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Were wrapping up coverage of the biggest tech show in the world. CES 2026 is almost over, and while we have more stories and wrap-ups to come, here are the most interesting products weve spotted, written about and critiqued/praised. That includes our picks for the best of CES. We gave out 15 awards as well as our best of show, and you might be surprised by some of our picks I know I was. Read on for some of the best things to come out of Las Vegas this week, but first up, our Best of the Best winner, which was Lego Smart Play. As Engadgets editor-in-chief Aaron Souppouris put it, Lego could almost be seen as the antithesis of the typical CES product. Regardless of trends, Lego has always persisted. And in 2026, its getting much smarter. Lego The system consists of a Smart Brick, Tags and Minifigures. Theyre packed with modern technology, so they can respond to how you play with them or the sets you build. The Smart Brick has a 4.1mm ASIC chip, which Lego says is smaller than a standard Lego stud. It senses things like motion, orientation and magnetic fields, but also has a tiny built-in speaker, which produces audio tied to live play actions, not just canned clips. Its hard to explain it in only a few words (weve got a deep-dive hands-on right here), but what immediately drew me in was the lack of smartphone pairing and screens. The ability of each part to detect and interact with others can lead to some ridiculous setups, whether its ducks and police officers or a helicopter or an X-Wing. Naturally, its a little pricier than basic Lego, but not out of the realm of being a special gift or birthday present. One of the first sets, with a smart Darth Vader Minifigure, one Smart Brick and one Smart Tag, is $70. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled newsletter next week. Have a great weekend! Mat Smith The other big stories (and deals) this morning 19 CES gadgets you can buy right now The weirdest tech weve seen at CES CES 2026 proved the PC industry is hosed this year Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold hands-on: Flexing is believing Anker unveils a new lineup of chargers, docks and accessories at CES 2026 All the laptops that caught our eye at CES All the winners at CES 2026 Wait, IKEA? Engadget With no further ado, here are our winners. Best robot: Switchbot Onero H1 Best accessibility tech: WheelMove Best TV: LGs Wallpaper TV Best AI hardware: Subtle Voicebuds Best smart home: IKEA Matter-compatible smart home Engadget Best home theater: Samsung HW-QS90H Best audio: Shokz OpenFit Pro Best outdoor tech: Tone Outdoors T1 Best toy: Lego Smart Play Best PC or laptop: Dell XPS 14 + 16 Best health tech: Eyebot eye test booth Best gaming tech: ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo Best mobile tech: Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold Most promising concept: Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable Best emerging technology: IXI autofocus lenses Everything NVIDIA announced at CES 2026 NVIDIA has started production of its Vera Rubin supercomputer. Engadget On Monday, which feels like an age ago, Jensen Huang shared the latest from NVIDIA. While the presentation was more a refresher than a barrage of new announcements, it was a pretty low-key presentation, with lots of AI chat. One announcement was Alpamayo, a family of open-source reasoning models designed to guide autonomous vehicles through difficult driving situations. The centerpiece is Alpamayo 1, a 10-billion-parameter chain-of-thought system NVIDIA says can drive more like a human. When it comes to tech we all might use, we had to wait for a separate event, when NVIDIA announced DLSS 4.5 and G-Sync Pulsar. For both features, youll need a 50-series GPU. You got one, right? Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-193045065.html?src=rss
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Meta's messaging app WhatsApp could soon be subject to deeper scrutiny (and punishment) under the European Commission's Digital Services Act, Reuters reports. Because the app's broadcasting feature WhatsApp Channels grew to around 51.7 million average monthly active users in the European Union in the first six months of 2025, the feature has crossed the 45-million-person barrier that lets DSA rules apply.A platform is designated as a "very large online platform" or VLOP once it has 45 million monthly users or more, according to the European Commission. Once an app or service passes that amount, it's subject to the DSA and all its rules about how digital platforms should operate, particularly around removing illegal or harmful content. Companies can be fined up to six percent of their global annual revenue for not complying with the DSA.WhatsApp traditionally functions as a private messaging app, but its Channels feature, which lets users make one-sided posts to anyone who follows their channel, does look a lot more like Meta's other social media platforms. "So here we would indeed designate potentially WhatsApp for WhatsApp Channels and I can confirm that the Commission is actively looking into it and I wouldn't exclude a future designation," a Commission spokesperson said in a daily news briefing Reuters viewed.Engadget has asked Meta to comment on WhatsApps possible new designation. Well update this article if we hear back.The possibility that WhatsApp could become a regulatory target in the EU was first reported in November 2025, but Meta has been dealing with DSA-related fines since well before then. Meta was charged with violating the EU law in October 2025 because of how it asks users to report illegal content on Facebook and Instagram. Earlier that month, a Dutch court also ordered the company to change how it presents the timelines on its platforms because people in the Netherlands were not "sufficiently able to make free and autonomous choices about the use of profiled recommendation systems" in the company's apps.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/whatsapp-might-soon-be-subject-to-stricter-scrutiny-under-the-eus-digital-services-act-191000354.html?src=rss
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ExpressVPN is back on sale again, and its two-year plans are up to 78 percent off right now. You can get the Advanced tier for $101 for 28 months. This is marked down from the $392 that this time frame normally costs. On a per-month basis, it works out to roughly $3.59 for the promo period. Weve consistently liked ExpressVPN because its fast, easy to use and widely available across a large global server network. In fact, it's our current pick for best premium VPN. One of the biggest drawbacks has always been its high cost, and this deal temporarily solves that issue. In our review we were able to get fast download and upload speeds, losing only 7 percent in the former and 2 percent in the latter worldwide. We found that it could unblock Netflix anywhere, and its mobile and desktop apps were simple to operate. We gave ExpressVPN an overall score of 85 out of 100. The virtual private network service now has three tiers. Basic is cheaper with fewer features, while Pro costs more and adds extra perks like support for 14 simultaneous devices and a password manager. Advanced sits in the middle and includes the password manager but only supports 12 devices. The Basic plan is $78 right now for 28 months, down from $363, and the Pro plan is $168, down from $560. That's 78 percent and 70 percent off, respectively. All plans carry a 30-day money-back guarantee for new users, so you can try it without committing long term if youre on the fence. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/expressvpn-two-year-plans-are-up-to-78-percent-off-right-now-180602025.html?src=rss
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