like an episode of Black Mirror, hold on: If she ever breaks, you can download her personality into a new body. Uniquely, Emily can also connect to and control all your other Lovense web-connected toys.

Potential buyers can put down their $200 deposit now for a sizeable discount off the final price, which Lovense has said will be somewhere in the range of $4,000 to $8,000. While they haven't disclosed which LLM is powering the companion, it's likely a custom solution. ChatGPT has announced adult mode for verified users was supposed to be coming at the end of last year, while X's standalone Grok AI app is notoriously spicy. 

Generative AI "art" is a lot like Marmite: you either love it with a slice of toast or think it devalues everything about the human experience and will be the downfall of society. And digital art frames are nothing new; I reviewed the Meural Canvas around a decade ago, a glorified big photo frame that came with premium subscription options to access exclusive streams of licensed artwork. But with the advent of generative AI, it was never going to be long before someone combined the two concepts into one product.

The SwitchBot AI art frame — powered by NanoBanana — lets you generate any subject matter in any style you like: instant, on-demand, personalized fake art displayed on a gorgeous and technically impressive EInk Spectra 6 screen. It's weird, but also strangely compelling. The smaller 7.3" size is available now for $150, with pre-orders open for the larger 13.3 and 31.5 inch versions. SwitchBot is better known for their button-pressing smart home gadget, which is surprisingly useful for turning dumb household appliances into smart ones. 

Following an apparent trend of global loneliness (who would've thought staring at a screen for 18 hours a day would have that effect?), there are a lot of virtual companions making an appearance at this year's CES, from full size household robots to tiny little anime girls that you can keep forever inside a cylindrical cage on your desk. Project Ava, from gaming giants Razer, is a Grok-powered gaming copilot; but it's not the only tiny desktop companion at CES, being joined by the LePro Ami ("Your always on 3D soulmate"). 

The tech isn't actually new — these seem to pop up every year, with the earliest I can find dating back to nine years ago from Gatebox in Japan — but AI has finally reached a level where these are more than glorified 3D desktop toys. With a connection to advanced AI voice models, you'll finally be able to hold a normal conversation. With Razer's gaming might behind it, they've also promised that it'll react to your gaming achievements or you can ask it for help when you're stuck. 

How much of this will make it to the final product or if it'll be manufactured beyond the initial influencer round of reviews is still to be seen. What we do is that like anything Razer does, it'll have oodles of RGB. 

You might have heard of bone conduction headphones, which produce audio by directly vibrating the bones around your ear. It's useful tech for those who need to stay connected to the outside world (or just can't stand earbuds), though the quality isn't brilliant. Lollipop Star uses the same tech, but in your teeth. When you suck on it (or technically, bite down on it), the music plays through your jaw. By all reports, it's both muffled and quiet, which are two things that seem somewhat important for playing music, but I'm no expert.

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In a world where we're moving toward banning wasteful single-use plastic straws and cutlery, I can really see single-use lollipop sticks with a built-in lithium-ion battery taking off. At $9 each, you'd have to be quite the sucker for this particular innovation when the exclusive "drops" arrive shortly. Alternatively, you can buy some of these AMOS Candy musical lollipops on Amazon.  

AI hair clippers probably weren't on your bingo card this year, but users can scan their head shape into the Glyde app and select a desired style, strap on a special mask to protect their eyes, and then have at it — zero skill needed. Just move the clippers around over your head, and the Glyde AI automatically adjusts cutting length to match the programmed style thanks to sensors that detect the speed, tilt, and angle of the blade in real time. While a simple buzzcut is hard to mess up, anything involving a fade is usually tricky. The Glyde makes it effortless with the "fade band" marking the start. You still need to physically move the clippers over your hair, but if Glyde detects sudden movements, incorrect starting position, or not cutting upwards in a straight line, it simply retracts the blade to avoid mistakes. 

As weird as thing sounds, if they hit the target price of $150-200 then it's not far off the cost of a decent pair of non-smart clippers. 

Originating from France, the Reconcept mental health pod is an alien-esque egg-shaped thing you clamber into and have a massage while it plays soothing music and binaural beats in a guided relaxation session. It's not really zero gravity of course, but the Neutral Body Posture with the head and legs reclined was developed by NASA to improve circulation and reduce respiratory and muscular strain in astronauts experiencing microgravity. 

The Reconcept pod sounds like a lot of fun — unless you're claustrophobic, in which case it probably won't have a positive effect on your mental health. Thankfully there are plenty of adjustable beds to help you achieve a zero-g position in the luxury of your own home. Just add a Meta Quest VR headset with haptic vest and you're all set for plenty of meditation experiences like Tripp.

For all their convenience robot vacuums have thus far been unable to tackle the incredible complexity of stairs. Until now. Dreame's Cyber X is a terrifying beast equipped with four legs that look like tiny chainsaws — as if the dog wasn't scared of the vacuum enough. What's really interesting is that the Cyber X isn't actually a robot vacuum — it's just a transporter or base station. The vacuum has to drive inside, be carried to another floor, then get out to do its business. So while the Cyber X can move your vacuum around, it still can't actually clean the stairs. 

The Roborock Saros also made an appearance at CES with a little pair of wheels on legs to help it climb, but it's a vacuum as well. Unfortunately the Saros can't get back down again (or at least, it wasn't demonstrated doing that so we'll have to assume it can't). But that's half the problem solved, anyway, and it means I can finally justify that indoor slide to my wife because "the robovac needs it."

The LG CLOiD is a friendly humanoid robot designed to coordinate household tasks with other connected home appliances in LG's ThinQ ecosystem. So you'll not only have to spend an extraordinary amount on the robot, you'll also need to smartify everything else in your home. Unlike the quad-chainsaw-wielding Dreame Cyber X, CLOiD has primitive wheels, so it won't be able to navigate complex home environments with any level changes. But he will fold laundry (slowly) and make breakfast, if by make breakfast you mean placing a croissant onto a plate. It's unlikely that CLOiD will ever make it to market, but LG is showing it off as a prototype of future projects, hoping it will eventually become an "ambient care agent that supports everyday life". I joke, but robots that can assist with care of the elderly are very much in demand in an aging society where the cost of care is skyrocketing.

Also making an appearance was the SwitchBot Onero H1, whose makers claimed it should hit retail later this year at less than $10,000. For a robot that can pick up dirty socks and place them in a basket, I think we can all agree that's a bargain. But unlike the LG CLOiD, the SwitchBot Onero is unable to display heart emojis on its face.

We've all been there — you're watching the game and need to go grab a beer, but that means being taken away from the excitement of watching people kick a ball for 30 seconds. But what if — hear me out — your TV could follow you to the kitchen? You'd never miss a thing! 

Now that I've woven that compelling tale of a use case for you, let me explain the Hisense S6 FollowMe TV isn't actually any of that, because despite the name, it's not motorized and won't FollowYou. Instead, you need to manually push it around. So it's just a TV on a stand then? Well, yes, but that makes it sound like it's not innovative at all. It also has a webcam, and battery, and Wi-Fi 6 — but doesn't ship with a chain to attach it to your neck, disappointingly. The real strangeness here is that Hisense felt a smart TV on wheels was an innovation worth showing off at the largest consumer electronics show. Don't fret about upgrading: here's a TV stand with wheels for less than $50.