News in the Channel - issue #36

CES 2026 REVIEW

Smart wearables and glasses: from novelty to near-mainstream While AI PCs and silicon platforms dominated much of the conversation, the most immediately disruptive category at CES 2026 was smart wearables – particularly the rapid acceleration of smart glasses and open-ear audio. What made this year different was not just incremental improvement, but maturity. Many wearables on show were no longer experimental concepts, but ready-to-ship products with clearly defined use cases. Wearables are also fragmenting into distinct categories. Productivity glasses focus on translation, transcription, and teleprompting; capture-first glasses prioritise photography and recording; spatial display glasses act as portable screens; and audio-first wearables blur the line between earbuds, accessories and communications tools. For the IT channel, this matters because it changes how these devices are positioned, bundled, and sold as endpoints for productivity, collaboration and personal computing.

For the channel, it signals that wearable displays are becoming a legitimate alternative to physical screens, particularly for gaming and mobile productivity. Shokz OpenDots ONE On the audio side, Shokz OpenDots ONE demonstrated how open-ear wearables are evolving into everyday productivity tools. These lightweight, clip-on open earbuds prioritise comfort, awareness and style, ideal for hybrid work and commuting. With a titanium- based clip design, Dolby Audio, strong battery life, and multipoint connectivity, OpenDots ONE balances practicality with an accessory-like form factor. The open- ear design allows users to stay aware of their surroundings, an increasingly important requirement in real-world work environments. The bigger picture from CES 2026 is clear: smart wearables are no longer waiting for the future, they are building it. As ecosystems mature and features standardise, wearables will rapidly move from interesting add-ons to essential everyday devices. n

ASUS ROG XREAL R1 Gaming Glasses The standout example was the ASUS ROG XREAL R1 Gaming Glasses. Unlike many previous demos, the R1 is a fully realised product built around a simple proposition: replace physical monitors with a wearable spatial display. The glasses deliver a virtual 171-inch screen using 240Hz micro- OLED FHD panels, making them the world’s first gaming glasses to hit that refresh rate. This is more than a headline spec as high refresh rates are critical in wearables, where motion clarity and low latency directly affect comfort. A 57-degree field of view balances immersion with real-world awareness, while features such as Anchor Mode allow the virtual display to be pinned in space, making it feel more like a traditional monitor than a VR headset. Combined with Sound by Bose, adaptive brightness, and simple USB-C connectivity to PCs, consoles, and handhelds, the R1 shows how spatial displays can integrate seamlessly into existing ecosystems.

Shokz OpenDots ONE

CES still delivers As CES approaches its 60th anniversary in 2027, one thing is certain: the show continues to evolve, just as the channel it serves does. And after CES 2026, the future feels closer and more deliverable than ever. We're already looking forward to 2027.