It’s hard to believe, but the progress bar on the year 2025 has just hit the 50% mark. That mildly terrifying marker is a good opportunity for us to look back at the tech we’ve spent days reviewing over the past six months and ask a simple question – what are the best new products we’ve tested in 2025 so far?
The answers from our many experts across audio, phones, computing, cameras, TVs, fitness, the smart home and more are below. Has AI killed hardware innovation? The list below suggests the answer is an emphatic ‘no’. While there are some familiar faces below (hello, Nintendo Switch 2), there are also bold new designs from the likes of Honor, Motorola and Sigma.
The price of this kind of innovation often doesn’t come cheap, so we’ve also sprinkled in the best-value launches we’ve seen from the worlds of chargers, smart glasses and smartwatches. If you’re looking for a temperature check on the year so far in tech, you’ve come to the right place…
The best tech of 2025 so far
What are the best things TechRadar has tested and reviewed in 2025 so far? There have been a lot of contenders, but we’ve picked out the very top ones across all of our categories below.
Because of the sheer variety in our product testing, the order of our list is a little arbitrary, but that’s all part of the fun. And among the top six are four products that have all been given a coveted five-star TechRadar rating…
- The polarizing, stand-out camera of 2025 so far
The Sigma BF ignores so many camera design norms that it should, by rights, be a total failure – and yet it has been the most talked about snapper this year. Crafted out of a single block of metal, this premium-feel minimalist full-frame camera with tactile buttons has some of the boldest design flourishes you’ll ever see, which have led to it being described as the camera Apple would’ve made.
My experience testing the BF over several weeks proved to be a rollercoaster: the smooth, featureless body that’s properly awkward to grip onto, the control setup being the very definition of ‘minimalist’, the omission of a viewfinder and lack of tilt / rotate movements in the screen, no decent connectivity, no card slot (which is disconcerting), nor in-body stabilisation.
For all these lows, the minimalist Sigma BF is a compelling, creative tool with plenty of highs. It does design differently – far from a cold, unfeeling product, its stark, stripped-back beauty pushed me to go out and take photos – and I loved the look of the photos I took with it. (Timothy Coleman, Cameras Editor)
- Our new, go-to compact phone charger for traveling
If you’re looking for a new phone charger, the Anker Nano Charger 45W is a truly excellent option. It offers more than enough power to activate fast-charging on the best iPhones and best Samsung phones, and even comes with a 6ft USB-C cable.
What makes this model so special, though, is that it’s phenomenally compact and lightweight – especially given its generous maximum power output.Yes, with the use of GaN technology, Anker has ensured that this charger is mighty enough to juice up your devices in a flash, while also being petite enough to slide into tight spaces at home or on the go.
And when you need to take the charger out and about, you can simply fold the prongs away and slide it into your pocket or bag – pretty convenient. Considering the Anker Nano Charger 45W has a list price of just $34.99 / £24.99 (about AU$50), you’re looking at unbelievably good value for money. A special mention also goes to the Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station 3-in-1 Foldable Pad too, which is a smartly designed palm-sized wireless charger that we’ve been taking on our travels ever since it launched. (Harry Padoan, Staff Writer)
- The Android smartwatch of 2025 (so far)
It may only be a modest step up from the OnePlus Watch 2, but the company’s 2025 take on its big, beautiful smartwatch is the best Wear OS experience you can buy.
The Watch 3 is designed for those who want a smart dress watch with a side of casual fitness, and it mostly succeeds in those aims. Battery life is one of its big selling points – during our tests, we found it lasted an impressive four-and-a-half days, despite us subjecting it to several, GPS-based workouts.
We also found that it tracks running particularly well and accurately monitors your sleep. This clearly isn’t isn’t a watch for Apple fans or anyone with an aversion to hefty timepieces, and we did have a few issues with swim-tracking. But if you’re looking for a premium Wear OS experience, this is it – and a smaller version will launch on July 8.
- Twin winners for the best robot vacuums we’ve tested
Understandably, of Roborock’s new 2025 line of robovacs, its was the Saros Z70 with its big mechanical arm that garnered most attention. While the tech is undoubtedly exciting, on test we found the Z70’s more understated range-mates more genuinely useful. The Roborock Saros 10 and Saros 10R are a formidable pair of home helpers, each offering something slightly different but both equally impressive.
Roborock is one of the very best robot vacuum brands around, and these robot vacuums showcase the latest-and-greatest versions of its technology, both offering accurate navigation, superb suction, advanced object identification and docks that will take care of almost all maintenance for you (and look great while doing so).
However, the big selling point is that both bots have special ways of accessing low-height spaces. That doesn’t sound too exciting, until you realize it means they’ll be able to clean places that regular, taller bots can’t, such as the dusty depths beneath your sofa. There are other small differences – which we dig into in our Roborock Saros 10 vs 10R side-by-side testing article – but they’re both good enough to earn a joint crown as the top robovacs of 2025 so far. (Ruth Hamilton, Homes Editor)
- The most stylish phone you can buy by far
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If you think smartphones have become too dull, you need to meet the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025. It’s the antithesis of the boring glass rectangle, combining unique design flourishes (like the wood finish option above) with some flagship-level performance.
This year, that finally includes a powerful chipset – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite – which is the brains behind most of today’s Android powerhouses. Snapping its flip phone design shut is an incredibly satisfying way to hang up on people, too.
The Razr Ultra 2025’s main 7-inch display is also glorious (the biggest you’ll find outside tablet-style foldables) and even its second screen is faster than any iPhone display, with a 165Hz refresh rate. All of this comes at a cost, of course. But outside price tags, Motorola’s flagship shows that foldables no longer need to mean compromises.
- The tastiest coffee machine we’ve tested in 2025
The Jura J10 is a premium bean-to-cup coffee maker that produces perfectly extracted hot and cold-brewed coffee every time, and makes some of the best latte macchiatos I’ve ever had.
Hot espresso is rich and flavorsome, and the automatic milk steamer can produce different textures depending on the drink you’re making. Just choose what you want from the menu, and the J10 will do the rest. For cold brew, the J10 lets the freshly ground coffee pre-infuses, then pulses cold water through it at high pressure, recreating the rounded, mellow flavor of coffee steeped in the fridge overnight.
It then tops it off with perfectly foamed milk – which can be infused with a syrup of your choice. It’s not cheap, but if money is no object, then it’s the best coffee machine released this year. (Cat Ellis, Homes Editor)
- Your ticket to pure, analog gaming bliss
The latest models in SteelSeries’ Apex Pro lineup certainly had some big shoes to fill (the TKL variant from 2023 still remains the best gaming keyboard for customization). But the new generation certainly didn’t disappoint – especially the SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini Gen 3, which is my personal pick of the bunch.
It’s built to incredibly high standards, with a super-solid chassis that still remains light, while the double-shot PBT keycaps feel every bit as premium as you might imagine. The performance from the analog switches is pretty much flawless, too.
There’s no denying the Apex Pro range is expensive, but the Mini is the cheapest model owing to its small size, yet the layout doesn’t feel compromised thanks to the number of shortcuts available. If you want pure analog gaming bliss, this is the keyboard for you. (Lewis Maddison, Reviews Writer)
- The best AR glasses around for entertainment
The Xreal One Pro AR smart glasses are a cut above any other pair we’ve tested, and give us insight into what 2026’s Android XR glasses could have in store.
Like other current-gen AR specs this Xreal pair can be connected to a compatible phone, PC or gaming device and project the screen on a giant virtual screen – up to 171 inches – with dazzling 120Hz full-HD visuals produced by its 700-nit Sony OLED display.
What makes these glasses special, however, is that they boast a new optical engine. This prism, which reflects the OLED screen into your vision, is not only less bulky but produces a cleaner image while also offering a wider field of view. This unique hardware feature is what makes the Xreal One Pro glasses excellent, and easily the best smart glasses we’ve tested so far this year. (Hamish Hector, Senior Staff Writer, News)
- So good we forgot we were wearing open earbuds
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The best headphones or earbuds in 2025? Tough call, honestly.
Do we go with the February release Beats Powerbeats Pro 2, a hugely anticipated update – and one that finally added heart-rate monitoring to Apple-subsidiary earbuds? How about the May issue Sony WH-1000XM6 over-ears, or even Nothing’s first ever headphones, the Headphone (1) – which narrowly made this missive by arriving on July 1?
After much consideration, I’m going with none of the above and opting for a set of open earbuds – a now-huge category that’s seen a 600% growth since last year (thank you for that stat, Huawei). The thing with open-fit designs historically has been bass response; it’s hard to get decent low-end clout when the drivers are neither covering your ear completely nor creating an in-ear seal, using your ear canal.
The biggest compliment we paid these buds in our full Honor Earbuds Open review was that they sound so good, we genuinely forgot we were wearing an open-ear design. Oh, and if you thought open earbuds couldn’t ace noise cancellation, think again… (Becky Scarrott, Audio Editor)
- The new ‘best tablet for most people’
In recent years, Apple’s iPads haven’t changed a great deal, with small refinements being made from generation to generation. That’s mostly the case with the 2025’s iPad Air, but with the addition of Apple’s in-house designed M3 chip, the iPad Air is pretty much the best tablet for most people.
This is because its 11-inch display offers plenty of space to do everything from browse copious amounts of webpages, to watching movies on a commute or sketch out digital works of art. The M3 chip, which can also be found in MacBook Air models, though not the very latest ones, has buckets of power that most people will struggle to put under a silicon sweat.
Add in accessories like the Magic Keyboard and you’ve also got a pseudo laptop replacement, especially if you tap into various cloud-based tools and software. In short, this is the leading tablet you can buy in 2025 so far, and we don’t expect that to change as the year marches on. (Roland Moore-Colyer, Managing Editor, Mobile Computing)
- The ultimate Android phone
While the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra didn’t shake-up the large-phone format established with the Galaxy S24 Ultra and its predecessors, it marks the culmination of Samsung efforts in iterating on and refining its flagship phone into one of the best phones money can buy.
As such, we’ve dubbed the Galaxy S25 Ultra as “the ultimate Android” thanks to its superb design, excellent display, powerful performance and an array of cameras that’ll help you get the most out of your phone photography pursuits. But the Galaxy S25 Ultra also stands out as a platform for the generative AI features Google has baked into Android, and those that Samsung has added into the mix with Galaxy AI.
Features like Circle to Search have been refined to be genuinely useful, while other AI-powered tools open up more creative opportunities. However, even if you have no interest in such smart features, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a superb phone; it’s not cheap but then we feel it’s still the leading phone to come out of 2025 so far and one that’ll serve you well some years from now. (Roland Moore-Colyer, Managing Editor, Mobile Computing)
- The king of smartwatch value
Yes, we already have a smartwatch in this list (see the OnePlus Watch 3 at no. 15), but we had to give a prominent shout-out to Amazfit’s latest all-rounder – at $99 / £99 / AU$160, it isn’t just the best-value smartwatch we’ve tested in 2025, it might just be the best-value gadget that’s graced our labs. That garnered it a rare five-star TechRadar rating in March.
It can’t perform miracles, so there are weaknesses – its fitness-tracking is still a level below Garmin‘s industry-leading accuracy, and there’s no NFC. The lack of Wear OS or watchOS also means it lacks polish in some areas. But its feature-set is vast, and its fitness- and heart-tracking is still very accurate.
We’re also big fans of its stainless steel design, which is light and comfortable. As our review concluded, the Amazfit Active 2 offers “unbelievable value for the price” and even “goes toe-to-toe with the Apple Watch for health tracking”. While this isn’t quite enough for it to top our guide to the best smartwatch, we do think it’s the best cheap option by quite a distance.
- A Bluetooth speaker that punches way above its weight
Five years is eons in Bluetooth speaker technology and portable audio in general, but that’s how long B&O made us wait between iterations of its premium pastel-hued, English muffin-shaped speaker.
The good news is, it was worth the wait: our glowing five-star review of the Beosound A1 Gen 3 reveals a May 2025-issue speaker that’s all about sonic performance alongside a generous helping of pride in ownership.
It’s little short of a masterclass where materials and their deployment are concerned and for sound, the A1 3rd Gen can summon highly unlikely low-frequency presence and substance. Basically, it hits remarkably hard for a speaker of its proportions. No, it’s not cheap, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good value.
Yes, we loved the also-five-star March release JBL Flip 7, but the B&O buy is such a classy performer it’s impossible not to give it the nod. (Becky Scarrott, Audio Editor)
- The best laptop of 2025 so far
When I was asked what was the best laptop that’s been released so far in 2025, the answer was easy – and also a little bit disappointing. It’s easy because the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M4) – and its 15-inch version which I reviewed – is a superb laptop that combine excellent performance, a thin and light design and, best of all, an incredibly competitive price that rival laptop makers simply cannot match.
The 2025 MacBook Air is also a culmination of Apple’s reinvention of its laptop line, which started back in 2020 when the company ditched Intel as its hardware partner and began making its own chips, often referred to as ‘Apple silicon’. The M4 chip offers both excellent performance, as well industry-leading efficiency, so it can run for multiple work days on a single charge of the battery. The long battery life, dependable performance, slick design and affordable price makes it an easy recommendation for most people.
So why the disappointment? With Apple’s modern MacBook Airs proving to be so successful, both critically and commercially, it means we’ve hit a streak where Apple isn’t making any big changes with every annual release, so the M4 MacBook Air isn’t a major leap over the M3 model, which wasn’t a big change from the M2 model.
I’d love to say that the best laptop of 2025 so far is a device that takes risks, does something different or really shakes up the market. Instead, it’s a very competent and accomplished device which is no bad thing, of course, but I don’t want Apple getting complacent. (Matt Hanson, Managing Editor, Core Tech)
- A stunning Dolby Atmos soundbar that absolutely rocks
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It may have a controversial design that you’ll either hate or love, but there’s no arguing that the Marshall Heston 120 Dolby Atmos soundbar grabs your attention in a way that no other soundbars can manage. For its first soundbar, Marshall went all-in on the guitar amp look that the company’s amps are known for, even down to the gold-plated volume knobs (no, they don’t go to eleven).
Despite its looks, the Heston 120 is no flash in the pan. This 5.1.2 channel model delivers potent Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sound, and its bass is seriously impressive for an all-in-one bar. It also sounds great with both Atmos and stereo music, which is something we don’t normally say about most soundbars, and it has multiple HDMI 2.1 ports with up to 4K 144Hz pass-through for gaming. (Al Griffin, Senior Editor Home Entertainment, US)
- The best all-round handheld gaming experience you can buy
After years of constant leaks, rumors, and speculation, the Nintendo Switch 2 finally arrived and it was well worth the wait.
The Japanese gaming giant’s latest hybrid handheld console is its most powerful system yet, delivering substantial performance gains compared to its 2017 predecessor. Not only that, but this iteration has a much larger screen and is far more comfortable in the hands, plus it comes crammed with a whole host of exclusive features.
The overhauled Joy-Con 2 controllers, for example, can be turned on their sides and used like computer mice. The built-in GameChat functionality (effectively Nintendo’s take on popular services like Discord) works wonderfully and helps facilitate a more social gaming experience.
Of course, no console launch would be complete without a deluge of new games. The showstopping Mario Kart World takes the series’ popular racing action off the track for the very first time, with hectic 24 player matches and huge open-world environments to explore. Ports like Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition show off the Switch 2’s hardware power, while transformative Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrades to titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom breathe new life into old favorites. (Dash Wood, Hardware Writer)
- The OLED TV we’d spend our own money on
In a year with multiple impressive new OLED TVs, the LG G5 stands out as the most exciting TV of 2025.
The G5 incorporates a new Primary RGB Tandem structure OLED display panel that delivers very high brightness for an OLED TV, making it a great option for both movie nights and daytime sports viewing. The G5 is also particularly well outfitted for gaming, and its beautifully slim design makes it perfect for wall mounting.
TechRadar recently did a side-by-side comparison of the G5 with two other 2025 flagship OLED TVs, the Samsung S95F and Sony Bravia 8 II. Our takeaway from that comparison was that the G5 was the TV we’d spend our own money on, owing to its excellent overall picture quality across a range of room lighting conditions. (Al Griffin, Senior Editor Home Entertainment, US)
