Best of CES 2025: The Verge staff picks their favorite new tech

There is no other week like CES. Very nearly the entire tech industry descends on Las Vegas to give the world an early look at the inventions and ideas they think will define the year. More new, surprising, exciting, and oftentimes ridiculous ideas are debuted on any given day at CES than during most other weeks of the year.

It’s a ton to keep up with — and it’s also a whole lot of fun. The Verge’s team has been on the ground in Nevada to try out the wildest products we can get our hands on. There’s been a lot of stuff we love. A lot of stuff that weirds us out. And a lot of stuff that’s just downright fun to look at.

But at the end of the day, some of these ideas and gadgets stuck with us the most. They nailed the execution, surprised us with a great new concept, or otherwise made us leap to tell someone what we’d just seen. These are the things we can’t stop talking about — our best of CES 2025.

Most years at CES, it’d be a guaranteed lock that either LG or Samsung would have the most impressive TV on display in Las Vegas. And sure enough, both the LG G5 and Samsung’s S95F look like superb offerings for 2025. We’ve truly entered the brightness wars era of the OLED TV market. LG Display and Samsung Display manage to outdo themselves every year with panels that, at this point, are suitable for any viewing environment and make HDR content pop like never before. 

But at CES 2025, it’s the Panasonic Z95B OLED that I keep circling back to as my favorite. After a long hiatus from the US TV market, Panasonic is coming back for its crown. Like the G5, it features a new four-layer tandem OLED display that boosts brightness to new highs — this time without the micro-lens array technology that LG Display spent the last two years hyping. It also includes an impressive Dolby Atmos speaker array (tuned by Technics) that will rule out any need for a soundbar for many buyers. That audio hardware results in this being a thick TV by today’s standards: Panasonic obviously favored nailing the picture and sound aspects over a thin design. And you know what? I’m here for it.

And look, I know: it sucks that Panasonic’s TVs run Fire TV OS. I hope that Amazon and Panos Panay take a sledgehammer to this software in the future and give us something more befitting of such a premium TV. But with Samsung and LG both cramming AI gimmicks down our throats — they’ve added AI buttons to their remotes, even — suddenly just plugging an Apple TV into the Z95B and doing my best to ignore Amazon’s software doesn’t seem so bad. – Chris Welch

Smart glasses dominated the wearables world at this year’s show. While there were certainly more “advanced” smart glasses out there, Rokid’s stood out because they answered a simple question: “What would it be like if the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses had a display?”

The micro-etched display on the front of the Rokid Glasses is discreet — almost invisible from the front. There’s no weird protrusion like with the old Google Glass, and it uses a monochrome green light for better visibility in brighter surroundings. It may not be the AR of science fiction, but adding a simple heads-up display felt surprisingly useful. You can see real-time translations — I’m a huge translation tech skeptic, but even I have to admit the translation demo worked pretty well on a noisy, busy show floor. There’s a teleprompter function, which feels handy for keeping notes on hand if your job involves a lot of presentations. For taking pictures, you can also see a mini viewfinder that helps you frame a shot. Compared to the Meta glasses, these were also much more lightweight.

This wasn’t the only version of monochrome monocular smart glasses on the floor — I also tried pairs from Halliday and Even Realities. But Rokid’s display was the largest and packed in the most functionality. Smart glasses have a long way to go, and of course I only got a brief demo. But what I saw felt like a practical, approachable take that even my non-techie neighbor might find cool. – Victoria Song

Acer’s Nitro Blaze 11 handheld gaming PC has a 10.95-inch screen. It weighs 2.3 pounds. It’s so big. Maybe too big. But I kind of want it anyway? – Jay Peters

Sure, we saw Honda’s new global EV series in concept form at last year’s CES. And sure, EV sales are, shall we say, not looking so great these days, with very little relief on the horizon. But Honda still helped revitalize what was otherwise a sleepy show for auto enthusiasts with the introduction of the Honda 0 Saloon and Honda 0 SUV.

You have to hand it to the company’s designers, they didn’t pull any punches: there’s a dash of Lamborghini Countach, a dusting of Aston Martin’s Lagonda Shooting Brake, and more than a hint of AMC Gremlin. In other words, plenty of ’70s / ’80s vibes to offset the future shock of the minimalistic interior and marketing-speak about “software-defined vehicles.” 

Whether Honda sticks with this exact design for the final production version, I’m not holding my breath. But there’s enough here that’s weird and different and interesting that some of it is sure to survive through customer deliveries — if we ever get there. – Andrew J. Hawkins

Mirumi has absolutely no purpose beyond being a cute fluffy wearable… thing. I’m completely enamored. Give me an army of the little suckers to match every bag.

The fuzzy sloth-like robot companion latches onto your purse or backpack strap and is designed to imitate a shy (but curious) baby. It doesn’t make noise — a blessing for some — but it will hide its face when touched and move its head around to look at people or objects it detects. It’ll even shake its head to simulate distress if you jiggle it around. 

Mirumi’s creator Yukai Engineering says the robot is supposed to re-create the “joyful experiences” you feel when a real baby glances your way. And given our ga-ga reactions to its googly eyes and stinkingly adorable movements, I’d say it kind of works? There are no fancy (or annoying) AI features at work here, just a solidly simple concept that aims to make you smile. That, in itself, feels like a breath of fresh air now that children’s toys and silly gadgets are starting to feel over-engineered.  – Jess Weatherbed

All the 27-inch 4K OLED gaming monitors

This is what we’ve been waiting for. Last year saw a wave of big, bright, beautiful 32-inch 240Hz 4K QD-OLED gaming monitors. The Alienware version was our pick of the show last year and one of our favorite pieces of tech of 2024 for its lightning-fast refresh, inky blacks, and three-year burn-in warranty. Now you — and by “you” I also mean “I” — will be able to get the same best-of-all-worlds performance in a slightly more reasonable size.

Alienware, Asus, MSI, and Samsung have all announced 27-inch gaming monitors built around a new QD-OLED panel from Samsung Display. They vary in small details, but all should offer excellent color reproduction, .03ms response time, 240Hz refresh rates, HDR400, and up to 1,000 nits of peak brightness. Choose your favorite and start saving up. Alienware’s is supposed to start shipping in March for $900.  – Nathan Edwards

Nvidia stole the show at CES this year. The company packed 14,000 people into a Las Vegas stadium, all of whom lined up to see Jensen Huang appear in a flashy leather jacket and reveal Nvidia’s latest tech over the course of a feature-length one-man show.

Huang took the wraps off Nvidia’s long-awaited RTX 5090 desktop GPU, claiming it would be two times faster than its predecessor. He revealed Nvidia’s DLSS 4 upscaling tech capable of generating even more frames using AI. And he announced a tiny $3,000 AI supercomputer called Digits. Later, Huang also hinted at plans to launch a desktop CPU. 

But the biggest flex of all might be that Nvidia is simply everywhere. Its tech powers so many of the devices on the show floor, with its next-gen graphics chips appearing across laptops from MSI, HP, Asus, Alienware, Razer, and more. No other company seems to be as in demand. – Emma Roth

I did a double-take when Sony Honda Mobility CEO Yasuhide Mizuno threw those numbers up on the big screen. I always assumed the Afeela was going to be expensive, but I didn’t expect it to be that expensive. 

The top trim starting at $102,900 just feels egregious, especially when the upper tiers of the EV market feel completely saturated at the moment. Who is this even for? If you want a luxurious interior and great range, you’re better off with a Lucid Air. If you want an overdose of screens, get a Mercedes EQS. If you want incredible software, your best bet is Rivian. Need to feel like a plutocrat? Just get a BMW i7. I’m just saying, there are options! And all of the above are for sale in all 50 states, not just California, like the Afeela. 

Could it become a more attractive option in the future? Sure. But if what we’re seeing today is a sign of more out-of-touch marketing to come, I’m not really Afeelin’ it. – Andrew J. Hawkins

The SodaTop is the kind of thing that feels like it should exist already, but it doesn’t as far as I can tell. It’s a simple sales pitch: a SodaStream for your Hydro Flask. And I think based on that pitch alone, you’ll know whether it’s for you. I’m a sparkling water addict, so it’s definitely for me. It’s simple enough: fill your bottle with cold water, put the SodaTop on top, and drop in a CO2 canister. You twist on a lid to puncture the seal and carbonate your water. Then you’re good to go.

You might be tempted to ask questions like, “Couldn’t you just make some fizzy water with a SodaStream and pour it into a Hydro Flask?” or “Can’t you just buy a bottle of sparkling water?” or “Is it really that portable?” To which I say, shhhh. The point here is that it’s a tidy solution and you don’t have to be at home to use it. If I still worked in an office, I’d keep one of these at my desk for sure. And I’ve already given up a lot of my kitchen counter space to beverage-making devices, so just using this at home would help me keep that space free. Honestly, it’s just a great, simple solution to the “sparkling water on the go” problem for those of us afflicted with sparkling water addiction. – Allison Johnson

L’Oréal’s Cell BioPrint blew me away. The mini-lab analyzes photos of your skin and a skin sample from your cheeks to tell you about your skin’s health. It can tell you about your chronological age versus your biological one (aka is your current routine working well?). It can also assess how you’re doing with issues like wrinkles, skin tone, skin barrier, oiliness, and pore size — or if it’s likely to become a problem in the future. It can also analyze whether you’re responsive to certain ingredients, starting with retinol.

Skincare buying is a minefield. There are thousands of products touting this or that hero ingredient, all promising to fix any insecurity you might have with your complexion. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about skincare, and even I have a hard time figuring out what products I actually need in my routine. Something like this could help folks filter what’s worth trying and what’s just overconsumption. (And according to my results, I should probably start using retinol.) – Victoria Song

Baseus PrimeTrip VR2 Max car charger

At home, you’ve probably got charging cables stashed all over the place, but inside your car is a different story. Baseus’ PrimeTrip VR2 Max solves that problem — and provides plenty of power to back it up.

The PrimeTrip VR2 Max car charger features two retractable USB-C charging cables, each measuring over 31 inches long, that will never go missing from your vehicle. It also offers an additional USB-C and USB-A port for connecting other cables, a total power output of 240W, and up to 105W of power delivery to a single USB-C port.

Assuming the retracting mechanism is durable enough to survive, for $44.99, the VR2 Max seems like a solid upgrade, even for a modern vehicle that already has charging ports. If work has you on the road a lot, there’s more than enough power to keep a beefy laptop charged. – Andrew Liszewski

There are no winners because they all stink now.

AI is worming its way into everything, and at CES this year, it crawled into TVs and remotes. Naturally, that includes new sets from LG and Samsung, which are deploying AI to futz with your picture and sound settings and let you talk to a chatbot or analyze what’s on your screen. Over at Hisense’s “AI Your Life” booth, the company touted its AI Engine X that “optimizes every frame” with adjustments to color, brightness, and audio.

The AI is also coming from outside the house, as Microsoft’s Copilot is coming to TVs from LG and Samsung. Not only that, but sets running Google TV are slated to get new AI features like Gemini integration, so even my Sony OLED from three years ago will get them — or it would, if I didn’t have it disconnected from the internet. – Wes Davis

Windows handhelds are a mess, so the Lenovo Legion Go S, the first authorized third-party handheld with the incredible pick-up-and-play SteamOS, was a Best Handheld candidate for that reason alone. But Lenovo didn’t stop there — its sophomore effort is far more comfortable and affordable as well. 

The grips are nicely sculpted, the trigger throw is adjustable, the battery’s slightly bigger, and it comes with an all-important variable refresh rate (VRR) screen at a more appropriate 1200p resolution for its mobile chip, both of which should mean smoother gameplay. Speaking of chips, some models will have a Lenovo-exclusive AMD Ryzen Z2 Go processor, which, the company claims, helps it hit a lower price. 

This May, gamers will have an intriguing choice: SteamOS for $499 or Windows for $599. – Sean Hollister

Next-generation GPUs are finally here for fancy PC gaming rigs, and while AMD barely previewed its own RDNA 4 graphics cards, Nvidia went all out with its RTX 50-series. The flagship RTX 5090 will debut on January 30th priced at $1,999, giving you a two-slot card with 32GB of GDDR7 memory that Nvidia promises can double the frame rates in games like Cyberpunk 2077 compared to the RTX 4090. 

But if that’s too expensive for you — because, seriously, just look at that price tag — Nvidia is also promising major performance leaps lower in the line, saying the new $549 RTX 5070 can keep up with an RTX 4090, the previous generation’s $1,599 flagship. A lot of Nvidia’s performance claims rely on DLSS 4 and a new Multi Frame Generation feature that uses AI models to help multiply performance by generating even more frames to smooth out games, and Nvidia still has to prove that the RTX 50-series cards can deliver.

Still, I’m super excited about how small the RTX 5090 is, especially for small form factor PCs. If the RTX 50-series can live up to Nvidia’s promises, then this is going to be an impressive start to the next generation of GPUs. –Tom Warren

The phone toaster isn’t actually a toaster, but I can’t stop calling it that. It’s part of a system called Swippitt — and it’s the wackiest, cleverest charging gadget I’ve seen in a long time. The idea is that you put your phone in a Swippitt Link battery case, which has a 3,500mAh cell in the back. It boosts your phone’s charge, and when you need some more power, you insert the phone, case and all, into the Swippitt Hub — which is the toaster bit. In two seconds, it swaps the battery in your case for a fresh one, and you go on your way. There are five batteries at the ready in the hub, so anytime you need a top-off, you just drop in your phone. No more tethered charging or waiting.

I thought it was annoying until I grasped that last part. You don’t charge your phone, you just use this gadget to swap in a fresh booster battery, like, forever. No more charging (well, until you travel somewhere). It’s expensive as hell, though: $450 for the hub and $120 for each case. So it might make sense if you can get your whole family on board with it, or you just really, really hate charging your phone. But most of all, it’s a clever gadget that tries something different and doesn’t have a lot of other extra stuff you don’t need (looking at you, AI TVs). That’s the kind of CES gadget I love to see. – Allison Johnson

This robot is ingenious, a bit ridiculous, and one of the wildest smart home inventions I’ve seen in a long time — which is what CES gadgets are all about.

Switchbot’s K20 Plus Pro is a robot vacuum that can have different devices strapped to its head using the company’s modular “FusionPlatform.” As well as being able to deliver items around your home, it can have various SwitchBot products attached to it to perform tasks autonomously: purify your air, be a mobile home security camera, and carry your tablet around for you. They’ve even made an attachment to put a mini fridge on top. (So, yes, it can bring you a beer.)

What intrigues me the most here is that its FusionPlatform is completely open; you can plug any device into its various power ports and customize this robot to do what you need. That’s smart. – Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

There weren’t many E Ink devices announced at CES this year, but that doesn’t mean PocketBook’s new InkPoster wins by default. It’s one of the first consumer devices to use E Ink’s advanced Spectra 6 color e-paper technology that can produce close to 60,000 colors. Compared to the limited capabilities of the color e-paper screens used in devices like the Kindle Colorsoft, images and artwork on the InkPoster will look more like they’re painted on an actual canvas or printed on photo paper.

Companies like Samsung want you to repurpose your living room TV as a display for digital art, but the InkPoster could be a better alternative that’s easier on the eyes without a brightly backlit screen. It’s also completely wireless: it relies on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for uploading artwork and images and a rechargeable battery for power that only needs to be charged about once a year. If you’re indecisive about what to hang on your walls, the InkPoster won’t make you choose. – Andrew Liszewski

I’m really happy LG isn’t giving up on its quest to make a useful, quirky portable TV with its StanbyMe series. It’s a ridiculous name no doubt, but the new StanbyMe 2 is an update that deserves our entirely legitimate Best Sequel award. Instead of the “fixed TV on a lamp post” design of the original model, it now lets you clutch a 27-inch screen under your arm like some super iPad Pro or attach a strap to hold it like a purse. It’s also technically a sequel to the secret agent-style StanbyMe Go but now lighter and with better battery life.

Although I haven’t carried one myself yet, I’d imagine it would be a lot like clutching an Apple Studio Display or classic 27-inch iMac with their stands removed. (I’ve carried many in my line of work.) The StanbyMe 2 would be great as a portable monitor for video games, a laptop, or Mac Mini, especially with the now-more-usable 2560 x 1440 resolution compared to the previous model’s 1080p. I was on the fence about buying LG’s previous iterations of this product, but I’m ready to strap this one on as soon as I can. – Umar Shakir

It finally happened. Robot vacuums have limbs. Roborock and Dreame both showed off vacuums with appendages at CES 2025: Roborock debuted its Saros Z70 with an arm to pick up socks, and Dreame added legs to its X50 Ultra to climb a small step. But it was Dreame’s concept bot that put the pieces together. 

The company’s next innovation is a robot that features legs and an arm. It also has a separate toolbox, and the company says the robot will be able to select various brushes from it and attach them to its arm to get into your dusty corners.

I love the innovation we’re seeing as robot vacuums seek to clean every inch of your home, but am I also slightly terrified? Yes. Yes, I am.  – Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6

There was really only one gadget at CES that everyone had to see, and that’s Lenovo’s rollable laptop, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6. Yes, we may have first seen it in concept form a while back, but this is now a real product you’ll be able to see in a store and buy this year. The only thing better than a wild proof-of-concept at a show like CES is when a wild future-tech idea becomes our reality in the present.

Now, it’ll cost $3,499 when it launches in June, so it’s not likely many people will buy it. But picture this future: you sit down to do some work, you open up your laptop with a nice-looking OLED display, and then you hit a button to summon more laptop — as the kinda-square-ish 14-inch display climbs higher into a 16.7-inch tall boy of a screen. That’s not something that happens in the real world, but it will once this laptop comes out.

And of course, the tech has many caveats and drawbacks to go with it: it’s expensive, it’s potentially fragile, there’s bound to be software jank with Windows, and just look at those creases. But it’s also got the upside of being, well, cool. – Antonio G. Di Benedetto