CES 2026: Lenovo's New 'AI Frame' Gaming Monitor Might Actually Just Be Cheating
It's easy to take this for granted, but not everyone is able to immediately look at a shooting or strategy game and find the reticle or map. Gaming UIs can get complicated, and for less-seasoned gamers, they can be pretty intimidating, too. Lenovo's new concept "AI Frame" monitor, shown off at CES 2026, aims to make some games a bit more approachable, although experts might consider it cheating.
Hardware-wise, this is a normal 21:9 ultrawide gaming monitor, but it's not actually meant to be used like that. Instead, you play your game in a left-justified 16:9 rectangle that takes up most of the screen, and in the remaining space, the AI will automatically zoom in on part of your gameplay and show a blown-up version of it. For instance, it might show you a zoomed-in map in a MOBA, so you don't have to look at the tiny mini-map in your main gameplay to know where you or your team are. Or, it might zoom in on your reticle in a shooter, letting you better see your targets. There's even enough space left over for you to pull up an internet browser and look up some help.
It worked pretty well for me in-person. Again, it doesn't actually generate any visuals, but instead just blows up the most important parts of your game screen so you can more easily glance at them or see them in more detail. That does mean resolution can suffer a little, but that's what your main gameplay screen is for. For getting across information, it's a good option.
Plus, while some games will automatically know what to zoom in on, there's also a generic zoom mode that will just blow up whatever your mouse is hovering over, so it can work with any content. The AI Frame is being pitched for games, but you could also use it like a digital magnifying glass on an article in your browser, for instance.
The catch? It's maybe not exactly "fair" to play this way. While a bigger map in a MOBA might just save you some eyestrain, an AI-assisted zoom on a shooting reticle basically lets anyone act like a sniper, regardless of what character you're playing or gun you have equipped. For me, characters in the distance that were basically ants became immediately visible on the AI Frame, which made gunfights much easier to handle.
I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The AI Frame is just a proof-of-concept for now, so there's no hard specs sheet or pricing or release date as of yet. But if this does ever actually make it to market, Lenovo might have to contend with companies like Valve. The developer has banned similar "this is arguably cheating" peripherals from its games before, and the AI Frame could be the next battlefront in an ongoing war between peripheral makers (who want to sell you on the idea that buying their products can make you a better player) and developers (who, at least theoretically, want all of their players to be on an even playing field).