CES has always been where TV makers bring their bravest ideas — the sensible, the surreal, and everything in between. This year’s crop ranged from architectural curiosities you’d hang like a painting to a hulking 130‑inch display that demands a wall (and probably a crane). Here’s a tour of the standout designs, the tech behind them, and why some of the smartest-sounding features might be trying a little too hard.
Slim, bright, and wire-free: LG’s Wallpaper returns
LG reintroduced its Wallpaper line with the W6, a panel barely 9 millimeters thick that hangs flush against the wall and looks as much like contemporary art as it does a TV. It pairs that aesthetic with practical firepower: a wireless Zero Connect Box 2.0 (so your HDMI spaghetti stays out of sight), HDMI support for 4K at up to 165Hz, and a Primary RGB Tandem 2.0 panel using Hyper Radiant Color Technology. LG claims about a 20% brightness boost over last year’s G5, and the set also touts 12‑bit color processing to cut down on artifacts when handling 10‑bit sources.
If you want the look without building a media room around it, the W6 is the sort of statement piece that will define a living room — assuming you don’t mind the price tag that typically accompanies that level of engineering.
Giant, gaudy, and gorgeous: Samsung’s 130‑inch Micro RGB
Samsung pushed the opposite extreme with the R95H, a 130‑inch Micro RGB display it described as the “world’s largest” of its kind. This is the kind of screen meant to be the architectural center of a room: an easel-like frame, integrated audio tuned to the panel’s scale, and color tech stacked under marketing names like Micro RGB Color Booster Pro and Micro RGB HDR Pro. Samsung also baked in AI-driven features in the form of its Vision AI Companion, which promises conversational search, generative wallpapers, and integrations with services such as Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.
The R95H supports HDR10+ ADVANCED — part of Samsung’s HDR push this year — and that format plays into how the company is trying to differentiate during a time of slowing TV shipments. (If you want more on Samsung’s HDR10+ Advanced effort, we looked into that rollout earlier this season.) Samsung's HDR10+ Advanced rollout is part of a larger industry tug-of-war over HDR standards.
Tweaks that matter: color innovations from Hisense, TCL, and more
Not every headline-sized announcement needs a bigger screen. Hisense introduced the 116UXS, a 116‑inch set that adds a cyan pixel to the usual red‑green‑blue mix — a tweak aimed at improving greens and reducing harmful blue light. TCL dug into quantum dots with the X11L SQD Mini LED, which upgrades its green quantum dot to push a wider color gamut, while LG’s G6 OLED doubled down on brightness with Brightness Booster Ultra.
TCL’s approach offers a more incremental, practical upgrade compared with the spectacle of a 130‑inch display: better color fidelity in sports and nature scenes without needing novel form factors.
The AI question: helpful assistant or intrusive gimmick?
If there was a theme this year beyond bigger and brighter, it was AI. Companies aren’t just putting chips in TVs; they’re weaving services into the viewing experience — from live translation to conversational search and personalized recommendations. That offers genuine utility, sure, but it also raises a question: when does assistance become interference?
Industry observers at CES noted growing unease with how aggressively manufacturers are trying to turn big screens into all‑purpose AI hubs. There’s a thin line between a TV that helps you find what to watch and a TV that insists it knows better. Part of the push comes from a need to revive flatlining TV sales — add a differentiator and consumers might upgrade — but some of the features feel like experiments best left in a beta lab. If you're tracking the broader arc of AI moving into consumer products, remember how other platforms have started testing agentic features: Google’s AI Mode has been exploring automated bookings and follow‑up actions, and the same agentic instincts are turning up in living‑room devices.
Which of these matter for real buyers?
There are practical signals amid the show-floor flash. Brighter, more color-accurate panels matter for HDR content; higher refresh rates and 4K/165Hz HDMI are meaningful for gamers; and wireless, thin designs like LG’s W6 are appealing if interior design is a priority. Conversely, enormous micro‑RGB canvases and generative wallpaper features are lifestyle purchases — jaw-dropping, yes, but aimed at a small slice of buyers.
If you’re in the market this year, decide what problem you’re solving: a better picture, a sleeker look, or a smart hub that does more than stream. For the streaming side, a dedicated box such as an Apple TV still makes sense for many households — it’s a compact way to add apps and a polished UI without doubling down on whatever AI overlay a manufacturer provides.
CES 2026 didn’t deliver a single unifying vision for how we’ll watch TV next year. Instead, it offered an array of bets: ultra‑thin design, expanded color science, outsized canvases, and a heavy helping of AI. Some promises will land in living rooms; others will end up as showroom curiosities. Either way, the industry is clearly experimenting — and the results will shape your next upgrade.