Computex is always chaotic, and Computex 2026 kept the same pace. This year’s show had the usual parade of powerful laptops, overbuilt gaming rigs, and the fun, if not strange, prototypes. AI was everywhere, handheld gaming got a serious power boost, and even monitor makers came ready with displays that sound like they were pulled from a wishlist.

That’s why we’ve put together our Computex 2026 Publisher Awards, spotlighting the products that pushed the show forward.

NVIDIA RTX Spark

The most important announcement at Computex 2026 was NVIDIA RTX Spark. Yes, the AI PC label is starting to sound like a broken record, but this is one of the few examples where the hardware underneath shows impressive potential. NVIDIA is calling this a new superchip for Windows PCs, built around a 20-core Grace CPU, a Blackwell RTX GPU with 6,144 CUDA cores, up to 128GB of unified memory, and up to 1 petaflop of AI performance.

The company has designed the Spark for local AI agents, improved creative workflows, and AAA gaming in slim laptops and compact desktops. We’ve seen plenty of powerful chip announcements, but what makes the RTX Spark a bit different is the scale of its impact. It is Nvidia making a proper play for the future of Windows PCs, bringing CUDA, RTX, DLSS, Reflex, G-Sync, and local AI acceleration into a single platform. With systems expected from brands including Dell, HP, Microsoft Surface, and more, RTX Spark could shape the next wave of premium PCs.

Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra

Windows is one of the biggest operating systems in the world, so one would naturally expect Microsoft’s own Surface laptops to be the best way to experience it. Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra feels like the answer many people have wanted: a powerful and premium Windows laptop built around genuinely cutting-edge hardware.

Leveraging NVIDIA’s new silicon to deliver up to a petaflop of AI compute, along with 128GB of unified memory, this notebook was built for larger local models and datasets. It also looks like Microsoft is finally taking ports seriously. The Surface Laptop Ultra includes USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, a headphone jack, and a full-size SD card reader, which makes it feel far more creator-friendly than the average thin flagship. Add in a new thermal system rated for up to 2.5 times the thermal capacity of the Surface Laptop 15-inch, and this easily becomes what a true Windows flagship should’ve been all along.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+

The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is the handheld that really showcased Intel’s portable gaming handheld push. MSI says it is the world’s first gaming handheld powered by Intel Arc G3 Extreme processors, which also makes it one of the most powerful of its kind. Coupled with an 8-inch 120Hz VRR display, upgraded ergonomic grips, Hall-effect triggers and sticks, and a refined D-pad, you have a powerful and well-built handheld gaming PC.

In recent years, the handheld PC space has become crowded, but the Claw 8 EX AI+ is carving its spot by chasing a higher-end AAA gaming experience in a portable form factor, with XeSS 3 Multi-Frame Generation, and Xbox Mode support helping round out the software side.

Thermaltake CAPO X

Thermaltake’s CAPO X is exactly what you’d expect to see at an exhibition like Computex, where you typically find absolutely unhinged PC hardware. CAPO X is a dual-system Micro-ATX chassis that supports up to two M-ATX motherboards in one case. That is basically two computers in one tower.

You also get two independent I/O panels for the upper and lower systems. Thermaltake built it for AI agent workspaces and streaming, where one system can run the game while the other handles broadcast duties. It is niche, sure, but it is also clever and useful.

Dell Alienware AW3926QW

After a quick glance at Alienware AW3926QW’s spec sheet, I had to do a double-take. Dell’s latest curved gaming monitor is the world’s first 39-inch 5K OLED gaming monitor with RGB stripe technology, using RGB stripe tandem OLED to hit up to 1,300 nits of peak brightness while improving text clarity.

OLED monitors have always been incredible for contrast and motion, so adding a 1500R curved screen, VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500, Dolby Vision, and a dual-mode setup that can run at 5K 165Hz or 1080p 330Hz just makes the gaming experience even more immersive and smooth. After getting a short first-hand experience with this gaming monitor, I am definitely looking forward to this one.

Dell XPS 13

Despite seeing some wacky and cool things during Computex 2026, the Dell XPS 13 was a surprising favorite of ours. It brings the premium XPS lineup back to a far more accessible place. It starts at $699 in the US, with a $599 price for eligible buyers, while still offering features such as a 2.5K touch display, a lightweight all-aluminum body, a backlit keyboard, and quad speakers.

Powered by Intel’s Wildcat processors, the Dell XPS 13 is expected to hit the market on June 16, 2026. For many, this laptop is a whole package: premium enough to feel special, but priced low enough to make sense. The ongoing memory crunch has hit the PC segment hard, so having more premium yet affordable laptops is always a win for consumers.

Computex 2026 is over, and as usual, the show floor was packed with more laptops, PCs, components, peripherals, and oddball gadgets than any one person could properly process in a few days. There were sleek ultrabooks, massive gaming rigs, AI PCs, experimental designs, and plenty of products that looked like they were built mainly to make people stop and stare.

A handful of products stayed on our minds long after we left the show floor. They weren’t always the most practical, powerful, or important announcements, but each had something memorable about it. So, in no particular order, here are the coolest things we saw at Computex 2026.

ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro Wi-Fi router

The ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro immediately caught our attention on the show floor. It looks absolutely wild, with a spider-like design that feels more like a sci-fi gaming prop than a router you would place next to your setup.

Once you get past the spider-like design, the bigger surprise is that this is already a Wi-Fi 8 router. That sounds slightly unreal considering most households still rely on Wi-Fi 6 or even Wi-Fi 5, while Wi-Fi 7 remains a relatively premium upgrade. Instead of chasing higher throughput speeds, Wi-Fi 8 focuses more on connection reliability and efficiency.

It has Adaptive QoE for intelligent traffic prioritization, Wi-Fi Insight for real-time network monitoring, AI Game Boost, and dual 10G ports. Do most people need a Wi-Fi 8 router right now? Probably not. But as a piece of future-facing gaming hardware, it was hard to ignore.

Pulsar Feinmann F01 Noctua Edition mouse

The Pulsar Feinmann F01 Noctua Edition is exactly the kind of thing that makes Computex fun. It is a gaming mouse with a tiny Noctua fan built into it, which sounds ridiculous at first, but makes much more sense when you actually try it.

The mouse was shown earlier, but after delays, it now appears much closer to launch. It is based on Pulsar’s Feinmann F01, but weighs slightly more due to the added Noctua NF-A4x10 5V PWM fan. It has a 42,000 DPI sensor and 8K polling. The fan can spin at up to 5,000 RPM, but because it is so small, its noise is hardly noticeable. It blows a gentle breeze toward your palm to help keep your hand from getting sweaty during long gaming sessions.

When it was first revealed last year, we thought the gimmick was pretty cute. After trying it in person, though, the idea started to make a lot more sense. Anyone who has spent hours gaming with sweaty hands will immediately understand the problem Noctua is trying to solve. It is definitely a little unusual, but we can see the practical appeal. That said, we only had a short time with the mouse on the show floor, so we did not get the chance to properly test how effective it is over a long gaming session or in a warm room where sweaty hands would really put the concept to the test.

Noctua also had its first liquid cooling AIO on display, and we saw a demo from the brand. It looks like a worthwhile AIO to keep an eye on for PC builders and Noctua fans who want to bring liquid cooling into their brown-and-beige themed setups.

Alienware AW3926QW monitor

Alienware’s AW3926QW was one of the more polished showpieces at Computex. It is a 39-inch curved Tandem OLED monitor, and at $1,099, it is obviously not cheap. But considering the size, 5K2K resolution, and RGB stripe OLED technology, the price starts to sound a little less outrageous.

The RGB stripe layout improves text clarity and color performance compared with some older OLED monitor layouts. The monitor runs at 5120 x 2160 with a 165Hz refresh rate, but it also has a dedicated mode for competitive players. You can switch it into a 27-inch mode with black bars, dropping the resolution to 2560 x 1080 and pushing the refresh rate up to 330Hz.

That basically makes the monitor a jack of all trades. You can use it as a large, immersive curved display for cinematic gaming or productivity, then switch to a faster esports-focused screen when needed. It also looked great in person without being too flashy.

Gigabyte X870E AORUS INFINITY NEXT motherboard

It is Gigabyte’s 40th anniversary, so we expected the brand to do something special for the occasion. However, we were not prepared for the brand to turn the engineering madness up to eleven with the X870E AORUS INFINITY NEXT motherboard.

It immediately grabbed our attention with its almost biological-looking hollow structures. We soon discovered that this is not just a cosmetic choice, but something far more bizarre. These “gyroid” structures are actually heatsinks, created using advanced 3D metal printing and “thruster-grade thermal materials” to cool the components and VRMs of the motherboard in low Earth orbit.

Yes, you read that right. This motherboard is meant to function in space. Since there is no airflow available to wick heat away from the components in those conditions, these structures are Gigabyte’s solution to the problem. The brand has also 3D-printed a vapor chamber for the chipset and added a honeycomb-style metal backplate to push cooling to the extreme.

Then there is the power delivery. This thing has 64 power phases and uses Low Earth Orbit and data center-grade Quad OptiMOS technology to deliver up to 5,120 amps of total current. That is beyond overkill for a gaming PC, and honestly, we think Gigabyte made this motherboard just to show that it can.

Gigabyte did not say when or if it plans to launch this motherboard to market. However, we did learn that manufacturing it alone costs about $3,000, so even if it ever does go on sale, it will be extremely expensive.

Framework Laptop 13 Pro

The Framework Laptop 13 Pro was announced a few months back, and we were eager to get our hands on the laptop to see if it actually delivers on its advertised promises, and it did not disappoint. The first thing that stood out to us is how sturdy the laptop felt. The brand has taken a page out of Apple’s playbook and used an aluminium unibody chassis in the 13 Pro.

The latch has also been improved so removing or plugging in the expansion cards can be done with one hand, which is a good quality-of-life change. Framework has also moved to LPCAMM2 memory on the Laptop 13 Pro, allowing it to use LPDDR5x while still keeping memory upgradeable. This is significant because laptops that use LPDDR memory are typically not upgradeable.

It has a 13.5-inch display with 2.8K resolution that finally offers touch support, though the laptop can only bend backward up to 180 degrees, so it can’t be flipped into a tablet. The other big upgrade is the 74Wh battery, which is 22% larger than the previous generation, with the brand claiming more than 20 hours of Netflix 4K streaming. We could not verify that claim during our brief hands-on time.

That said, the Framework Laptop 13 Pro is not cheap. The pre-built model starts at $1,499 with an Intel Core Ultra 5 325 processor, so there is an upfront premium. But that price is easier to accept because this is a laptop you can upgrade over time rather than replace entirely.