But before that happens, let’s take a look at November, which was somehow filled with gaming announcements. We reviewed a kickass 14-inch gaming laptop from Acer, a mod version of the Nintendo 64, a pair of overkill $600 gaming headphones that connect to all your consoles, and got our first look at Valve’s Steam Machine, new Steam Controller, and Steam Frame VR headset. Sony has also teased a new PlayStation gaming monitor with a built-in hook for charging the PS5 DualSense controller.
As November was full of gaming, there were also a lot of great gadgets that had nothing to do with gaming. And if you haven’t read our Best Tech Gifts, Best Gaming Gifts, and Best Tech Awards of 2025, you really should.
No one could have predicted that the original phone-sized Boox Palma would gain such a popular following. found out there Is There’s a market for a phone-sized color E Ink device—such as it is. The Boox Palma 2 Pro is too small to be a tablet, but it’s also more of a phone than previous models. This time, the Color E Ink device features a 6.13-inch backlit screen that can display a few shades of color, 5G connectivity, and supports a stylus, which is useful for taking notes. Will the limited, colorful E Ink display make all your comics and graphic novels really pop like prints? No, but being able to see the covers of your books in color is also progress.
Check out the Boox Palma 2 Pro on Amazon
Have you got a pile of old Nintendo 64 games in the attic that needs some cleaning out sometime? Analogue, maker of Pocket and other limited edition and very premium retro consoles, has an Analogue 3D to sell you. Assuming you can buy one, Analog 3D is arguably the best way to play the original N64 games with wired controllers (it also supports newer wireless controllers like the 8BitDo 64). Those old games should look better than ever when plugged into a modern 4K TV via HDMI. The console includes a built-in upscaler and several “Analog Original Display Modes” that replicate the look of older CRTs, softening the pixels so they appear smoother. Games can also be overclocked to allow the likes of titles to run at virtually unplayable frame rates superman 64Actually run.
Look, we didn’t want to believe it either, but as Gizmodo senior writer James Pero, who specializes in reviewing wireless earbuds, headphones, and speakers, assured us, the $70 Soundpeats Clip 1 open-style wireless earbuds really go toe to toe with Bose’s $300 Ultra Open earbuds. They’re not the most stylish looking, but they’re very comfortable, the sound is excellent, and they’re very affordable. Please make more gimmick-free gadgets like this!
Check out Soundpit’s Clip1 on Amazon
This is exactly how the competition should work. Challenging Whoop 5.0 is the Polar Loop, a health and fitness wearable that doesn’t even have a screen. Our reviewer Claire Maldarelli praised its lack of subscription (a rarity these days), long battery life, and comfortable design. The data collected from the Polar Loop’s heart rate monitor may not be as comprehensive as the Whoop’s, but if you don’t want to be overwhelmed with too much information, the wearable device offers just enough,
Check out Polar Loop on Amazon
The framework has already proven that it can build a modular laptop with swappable I/O ports and upgradeable and repairable components. For the 2025 refresh of the Laptop 16, the company introduces a new GPU module that’s good enough to actually play games. Do you have to lower some settings to stop this thing from progressing? Perhaps, but just the fact that you can play games (with a proper GPU module) on a laptop that’s this configurable (you can move the keyboard to either side, add a trackpad, or even add some extra panels, including ones that light up) is a crazy thing you won’t find on any other “portable” machine.
$600 is a lot of money for a gaming headset. You should be pretty sure that you will appreciate the life hell of the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite. If you’re that person, you’ll find a headset that sounds great. The retractable microphone is also pretty clear, according to Gizmodo staff writer Kyle Barr, who reviewed the headset. The materials are very high quality, and the ability to plug into multiple consoles and a PC may finally make the expensive headset worth the convenience.
Check out the SteelSeries Arctic Nova Elite on Amazon
It’s really nice to see more gaming laptops look like rainbow vomit of RGB. Acer’s Predator Triton 14 AI is a 14-inch gaming machine that screams for gaming. Almost everything is premium, including the OLED touchscreen with a 120Hz refresh rate, stylus support on the trackpad, mini-LED per-keys, and good battery life. The only downside is the speakers, but if you have the money to spend on a great laptop like a gaming laptop, the Predator Triton 14 AI is one of our favorites this year.
Check out the Acer Predator Triton 14 AI on Amazon
DJI’s new products may no longer be available for purchase in the US (due to unfounded fears of spying), but that’s not stopping the drone maker from innovating with class-leading products. Case in point: the Osmo Action 6, which annihilates the GoPro with its “variable aperture” lens that can be adjusted from an f/4.0 all the way down to a shallow f/2.0. The result is a stronger action camera that allows users to take even more creative footage, such as photos and videos with more Bokeh (background blur). The variable aperture also improves low-light capture. Somewhere, GoPro is trembling in its position as it didn’t even bother to update the Hero 13 Black this year.
Check out the DJI Osmo Action 6 on Amazon
Valve looked at the Apple Vision Pro and said… no, let’s make the Steam Frame a VR headset that is super light, super modular, and works perfectly to stream games from Steam on PC to a giant virtual 2D screen with no lag. There’s no spatial computing or 3D-generated avatars of your own likeness or weird eyes on the front of the headset. Steam Frame is a very simple way to get a giant virtual screen for PC gaming.
Valve potentially entered Sony and Xbox’s two-legged high-end console race as a serious competitor. We don’t have any pricing for the roughly 6 x 6-inch Steam Machine yet, but based on PC specs alone and what Valve is suggesting, the console should be on par in power to the PS5 Pro and cost as much as a similarly specced PC. The Steam Machine is launching in “early 2026,” so expect to hear a lot about it in just a few months.
Previewed for launch next year, the PlayStation Gaming Monitor features a 27-inch IPS LCD display with 1440p resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate. It works with the PS5 (although the console only maxes out at 120Hz) and comes with a charging hook to keep the DualSense controller active and ready at all times. At first, it seems strange for Sony to make a PlayStation-branded gaming monitor, but when you consider all the other PlayStation-branded hardware coming next year (including the Pulse Elevate portable desktop speaker and the FlexStrike fight stick), you start to see that Sony is building an ecosystem beyond its home console.
Check out PlayStation on Amazon
Anbernic is a company that has found its own niche, filling the void with handhelds that Nintendo won’t make. Its latest handheld is, of course, meant to emulate DS games (legal games you own). The Embernik RG DS looks almost identical to the Nintendo DS Lite, except for the two joysticks and larger dual screens. We can’t confirm what performance like emulating a DS game would be like, but if you’re dying to do so, this might be the closest thing.
In case you missed the memo, CD players are back. Never heard of Shanling? We don’t have it either. Judging by the specifications, this bad boy isn’t your grandfather’s Sony, Aiva or Panasonic. Yes, it plays CDs, but the EC Zero also supports modern features like AKM wireless audio (so you can plug in a pair of AirPods or connect it to a wireless speaker), Two audio jacks (3.5 mm and 4.4 mm), a rechargeable battery, and a real-time CD-ripping feature. It’s expensive, but it seems to do everything.
Check out the Shanling EC Zero AKM on Amazon
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