Samsung at CES 2026: Hits, misses, and a few questionable choices

It's the last day of CES 2026, and after seeing every Samsung product unveiled in Las Vegas, I’m ready to share my picks for the event’s winners and losers.

For this ranking, I’ve excluded all the Samsung Display prototypes. Their goal was to showcase potential use cases for new display technologies, not commercial products.

Without further ado, here are my top and bottom picks from Samsung's booth.

The Galaxy Book 6 Ultra earns the top spot for the thoughtful upgrades it brings to the Ultra laptop series.

This year’s model feels and sounds more premium. Here are the changes I care about most:

Keen eyes may realize that some of these upgrades take cues from the Apple MacBook Pro. And I agree. But in my book, that’s a win.

With the FIFA World Cup 2026 approaching, Samsung’s forward-thinking TV features caught my eye.

AI Soccer/Football Mode Pro enhances the viewing experience with pre-game stats and more, while AI Sound Controller Pro lets fans adjust crowd noise and commentary levels independently.

Apart from improving the image and sound quality of new TVs, there's not much you can do to enhance the sports-viewing experience. At least, that's what I thought, but with these new AI features, Samsung proved me wrong.

Samsung also announced two new speakers, the Music Studio 5 and 7. I’m skipping specs and going straight to design.

The Music Studio 5? Honestly, it looks like a tipped-over lavatory. Or worse. Especially in white.

I respect the team behind it, but I just can’t imagine it on any of my shelves. Except maybe in the bathroom.

I sure hope Samsung didn't abandon the Music Frame's design in favor of this new look, because I am not a fan.

Finally, The Freestyle+ lands in the losing bracket, not because it's a bad projector, but because it lacks the charm of the original Freestyle. It's missing all the cool add-ons that made the previous models stand out.

No battery add-on for true portability, and no top-down socket adapter for table projections, which I think was a great boon for fans of tabletop gaming.

The new Freestyle+ is technically better than its predecessors, but a bit more boring, earning it a (dis)honorable mention rather than a full-on loss.