Pack your comfortable walking shoes, stock up on hand sanitizer, and brace your eyeballs for an onslaught of RGB lighting, because CES is coming up in January 2027. Every winter, this annual consumer tech mecca takes over Las Vegas, bringing thousands of companies together to show off the weird, the wonderful, and the occasionally practical future of gadgets.

While the Galactigeek crew will no doubt trudge across miles of convention carpet to see hundreds of companies, we’ve whittled down the massive exhibitor directory to 12 companies that we’re especially interested in seeing.

 

Bluetti and EcoFlow: Clash of the Mega-Batteries

Every self-respecting geek loves a ridiculously big battery. Having recently covered one of Anker’s new home backup solutions, the Solix S5000, we’re eager to compare it with the other two leading battery heavyweights, Bluetti and EcoFlow.

When the power grid goes down—or you simply want to run an espresso machine in the middle of the woods—storage capacity is king. Can either rival win us over with sheer watt-hours alone, or will they bring other compelling features like smarter modularity and faster solar charging? Only time will tell.

 

Bolt Graphics: Playing David to the GPU Goliath

Bolt Graphics is a bold startup arriving in Vegas with a colossally ambitious goal: build a brand-new GPU architecture completely from scratch. Nvidia is currently the undisputed, leather-jacket-wearing Goliath of the GPU market, and they are in sore need of a scrappy David to make them humble—and maybe keep graphics card prices from requiring a second mortgage.

We always love a good underdog story, and taking on a silicon juggernaut takes serious nerves, so we’re deeply intrigued to see what Bolt has in mind to take this monumental task on.

 

CRIware: From Game Startup Screens to Your Dashboard

We immediately recognized the iconic CRIware logo while scrolling through the CES exhibitor page. If you’ve played more than a handful of video games in the past 10 years, you’ve probably seen it countless times on startup screens before reaching the title menu. CRIware makes middleware software that plugs into game engines and helps them with rendering audio, video, and UI elements.

At CES, however, CRIware will be showcasing their automotive UX technology. We weren’t aware that a gaming-focused company was developing tech for auto displays, and given how laggy car menus often feel, we’re very curious to see what it might look like.

 

Ford: A Clean-Slate Reboot with the Universal EV Platform

Ford has been slowly unveiling details around their highly anticipated Universal Electric Vehicle platform, which is set to debut with the Ford Fathom. Because Ford is the #1 automaker in the US, a ground-up architectural overhaul is a huge moment for the industry, and we are eager to see what a clean-slate reboot will look like in their auto lineup.

After watching automakers obsess over canyon-sized trucks and three-row SUVs in recent years, hopefully we’ll finally catch a glimpse at Ford’s return to making sleek, practical sedans.

 

Genki: Throwing the Kitchen Sink at the Pro Controller

Clever gaming accessory maker Genki has been on a whirlwind PR tour showing off their latest Kickstarter-funded controller, Manta. Priced at over $200, the Manta is an unapologetic “kitchen sink” product in every sense of the phrase. While it checks plenty of enthusiast boxes under the hood, the most exciting feature is a huge built-in color display that lets you customize every conceivable aspect of the controller on the fly—no clunky companion apps required.

We hope to get some hands-on time with the Manta and compare it to other feature-packed controllers such as the new Steam Controller.

 

Hyperkin: Keeping Gaming Weird, Quirky, and Affordable

On the complete opposite end of the third-party controller spectrum is Hyperkin. Instead of competing in an expensive arms race over the raw number of features crammed onto a spec sheet, Hyperkin prioritizes wallet-friendly affordability and fun, quirky designs steeped in gaming nostalgia. In an industry that sometimes takes itself way too seriously, their booth is always a blast to visit.

We walked away with really positive impressions of Hyperkin’s last round of new products, so we’ll be sure to check out what wonderfully weird hardware they have on display this January.

 

InWin: Outlandish PC Cases That Double as Modern Art

InWin remains one of the most unapologetically bold PC case makers out there. A long-standing staple at CES, their booth is reliably a jaw-dropping showcase of some of the most outlandish case designs that you can imagine—trading boring black metal boxes for motorized glass panels and kinetic sculptures.

If we’re being honest, we haven’t been quite as blown away in the past few years as we were during their peak experimental era, but we’re always willing to give them a fresh chance to amaze us.

 

Japan Tech + Korea Pavilion: Scrappy Startups and Top-Tier Snacks

Rather than a single company, these are bustling booths down at Eureka Park, CES’s section oriented around small international startups. Stepping away from corporate megabooths to see small, scrappy companies solving wildly specific problems is always a highlight of the week, and we’re consistently charmed by the Japanese and Korean startups in particular.

Plus, let’s be honest: the fact that they usually hand out cute stickers alongside top-tier Japanese and Korean snacks is always a welcome bonus for exhausted tech writers.

 

Lenovo: Turning the Las Vegas Sphere into a Tech Keynote

Lenovo is the only company on this list that takes a spot specifically for its press conference rather than a convention booth. Same as last year, Lenovo is holding its conference inside the Las Vegas Sphere. We sadly didn’t catch last year’s show in person, so we’re making an extra effort to attend this year.

Standard press conferences are a dime a dozen at CES, but when you are presenting on the most immersive curved screen in the world—and feature musical guests like last year’s Gwen Stefani—you know that we’ll be paying attention.

 

Mapbox: Challenging the Big Tech Navigation Duopoly

Let’s close out the list with something delightfully niche: Mapbox. Turn-by-turn GPS navigation is one of the unsung staples of modern living, even if most of us take it for granted. In a digital world thoroughly dominated by Google and Apple Maps, it’s nice to see a third-party competitor staving away a total duopoly. Mapbox gets its core mapping data from the open-licensed and crowdsourced OpenStreetMap project.

Since Mapbox will be stationed in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s Central Plaza alongside vehicle technology companies, we expect them to showcase their auto mapping technology in particular.