A Nostalgic Return: Revisiting CES After a Decade Away

A dozen years past, I could detail exactly what occurred at my initial CES as well as my third. Each occasion represented a narrative with a start, a middle, and a conclusion; the boundaries between them were distinctly marked. However, 15 years since my first CES experience, it’s considerably more unclear. I recall missing my return flight during that inaugural event. I remember seeing an abundance of cameras at first, followed by a progressively diminishing number over the years. There were group dinners and early meet-ups, but I can’t specify when any of it happened.

What I can recall about my first CES experiences is that I had — and I truly cannot emphasize this enough — zero understanding of what I was doing. This also applied to CES two, three, and four, albeit to different extents. I believe I had a Pentax DSLR borrowed from a coworker. I possessed a work-provided BlackBerry and, if I’m not mistaken, insisted on donning fancy dresses and impractical footwear for evening gatherings. During that period, Uber didn’t exist, and you could find yourself waiting an hour in a cab queue at the airport. We were accommodated at the MGM Grand, which, at the time, featured live lions.

This year, I ended an 11-year tradition of not attending CES, providing me with a unique chance. It’s rare in life that we can pull back and observe something that has evolved into a routine with renewed perception. This has essentially been my task at CES 2025. Having little pertinent involvement with smartphones, my role is simply to stroll the exhibition floor, discover intriguing innovations, and showcase them on the website. I have taken this responsibility incredibly seriously by arranging very few meetings, accessing The Verge’s CMS via my phone’s web browser, and wearing practical footwear for the extensive walking I am about to undertake.

The adventure begins on the first day in the West Hall. There’s a Dunkin’ with a queue that moves swiftly, abundant seating, and power outlets integrated into the booths. Nothing about it aligns with my recollections of cramped seating areas so small and dense that I frequently had lunch seated on the floor. Eventually, I realized that’s because this entire hall simply didn’t exist the last time I attended the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). I assure myself that I will take a brief stroll around the area and then proceed to Central Hall to view the significant booths, but then I spot them: Massive Tractors.

They are colossal, and only a portion of them are tractors. The first one I noticed is an autonomous, articulated dump truck, a John Deere representative informs me. I lack a legitimate purpose to be here, but it is exceptionally intriguing. Forty minutes later, I have photos of myself in front of all the tractors, a refuse truck, and an electric fire truck. I ultimately find myself right back at the starting point an hour later and head towards the Central Hall in search of robots.

CES consistently features A Thing. I recall times spent watching demonstrations of 3D TVs. This year, it’s robots: both physical ones and those integrated in software. Robots retrieving socks, ascending stairs, providing companionship, or simply being adorable little beings. And of course, robots that embody AI. Everything incorporates AI, from televisions to eyewear, whether it’s genuinely applicable or not.

Robots are certainly not novel to CES, but this batch seems capable of genuinely assisting us, albeit with varying reliability. I observed one small, charming robot unexpectedly leap off a table as it dashed towards my colleague. “It’s robust,” the robot’s operator remarked as she lifted it and returned it to its place. I don’t believe we have any reason to be concerned about the current selection of robots, at least in terms of potential domination.

Navigating through Las Vegas during the event — with about 140,000 participants according to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) this year — continues to be a significant challenge. Despite a decade of advancements in transport, there’s been no enhancement in this regard. I often find myself strolling between locations to dodge the congestion in the streets and rideshare pick-up areas.

At one moment, I hop into a Tesla with two fellow attendees and dive into the Vegas Loop. It feels like a brief, somewhat futuristic Uber journey and saves me from a lengthy walk between the West and Central halls. Neat, I suppose? Yet, there remains no efficient way to travel from the LVCC to The Venetian, and I find myself on a bus that inches forward for 15 minutes through several cycles of traffic lights while waiting to make a final left turn into the expo drop-off.

Beyond the convention hall, I observe the transformations and continuities in Las Vegas over the past decade. Crowds of tourists still gather along the banks of the gondola path through The Venetian while the gondolier’s voice resonates hauntingly from a nearby Banana Republic shop. Men still linger on the street, distributing cards for dubious entertainment, slapping the flyers to catch your eye.

As I hurry past on my way to a meeting, a woman at the front desk of a nearby restaurant shouts, “Allison! Is that you?” I have fallen for this trick a time or two in previous years, but I’ve learned enough to realize she has merely glanced at the name on my badge, and I maintain my pace. In Las Vegas, your attention is a commodity just shy of actual cash.

There’s a new landmark on the strip that’s hard to disregard: the Sphere. During one of my meetings in a hotel suite with a view of the Sphere, we pause to watch an animation depicting what appears to be an alien shattering the glass and emerging. The highlight on my agenda for the second day of the event is Delta’s keynote at the Sphere (it’s Sphere, not the Sphere, as Delta’s media communications remind us). While it’s not the first time this venue has been utilized for CES, this marks the first keynote in the space.

And the keynote is indeed a spectacle. Delta leverages the Sphere’s colossal interior screen along with other immersive effects in every anticipated manner. A plane approaches the audience, and as it begins to taxi, a gust of wind simulates the feel of the jet’s engines. Later, the simulated plane lands, and our seats vibrate to replicate the sensation of touching down on the runway. At one point, a sweet aroma fills the space, identified as hazelnut coffee, delivered by an Uber Eats rider on a moped. Tom Brady made an appearance.
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that I didn’t grasp, yet overall, it promised an exhibition and fulfilled that promise.

As the presentation drew to a close, the lights lowered and the display revealed an image of the Earth as a large, floating glass sphere, rotating in front of stained glass. The illumination seems to catch and reflect in the three-dimensional figure, and although I realize I am viewing an illusion on a flat screen, my mind is persuaded that there’s a massive, floating orb before me. Even while rewatching it in my recorded videos, I can’t fathom that it’s not real. It took 15 years, but I suppose I finally experienced an impressive 3D demonstration at CES.

What amazed me more than anything else at this CES was the sheer theatricality of it all. I am aware it’s a performance. We all refer to it as a show. We exchange phrases such as, “Enjoy the show!” to one another while we’re here. After years of participation, CES can feel like a task, a sequence of items on a checklist as lengthy as the Las Vegas Strip that you check off one by one, step by step. But above everything, it remains a show. There are no acrobatics or stunts, yet it’s still meant to evoke a response from us.

Similar to a captivating performance on the Strip, there’s some sleight of hand at play. Someone behind the curtain manages the “self-operating” robot. The concept vehicle that never arrives on the market. The large glass sphere that’s simply a configuration of precisely organized pixels on a curved display. Much like any other performance, there’s a beginning, middle, and conclusion — regardless of whether we recall them.

The specifics of this year’s CES will likely diminish over time like all the others have, yet I will retain the sensation of it far longer. And even as someone who’s witnessed numerous CES events come and go, it seems you can still experience a hint of amazement after all. However, I’m not expecting any of those concept vehicles to actually hit the market.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge