CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) is always a blast to start the year. At the massive annual technology show in Las Vegas, brands big and small from around the world showcase their latest and greatest wares.
From the genuinely useful to the absolutely bizarre, it has it all and CES 2025 is no different. As usual, we’ve been keeping some ridiculous step counts on the show floors to find the best new gadgets you’ll want to buy this year.
Weird, wonderful, wacky… these are the products we named Best in Show at CES 2025 – from sock-grabbing robot vacuums to solid gold smart rings.
Roborock Saros Z70
Emma Rowley / Foundry
The Saros Z70 was one of the triumphs of CES, with a captivating display that caught everyone’s attention. Convenient because this robot vacuum has a robot arm that extends from a compartment at the top to pick up small items left on your floor. That’s right: this is the first robot vacuum cleaner that can do both tidying and cleaning.
The demo model was able to locate a thick glove, lift it and drop it into a nearby basket. The claw, which Roborock calls the OmniGrip 1.0, can hold objects weighing up to 300 grams, and can extend and move from its rotating base in five different directions.
Incredibly, the robot arm adds no bulk to the machine: once folded into its compartment, the robot’s body is a whopping 3 inches (7.98 cm) high.
Ultrahumanly rare
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Wearable tech isn’t always super fashionable, but Ultrahuman wants to change that with a luxury smart ring that’s made of real gold – or platinum, if that’s more your thing – instead of the titanium or tungsten carbide coating that’s often standard.
The Ultrahuman Rare ring is available in three colors: Dune (gold), Desert Rose (rose gold) and Desert Snow (platinum). The gold used in production comes from the London Bullion Market and is hallmarked, as you would expect with any high quality piece of jewellery. The rings have a subtly structured design that sets them apart from the competition at a glance.
What we like is the idea of smart wearables leaving their own vaguely sporty niche, where functionality first comes and style comes second. However, we can’t attest to the Rare’s weight or how comfortable it is as the models, which are priced from £1,500 to £1,800 (about $2,000 in the US), were kept safely in their cases during the unveiling. CES.
Halliday smart glasses
These lightweight, stylish glasses are essentially smart glasses. Embedded in the frame is a small circular module that projects a green text display that you can see in the upper right of your field of view, giving you access to notes, phone notifications, and real-time language translation. In the future, you will also be able to access a virtual AI assistant through them.
The glasses are paired with a smart ring that doubles as a controller, allowing you to scroll and make adjustments without touching the glasses themselves.
The clever thing about the technical setup is that it eliminates the need for AR lenses and means you can fit them with your normal prescription. These are without a doubt the most wearable smart glasses available today and a real rival to the Ray-Ban Meta.
TCL Nxtpaper 11 Plus
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
TCL has unveiled Nxtpaper 4.0, the latest version of its color-shifting screen technology. And it debuts on the Nxtpaper 11 Plus, the company’s new 11-inch tablet.
Like the previous version on the Nxtpaper 14, this technology allows you to switch between full color, color E-Ink, and monochrome E-Ink modes at the touch of a physical button. However, the Nxtpaper 4.0 offers improvements in image clarity and color accuracy, with full coverage of the sRGB gamut. There are also new AI-powered Smart Eye Comfort (for less eye strain) and Personalized Eye Comfort (tailored to your use).
Elsewhere, the Nxtpaper 14 Plus gets the first set of AI features of any tablet. These include writing tools and smart voice recording functionality (including transcription, summary and mind map functionality), plus real-time translation and subtitling features. Circle to Search is also supported.
The screen itself is a 2.2K panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and support for the T-Pen stylus, which offers a realistic pen-on-paper-like experience. The experience is powered by MediaTek’s Helio G99 chipset.
Dream X50 Ultra
Emma Rowley / Foundry
The main feature of Dreame’s new X50 Ultra is the ‘ProLeap’ technology: it is the step climbing robot. Thanks to a series of robotic legs that extend to tilt the robot’s body upward, it can climb a step of up to 4.2 cm, or combined steps of 6 cm.
Combined with the X50 Ultra’s VersaLift technology, which allows the navigation tower to retract into the vacuum’s body to clean under lower furniture, the X50 Ultra is a robot that can access parts of the home that rivals can’t. be able to.
We were lucky enough to get an early product sample to test ahead of CES, and we can say it’s an impressive machine.
Round ring 2
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Smart rings are having a moment, with Samsung and Oura being the most popular options at the moment. But neither can match the Circular Ring 2 in two key areas.
First is the ability to detect atrial fibrillation, a common indicator of heart problems. The Circular Ring 2 uses an FDA-approved algorithm to identify it, becoming the first smart ring with this feature.
The other is just as important: a digital custom kit. Instead of waiting for a physical package to arrive, Circular’s phone app uses AR and any credit card you own to provide an estimate of which size is right for you in seconds. Again, it’s a first for the smart rings category.
The ring itself is made of titanium and available in gold, silver, black and rose gold. Circular claims eight days of battery life on a single charge, plus a new wireless charging pad and improvements to the Kira AI assistant.
Following a crowdfunding campaign, the Circular Ring 2 will be available in March for $380, with no subscription fees.
Pawport
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Do you want your dog to have easy access to your garden, but are you concerned about safety? A smart pet door is the best solution, and Pawport is the most versatile option available.
The premise is simple: a Bluetooth tag is attached to your dog’s collar, which then connects to the companion app. Every time your dog approaches the door, he recognizes who is there and swings it open. Access can be scheduled so you can keep your dog indoors at night or in bad weather.
The door itself is made of plastic or aluminium, with a range of colours, including a faux wood effect, and three different sizes. To install, simply slide over the frame of an existing pet door.
The main Pawport door starts at $499 in the US, but can also be paired with a weatherproof exterior version for an additional $399. No further subscription fees are required. And as you may have noticed, there’s also a fully customizable RGB light strip under the doors, because why not?
Pawport is expected to ship in the US sometime in the coming months, although there’s no word on international availability at this time.
Eureka J15 Max Ultra
Emma Rowley / Foundry
It was a strong showing for robot vacuums and the J15 Max is another model we couldn’t overlook. The J15 Max Ultra has separate cleaning modes for spills and larger debris, but what’s clever about it is the way it identifies different types of mess.
The IntelliView 2.0 system combines an RGB vision sensor with an infrared vision system, allowing it to analyze texture so it can identify and clean up spills, which is very cool indeed.
We also like the cleverly redesigned claw-shaped sweeper, which doesn’t get tangled in hair like traditional side brushes.
HoverAir ProMax
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Traditional drones require a controller and a reasonably skilled pilot. This does not apply to the HoverAir, a pocket-sized self-flying camera. Anyone can use it, even children. No controller is needed at all, as it follows and films you along the way, with a choice of 10 flight modes.
What’s so striking about it is how perfectly controlled it is in flight. The HoverAir will take off and land in the palm of your hand. It’s the kind of device you see and immediately want.
Other nice features include a 4K camera and the fully enclosed frame, instead of the open propellers of the average drone.
