Las Vegas is overrun. Each billboard on the town is shouting about AI, lodge bar tops now sport a sea of laptops, and after hours The Strip is elbow to elbow with engineers toting yard-long beers.
Which means CES, the yr’s largest tech bacchanalia, has come to city, and Digital Traits editors have spent the final 4 days frolicking amongst subsequent yr’s crop of unbelievable TVs, computer systems, tablets, and EVs. We’re in heaven.
With 4,500 exhibitors, there’s no manner for anybody individual to see all of it, however our crew of editors has completed its finest to discover each backwater and annex of the Las Vegas Conference Heart. We’re assured we’ve dug up the very best of the very best for our Better of CES 2025 awards. From displays to sensible gardens, desktop audio system to a very killer Steam Deck competitor, there’s one thing for everybody to get enthusiastic about right here.
Computing
Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i
Wacky issues have been completed within the title of lowering bezels through the years. Ugly notches. Nosecams. Hidden or removable cameras. Maybe the worst resolution is eradicating the webcam fully. The most recent model of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i, although, makes an attempt an audacious technological leap to create an invisible webcam that may utterly disappear from sight.
The answer is an unbelievable feat. When the digicam is engaged, the OLED show turns off a small circle of pixels to permit the 32-megapixel digicam positioned behind the display screen to shoot via the panel and generate a picture on the opposite aspect. Toss in a sprinkle of AI, and you’ve got a half-decent digicam feed for video calls. Is it a bit over-engineered? Perhaps. However if you’re not bothering together with your digicam and also you get to get pleasure from a bountiful sea of display screen unencumbered by bezels and webcams, I don’t assume you’ll thoughts.
– Luke Larsen
Asus PG27AQNR Pulsar gaming monitor
Within the period of refresh charges above 500Hz, you’d assume that the movement readability challenge for aggressive players have been solved, however Asus’ PG27AQNR proves in any other case. It’s 360Hz and 1440p, however that’s not what’s particular about it. The monitor is among the many first to debut Nvidia’s G-Sync Pulsar tech.
It’s a giant deal in case you’re into aggressive video games. Basically, Pulsar allows dynamic backlight strobing in a show, blanking out the picture between refreshes based mostly on what’s really taking place in your sport. The outcome? You see a static picture on every refresh, locking the goal that you just’re monitoring into place for movement readability that even the very best OLED gaming displays can’t match.
Though Pulsar isn’t angled towards each PC gamer, it’s a large step ahead for aggressive players, and Asus is placing that on full show with the PG27AQNR.
– Jacob Roach
Samsung Odyssey 3D
You will have each proper on the planet to be skeptical of a 3D gaming monitor. I do know I used to be. However I’m telling you — as somebody who’s tried out a number of generations of this know-how through the years, the Samsung Odyssey 3D gaming monitor lastly nails it.
The demo of The First Berserker I performed looks like an enormous development over the prototype know-how we noticed final yr. Having your head within the “candy spot” is not an element, getting the total 3D impact in a a lot wider vary of viewing angles and distances. Sure, there’s nonetheless numerous work to be completed to deliver builders on board in time for launch, or maybe develop a 2D-to-3D conversion that truly works in video games.
However the know-how itself? It’s prepared for showtime. As soon as players get an opportunity to see it for themselves, I’ve a sense they gained’t need to return to the boring world of two dimensions.
– Luke Larsen
Asus Zenbook A14
A can of soup. A small pineapple. A pair of heavy socks. Google says these are just a few home goods that weigh about as a lot because the Asus Zenbook A14. At simply 2.18 kilos, it’s the lightest laptop computer in latest reminiscence — a minimum of for a tool that doesn’t utterly sacrifice a significant characteristic alongside the best way. In any case, with regards to laptops, nobody needs to sacrifice options, sturdiness, ports, or performance for lightness. The Zenbook A14 proves you may have the very best of each worlds. Once I picked this laptop computer up for the primary time, I couldn’t consider how gentle it felt in my hand.
The whole laptop computer is constructed from Asus’ “high-tech ceramic” materials — in any other case generally known as Ceraluminum — which gives its distinctive texture and its unbelievable lightness. All that, as is frequent with Asus, begins at beneath $1,000. That’s a profitable mixture, and it simply would possibly make for the final word laptop computer to journey with.
– Luke Larsen
Audio/Video
Hisense 116UX TriChroma LED TV
The Hisense 116UX does mini-LED in a brand new manner. As an alternative of blue or white LED backlights shining via a coloration filter, the TriChroma LED TV makes use of tens of hundreds of RGB Native Dimming optical lenses that every comprise particular person purple, inexperienced, and blue LEDs. The lenses are then managed in clusters, with dimming completed at each the cluster and lens ranges.
The person RGB LEDs — with out a coloration filter — enable the 116UX to attain, in response to Hisense, 97% of the BT.2020 coloration house. The RGB clusters are additionally extra environment friendly, lowering energy consumption.
We’re persevering with to study the intricacies about how the know-how works, nevertheless it’s an apparent dynamic change to LED TV know-how.
– John Higgins
Panasonic Z95B OLED TV
It was nice to see Panasonic return to the U.S. market in 2024, and CES 2025 has proven that it’s again in earnest. Whereas it has three new TVs for 2025, the flagship Z95B OLED caught our eye probably the most because of its unbelievable enhance in brightness over final yr’s Z95A.
Panasonic revealed that it’s utilizing Main RGB Tandem Panel know-how — a brand new four-layer panel construction consisting of purple, inexperienced, and blue (really two blue) layers that enables for a greater separation and purity of coloration and better brightness, all with out MLA (Micro Lens Array) know-how. As well as, Panasonic engineers designed the ThermalFlow cooling system, impressed by aerodynamic race automobile design, to enhance warmth dissipation.
It’s a step ahead in OLED panel design that we’ve been speculating about, and Panasonic has delivered it and proven us what it’s all about.
– John Higgins
TCL QM7K Mini-LED TV
There’s numerous wonderful TV tech at CES 2025, and the TCL QM7K positively has its share. TCL has developed a number of enhancements in its backlight know-how, and the 2025 sequence of QM televisions (the QM7K included) are part of the Exact Dimming Collection. With a brand new chip, lens construction, lower within the optical distance — from the backlight to the diffuser plate — and a few processing enhancements to nearly get rid of lag from enter sign to backlight response, all elements of the backlight efficiency on the QM7K appears to be like to be improved over final yr’s QM7.
Better of all, although, is that, not like a number of the different flashy TV tech on show, the QM7K can be a TV that matches inside most individuals’s budgets. Even with the entire enhancements, the QM7K is anticipated to be comparable in worth to final yr’s mannequin (which began at $1,100) and we should always see it someday round midyear.
– John Higgins
Technics EAH-AZ100
If we had been to provide this award a sub-category, it may be “most improved wi-fi earbuds.” That’s as a result of the Technics EAH-AZ100 are filled with enhancements over their predecessors, the EAH-AZ80. Smaller, lighter, higher ANC, higher name high quality, and manner higher battery life — all are robust causes to acknowledge these new buds. They’ve even received spatial audio with head monitoring and Auracast compatibility by way of Bluetooth LE Audio — two options the AZ80 lacked. However the kicker is their sound.
For the AZ100, Technics tailored its revolutionary Magnetic Fluid driver know-how from its $1,100 wired IEMs, which provides the AZ100 ultra-low distortion and glorious sound high quality.
Taken collectively, these adjustments make the Technics EAH-AZ100 the very best wi-fi earbuds of CES 2025.
– Simon Cohen
Onkyo GX-30ARC
On the floor, Onkyo’s $299 powered desktop GX-30ARC audio system seem like, properly, audio system. However it is a case of fine issues coming in small packages. Onkyo’s a long time of amplification heritage shines via in these audio system — they’re bi-amped, which suggests every driver will get a discrete supply of energy — and we suspect that’s a giant purpose for his or her highly effective sound, which impresses with each its readability and low-end authority.
They’re additionally loaded with enter choices, together with USB-C, Bluetooth (with LE Audio and Auracast), optical, stereo RCA (with selectable line-in and phono settings), and an HDMI-ARC port, which provides the GX-30ARC a part of its title.
Add to this bundle a magnetically connected grille, your selection of two colours, an included set of angled woodgrain stands, and a distant, and also you’ve received a compelling set of powered audio system whether or not you’re a creator or simply an avid listener.
– Simon Cohen
Cell
Belkin Stage PowerGrip
Belkin is all the time a powerful drive at CES, however at CES 2025, it introduced considered one of its most original iPhone equipment to this point: the Stage PowerGrip. What precisely is the Stage PowerGrip? Effectively, it’s numerous issues.
Think about a ten,000mAh battery pack that attaches to your iPhone by way of MagSafe. And it has an built-in USB-C cable to cost different gadgets. And it acts as a stand to prop up your telephone on a desk. And it has a digicam grip. And it has a digicam shutter button. And it is available in some actually beautiful colours. That’s the Belkin Stage PowerGrip.
It’s actually thrilling to see this stage of creativity from Belkin, and I hope we see much more of it within the years to come back.
– Joe Maring
Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3
The Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3 isn’t an Android pill I anticipated to see once more in 2025. Just about each producer appeared to have given up on compact Android tablets with flagship-level specs, however that’s exactly what you get with the brand new Legion Tab.
The iPad mini monopolizes the compact pill market. Google’s Nexus 7 tablets was once glorious alternate options, however we haven’t had a brand new mannequin since 2013 — and it didn’t look like anybody had any curiosity in throwing their hat within the tiny-tablet ring.
However Lenovo has, and the Legion Tab Gen 3 appears to be like like a legitimately nice revitalization of the area of interest.
– Joe Maring
Amazfit Lively 2
Smartwatches are all over the place in 2025. As such, standing out within the crowd is a huge ask. However I believe the Amazfit Lively 2 has what it takes to try this.
Take one take a look at the Lively 2’s spec sheet or characteristic checklist, and it’s received nearly every thing you would ask for — together with exercise and sleep monitoring, blood oxygen monitoring, computerized exercise detection, and extra. What’s spectacular is you get all of that with as much as 10 days of battery life, a high-quality AMOLED show, and a compact physique. What’s much more spectacular is that the watch begins at simply $100.
The worth proposition right here is without doubt one of the finest I’ve seen shortly, and my early impressions of the Amazfit Lively 2 are actually promising. It feels unreal {that a} smartwatch of this high quality exists at this worth, however in some way, Amazfit pulled it off.
– Joe Maring
Anker 165W Energy Financial institution
When you’ve seen one energy financial institution, you’ve seen all of them — proper? That’s what I believed till Anker introduced its new 165W Energy Financial institution. Not like most energy banks, which offer you a few 10,000mAh battery capability and name it a day, Anker’s newest one crams in a large 25,000mAh capability, plus just a few extra options which can be equally ridiculous and sensible.
A kind of options is built-in USB-C cables. The Anker Energy Financial institution has two of them, which means in case you’re touring with two gadgets, you may simply deliver the 165W Energy Financial institution with you and never should fuss with bringing cables.
Is the Anker 165W Energy Financial institution overkill? Perhaps. However does it even have the makings of one of the full energy banks we’ve ever seen? Completely.
– Joe Maring
Gaming
Lenovo Legion Go S
On its floor, the Lenovo Legion Go S might seem like one more Steam Deck imitation that’s seeking to re-create Valve’s success. It’s that to a point, nevertheless it’s an important improvement within the present handheld PC arms race. Reasonably than attempting to outplay Valve by loading its Legion Go variant with further bells and whistles, Lenovo lastly understands that one of the best ways to beat the competitors is to hitch it.
And thus, we’ve got our first moveable PC not made by Valve to make use of SteamOS, the streamlined working system that’s helped the Steam Deck keep its dominance towards experimental Home windows-based rivals. With the Legion Go S, we lastly have a viable different to the Steam Deck that also features like an easy-to-use handheld. Not solely that nevertheless it’s a strong handheld that’s each extra snug and cheaper than its predecessor. All of that creates an ideal recipe for fulfillment.
– Giovanni Colantonio
MSI Forge GK600 TKL Wi-fi
What number of extra methods are you able to innovate a gaming keyboard in 2025? MSI’s Forge GK600 TKL Wi-fi proves that there’s nonetheless loads of room to excellent one thing that’s been completed to dying. It is a mechanical keyboard with a hot-swappable printed circuit board that comes with some stable KTT HiFi linear switches. It comes loaded with spectacular options, from its twin connectivity to its 4,000mAh battery.
Which may all sound a bit of par for the course, however what’s particularly spectacular is the value tag. All of this solely prices $80, which is remarkable for a gaming keyboard as characteristic wealthy as this. Whereas there’s a premium trade-off or two to perform that, like an all-plastic design, the GK600 TKL places fierce rivals like ROG Azoth (a former Digital Traits Better of CES decide) to disgrace. Anticipate it to turn into the mechanical gaming keyboard to personal.
– Giovanni Colantonio
Vehicles
Honda 0 Collection Saloon
We’d be tempted to provide this futuristic EV a nod on its Blade Runner appears to be like alone, however Honda packed it with a lot tech that we don’t should. Due to a military of sensors and a few heavy-duty silicon from Renesas, the Saloon needs to be able to stage three autonomy when it launches in 2026 — that’s the true “eyes off” driving expertise Tesla nonetheless can’t ship.
Not like numerous the questionable AI makes use of we’ve seen at CES 2025, the Saloon will make use of it to study from human drivers and course of altering environments on the fly, therefore the necessity for all that computing energy. Honda has even resurrected its beloved Asimo robotic because the namesake for the Saloon’s Alexa-style Asimo OS. Simply forgive the cringey advertising. “It comforts me once I’m unhappy,” says a doe-eyed driver, “with Saloon I can all the time be myself.” Stick with the chauffeuring, Asimo.
– Nick Mokey
BMW Panoramic iDrive
For years, we’ve watched heart console screens develop larger and greater, however with the Panoramic iDrive system, BMW strikes away from bragging rights on display screen dimension and focuses on practicality. The strip of display screen nestled on the base of the windshield places very important data like velocity, instructions, and cost state proper within the driver’s eyeline, and it may well even be augmented with an non-compulsory 3D heads-up show.
Haptic buttons on the steering wheel management every thing, or you may converse instructions which can be processed by way of massive language mannequin (LLM). After seeing a lot “tech for tech’s sake” shoveled into vehicles, we love how Panoramic iDrive appears squarely centered on drivers, and lets drivers concentrate on the street.
– Nick Mokey
Sensible residence
Roborock Saros Z70
Robotic vacuums have been round for a very long time, and I believed I’d seen mainly all they needed to supply. The Roborock Saros Z70 proved me flawed. This highly effective robotic vacuum is greater than only a technique to clear and mop your flooring; it has a built-in, extendable arm that is ready to decide up socks, small towels, and even light-weight sandals. It’s one step nearer to Rosie from The Jetsons.
Think about: a robotic vacuum that may clear obstacles from its personal path. Mixed with an clever navigation system, the Saros Z70 (and the opposite entries within the Saros line) is the form of innovation the robotic vacuum business has so sorely wanted.
Roborock wasn’t agency with worth or a launch date, so the associated fee could possibly be a bit onerous to swallow — nevertheless it would possibly simply be value it, if the arm works like I believe it can.
— Patrick Hearn
Plantaform Sensible Backyard
Sensible gardens have all the time felt like they got here straight from science fiction, however the Plantaform takes it to a brand new stage (particularly as a result of it makes use of NASA tech). This pod totally encloses the plant and helps it develop via fogponics, allotting a high quality mist all through the inside that doesn’t overwhelm the crop and permits the roots to extra simply entry water.
The enclosure is considered one of my favourite elements of this sensible backyard. Virtually all sensible gardens use synthetic UV gentle to speed up plant progress, nevertheless it’s extremely vivid. The tinted home windows of the Plantaform pod block the vast majority of that gentle, making it way more believable to maintain indoors. Different items, just like the Gardyn, are vivid sufficient to gentle complete rooms on their very own.
The Plantaform doesn’t use soil and is totally self-sufficient; as soon as you set the plant in, your solely job is to take a seat again and wait to reap the crop. At $500, it’s a bit costly, however competitively priced for the market.
— Patrick Hearn
Petkit Purobot Extremely Automated Litter Field
A litter field may not appear that flashy, however because the proprietor of three cats, I admire something that does the cleanup for me. The Purobot Extremely is especially spectacular not just for its cleansing functionality however for the 180-degree monitoring digicam on the entrance. It might acknowledge every animal individually and takes an image of the deposit earlier than it sifts it.
A bit of gross? Positive — however cats are infamous for hiding well being situations, and this litter field makes it a lot simpler to trace your pet’s rest room habits. It additionally has quite a few security sensors that preserve your four-legged buddy protected. The Purobot Extremely can hook up with different Petkit merchandise, like a water fountain and an computerized feeder, to provide you a high-level overview of your cat’s habits.
This gadget is a bit of area of interest, however any cat proprietor will immediately see the utility of solely emptying the field as soon as each 20 days.
— Patrick Hearn
