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A CES treat for swimmers like me
Fancy getting into swimming in 2025? Suunto’s new waterproof headphones look like a promising new companion – and are something I could have done with last year when training for my first 10km.
I’ve tried swimming headphones like the Shokz OpenSwim and accessories like the Form Goggles, but the Suunto Aqua handily combine elements of both. They use bone conduction to serve up underwater music or podcasts from the 32GB storage, and apparently use AI tech to analyze and improve your swim stroke.
That apparently includes fine metrics like stroke posture, head-pitch angle, breath frequency and glide time. Once you’re in the water for an hour or more, having some entertainment is very welcome – and I’d have certainly appreciated some tips on improving my questionable stroke efficiency.
I’m looking forward to trying the Suunto Aqua in 2025 once the UK waters warm up a bit – they’ll be available for $179 / £175 (with Australian availability to be confirmed).
It’s time – the best robot pets of CES 2025
And now for the most important part of any CES 2025 show – the robot pets. TechRadar’s Amelia Schwanke and Lance Ulanoff noticed a huge upsurge in the number of furry companions at this year’s show and they weren’t complaining.
Well, that’s not quite true. They did brand a next-gen Furby called Ropet “nightmare fuel” thanks to its combination of LED eyes, ChatGPT and a propensity to give you the cold shoulder if you don’t show it enough attention. I’m definitely getting Funzo from The Simpsons vibes from the furry Tamagotchi.
But one robot pet gave us some warmer feels – Tombot’s Jennie. As you can see in our interview below, the stuffed golden retriever is a little camera shy. But its hyper-realistic motions and gestures mean it’s a potentially idea companion for those with dementia.
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In fact, I’m calling it – yes, Samsung’s The Frame Pro TV has a fancy new Neo QLED mini-LED panel, but Jennie is the real star of CES 2025 – and hopefully TechRadar’s new official mascot.
CES Day 2: the best tech we’ve seen
Sometimes, it’s worth pausing for breath at CES and looking back over some of the standout creations you’ve seen. That’s what we’ve just done in our CES 2025 day 2 roundup, which gathers all of our favorite gadgets from a second day of hunting around on the show floor.
There are some big-hitters our list, including our first impressions of the Samsung The Frame Pro TV (short version: it’s actually a good TV this time) and the flagship Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics card (whose price tag we’ve branded “ludicrous”, even though it’s clearly going to be brilliant).
But off the beaten track, we’ve also highlighted some more niche finds including the Dreo ChefMaker 2, which is an air fryer with genuinely useful AI recipe tricks, and the TCL Playcube, a portable projector that we’re fascinated by despite the lack of concrete details.
If you need a quick whistlestop tour of CES 2025’s second-day highlights, head to our handy roundup below.
Victrola ushers in a new ‘Wave’ of turntables to future-proof the vinyl experience
It’s not all vacuum cleaners that can deliver sandwiches and cute little cat robots whose main aim in life is to blow on your coffee at CES: no, some legacy brands are here too. And this one is calmly future-proofing your vinyl experience.
It feels apt to talk about Victrola at CES (a name made famous by Allanah Myles’ Black Velvet – which was of course written about the King of rock and roll himself, Elvis Presley) and the beloved US audio specialist has used the Las Vegas stage to showcase several new decks. But the top of the pile is its undoubtedly its new Wave turntable.
The headline grabber here is that the Victrola Wave (for that is its name) supports not only aptX Adaptive for higher-resolution Bluetooth streaming of your vinyl to compatible headphones or Bluetooth speakers, but also Auracast, the Bluetooth option for broadcasting audio to any number of devices easily.
The Victrola Wave comes in a choice of three finishes (white, blue and green) and we really hope to be able to call it in for a full TechRadar review soon. For now, we’ll head back into the show. After all, it won’t be long before the sun’s setting like molasses in the sky…
Technics’ new flagship earbuds have arrived – and our verdict’s already in
This is not just any day in the audio calendar, because the earbud you see below the superb EAH-AZ80 in the above image isn’t just any true wireless earbud. No, that earpiece on the right is one of the all-new EAH-AZ100. And they’ve just made their CES debut, thus superseding siblings which topped our best earbuds buying guide since their 2023 release.
What’s new for 2025? They’re a little smaller, as you can see in the image above (it’s thanks in part to one of the mics being moved from the top plate to the side of the sound tube) and the acoustic design now features a proprietary Magnetic Fluid Driver – yes really, there’s actually “an oil-type liquid filled with magnetic particles that is injected into the space between the driver magnet and voice coil”. (Don’t worry, Technics has done this before, in its elite wired TZ-700 IEMs, and the company assures us there’s no chance of any oily leakage from the buds – just detailed, neutral, soaring audio.)
The aim is to avoid any adverse movement of the driver snap – the shakes or shudders your typical piston-motion dynamic driver is susceptible to – or to put it another way, for that 10mm drive unit to be steadied by the fluid.
As luck would have it, not only do we have the Technics EAH-AZ100 release news covered for you, we manages to grab a set ahead of the official release so you can read our fully star-rated review. (Spoiler: it’s more good news for Technics.)
What can I say? We’re just over-achievers…
The first headphones with a touchscreen ‘remote’ are in – and we want ’em!
What is a huge Consumer Electronics Show good for, if not for headphones bearing their own “touchscreen audio transmitter” – a thing none of us has ever seen ’til now?
The wireless over-ears are JBL’s just-unveiled flagship Tour One M3, and the bit of kit they come with is something JBL is calling SMART Tx. It’s essentially a pocketable wireless transmitter (with a touchscreen not dissimilar to the JBL Live Beam 3 or the newer-and-upgraded JBL Tour Pro 3) that makes it easy to stream to your headphones from pretty much any audio source, and to share that audio with others via Auracast.
JBL tells me these headphones can be both an Auracast broadcast device and a receiver, thanks to the transmitter, but the cans themselves boast a formidable spec-sheet in their own right. You name it, it’s here: LDAC higher-res support from compatible devices; an 8-mic total for call-handling and ANC; Smart Talk to pause playback when you strike up a conversation; USB-C and analog 3.5mm audio options; a 70-hour battery; JBL’s own Spatial Sound with head-tracking; True Adaptive ANC 2.0; multipoint; JBL Personi-Fi 3.0 custom hearing profiles; 12-band EQ and separate optimization for the left and right stereo channels.
Pricing? Of course: the JBL Tour One M3 headphones with JBL SMART Tx will go on sale on April 13, 2025, officially priced $399.95, so roughly £322 / AU$640 (we’re waiting on confirmation for those regions, but we thought this news too good not to share).
Lenovo’s Go S gaming handheld ditches Windows 11
PC gaming handsets are one of the most exciting new categories of devices that have exploded on the scene since Valve launched the Steam Deck – but one thing has always (in my view) held back Steam Deck’s competitors: Windows 11.
Windows 11 is designed for PCs, which means running it on a handheld device is often a clunky affair, whereas the Steam Deck runs its own custom Linux-based operating system, SteamOS, which is designed for handhelds. However, the Steam Deck is showing its age a bit these days, and without a sequel in sight, I was worried I might be stuck with a choice between underpowered hardware or unsuitable software. Lenovo’s new Legion Go S, however, could fix that, as it’s the first non-Steam Deck handheld to come with SteamOS installed. Combining the very best mobile hardware with a solid operating system designed for handhelds could result in an absolutely awesome device – so I can’t wait to try this out when it launches.
Exciting… and heart-breaking
This news story from our TV expert James Davidson put me through a real rollercoaster of emotions. When I first saw the headline that LG TVs will soon be getting the Philips Hue Sync TV app I was overjoyed! I have an LG TV, plus a house full of Philips Hue smartlights, and while I love my LG TV, I was always envious of Philips TV owners due to the Ambilight feature which throws colors around your room to match with the content on screen. It’s a lovely bit of immersion-building, but if I wanted a similar effect with my non-Philips TV, I’d need to invest in the pricey Hue Sync HDMI box, which costs $249 / £229 / AU$399.
The idea of just getting an app for this that would then use my existing Hue lighting setup (including an LED light strip draped over the back of the TV) was super exciting.
Then I read the article, and my heart sank. First, the app is only coming to modern LG TVs from 2024 onwards, while my TV is slightly older. Then I saw the price of the app: $129.99 (roughly £103 / AU$205). For an app!?!?! So I’m kind of glad I can’t get it on my LG TV, as I’m silly enough to pay that kind of money. Oh well.
Could insect-watching be the next bug… er, big thing?
TechRadar’s Editor at Large and birdwatching enthusiast Lance Ulanoff has been won over by a pair of new launches from Wonder – the brand behind his beloved Bird Buddy. The Petal looks (kind of) like a big yellow flower, but inside is a HD camera with a 1/1.9 inch sensor, capable of shooting 12MP stills. This can be placed using a bendable stem, while a solar panel disguised as a leaf ensures it doesn’t run out of charge.
While the stem can be wrapped around anything you like in your garden, if you really want to get into nature-spotting even further, you could pair it with one of the brand’s new Wonder Blocks. This modular habitat system can be customized to attract different kinds of wildlife – you could plant flowers and watch for bugs, or invite bees to nest, for example.
Just like with Bird Buddy, the camera captures photos and videos of the birds and insects that come to visit. It then sends them to the Wonder app, which uses AI to identify them, so you can get to know your garden’s inhabitants a little better.
This drink-cooling robot cat might be cutest gadget of CES 2025
Along with your TVs and graphics cards, CES always delivers plenty more unusual gadgets, and the prize for this year’s cutest bit of tech goes to the Nékojita FuFu. This dinky mechanical cat clings to the top of your cup, and blows on your drink to cool it down to sipping temperature.
The FuFu (an onomatopoeic name meant to mimic a person breathing) comes with a range of different blowing modes. Currently, these include ‘The Princess’ (slow, steady breaths) and ‘Look at That!’ (which gets increasingly stronger). These modes are randomized, to make this coffee companion seem more lifelike.
This is the work of Yukai Engineering, which has built something of a name for itself when it comes to gadgets that walk an unsteady line between appealing and just plain weird. This year, it’s also showing a furry creature that’ll cling to your bag handle and watch people as they go past, and previous CES showings include a cuddly toy that nibbles your fingers.
Is this the future of immersive experiences?
If I had the choice of game/TV show to try in immersive-experience form, it wouldn’t necessarily be The Last of Us. The superb PlayStation horror/HBO thriller is terrifying at the best of times, so actually living it… well, no thank you.
Our Senior Staff Writer Hamish Hector is clearly braver than I am, though, so he took one for the team and stepped into the world’s first interactive The Last of Us exhibit at CES. And he died. Of course he did. But he had fun, and that’s the main thing, right?
We’re not sure if this well ever end up being more than a tech demo, but as Hamish says, it was “a super awesome experience. I loved the blending of real and virtual elements to create an immersive interactive story that felt like you were thrust into the game world.” Here’s hoping it’s made available to a wider audience at some stage.
Instant CES Day 1 catch-up
Need a quick primer on everything you’ve missed over the first day of CES? We’ve pulled together our round-up to CES 2025 day 1: featuring the 11 best gadgets we’ve seen so far.
And there was plenty of it – from smart glasses to smart rings, hi-res audio players to OLED TVs and – inevitably for CES – robots. Lots of robots.
First climb: Garmin’s new Instinct 3 smartwatch
CES is tiring at the best of times, but TechRadar’s Editor at Large Lance Ulanoff really went above and beyond to try out the new Garmin Instinct 3 in Vegas.
The Instinct 3 is the latest version of Garmin’s popular outdoor smartwatch, and brings with it either a new AMOLED display or a new solar-powered screen, new metal-reinforced bezel and a built-in flashlight, among other upgrades.
And of course it tracks multiple activities – including climbing. So what else could Lance do but give it a go…
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Check out the video above to see how he found it, but it case you’re worried, he made it back to ground safely.
First listen: LG’s impressive new Bluetooth speakers
Here’s a slight surprise from the CES 2025 show floor – a celebrity tech collaboration that’s actually good. LG has announced a new range of Bluetooth speakers made in collaboration with will.i.am and they’ve surprised TechRadar’s Managing Editor of Entertainment Matt Bolton by offering “big, beautiful sound and a smart design”.
The new xboom speakers are a range coming in different sizes, but the star (to our ears) was the LG xboom Stage 301 (above) which is designed like the stage speakers you see at concerts. It can also sit on a stand, so you can use it with a mic for karaoke, busking or just as a big party speaker.
In our demo we found it delivered “really full bass that felt suitably deep but not overwhelming at all, and with tons of space for the rest of the music to leap out at you”. You can read our full report on the whole range below.
Nvidia reveals the planet’s most powerful consumer graphics card
It wasn’t exactly a surprise after months of leaks and speculation, but Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (in perhaps his finest leather jacket so far) has finally revealed the RTX 5000 series graphics cards at CES 2025 – and put AMD and Intel firmly in the shade.
As TechRadar’s Computing Editor Christian Guyton noted, “it might not be called the Nvidia Titan RTX, but the RTX 5090 might as well be”. The flagship card’s specs are astounding and, frankly, so is the price at $1,999 (£1,999 / AU$4,039). Too much for a ‘consumer’ graphics card? Read our full report to make up your mind…
The ‘greatest gadget we’ve seen at CES’ so far?
It’s a bold claim, but TechRadar’s Homes Editor Ruth Hamilton makes a strong case for the Switchbot K20+Pro being the finest thing, in pure gadget terms, we’ve seen from CES 2025. It is, after all, a vacuum that can clean your floors, but also act as your air purifier, security camera and sandwich deliverer.
Like the SwitchBot K10+ Pro, this new model is a Lidar-powered modular bot that can have different SwitchBot appliances stacked on top of it. That means you can add a security camera, fan or a clip-on tray to deliver you anything up to 8kg in weight. It’s been a long time coming, but a Jetsons-style home robot could finally be close…
Eyes-on with Samsung’s new The Frame Pro TV
We’ve always been a little ambivalent about Samsung’s popular The Frame TVs at TechRadar, but that could soon change. Our resident TV expert Matt Bolton has just seen a demo of the The Frame Pro mini-LED TV at CES 2025 and says “the new screen is a total game-changer”.
When compared to the classic The Frame model, the difference is apparently “night and day” due to the inclusion of the company’s Neo QLED mini-LED tech and local dimming, which improves realism and means the “colors are massively richer and bold”.
I saw The Frame Pro in action next to a regular 2024 The Frame TV, and the difference is staggering. We’ve always had a slightly cool relationship with The Frame TVs here on TechRadar, because they’re wildly popular and we understand why people like them, but it always rankled that they used such mediocre image tech.
First look: LG C5 OLED TV
LG’s new mid-range C5 OLED TV wasn’t given the fanfare of its G5 and M5 flagship TVs, but TechRadar’s Matt Bolteon (Managing Editor, Entertainment) managed to track it down for a demo. And if you’re in the market for well-priced panel in 2025, it’s shaping up very nicely.
There’s no pricing for it yet (and that’ll be key), but it’ll effectively be an LG C4 with improved processing, a slightly brighter display, and new webOS features. We’ve called it “another great-looking set” – to find out why, check out our full report from the show floor below.