Aside from the pricing news, Google’s big I/O developer conference came and went, with wall-to-wall coverage of everything Gemini. With Google so busy finding ways to re-invent search, there was little room for gadgets, though the company did offer more tantalizing details about upcoming Android XR smart glasses — sorry, I meant “intelligent eyewear” as well as AR glasses.
Looking back in May, there was definitely a pile of expensive gear. At least, a lot of them were really strong contenders in all their categories.
The US power grid isn’t looking too hot these days. And with natural disasters becoming more prevalent due to climate change, you’re probably checking what you’ll need if you lose power. Anker’s Solix E10 is one of the most modular backup home battery systems we’ve seen yet. You can have up to five batteries in one power module, and you can connect three of these power banks into one unit. The Solix E10 isn’t cheap, but it is more affordable than some competitors, like Tesla’s 13.5kWh Powerwall 3 all-in-one system.
Check out the Anker SOLIX E10 on Amazon
Bose’s new Wi-Fi speakers are so good they should give Sonos a run for their money. The company’s new Lifestyle Ultra speaker produces impeccable sound quality when connected to your Wi-Fi network. They’re wired speakers, meaning you’ll have to have them at home, but we found they have such room-filling, quality audio that you might even need two to create a stereo pair for some head-banging spatial audio.
Check out the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker on Amazon
The company that brought us the remarkable Paper Pro and Paper Pro Move continues to win in e ink tablets. The Paper Pure is Remarkable’s black-and-white entry-level tablet, although despite its plastic design, the screen is a real joy. The Paper Pure has a faster refresh rate than the company’s color E Ink tablets. It’s a little bundle of note-taking joy that can be the best e-reader or E Ink note-taking device for students who can’t look at textbooks any more.
Google is following Whoop’s popular fitness tracker with a wearable device you can actually own without constantly paying for a subscription. The $100 Fitbit Air puts a number of health-based sensors, like a heart rate monitor, inside a thin, flexible band that you can wear all day and night — for about a week on a single charge. Like last year’s Polar Loop band, you can access most of its health and sports tracking features without paying extra for an annual subscription. It’s intended to work with Google’s revamped Fitbit app, renamed Google Health, though you may want to wait for the company to address all of users’ complaints with the recent redesign.
Check out the Google Fitbit Air on Amazon
For laptops that can replace your desktop gaming PC, none feel more responsive or prettier to look at than Alienware’s revamped 16-inch Area-51. Unlike the 2025 model, this new version comes with an OLED display as well as an anti-glare filter that makes it legible even in daylight. Without talking much about it, the laptop has one of the best gaming laptop keyboards we’ve used. With top-end specs and the new Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus CPU, it is one of the best performing laptops today. It’s so big and so expensive that you shouldn’t leave the house with it, but we still enjoyed it sitting at our table.
Do you really need a screen on your wireless earbud case? Probably not, but the Anker SoundCore Liberty 5 Pro Max still has enough features to make it worthwhile. Anker’s SoC chip built inside these buds enables some of the best active noise-canceling capabilities we’ve heard in a pair of wireless earbuds. You can practically tune out an entire rattling subway car with these two buds comfortably seated in your ears. Otherwise, this case has a unique recording and AI transcription capability, which we found particularly attractive as journalists.
Check out the Soundcore Anker Liberty 5 Pro Max on Amazon
If you’ve ever wanted to try out esports-ready analog switches without needing to buy an entire magnetic keyboard, Logitech has several completely unique features in the G512 keyboard, like “SAPP” rings that let you make multiple inputs by applying more pressure to different keys.
Check out the Logitech G512 X 75 on Amazon
It seems like every TV manufacturer is offering their own mix of RGB TVs. Only Sony is so dedicated to the technology that it abandoned all of its legacy QLEDs in favor of “true RGB” screens like the Bravia 9 II. The TV is definitely worth a look, with a maximum brightness of 4,000 nits (the same as Sony’s professional cinema reference monitors) and an additional black filter to enhance contrast. While we found the TV’s vivid settings were perhaps too vibrant – making some scenes look unrealistic – it’s also promising the most cinema-accurate colors and picture quality.
Check out the Sony Bravia 9 II at Best Buy
What’s better than a screen? Two screens, that’s all. This statement won’t make sense until you try a device like the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo, a gaming laptop with dual screens on a single hinge. A magnetic keyboard is attached to the lower 16-inch OLED display, so you can use it like any other laptop. However, with both screens facing forward, you can run a game on one display and open your browser or Discord chat on the other. The only downside to this setup is that it starts at $4,500, and this version doesn’t even come with the top-end Nvidia RTX 5090 GPU.
The ongoing partnership between Google and Xreal is shaping up to be one of the most exciting pairs of XR glasses we’ve seen from any major brand. Project Aura has some of the same capabilities as headsets like the Samsung Galaxy XR, including limited hand tracking and access to major Android apps. Unlike AR headsets, the Xreal Glasses are light and low-key enough that you can wear them on a flight and not draw a few strange looks from fellow passengers. We still don’t have a price or release date, but what we’ve seen so far has blown us away.
Sure, you’re already hooked on the $550 price tag of a pair of AirPods Max 2. Then along comes Sony, which looked at the price of Apple’s high-end wireless headphones and whispered, “Hold my beer.” Sony’s 1000X The Collexion has a new vegan leather wrap on both the earcups and head strap, new sound drivers, and a $650 price tag. Despite all this, we have to admit that they look great. Among them is Sony’s DSEE Ultimate audio upscaling technology, which enables the better audio mix that you typically lose when listening over Bluetooth.
Check out 1000X The Collection on Amazon
Anker’s unique accessories for its Nebula X1 projector will transform any home into entertainment National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation And the film promoted excessive holiday decorations. Spaceflow recognizes a 3D model of your walls, then uses the accompanying projector to map out a unique image to fit that space. This means that Santa may be flying out your windows or bats may be flying past your door during Halloween. To create these unique images, Anchor is using AI to generate the images you see. I’ll let you imagine all the ways AI-generated public estimates could go awry. All this “fun” won’t come cheap. The accessory costs $400 on top of the $2,500 Nebula X1 ($5,000 if you want the X1 Pro).
Check out the Soundcore Nebula Spaceflow on Amazon
<a href