With CES 2026 slated to officially start next week, the focus is understandably on all the new products that will be announced at this year’s event. But before diving into what’s new, we thought it was a good idea to revisit our best of show winners from last year to see where they’re at. After all, CES is synonymous with vaporware. The good news is the Engadget team has a keen sense for BS. Of the ones we awarded at CES 2025 that haven’t been released, most are coming this year. For the remaining few, we’ll be hunting them down this CES.
ASUS Zenbook A14
When we saw the ASUS Zenbook A14 at CES 2025, it left us impressed with its lightweight but well-made chassis, beautiful OLED screen and excellent mix of ports. After spending more time with it, the A14’s shortcomings became more apparent. In his review of the ultraportable, Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar gave the laptop a score of 78, lamenting its poor performance and expensive price tag. In the end, it wasn’t quite the Windows MacBook Air competitor he had hoped for initially.
BioLite Backup
At CES 2025, BioLite was already taking pre-orders for its automatic home backup power supply. The BioLite Backup didn’t arrive in 2025, but if you visit the company’s website today, you can reserve one for $100, with final pricing expected to start at $2,000. BioLite says units will start shipping this year.
Jackery Solar Roof
Before CES 2025, Jackery was already an established player in the domestic solar power industry, and at the event, it impressed us with its XBC curved solar shingles. They look like regular roof shingles, but Jackery said they would deliver cell conversion efficiency of more than 25 percent.
It’s taken longer than anticipated, but Jackery says it now expects the shingles to go on sale in the US “very soon,” with pricing likely to range between $1,100 and $1,300 per square meter depending on the customer’s design requirements and how they purchase the product. When contacted by Engadget, Jackery also teased a handful of announcements for CES 2026, including updates on devices like the Solar Mars Robot it’s been working on for the last little while.
Lenovo Legion Go S
With the Legion Go S, Lenovo promised two different versions of its new handheld: one running Windows 11, and the other Valve’s Steam OS. Unfortunately, the Windows variant arrived first (shortly after CES), and was about as good as expected. However, the wait for the SteamOS model was well worth it. When Engadget’s Sam Rutherford finally reviewed it over the summer, he praised it for fast performance, bright display and of course the ease of use offered by SteamOS.
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