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Computex 2026 is ready to electrify Taipei between June 2 and June 5, and as always, my intrepid computing team and I will be on the ground covering and testing all the latest and greatest announcements!
So it’s time to set the stage for what we predict you’ll be seeing at this event, because not only is this set to be the biggest Computex ever, it’s also going to be the most important. There are some huge challenges ahead for consumer computing, and we’re set to see exactly how the industry will rise to them.
But first, as Managing Editor of Core Tech, I have to set the stage for this event, because it’s coming in what is a sort of difficult time for computing.
How Tom’s Guide will cover Computex 2026
We call it “Computing for the rest of us” — our ongoing mission to not write for insiders, but so anyone can feel like the smartest geek in the room. Every year, you’ll read, hear, and see a whole lot of jargon-filled coverage with assumed knowledge coming out of Taiwan. My team and I have challenged that notion and have been rather successful in doing it!
And in our third iteration of Computex, we’re powering on with this mission but also making clear our three key goals of what we’d love to see (and tell you all about):
- Value: It’s no real surprise that this is our top priority — we have a Savings Squad after all! We want to see companies talk less about their data center hardware and more about delivering maximum bang for the buck in consumer products that are well-priced against the backdrop of RAMageddon.
- Actually useful AI: Computex’s theme this year is “AI together,” and if the past couple of years are anything to go by, you can expect these two letters to be said a lot. We don’t want to see AI stuffed into hardware just because — we want to see actually useful, thoughtful implementations.
- Fascination: Not only does the show give us a chance to test the cool stuff you’ll be able to buy, but it also gives us a sneak peek at some truly ludicrous cutting-edge tech that sets the stage for the next five years. Internally, we call it “the cool sh*t,” but a more family-friendly way to put it is that we want to be fascinated.
So long as the tech checks off one (or more) of these boxes, you’ll be reading about it or seeing it in our coverage! These will be the criteria we use to judge the winners of our Best of Computex awards, too.
What to expect
Computex is my team’s Super Bowl — our season finale, setting the stage for the next 12 months (and further ahead). And what’s becoming clear from the event schedule, rumors, and leaks, five clear trends look set to dominate the event.
MacBook Neo scared everyone, and Windows responds
Of all the companies that really bring value for money back to computing, I did not expect Apple to be the one to do it. The MacBook Neo has shown that cheap laptops don’t have to be hunks of plastic with bad displays and spongy keyboards. They can actually be great and make you question whether you actually need to spend more (my time facing it off with the MacBook Pro proved that).
And if one thing is clear from asking my sources, it’s that other laptop makers were blindsided by this and rather terrified by the prospect of this premium notebook. So, Computex 2026 is looking likely to really bring a huge shift from just talking about the cutting edge to giving you real value for money.
It all starts with Intel’s new Wildcat Lake chips and ends with much more attention to detail on the design/build quality front. Expect to see companies like Asus, Acer and more start to respond fast.
Also, Qualcomm will be there in a big way too, and while we do have X2 Elite Extreme to X2 Plus, nothing has been mentioned yet about a low-end X2. If the competition want to really take the fight to the Cupertino crew, this would be an ideal time to drop that new base silicon!
AI everywhere
I mean, it’s obvious at this point, right? Last year’s show was AI-dominated, and reports say that Computex organizers are actively demoting companies that don’t have AI products to show.
From hardware fueling the AI data center explosion to new gadgets running LLMs locally for the people, you can expect this to be the biggest talking point of the show. And while you’ll see a lot of tech that just has “AI” in the name but doesn’t really offer any real benefits from having AI, there will certainly be some useful devices.
Google I/O proved just how much consumer-focused agentic AI is coming down the way, and it’s absolutely no surprise that you’ll hear a lot more about the silicon that will power these experiences. No doubt Nvidia’s GTC conference will shed some more light on this AI automation, too. Speaking of…
Nvidia enters the CPU silicon wars of 2026
Yes, I know we’ve spoken about Nvidia N1X for a while now. We predicted it for Computex 2025 and CES 2026, but it didn't happen at either event. But all the stars are aligning rumor-wise, and it’s highly anticipated that Jensen Huang will take the stage at his GTC keynote and announce the new silicon.
For those uninitiated, this is Team Green’s ARM silicon — inspired by its DGX Spark AI supercomputers but squeezed down into something that can power the latest laptops.
And yes, since it's Nvidia, you can expect some big gaming chops here, as certain leakers claim it will be the equivalent of an RTX 4070, all on integrated graphics.
And since it’s ARM, you can expect key power efficiency too, which would be significant for the future of gaming laptops. As for who’s looking to run these chips, Dell, Lenovo, and Alienware look like a lock.
But I want to pose a different prediction… Asus is celebrating the 20th anniversary of ROG, and an integrated-GPU version of the Zephyrus G14 with Intel’s Panther Lake was quietly pulled from CES. Wouldn’t it be quite a return to form if there were an N1X-armed G14? Food for thought for you!
Intel’s next-gen gaming handhelds emerge
Intel’s been pretty clear that a retooled version of its Panther Lake chips is coming to gaming handhelds, and we’re looking ready to roll at Computex. If I were a betting man, I’d point you towards a new MSI Claw sporting these new chipsets.
For context, this all began when we all found out that the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 CPUs had pretty beastly GPUs — paired with strong XeSS 3 scaling and multi-frame generation to deliver seriously impressive fidelity and frame rates.
And ever since then, we’ve all waited with bated breath to see this come to handhelds, and now we are in Intel Arc G3 and G3 Extreme.
Don’t expect them to be cheap, but this looks truly set to be the generational leap in handhelds we’ve been waiting for, and it’ll surely make AMD nervous.
The robots are coming!
We’ve heard a lot about robotics and AI over the past few years, but it's all essentially been talk — maybe with some automated production lines for good measure. The idea of having your own personal robot assistant seems a bit pie-in-the-sky.
But more and more over the course of this year, we’ve been hearing about robotics finally getting the AI compute it needs, from things like Nvidia’s Jetson silicon, to make it work. And I think this may be the first moment we get a proper glimpse of what that humanoid future could look like.
Will it be a bit Black Mirror? Probably, but as a tech journalist, I can’t deny it is damn cool.
See y’all in Taipei
Of course, there will be much more — new PC components to talk about, new bleeding-edge silicon, new sim racing gear, new monitors and peripherals. And you best believe we’ll be covering all the best from the show floor as we see it.
So if you’re looking for a human glance at how Computex is carving out the future of computing, keep it locked on Tom’s Guide for all our written and video coverage from Taipei.
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