The Gear We're Using To Cover CES 2026 And Why We're Taking It To Las Vegas

The Consumer Electronics Show is right around the corner, and I'll be covering it for SlashGear just like I have in years past. As always, there's a nice selection of gear that I'll be taking with me to help cover the show — some of it is old and established; other gear is brand new to me and I'm a little nervous relying on it when the stakes are so high.

But all of it will be extremely useful on the show floor and navigating between hotels, suites, ballrooms, and the convention center. All of it will earn a place in my bag and on my back. Some of it is gear you may want to add to your everyday carry as well. It's not just great for covering a tradeshow; it can be vital for your home or work setup as well.

So, from backpacks and phones to laptops and tablets, here's all the gear I'll be using to cover CES 2026.

This year, I'm taking one usual suspect in my pocket along with one device that's a little out of left field. My primary phone for coverage will be the Honor Magic V5 foldable phone that I covered this past fall. There are a lot of reasons I picked this phone. Most notably, the battery life is exceptional, the cameras are quite good, and the phone is ridiculously thin and light. I could have very easily substituted the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7, but the Honor phone's battery lasts longer, so it'll be better for walking the show floor.

The other phone I'll have with me is the iPhone 17 Pro Max. This phone also packs exceptional battery life and cameras into its frame, which is why it'll be my primary camera on site as well. Overall, the combination of smartphones gives me two of the best cameras and batteries I could ask for in a small form factor which is critical for keeping up with my schedule on the show floor.

This year, I'm taking a different approach to compute on the show floor. Some of the shows and receptions I'll be attending are "no bag" facilities which makes life very difficult for a reporter trying to tote a laptop. That's why, this year, I'll be relying on the Xiaomi Pad 7 as my primary computing device on the show floor. Relying on an Android tablet to get things done on a productivity basis isn't ideal, but the Focus Keyboard gives this a laptop form factor that is lap-friendly, and it will absolutely get the job done as a writing machine as I bounce from vendor to vendor. Truth be told, I'm a little nervous about this setup, but I think I'll be able to make it work pretty well.

Back at the hotel, I'll have my Asus Zenbook Duo as my writing machine. The dual screen is critical for my workflow, and while it's really too heavy to carry for 120,000 steps on the show floor, the dual screens work great as a "home base" machine.

I believe I have written about these before, but when I'm covering a tradeshow I wear Meta Ray Ban glasses. My pair has transition lenses that do not get dark enough in broad daylight, but I digress. I wear these inside on the show floor for two main reasons.

First, since they're audio glasses, I can hear when I get a notification of any sort and either deal with it at the time or ignore it as needed. That's very handy when scurrying from booth to booth with 250,000 of my closest friends.

Also, the camera on the Ray Bans is not amazing, but it's good enough to capture decent backup photos, just in case. Plus if there's an explanation or a demo, I can capture those while keeping my hands free to experience the demo. They make life on the show floor a lot easier overall.

Over the past year or so, I transitioned from typing out notes at a press conference to jotting them down in a paper notebook. That has worked pretty well, but one of the key downsides is, when it's time to do some writing based on those notes, they can be cumbersome. Digital really is a better way to go about it, and my friends in journalistic circles can't stop talking about the Remarkable tablets.

These are tablets that were designed from the ground up for note-taking, and they really do this job well. I have both the Remarkable Paper Pro and the Paper Pro Move, and I'll be using them both, depending on what my schedule looks like on a given day. I generally prefer the larger version because I write very large, so this will give me more space to stretch out, but the portability of the Paper Pro Move is really compelling.

One part about covering trade shows can be tricky is getting adequate lighting, so to that end, I've got the LumeCube RGB Creator Kit. This is a tripod and lighting panel that comes in a pretty compact form factor overall. The tripod is very much like a selfie stick with legs on the bottom, but the star of the show will be the RGB Pro panel.

This is a light panel that can output any color you want, but I'll primarily be using it for 5K white lighting. It has a built-in battery that can power the panel for up to 4 hours at 50% brightness and up to 2 hours at 100%, so it should get me through a day, for sure.

The back of the panel has an LCD screen where you can adjust settings like color, temperature or brightness. You can also connect to the LumeCube app to make those adjustments much more easily on your phone screen. I'll be primarily relying on the LCD screen, but it's nice to know the app is an option.

I have spoken loudly and often about Xreal and how absolutely game-changing that company has been for me as a traveler. Plugging my Xreal One glasses into a Samsung phone and firing up DeX mode with a Bluetooth keyboard has helped me get so much work done while flying the friendly skies, but Xreal has one-upped itself again with the Xreal 1S. These glasses replace the Xreal 1 at the same price point but have a few improvements like a brighter screen and wider field of view.

The really exciting product though is the Xreal Neo. This is a MagSafe battery pack and digital signal converter that charges your device and processes the signal so it can be used with devices that don't support video out — I'm looking at you, Nintendo Switch 2. For gamers, that's awesome, but what I like about it is the ability to charge your device and connect the glasses.

Previously, when I connected the glasses on a long flight, I would only get a few hours in before I had to unplug and charge the phone again. The Neo bridges that gap so it's no longer an issue. Plus, on the show floor, it works like a normal battery pack. Both devices launched today, and you can find them on Xreal's website.