Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
At the Consumer Electronics Show every year, manufacturers pitch their products hoping to convince us that they have invented the future. But will their vision make our lives better, or lead humanity down a dark and twisted path?
Welcome to the fourth annual Worst in Show awards!
Our panel of dystopia experts have reviewed this year’s batch of hype and have… concerns. From easily hackable lawn mowers to $300 earbuds that will fail in two years, these are products that jeopardize our safety, encourage wasteful overconsumption, and normalize privacy violations.
Our judges considered five questions to select the category winners:
How bad is this product?
Are the problems with this gadget innovatively bad?
What is the global impact if the technology is widely adopted?
How much worse is this than previous iterations of similar technology?
How much do the negatives outweigh the positives?
Chapters
00:00 – CES, But Make It Worse
00:40 – What “Worst in Show” Really Means
00:55 – The Disposable Battery Disaster
01:43 – Worst for Environmental Impact: Lollipop Star
02:25 – Worst for “Shitification”: Bosch eBike DRM
04:23 – Worst for Privacy: Amazon Ring Surveillance
05:22 – Worst for Cybersecurity: AI Treadmill
06:30 – Worst for Repairability: Samsung Smart Fridge
07:24 – Who Even Asked for This? AI Coffee Machine
08:46 – People’s Choice: AI Companion
09:07 – Overall Worst in Show: Samsung’s Ad-Powered Fridge
Subscribe to our channel for all our latest teardown and repair videos!
youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=ifixityourself
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ifixit
Check us out on Facebook: facebook.com/iFixit
Sign up for our Newsletter ifixit.com/Newsletter
At the Consumer Electronics Show every year, manufacturers pitch their products hoping to convince us that they have invented the future. But will their vision make our lives better, or lead humanity down a dark and twisted path?
Welcome to the fourth annual Worst in Show awards!
Our panel of dystopia experts have reviewed this year’s batch of hype and have… concerns. From easily hackable lawn mowers to $300 earbuds that will fail in two years, these are products that jeopardize our safety, encourage wasteful overconsumption, and normalize privacy violations.
Our judges considered five questions to select the category winners:
How bad is this product?
Are the problems with this gadget innovatively bad?
What is the global impact if the technology is widely adopted?
How much worse is this than previous iterations of similar technology?
How much do the negatives outweigh the positives?
Chapters
00:00 – CES, But Make It Worse
00:40 – What “Worst in Show” Really Means
00:55 – The Disposable Battery Disaster
01:43 – Worst for Environmental Impact: Lollipop Star
02:25 – Worst for “Shitification”: Bosch eBike DRM
04:23 – Worst for Privacy: Amazon Ring Surveillance
05:22 – Worst for Cybersecurity: AI Treadmill
06:30 – Worst for Repairability: Samsung Smart Fridge
07:24 – Who Even Asked for This? AI Coffee Machine
08:46 – People’s Choice: AI Companion
09:07 – Overall Worst in Show: Samsung’s Ad-Powered Fridge
Subscribe to our channel for all our latest teardown and repair videos!
youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=ifixityourself
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ifixit
Check us out on Facebook: facebook.com/iFixit
Sign up for our Newsletter ifixit.com/Newsletter
