Technology

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CES 2025 is over, and a frazzled TechRadar team has returned with strange memories of weird furry robots and light therapy face masks. Yes, CES can be an odd place, but it's also a reliable taster of the kinds of gadgets and tech trends we're likely to see in the year ahead – so we've gathered all the big ones here in one handy place.

Don't worry; it won't all be about AI. In fact, we've left that out of this list, given that everyone, bar uncontacted Amazon tribes, knows that AI will be baked into every product under the sun in 2025 – despite the lack of breakout CES stars like the Rabbit R1 at this year's show.

Instead, we've focused on the trends we think will make the most difference to the average tech fan. That means advances in TV tech (like wireless connection boxes and RGB backlighting), fascinating laptop screen innovations, and the rapidly growing world of smart glasses.

It's not all mainstream tech ideas, though, as we also shine a light on the gadgets coming to boost our coffee drinking and the lives of our furry friends in 2025. So take a break from your floundering New Year's resolutions for a moment and join us on a ride through this year's biggest tech trends, as predicted by CES...

1. RGB backlighting is the future of TVs

(Image credit: Future)

Robots try to steal the limelight, but TVs have always been at the heart of CES. And this year's show's most significant TV trend was undoubtedly RGB backlighting tech for LCDs.

Naturally, the tech giants all have their own confusing names for this technology, with Hisense, Samsung, and TCL all showing off their versions at CES 2025. But all you need to know is that it's a new twist on making LCD TVs that will make them even brighter or at least more power efficient at the same brightness.

Currently, most mini-LED backlights use a grid of blue LEDs, which pass through a color filter to create the final picture. Instead, RGB backlights (as the name suggests) use red, green, and blue backlights, which means the color filtering layer does much less work and allows the brightness to shine through.

While the tech won't go entirely mainstream this year, Samsung's 'RGB Micro LED Backlight' will likely come in a 4K TV this year, with TCL's following in 2026. So, if you happen to win the lottery, Hisense's 116-inch TV with its 'TriChroma RGB Backlight' will also land later this year. We reckon it'll be a toss-up between RGB backlighting and wireless connection boxes for the TV trend of 2025.

• Read more: 5 TV innovations I saw at CES 2025 that will shape the next generation of TVs

2. Massive TVs will continue their hot streak

(Image credit: HIsense)

Enormous TVs aren't exactly a new CES trend, but this was the first time we've seen 100-inch sets from virtually every big manufacturer. Breaking that barrier at the show were Hisense, Samsung, TCL, and LG, while Samsung also showed off a 115-inch version of its premium Samsung QN90F Neo QLED set.

Last year, we saw 97-inch TVs hit new levels of popularity due to a combination of lower prices (for more affordable VA LCD panels, at least) and a post-pandemic upgrade cycle that saw many replace the sets they bought during lockdowns. So, does that mean 100-inch sets will become the norm in 2025?

Not necessarily – as TechRadar's TV hardware expert James Davidson has argued, many of the big sets on show at CES will be at the premium end (think somewhere in the region of $15,000 / £20,000 and above, based on today's models). Also, 4K or UST (ultra short throw) projectors will likely continue to offer better bang-for-buck at these larger screen sizes.

Still, CES 2025 has shown that 100-inch monoliths are no longer concepts or one-offs, and the rising popularity of huge TVs will likely continue this year.

• Read more: Big-screen TVs are everywhere at CES 2025, but I doubt they'll replace projectors anytime soon

3. E Ink will save us from screen overload

(Image credit: Continental / Pocketbook)

It can sometimes feel like we spend 90% of our waking hours looking at screens, which is probably because E Ink (or epaper) displays were again something of a trend at CES 2025. Yes, they're also screens, but they're a bit more eye-friendly (and less power-hungry) than an OLED.

We saw Continental reveal car dashboards with personalized E Ink displays, which we're pretty fond of compared to the huge head-up display of BMW's new iDrive system. The InkPoster, which uses E Ink's new advanced Spectra 6 color tech, also looks like a subtle wall art alternative to Samsung's The Frame Pro TV.

However, our favorite twist on the trend was the TCL 60 XE, which won our CES 2025 award for Phone innovation. It may not use electronic paper technology, but TCL's phone does have an NXTPaper switch that lets you instantly turn on a mode that's close to replicating an Amazon Kindle.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Switching between the two modes looks like the iPhone's NameDrop effect, and the benefits are that it both sips power (for potentially week-long battery life) and creates a refreshingly distraction-free reading experience for a phone. More of this please, Apple and Samsung.

• Read more: The next big EV trend could be these special-edition E Ink dashboards – and I'm all for it
• Read more: This awesome E Ink poster frame looks like the future of wall art, if you can stomach the price tag
• Read more: TCL's ultra-affordable 60XE uses NXTpaper to potentially break all kinds of battery life records

4. Robot vacuums will learn useful new tricks

(Image credit: Roborock / Switchbot)

Robot vacuums were like the court jesters of CES 2025, entertaining the crowds with many fancy new tricks. But they weren't just showing off – some of the new features look genuinely useful.

The Roborock Z70, for example, has a mechanical pincer arm that picks up stray socks you've inconveniently left in its path and tosses them in a laundry basket. Unfortunately, rumors that it also tuts to itself while doing this were sadly unfounded.

Taking the multi-tasking theme even further was the SwitchBot K20+ Pro, built on a modular platform that lets you add convenient extras like an air purifier, security camera, and even a little tray for sandwich delivery.

But on a practical level, the Dreame X50 Ultra Complete probably has the best superpower – the ability to climb stairs. Its little legs can help it climb obstacles up to 4.2cm in height in a single step (or 6cm in two). Best of all, this mode is called 'ProLeap.'

• Read more: This robot vacuum can also bring you a sandwich, and it might be the greatest gadget we've seen yet at CES

5. Smart glasses will go truly mainstream

(Image credit: Halliday / Future)

It's taken a few years, but smart glasses are slowly becoming socially acceptable – and CES 2025 shows that this could be their big bang year.

Two stood out among the many Ray-Ban Meta glasses rivals on show (which are still our pick as the best AI smart glasses). The Halliday Smart Glasses achieved the feat of looking precisely like traditional eyewear, mainly because they pack in a tiny display rather than trying to use waveguide tech to project info on the lenses.

That screen looks like a 3.5-inch monochrome display when it's up close to your eye – and it's a solution that left us in two minds, considering full AR specs are expected from Meta, Snap, and more in the next year or two. Still, it works, and the Halliday AI app means it can do voice translation, turn-by-turn navigation, teleprompting and more.

The winner of our best AR glasses award at CES 2025, though, was the Xreal One Pros. Building on the Xreal One (a personal wearable screen) from a few months ago, they give you Full HD visuals and a powerful X1 chip with native spatial computing powers. We called it an "extremely impressive experience" and look forward to testing them in the real world soon.

• Read more: Look out Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, Xreal is coming for your crown with its new AR specs

6. Health tech will blend into the background

(Image credit: Withings / Amp Fitness)

Smart home tech can still feel frustratingly dumb, but there were signs at CES 2025 of what we've always wanted – personal health monitoring that blends into traditional homeware, like bathroom mirrors.

Currently, mirror tech tops out at LED lights and unnecessary motion sensors. But the Withings Omnia (sadly just a concept for now) promises to sync with other gadgets to give you a full picture of your health (to help explain the tired-looking person in the reflection).

The mirror's base can also measure your weight, heart health, and metabolic health, so there's no need to shell out for a load of other gadgets. It'll also apparently be able to run ECG (electrocardiogram) scans and check for signs of atrial fibrillation, all in an accessory that looks very Black Mirror, in a good way.

Elsewhere at CES 2025, we also let Samsung's AI-powered micro-LED mirror examine and judge our skin health before reeling off a list of recommendations (which surprisingly didn't include 'try sleeping for more than two hours'). Meanwhile, discreetly tucked away on a wall was our favorite piece of workout tech at the show, the Amp Fitness machine – think Peloton for cable-based strength training.

• Read more: The new Withings Omnia smart mirror promises to give you a full-screen scan of your health
• Read more: I looked into Samsung’s AI-powered micro-LED mirror and now I’m ready for some scientifically backed looksmaxxing
• Read more: This AI-powered strength machine could be Peloton for gym rats, and it looks incredible

7. Our pets will have a gadget blast in 2025

(Image credit: Pawport / LG)

We didn't directly ask any cats or dogs what they thought of CES 2025, but we imagine many gave the show an approving nod. There was a wealth of tech designed for our furry friends, and a few in particular caught our eye.

Okay, the first of these – the Levoit Pet Odor & Hair Air Purifier – is more for pet owners than the family doggo. It's programmed to quickly detect what are politely referred to as "key substances" and adjust the fan to quickly clear the offending odor, while a carbon filter helps neutralize them. If it means your dog spends less time being banished from the living room, we're sure it'll approve.

Cats will also certainly purr with approval at LG's AeroCatTower, an air purifier that acts as a podium for a cat bed. The tower includes a heater to keep your cat toasty warm, and there's even a built-in scale so you can surreptitiously measure its weight. The only downside is that your lap may suddenly become a less appealing dozing spot for your kitty.

With a new version of the Pawport pet door and a next-gen dog tracker called Tractive (which promises to tell you why your dog is barking) also on show at CES 2025, there's no doubt that pets – and even bugs – are going to have a fun, tech-fueled year.

• Read more: Levoit’s new pet-parent air purifier will switch on the fans when it senses your dog is being stinky

8. Laptops will give us more screen estate

(Image credit: Lenovo / Asus)

We're not talking about big-screen laptops – instead, we're referring to standard-size laptops that miraculously grow some extra screen estate from seemingly nowhere, like the new Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable.

Debuted at CES 2025, this ThinkBook is the first of its kind – a laptop with a 'rollable display' that you'll actually be able to buy. As you can see in the video below, that screen grows from a 14-inch landscape display to a 16.7-inch vertical one with the press of a button.

While we certainly have reservations about wear and tear, plus fixing that rolling mechanism if it breaks, it's hard not to be excited about the sheer gadget joy that Lenovo has created here. Well, until you see the $3,499 (around £2,865 / AU$5,685) US price tag.

Rollable displays aren't the only way that laptops will give us more screen estate in 2025, either. The latest Asus Zenbook Duo (2025) also massively impressed us at CES 2025 – it has two gorgeous 14-inch, 3K resolution OLED touchscreens, but it can also be used as a traditional laptop using a traditional keyboard that sits on top of one of them.

We called it the “king of on-the-go functionality,” and it's another example of how much more versatile laptops will become in 2025.

• Read more: Lenovo unveils world's first rollable display laptop, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, at CES 2025

9. Oura and Samsung will get big smart ring rivals

(Image credit: Ultrahuman / Circular Ring)

Last year's CES 2024 was where smart rings took the baton from smartwatches as the most exciting thing in wearables – and this year, we saw the little health trackers really mature.

The battle for the title of best smart ring is no longer just Oura vs Samsung. At CES 2025, the Circular Ring 2 arrived with a couple of handy innovations – an app-based sizing system that's slicker than trying on plastic rings and an FDA-cleared AFib detection algorithm.

Meanwhile, Ultrahuman has gone full Apple Watch Edition with some new 18K gold and platinum versions of its smart rings. These new Ultrahuman Rare models (prices start at £1,499, or around $1,900 / AU$3,000) won't exactly be ones we're rushing out to buy, but they show the smart ring market is expanding.

Despite their compact size, there's still room for innovation in smart rings, too – the South Korean startup VIV Health revealed the VIV Ring at CES 2025, which can generate customized sounds to help you sleep based on analysis of your snoozing data.

• Read more: Circular Ring 2 unveiled at CES – and it's the end of plastic sizing kits for smart rings

10. Coffee will get the tech treatment

(Image credit: KaraPod / AstroBrew)

According to coffee insiders, the big trends this year will be premium pods, sustainably-sourced beans, and a growing number of home espresso connoisseurs. But if CES 2025 is anything to go by, we can also add strange and eccentric coffee gadgets to that list.

Perhaps the oddest was the KaraPod, which never needs filling with water –instead, it uses condensed air from your home to make your brew. That concept left us a bit torn between the undoubted environmental benefits and the slightly odd sensation that we'd be drinking the (albeit filtered) moisture from our drying washing.

Still, some other neat ideas we spotted included the AstroBrew machine (which promises to whip up a tasty cold brew in minutes) and the Midea Barista Brew system, which inevitably uses AI to learn your taste preferences. Whatever your tastes, a cup of instant will no longer cut it in 2025.

• Read more: This coffee machine brews espresso using water condensed from the air in your home

11. The AI robots are coming

(Image credit: Future)

It's painfully obvious to say that AI is going to be a tech trend of 2025, so we left it out of this list. There's also understandably some hype fatigue among tech fans who sense that AI might be working harder for shareholders than it is for them. But one AI-adjacent space where it's having a fascinating impact is robotics.

Last year, we chatted to the maker of the Ai-Da robot, which rustled up a painting that sold for over $1 million, and we can expect a lot more stories on that theme in 2025. That's because robotics companies like Realbotix are using AI to make their humanoids even more scarily realistic.

@techradar

Realbotix Aria humanoid robot interview! She moves, talks, can use AI to identify emotions, and more! Oh, and she costs $175k. #ces2025 #techtok #techradar #ces #viral #lasvegas #robot #humanoidrobot #humanoid #uncanny #uncannyvalley

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We chatted to the Realbotix Aria at CES 2025 above (yours for a cool $175,000) and, while there's still some way to go, its ability to talk more conversationally and also respond to your physical health using an infrared camera are signs of where this tech is quickly heading.

On a similar theme, Agility Robotics (the maker of the Digit robot below) spoke of their plans to become the first humanoid robot company to make a robot that can safely work side-by-side with humans. If you though the human-machine lines were blurring in 2024, then 2025 has got some surprises for you...

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• The SE940 is Adata's first USB 4 portable SSD
• It reaches up to 4GBps on read/write
• Expect far more USB 4 external SSDs to launch in 2025

At CES 2025, Adata introduced a range of new storage products, including the Adata XPG SE940, a portable SSD which marks the first time Adata is using USB 4 technology.

Adata is also tipping the SE940 as the smallest USB 4 external SSD to be commercially available.

It can reach speeds of up to 4,000 MB/s for reading and writing data. This makes it not only the fastest portable SSD in Adata’s line-up but also a contender in the broader external storage market.

New benchmark for portable SSD performance

The SE940 uses a modern single-chip controller from Silicon Motion, which gives stable performance, uses power efficiently, and works smoothly.

It also has a built-in fingerprint reader, and comes with storage options of up to 8 TB, providing plenty of space for big files, multimedia work, or backups.

Adata also announced several other SSDs at CES. The XPG MARS 970 Storm and Blade are Gen 5 M.2 NVMe SSDs (up to 8TB) that offer up to 14 GB/s read and 12 GB/s write speeds.

The company also announced the SR800 and SR820, portable SSDs that offer up to 20GB speeds, USB 3.2 Gen 2 and up to 4TB capacity.

To wrap things up, Adata announced the SDXC SD 8.0 Express memory card which leverages PCIe 3.0 x2 for speeds up to 1600 MB/s reads and 1200 MB/s writes.

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Anyone who’s been following the news from CES 2025 will know that one word (or two letters if we’re being pedantic) dominated the conversation at the year’s biggest tech conference: AI. Artificial intelligence is being shoehorned into everything, from cars to coffee machines – often whether we like it or not.

Even if it’s an area of our lives where artificial intelligence doesn’t feel like a natural fit, tech companies are dead keen on inserting it to better ‘personalize our experiences’ (or make good use of all the data that’s been harvested over the past decade).

That goes double for fitness kit. CES 2025 showcased a lot of AI-powered fitness tools that are set to invade our homes and gyms in 2025 and beyond. The Amazfit Active 2, which we’ll be reviewing for our best cheap smartwatch buying guide, will arrive with voice-activated AI assistant functionality.

The beautiful amp fitness machine and the Gym Monster 2 are home gym setups that use AI to monitor your training and recommend workouts via the kit. Similarly, Therabody, makers of some of the best massage guns, will use data from the best Garmin watches to recommend recovery programs.

(Image credit: Therabody)

This follows emerging trends in fitness and doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. Oura Ring 4 has an Oura Advisor chatbot service in Beta. It's trained on Oura users’ data and can answer basic health and fitness questions or recommend courses of action based on your individual data. PUSH, one of the best fitness apps for strength training, can program workouts for you, as can a slew of others. However, recent data suggests remote personal trainers won't be replaced any time soon.

Garmin, COROS and other manufacturers of the best running watches were doing this a long time ago. They didn't call it AI, just utilizing their algorithms to recommend workouts based on your training plan and recovery scores. So CES 2025’s AI offerings are giving us nothing new, even if companies now use LLMs or Generative AI instead of algorithmic flowchart-style decision-making to achieve the same effect.

Therabody, amp, Amazfit and the rest have just expanded these old functionalities to new devices and services. No one, as far as I can see, is doing anything different or revolutionary in fitness this year. Is this the AI revolution we were waiting for?

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Part of it, I believe, is that unlike computing, content creation, and communication, there’s a limit to what AI can do in a predominantly physical space. You can instead consult a real-life personal trainer, they can write you a program in Microsoft Word, and you can print it off and take it to the gym.

What AI can do is recommend changes to that program and provide expert advice on new exercises – but, as my colleague Stephen Warwick and I found out, using AI to design your workouts is not a perfect process yet. It needs to be combined with a bit of common sense – if you’re feeling ill, tired or sore, dial the training back a bit, and perhaps ask a member of the gym staff for some guidance on new or unfamiliar exercise.

I’m not saying there’s categorically no place for AI in consumer health and fitness devices, of course; people do find it very useful, to say nothing of the applications already prevalent in the healthcare industry. However, I was expecting some more imaginative AI use cases from CES, and as the conference drew to a close, I was left disappointed.

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• 47 percent of Gen Z and 46 percent of Millennials claim to have had passwords hacked in Yubico’s latest annual report
• But they’re also the demographics supposedly most aware of and keen to adopt hardware security keys
• 73 percent of Gen Z are also worried about the rise of AI in cyberattacks

Gen Z and Millennials are just as at risk to password breaches as anyone else, a new report from Yubico has claimed.

Its survey found 47% of Gen Z and 46% of Millennials reporting their social media accounts passwords had been breached at some point, findings which appear to run at odds with 63% of respondents across the 20,000-strong sample size claiming they felt secure about cybersecurity measures in place to protect their personal information.

And yet, the report also reveals 70% of respondents reported being the victim of a cyberattack in the past twelve months, indicative of overconfidence and a lack of cybersecurity education. 40% of respondents claimed they haven’t received any cybersecurity training at work.

Gen Z and Millennial cybersecurity attitudes in the workplace

Things get worse when considering nearly half (49%) of respondents reported being more concerned about their personal data than that of their company or workplace, demonstrating business and enterprise owners can’t view computer and cybersecurity literacy as an innate skill in the youngest generations when considering the resilience of their own digital infrastructure.

It also seems silly to imply that younger generations are more likely to take to and understand the implications of new technologies more easily, when 58% of survey respondents reported their concern about AI’s continued “sophisticated” role in cyberattacks.

Yubico’s view on authentication methods

The primary purpose of the report appears to be to advocate for alternative authentication methods in the workplace, with just 21% of workers reporting that they use a mobile authenticator app. Yubico’s report does note workers may have valid reasons for not using this method, such as not wanting to use a personal smartphone for work or simply not having one

To this end, Yubico advocates for passwordless MFA solutions such as software-based passkeys (seeing widespread support in the tech industry), plus physical security keys.

“In addition to being highly secure, passkeys greatly simplify the user experience," noted Derek Hanson, Yubico’s VP of Standards and Alliances.

“By removing the need for users to remember complex passwords, it reduces the friction associated with logging in and eliminates the frustration of forgotten passwords. This can lead to increased user satisfaction and productivity, especially in enterprise environments where employees often juggle multiple accounts and passwords.”

“When we look at today’s options for passkeys, those that are device-bound on security keys provide the highest level of phishing-resistance and meet the strictest security standards.”

The report concludes by suggesting, “embracing emerging [technology] like hardware security keys and passkeys will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in safeguarding our digital identities and securing the systems and services we rely on every day”, a utopian notion that’s nicely bookended by the reveal that 39% of respondents believe that a standard username and password combination is the most secure authentication available.

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(Image credit: Future)

The TechRadar team was on the ground at CES 2025: you can check out our main CES 2025 news hub for the highlights or catch up with every CES 2025 story. We saw everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays, to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for all the highlights from the CES show floor!

Part of the appeal of the CES show every year is that we get to see some pretty unusual and out-of-the-box products, alongside the regular slew of TVs, laptops, speakers, and standard electronics. And CES 2025 certainly didn't disappoint when it came to launches and unveilings that were a little out of the ordinary.

Here, we've collected together the most eyebrow-raising sights we came across on the CES 2025 floor in Las Vegas. We've got cute little robots, weird-looking face masks, systems to project makeup on to your face, and more besides.

While you might not want to get in line to buy all (or any) of these various products, they're definitely worth a look if you're interested in tech. They also all provide evidence that tech companies are still capable of innovating and surprising us, even if the best iPhones have looked very much the same for the past decide or so.

1. Mirumi robot

Here's looking at you (Image credit: Yukai Engineering)

Tiny robots are nothing new to us here at at TechRadar, but you don't often see cuddly ones designed to latch on to your bag, which is what we have with the Mirumi robot from Yukai Engineering. It might just be the strangest thing we saw at CES 2025, even though it's been a particularly strong weird tech field this year.

The robot has just one party trick really, which is to steal glances at passing people, thanks to the motion sensors built inside it. The idea is – we think – that it's a bit like having a little toddler or a pet to carry around with you, something that's a curious companion rather than anything that offers any functionality.

2. Electric Salt Spoon @techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar

Too much salt is bad for you, if you didn't know, but the taste and tang that salt adds to food makes it hard to cut down on it or do without it entirely. Enter the Electric Salt Spoon: a device currently only on sale in Japan, which has a clever way of making your food taste saltier without any extra condiments.

What it does is group together the sodium ions in whatever you're eating, so they're more concentrated on the spoon. That makes the food taste saltier, even if there's no extra salt on it – and while we haven't been able to test out the smart piece of cutlery for ourselves, we're definitely impressed by the idea.

3. Willo AutoFlo Plus @techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar

Anything that encourages kids to brush their teeth more often and for longer has to be good, and that's what the Willo AutoFlo Plus has been made to do: it automates as much of the tooth-brushing process as possible, piping through the toothpaste and adding some movement to help get teeth clean and shiny.

The device even takes care of the rinsing for you, so that's something else you don't have to worry about, while the accompanying app keeps track of teeth-brushing habits. Pricing starts at $249 (about £200 / AU$400), and you get a choice of brush sizes and toothpaste flavors when you place your order.

4. Wonder Blocks and Petal @techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar

Bug watchers can take their hobby to a whole new level with the Wonder Blocks and the Petal camera. It's a high-tech system that attracts bugs, butterflies and bees, and lets you monitor them from an app on your phone – there's even built-in AI that'll identify the small creatures you're looking at on the units.

It's a modular system, so you can combine blocks and cameras as you need to fit whatever space you've got (and you can of course add on your own foliage and other extras). The Petal camera, which looks like a flower, has a solar panel attached too, which cuts down on the number of recharges required.

5. Kosé Mixed Reality Makeup @techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar

Imagine being able to see how your makeup might look before you actually apply it: that's the promise of a new Mixed Reality Makeup system from Kosé, which uses high-speed projection mapping to paint your face virtually, and lets you try out a whole host of styles to see which ones you like the look of most.

The tech is doing more than just projecting an image – it's actually looking at and measuring the contours of the face it's working with in real time, to create a realistic effect with no actual makeup required. For now, it's not available outside of Japan, but we're hoping it comes to international markets before too long.

6. Nanoleaf LED Light Therapy Face Mask

A fashionable look (Image credit: Nanoleaf)

This isn't a gadget you'd really want to wear out in public, but the Nanoleaf LED Light Therapy Face Mask can apparently do wonders for your complexion. As you might have figured out by the name and the image above, it uses light (both red and near-infrared) to rejuvenate your skin and treat a variety of conditions.

There are actually seven different skin conditions the mask is designed to tackle, and you can switch between them as needed – the device has FDA regulatory approval in the US, adding credibility to its claims around skin healing and wellness. It'll cost you $149.99 in the US – that's about £120 / AU$240, though at the moment we don't have any official word on global pricing and availability.

7. Nékojita FuFu

Keep your drinks and food cool (Image credit: Yukai Engineering)

From the same Yukai Engineering company that brought us the Mirumi robot (see above), we have the Nékojita FuFu. This little bot is designed to sit at the side of your cup, bowl, or plate, and then gently blow on whatever you're drinking and eating, so it cools down more quickly to let you comfortably consume it.

There's a little bit more tech involved here than you might imagine, including seven different blowing modes that are cycled through at random (to make the bot seem a little more natural and spontaneous). Like the look of it? There's going to be a crowdfunding campaign to make this little robot an actual product.

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It may be time to introduce Jensen’s law to complement Moore’s law: At equal AI performance, it takes about 100 months to cut the price per FLOP by 25.

D. Athow

Project DIGITS, as a reminder, is a fully formed, off-the-shelf super computer built into something the size of a mini PC. It is essentially a smaller version of the DGX-1, the first of its kind launched almost a decade ago, back in April 2016. Then, it sold for $129,000 with a 16-core Intel Xeon CPU and eight P100 GPGPU cards; Digits costs $3,000.

Nvidia confirmed it has an AI performance of 1,000 Teraflops at FP4 precision (dense/sparse?). Although there’s no direct comparison, one can estimate that the diminutive super computer has roughly half the processing power of a fully loaded 8-card Pascal-based DGX-1.

At the heart of Digits is the GB10 SoC, which has 20 Arm Cores (10 Arm Cortex-X925 and 10 Cortex-A725). Other than the confirmed presence of a Blackwell GPU (a lite version of the B100), one can only infer the power consumption (100W) and the bandwidth (825GB/s according to The Register).

You should be able to connect two of these devices (but not more) via Nvidia’s proprietary ConnectX technology to tackle larger LLMs such as Meta's Llama 3.1 405B. Shoving these tiny mini PCs in a 42U rack seems to be a near impossibility for now as it would encroach on Nvidia’s far more lucrative DGX GB200 systems.

All about the moat

Why did Nvidia embark on Project DIGITS? I think it is all about reinforcing its moat. Making your products so sticky that it becomes near impossible to move to the competition is something that worked very well for others: Microsoft and Windows, Google and Gmail, Apple and the iPhone.

The same happened with Nvidia and CUDA - being in the driving seat allowed Nvidia to do things such as shuffling the goal posts and wrongfooting the competition.

The move to FP4 for inference allowed Nvidia to deliver impressive benchmark claims such as “Blackwell delivers 2.5x its predecessor’s performance in FP8 for training, per chip, and 5x with FP4 for inference”. Of course, AMD doesn’t offer FP4 computation in the MI300X/325X series and we will have to wait till later this year for it to roll out in the Instinct MI350X/355X.

Nvidia is therefore laying the ground for future incursions, for lack of a better word or analogy, from existing and future competitors, including its own customers (think Microsoft and Google). Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s ambition is clear; he wants to expand the company’s domination beyond the realm of the hyperscalers.

“AI will be mainstream in every application for every industry. With Project DIGITS, the Grace Blackwell Superchip comes to millions of developers, placing an AI supercomputer on the desks of every data scientist, AI researcher and student empowers them to engage and shape the age of AI,” Huang recently commented.

Short of renaming Nvidia as Nvid-ai, this is as close as it gets to Huang acknowledging his ambitions to make his company’s name synonymous with AI, just like Tarmac and Hoover before them (albeit in more niche verticals).

(Image credit: Storagereview.com) Why Mediatek?

I was also, like many, perplexed by the Mediatek link and the rationale for this tie-up can be found in the Mediatek press release. The Taiwanese company “brings its design expertise in Arm-based SoC performance and power efficiency to [a] groundbreaking device for AI researchers and developers” it noted.

The partnership, I believe, benefits Mediatek more than Nvidia and in the short run, I can see Nvidia quietly going solo. Reuters reported Huang dismissed the idea of Nvidia going after AMD and Intel, saying, “Now they [Mediatek] could provide that to us, and they could keep that for themselves and serve the market. And so it was a great win-win”.

This doesn’t mean Nvidia will not deliver more mainstream products though, just they would be aimed at businesses and professionals, not consumers where cut throat competition makes things more challenging (and margins wafer thin).

Reuters article quotes Huang saying, "We're going to make that a mainstream product, we'll support it with all the things that we do to support professional and high-quality software, and the PC (manufacturers) will make it available to end users."

Gazing in my crystal ball

One theory I came across while researching this feature is that more data scientists are embracing Apple’s Mac platform because it offers a balanced approach. Good enough performance - thanks to its unified memory architecture - at a ‘reasonable’ price. The Mac Studio with 128GB unified memory and 4TB SSD currently retails for $5,799.

So where does Nvidia go from there? An obvious move would be to integrate the memory on the SoC, similar to what Apple has done with its M series SoC (and AMD with its HBM-fuelled Epyc). This would not only save on costs but would improve performance, something that its bigger sibling, the GB200 already does.

Then it will depend on whether Nvidia wants to offer more at the same price or the same performance at a lower price point (or a bit of both). Nvidia could go Intel’s way and use the GB10 as a prototype to encourage other key partners (PNY, Gigabyte, Asus) to launch similar projects (Intel did that with the Next Unit of Computing or NUC).

I am also particularly interested to know what will happen to the Jetson Orin family; the NX 16GB version was upgraded just a few weeks ago to offer 157 TOPS in INT8 performance. This platform is destined to fulfill more DIY/edge use cases rather than pure training/inference tasks but I can’t help but think about “What If” scenarios.

Nvidia is clearly disrupting itself before others attempt to do so; the question is how far will it go.

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A new year always brings with it a slew of new devices to get excited about – and it all starts at CES.

The annual show in Las Vegas is a festival of technology, with everything from new TVs to laptops to weird and wacky robots on display – and we've rounded up the best of it below.

But that's not been the only source of news this week, and outside of CES we got more rumors around the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S25 phones (arriving in January) and the Nintendo Switch 2 console (due sometime this year) – so in terms of tech leaks, 2025 is starting much as the previous year ended.

7. We failed to find any faults with the OnePlus 13

The OnePlus 13 is a genuinely impressive piece of kit (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The OnePlus 13 went global this week, which means those of us outside China can get our hands on it – and judging by the official TechRadar review from US Mobiles Editor Philip Berne, it's a fantastic flagship. Try as he might, he couldn't find anything to complain about, though there's lots to talk about in terms of positives.

It's described as "beautiful to hold", "pleasing to use", and the most powerful phone you can currently buy (until the next Samsung Unpacked, at least). Find out how the phone ranks in all the key areas that matter, from the quality of the screen and the photos it takes, to the battery life and the on-board Android software, in our review below.

• Read more: OnePlus 13 review: I'm dumbfounded, I can't find anything wrong with this phone

6. We reviewed the first six episodes of Severance season 2

Are you ready for more Severance? (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

Another big review that went live on TechRadar this week was our take on the first six epsiodes of Severance season 2, and this time it was Senior Entertainment Reporter Tom Power doing the reviewing. In short: this new season is likely to be a hit with existing Severance fans, as well as winning the show some new ones.

If you don't mind some light spoilers about how the first six episodes progress, read on to find out why Tom called this second season "a terrific and coherently written sophomore season that's packed with melodrama, sci-fi sensibilities, black comedy, and enough mysteries to keep Sherlock Holmes busy for years to come."

• Read more: Severance season 2 review: Apple TV Plus' superb mystery thriller gets back to work with a bigger, bolder, and more brilliantly bizarre entry

5. We saw more Nintendo Switch 2 leaks

The Nintendo Switch is due a successor (Image credit: Shutterstock/Kyli Petersen)

Judging by the number of rumors we're now seeing, it can't be too long before the Nintendo Switch 2 is made official, and we had another flurry of leaks this week.

One leak actually gave us a mockup of the expected Switch design: it looks like it'll be new but familiar, with a larger screen than the current series of consoles.

Nintendo has actually stepped in to comment, so steady have the leaks and rumors been. It described the aforementioned mockup as "unofficial", so make of that what you will. It looks as though the updated console might see the light of day within the next couple of months, when all will finally be revealed.

• Read more: Nintendo has finally commented on the Switch 2 leaks, but it's only left me with more questions

4. Samsung Unpacked got its official date

What's in store at the next Unpacked? (Image credit: Google / Future / Samsung)

Samsung has confirmed that it's holding another Unpacked product launch event on Wednesday, January 22, but we don't know too much more than that in terms of specifics – well, not officially. The rumors and leaks around this event have been non-stop, however, so we've made some educated guesses about what's coming.

In short, the Samsung Galaxy S25 series will be leading the new gadget charge – there might be as many as four of them this time around – but we could also see news about Samsung's virtual reality headset and a successor to the Galaxy Ring that launched last year. Whatever happens, TechRadar will be there to cover all the news for you.

• Read more: 5 things to expect at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, from the Galaxy S25 Ultra to Project Moohan

3. Nvidia unveiled the RTX 5000 series

The RTX 5090 leads the way with Nvidia's new GPUs (Image credit: Nvidia)

One of the biggest announcements at CES was the reveal of the long-awaited RTX 5000 series from Nvidia, led by the high-end Nvidia RTX 5090. These GPUs look like substantial upgrades over their respective predecessors, and as well as the levels of performance on offer, we're also excited about support for smaller cases.

Laptop and PC makers wasted no time in unveiling new machines with RTX 5000 series components inside them, and we heard about models from Acer, Asus, Razer and others. There was also the first laptop we've seen with a rollable screen from Lenovo, giving users instant access to a larger display at the push of a button.

Read more: Nvidia unveils new GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070 graphics cards at CES 2025

2. We saw TVs get bigger and bigger

Hisense unveiled a TV measuring 163 inches corner to corner (Image credit: Future)

CES is always packed with TVs, and this year was no different, giving us a preview of the televisions that'll be rolling out across 2025. Some TV makers went all in on the 100-inch-plus end of the spectrum, with Hisense going all the way up to 163 inches – though these giant sets are going to cost you a pretty penny.

If you're in the market for a new television this year, then you'd be able to shop TV tech that's better than ever: some of the key TV innovations we saw at CES 2025 included variations on RGB backlighting, upgrades to wireless connection boxes, and improvements in OLED tech that mean brighter pictures with better color.

• Read more: Big-screen TVs are everywhere at CES 2025, but I doubt they'll replace projectors anytime soon

1. We chose our favorite gadgets from CES 2025

It was another very busy CES (Image credit: Future)

There was an awful lot on show at CES 2025, but the TechRadar team did its very best to get hands on time with as many gadgets and gizmos as possible during the course of the week (see our TikTok feed for details). Now the Las Vegas dust is beginning to settle, we've picked out our favorite 25 gadgets from the expo.

The range of new tech products here gives you some idea of just how busy CES was: we've got gaming consoles, TVs, wireless earbuds, turntables, laptops, phone chargers, augmented reality glasses, AI-powered gym equipment, and more besides. We also came across some rather weird and wacky robots this week.

All told it was a dizzying and dazzling showcase of what the next year will have to offer us – and based on this, there's plenty to look forward to.

• Read more: The 25 best gadgets we saw at CES 2025, from next-gen TVs to better portable gaming to a smart grill