We strapped on the exoskeletons and raced. There is one clear winner

They were personal exoskeletons Everywhere at CES 2026. There were ambitious designs from newcomers WiRobotics, Sumbu, Ascentiz and Dephy, while Skip Mo/Go returned to promote its long-awaited tech pants. Dnsys (pronounced Deen-sis), a relatively established name, had some new launches to excite, Hypershell returned with its premium model, and Ascentiz had us sprinting across the show floor.

An exoskeleton is a relatively new class of wearable devices designed to enhance, support, or assist human movement, strength, posture, or even physical activity. The main piece loops around your waist like a belt, and from there, a pair of hinged motorized splints extend down over your hips to attach to each thigh, providing some motorized assistance for normal movements like walking, running, or squatting.

Previously used only in medical rehabilitation and factory settings, exoskeletons are now sold as major consumer devices. It’s a rapidly emerging market, too, with reports suggesting it will grow from more than half a billion dollars in 2025 to more than $2 billion by 2030.

Climb every mountain.

Courtesy of DSSIS

As of today, only Hypershell and Dnsys (the two Chinese companies founded in 2021) have consumer external shells you can purchase. As promised, when we first reviewed the pre-launch prototype of the Dnsys X1 (5/10, WIRED Review), we’ll be racing through them as quickly as we can. So, with the launch of the Hypershell X Ultra, that day has finally arrived.

Over a series of ‘sporting’ activities at London’s Lea Valley Athletics Centre, we went head-to-head with the $1,999 Hypershell X Ultra and the $1,899 Dnsys X1 Carbon Pro. Both are groundbreaking products, both are commercially available, and both cause people to stop and stare, even though that could have just been our amazing sporting style.

Leg up

Dnsys and Hypershell spend a lot of marketing budget promoting the physical benefits of their exoskeletons. For example, Hypershell claims that its device can lead to a 42 percent reduction in heart rate, a 20 percent reduction in exertion when walking, and a 63 percent increase in hip flexor endurance. Dnsys suggests that wearing its devices will “reduce energy demand by up to 50 percent.”

As we discovered by testing the Hypershell Pro Despite tracking heart rate, pace, and distance with a smartwatch, some of our efforts indicated we were using it more Energy with and without the exoskeleton.

The Hypershell design is more elegant than…

Photo: Dulce Godfrey

… Dnsys exposed wiring.

Photo: Dulce Godfrey

But there’s no denying that exoskeletons work. They put a mechanical spring in your step and push you positively. The amount of tangible benefit you get from assistance will depend largely on you as an individual. Chris Haslam, one of the WIRED product reviewers included in this test, has a 76-year-old father who has one titanium hip. Chris’s father was able to use the exoskeleton to climb a hill without taking a breath halfway up. However, Chris – a healthy, active 48-year-old – found it more of a hindrance than a help.

Having two different external architectures allowed us to compare performance and discuss the effort involved. Yes, some of the speedruns were a bit ridiculous, but the more time we spent wearing each device, the clearer picture we got of what the exoskeleton was actually doing and how it felt while doing it.

Tests

We took the exoskeletons to run around the track. Jeremy on the left, Chris on the right.

Photo: Dulce Godfrey

Slow and steady: We completed a baseline unassisted and without an exoskeleton for 400 meters before repeating the same tests in each exoskeleton. The speed and distance were kept the same, so that the difference in effort could be clearly seen through the lower heart rate.