Hot 100: T3's best breakthrough tech picks

The job of the Core 2 Thermal Sensor is to measure thermal load: that’s how hot your body is getting during exercise, basically. It’s smaller and lighter than before, but will still deliver the key stats you need, which are able to help you better adapt to the heat. What’s more, the data can be easily shared to other fitness platforms too.
£TBC, corebodytemp.com

Almost anything can be a smart gadget now, and that includes the pet doors that give your animal friends access to your home. The Pawport Smart Pet Door can mount over your existing pet door or be installed separately, adding a weatherproof seal and making sure only your own pets can enter – which is handled via a portable tag fixed to their collar.
From $499 (about £385), pawport.com

DJI is one of the innovative tech brands set to have the busiest and biggest of years during 2025. Already the market leader as far as consumer drones are concerned, you can expect new models from the company that are faster, smarter and more capable – as well as bonus projects such as phone gimbals and e-bike motors along the way too. The view from above is better than ever.
dji.com

Arguably the best videogame-to-TV-show adaptation we’ve ever seen, The Last of Us returns to screens in 2025 with its second season. It’s moody, atmospheric, gripping and very well acted – and of course it helps that it’s based on a game with so many strong narrative beats, which it would appear are going to be followed closely in season two.
hbo.com

Here’s something a little out of the ordinary: the Anker Solix Umbrella keeps you cool and in the shade on the beach, while also using the power of sunshine to charge up any electronic gadgets you’ve brought with you. The high tech brolly stands at 215cm tall and has an IP67 rating, so blowing sand and rain shouldn’t spoil things. You can even attach the umbrella to a cooler for keeping your food and drinks nicely chilled for your day out at the seaside.
£TBC, anker.com

The Aurvana Ace Mimi are described as “personal audio redefined” by Creative, and they come with bespoke sound personalisation technology that can tailor the audio specifically for your ears and your tastes. There’s also a host of features built in, including support for Super X-Fi, Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast.
£109.99, creative.com

Say hello to Plantbot, which quite simply enables your plants to talk to you. Well, not exactly: these pots use smart sensor tech to figure out the health and growth stage of your plants, which is then represented on the outside using one of over 100 emojis. The Plantbot will tell you when it needs water and say thank you when you give it some – kids will love it.
$159 (about £125), plantsrobot.com

With the stresses and strains of modern living, it’s not always easy to get a good night’s sleep, but the Ozlo Sleepbuds can help – they bring with them the ability to block out surrounding sounds, and options for playing white noise or your own choice of audio as well. They come with a variety of silicone tip sizes to make sure of a snug in-ear fit.
$299 (about £230), ozlosleep.com

The Hyve Smart Delivery Pod is here to save your package deliveries from porch pirates, with plenty of room inside and decent protection against the elements. You simply give your delivery driver an access code generated in the accompanying app, and they’re able to leave your package locked inside the Hyve pod until you’re able to come and collect it.
$299 (about £230), hyvesecurity.com

Don’t expect the popularity of air fryers to drop at any point during 2025 – certainly not with models of this quality available to buy. This is really straightforward to operate and maintain, offering a spacious 9-litre capacity and variety of cooking presets.
£249.99, philips.co.uk

The Insta360 Flow 2 Pro gives your mobile video recording capabilities a serious levelling up, keeping your phone nice and steady no matter how fast you’re going or how much you’re moving. You can also use it as a remote controlled tripod for capturing content, and the solid and robust design means you’re not going to be scared to take it outdoors. It works smoothly with over 200 iOS apps and there’s an optional AI tracker.

There are several reasons why the Acer Aspire Vero 16 is a laptop worth knowing about in 2025, including its eco-friendly credentials: more than 70% of the laptop’s chassis is made from recycled plastic and bio-based oyster shell material. On top of that, you’re getting a 16-inch screen, Intel Core Ultra processors and support for Wi-Fi 7 as well.
From £799, acer.com

Already busy making laptops, GPUs, motherboards and more, MSI now makes handheld PC consoles too: with an 8-inch screen and an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor on the inside, the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus puts an awful lot of power in the palm of your hand, perfect for gaming on the go.
£899, msi.com

If you’ve been under the impression that all webcams are alike, you’ve not seen the Obsbot Tiny SE. This tiny little marvel of a gadget can keep your face in view as you move around, courtesy of some integrated AI magic, as well as supporting gesture control and remote operation. Oh, and the video and audio are both top notch, of course.
£109, obsbot.com

Together with its connected mobile app, the stainless steel Cosori CNS-R101S smart kitchen scale can prove eminently useful for a multitude of cooking projects. Besides measuring out ingredients, this compact scale is able to accurately track nutritional information as well, and can help with tracking your eating and setting dietary goals.

This is the most portable air conditioner we’ve ever seen, and is perfect for keeping the temperature down on camping trips and other outdoor adventures. It can heat and dehumidify as well as cool, with everything running from the built-in battery, if needed.
$1,399.99 (£1,090), zerobreeze.com

Audeze consistently makes ace headphones, but it may have outdone itself with the MM-100 pair. Invest in these cans and you get something approaching a professional audio studio on the top of your head: the headphones boast high efficiency, planar magnetic drivers wrapped in a steel and magnesium chassis.

A winning mix of materials and design acumen, the Hoka Project Transport sneakers are distinct in their looks and very well protected against the elements. From the textured synthetic overlays to the semi-automatic zip lock, all details have been carefully considered.
£140, hoka.co

Smart rings are having a moment, and the Viv Ring gives us some idea why, with its powerful set of sensors, its lightweight design and its accompanying app – giving you access to masses of stats. This might just be the best way of tracking your various health and fitness metrics.
$279 (about £215), vivring.ai

No doubt we’ll see several new Garmin models throughout the course of the year but the Instinct 3 could be hard to beat. It’s packed with features, tastefully designed and has solar panel tech that means it may never need recharging (as long as you’re in sunny climes).

What we have with the Sigma BF is a camera that looks as gorgeous as the photographs and the videos it takes: this 24MP full-frame L-mount mirrorless camera is a beautifully minimal and streamlined piece of kit. There’s no memory card slot either, just plenty of on-board storage for your snaps.

Affectionately described as ‘the phone toaster’, the Swippitt combines custom battery cases for your smartphone and an automatic case swapping gadget – the idea being that when your handset is low on juice, you can pop it into the toaster and get a case swap, which then also means your device is instantly recharged and back to full battery power.
$570 (about £440), swippitt.com

Sure, you’ve seen robot vacuums before – but what about robot vacuums that also double up as mobile security cameras and air purifiers, and can deliver you breakfast in bed in the morning? The Switchbot K20 Plus Pro is a multitasking marvel that can be configured in a variety of ways.
£TBC, switch-bot.com

The XGIMI Horizon S Max is a projector that offers an experience that’s impressively close to the one you’ll get at your local cinema, what with its IMAX Enhanced and Dolby Vision certifications, and its 3100 ISO Lumens of brightness that’ll power through any ambient lighting.

A smart thermostat that offers easy operation and saves you money, the Honeywell Home X2S is an accomplished smart home device. Besides all of the temperature control basics you’d expect, it works with a variety of ecosystems and standards, including Matter.
$79.99 (about £60), honeywellhome.com

The Kanto Audio UKI bookshelf speakers aren’t going to cost you much, but they have plenty in the way of audio punch. They also have a rather endearing design, and that counts for a lot when it comes to music systems. The connectivity options here are Bluetooth, USB-C, RCA, which means there’s support for a host of different devices.
£199, kantoaudio.com

You can instantly see what makes the Aurzen Zip projector different: it brings with it a tri-fold design, which means it can be used just about anywhere, and folds down to a nice size. You can mirror content from iPhones and Android phones, and you get around 90 minutes of playback time from a single battery charge.
$699 (about £540), aurzen.com

Tech companies are making serious progress in adding more immersion to virtual reality experiences, and that’s the thinking behind the Roto VR Explorer. It’s a fully featured VR chair that swings around a full 360 degree circle, tracks your head movements, and provides extra haptic feedback.
£799, rotovr.com

The smart party trick offered by the Stromberg Twin 2 is it splits into two when needed, giving you two portable speakers for the price of one, that will last around 10 hours between battery charges. The speakers can easily be configured as a stereo system, and there’s a 3.5mm auxiliary input included.
£TBC, stromberg.world

Wonder material graphene plays an important part in this coat, to bring you the ultimate in lightweight protection from the elements. Using a special two-layer system, the garment has been precisely engineered to manage temperature and humidity, and once you put it on, you’ll find it justifies its price tag.
£1,295, vollebak.com

So we’ve got smartwatches, and smart rings, so why not a combination of the two? The Casio CRW-001-1JR is one of the most intriguing gadgets we’ve seen all year, and it comes with all the traditional Casio stylings, despite its diminutive size. While it doesn’t do much more than tell you the time, it’s undoubtedly a unique timepiece with a difference.
£TBC, casio.co.uk

There’s an awful lot of tech packed into these waterproof, open-ear bone conduction headphones, including support for offline audio (so you can leave your phone behind) and motion-detection features (for feedback on your swimming). Suunto promises you’ll forget you’re even wearing them, and the battery can go for 10 hours between recharges.
£175, suunto.com

The mobile phone trend of 2025 looks set to be ultra-thin phones. So far this year we’ve already seen the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge and the Oppo Find N5, and the rumours suggest an iPhone 17 Air will be along later in the year as well. We’re all for phones getting thinner, as long as it doesn’t overly affect battery life.

Having helped shape the Microsoft Surface line of products, Panos Panay is now heading up devices at Amazon – which means he’s in charge of everything from Amazon Echo speakers to Amazon Kindle e-readers to the next-gen Alexa Plus AI that was recently launched (it’s also in this list). You can expect to hear a lot more from Panos Panay.

Here at T3 we’re always on the lookout for innovative tech that’s a little bit different, and the Kara Water KaraPod absolutely fits that description. It’s a futuristic-looking coffee maker that can actually harvest water from the moisture in the surrounding air, which means you don’t have to keep refilling it – just add a coffee pod and you’re good to go.
£471, karapod.com

Freewrite excels in devices that help you to write in a distraction-free way, and the new Wordrunner is an extension of that: it’s a mechanical keyboard you can connect to all kinds of devices. The keys have been customised for easy access to commonly used writing tools.
getfreewrite.com

Nanoleaf has something pretty special with the 4D V2 Screen Mirror and Light Strip Kit solution. There’s a tiny camera that looks at your TV or monitor, and then a light strip for fixing to the back of the display – and you can then enjoy smart light colours and intensities that move in tandem with whatever’s happening on screen.
£89, nanoleaf.me

The QDOS Sip And Snap is essentially a water bottle with a MagSafe connector attached, so you can quickly get your phone set up for hands-free operation on the go. For watching videos and making calls, for example, this fits the bill – and it holds your drinks, as well.
£29.99, qdossound.com

There’s much choice when it comes to premium wireless earbuds, but the Technics EAH-AZ100 from Panasonic might just be at the very top of the pile – what with their outstanding audio fidelity, compact and polished design, and advanced noise reduction that works while speaking as well as listening.

You can worry a lot less about covid, colds, and the flu with the EcoAir Anti-Covid AVS air sterilisation system, which comes in the form of a compact box that takes care of 99.925% of airborne viruses and bacteria – reassuring if you’ve got younger or older people around at your home.
£349.98, ecoair.org

OnePlus has always shown that you can get very good handsets for very respectable prices – and the OnePlus 13 continues that trend. With a polished and intuitive operating system, an appealing design aesthetic and enough power to cope with every conceivable task, why would you spend any more?

Historically, car makers haven’t been the best at adopting new tech quickly, but the BMW Panoramic iDrive system is here to buck that trend. It brings with it a complete solution for operating your car and its integrated display system, with the screens, steering wheel and on-board sensors all working in perfect unison.
£TBC, bmw.com

If you feel like you need to go as big as possible with your home’s smart display, then the Amazon Echo Show 21 is perfect: the 21-inch display is great at showing off everything from Prime Video shows to the family calendar, and of course Alexa is always there if you need to turn on your smart lights or get a weather forecast
£399.99, amazon.co.uk

Not all PC monitors are the same: the Dell UltraSharp 32 for 2025 offers advanced QD-OLED technology, on-board AI for enhancing 3D sound, features for easing eye strain, an ambient light sensor, superior contrast and colour, and a host of connectivity options facilitated by Thunderbolt 4 tech.

Take some of the stress out of garden maintenance with the Mammotion Yuka Mini, a robot lawn mower that uses AI to map out its route, and which can automatically detect and avoid any objects. It’s all easily managed via the accompanying app, is fine with slopes, and of course is great at cutting grass down to size.
£849, mammotion.com

The HMD OffGrid gives you access to satellite networks wherever you happen to be on the planet – which means even if you’re far beyond the reach of the nearest phone mast and Wi-Fi network, you can still send out text messages, share your location and contact the emergency services. It could be a gadget that just may save your life.
£169.99 + service plan, hmd.com

Everything that you want in a modern laptop is included with the Aura Edition of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i – from a sleek and stylish chassis to on-board AI, from high-end internal specs to battery life that lasts and lasts. This is where laptops are heading during 2025 and beyond.

If you can afford it, the Valerion VisionMaster Max will wow you with its 4K, 3000 ISO Lumens, high contrast, full colour gamut, laser powered projection quality – and it also comes with the excellent Google TV on board. It’s probably the best video projector money can buy.
£4,999, valerion.com

We lost count of the number of AI models that launched in 2024, and the rapid pace of development looks likely to continue this year – whether it’s unified, all-in-one models from OpenAI and ChatGPT, or super-speedy competitors from China such as DeepSeek, expect the AI inside your apps of choice to get smarter and smarter.

The handheld PC space is certainly getting more and more competitive, and the Lenovo Legion Go S is the latest contender to enter the ring, bringing with it a high-resolution 8-inch display (with a 120 Hz refresh rate), clever cooling, neat ergonomics and an advanced AMD Z2 Go chipset. A broad range of games and game stores are supported too.

You’ve almost certainly never seen a gadget like this before. Conceived in Japan, the Nékojita FuFu sits on the side of your mug and bowl, gently cooling your drinks or food with a series of puffs. There are actually eight different blowing modes included, and the little bot uses a special algorithm to switch between them as it sees fit. £TBC, nekojitafufu.ux-xu.com

Give your motorbike a seriously high-tech upgrade with the Zumo R1 Radar: this clever little gadget is a plug-and-play safety kit that adds a radar-based hazard warning system to your bike, giving you warnings about vehicles behind you and in your blind spot. It’s straightforward to install, and displays a simple series of warning lights on the handlebars.
£519.99, garmin.com

JBL has a new elite-level pair of headphones: they offer superior sound and an appealing design, as well as an accompanying touchscreen audio transmitter. The idea is the tiny box can convert any wired connection into a wireless one – think an aeroplane seat or a TV set – giving you even more flexibility for your high-end audio listening.
£379.99, jbl.com

At first glance, the TCL 50 Pro NxtPaper 5G looks like any other smartphone – but with the flick of a switch the standard colour IPS LCD screen can turn into something more like you would find on an e-reader. It’s perfect for saving eye strain when you’re reading e-books or anything that’s going to take a while to read.

Somehow, the LG G series of OLED televisions keeps on getting better, year after year. We’re now up to the LG G5 OLED TV for 2025, which brings with it an upgraded panel offering pictures that are brighter and bolder than ever before, and overall quality that’s difficult to beat whether you’re watching sports, movies, games, or anything else.
From £1,799, lg.com

If you want the ultimate in smart fridge freezers this year, then you probably want the American style Smeg FQI60KD. The side-by-side fridge freezer brings with it loads of space, first and foremost, and then adds an LED control panel, frost-free operation, and smart food waste technology (including better management of cooling across each internal section).
£1,999, smeguk.com

One of the stars of 2025 as far as people go will be Carl Pei. Having co-founded OnePlus in 2013 and shaking up the affordable flagship killer phone business, Pei went on to found Nothing in 2021. Since then, Pei has continued to help to shape the mobile market, with his company launching phones that mix distinctive looks with quirky and clever software features. The latest is rated on page 78.

The Ninja FlexFlame is a serious upgrade for your outdoor cooking capabilities: it’s the first-ever propane grill from Ninja, and it offers five different cooking modes to choose from. It’s a grill, a smoker, a griddle, a roaster and a pizza maker in one unit, and they all promise excellent end results – no matter what level your chef skills currently are.
$999.99 (about £775), sharkninja.com

Choose the PocketBook InkPoster for your wall art and you can easily switch between a host of digital artwork options. With a choice of screen sizes and battery life that lasts up to a year between charges, the InkPoster really impresses with its natural e-ink tech.
From $599 (about £465), inkposter.com

There’s still room for innovation in the desktop PC space: the MSI MEG Vision AI 2nd desktop offers a full touchscreen display on the front, which you can use as a secondary display or a control panel, and you’ve got a selection of well-chosen AI optimisations here too – as well as top-tier specs.
£TBC, msi.com

Even in a crowded field, the Vantage Roadster stands out. The 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 petrol engine gives you 656bhp, a top speed of 202mph and zero to 62mph in just 3.6 seconds. And the roof can open or close itself in just 6.8 seconds.
£TBC, astonmartin.com

Smart lights can be fun as well as functional. This compact light panel gives you a bank of LED lights which can show custom designs, animations and even movements that follow along with music (the unit comes with an 8-bit gaming music library built in to accompany your gaming sessions).
£99.99, govee.com

There’s so much about the C60 Trident Lumière that makes it stand out. There’s its premium-level titanium construction, as well as the 3D dial that delivers twice the luminosity of any previous Trident watch, and the 300m of water resistance.
£1,985, christopherward.com

The best graphics card of the year, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 packs in a phenomenal level of power, and can run the most demanding games at the highest resolutions. The GPU also brings with it many improved rendering technologies, including better AI optimisations, lower latency and increased realism.

The projector experts at Nebula may have outdone themselves with the new Nebula X1 package: this cinema-grade outdoor entertainment system enables you to set up a big screen just about anywhere you like, with image and audio quality that compares very well indeed to your local multiplex. Your camping trips may never be the same again.
£TBC, seenebula.com

DJI has a drone for everyone now, and the DJI Flip is the ideal choice for beginners. It’s lightweight (and doesn’t need a licence), it’s straightforward to use, and with those propeller guards the chances of you causing any damage are minimal. It also comes in at an appealing price, and a range of bundle options to help start your flying career.

The Apple M4 chip has been impressing since its 2024 debut, and with the Mac Mini it may have found its perfect partner. Apple’s smallest desktop PC offers a brilliantly compact design as well as blistering performance, plus tons of connectivity options, and the starting price is very reasonable too (though higher spec units cost much more).
From £599, apple.com

Sky Glass 2 is the latest (and perhaps the greatest) example of TV-over-Wi-Fi technology – because not only do broadband and streaming mean we can do away with an antenna on the roof, we can ditch the satellite dishes now too as well. The Sky Glass 2 TV brings with it a brighter picture, bigger sound, 4K HDR pictures and a choice of three different sizes.
From £699, sky.com

Compact vlogging cameras are in a market segment all of their own, and despite some strong competition, the Canon PowerShot V1 seems set to dominate this particular conversation in 2025. It genuinely impresses with its sensor, its image resolution, its autofocus capabilities and the flexibility it offers in terms of zoom.

The iPhone 16e could be the most important smartphone Apple releases this year, because it’s the company’s first attempt to carve out some mid-range market share. The handset has the internal specs to match more expensive flagships (and run Apple Intelligence), while also making some compromises to keep the relative price down.

If you think all wireless earbuds sound the same in terms of their audio fidelity, then try the Beoplay Eleven pair from Bang & Olufsen. Even at this high price, you get a lot of sonic bang for your buck: advanced noise cancelling, multipoint Bluetooth support, and sound quality that brings richness to any audio, no matter the source.
£429, bang-olufsen.com

Just when you think LG’s monitors can’t get any better, the company goes and launches something like the LG UltraGear GX9: best-in-class brightness and contrast, a super-sharp resolution, and a display that can switch between flat and curved in seconds. If you’re looking for a premium and immersive gaming experience, then this is difficult to beat.
£TBC, lg.com

We’ve long liked The Frame – a TV that does double duty as a digital art display – and the Pro model is a premium upgrade with specs that are even more impressive. Brightness, HDR support and connectivity have all been improved, making it a fine choice for any space that needs both a TV and an art display.
£TBC, samsung.com

Oura has been leading the way in the smart ring sector for a long time, and its latest 4th-generation ring comes with numerous improvements: it’s now lighter and more comfortable to wear, and the upgraded sensors are better at tracking your activity and metrics over the course of the day. Maybe you don’t need that smartwatch after all.

You may still be struggling to get 5G in your part of the country, but 6G is very much on the way – and it promises to be a transformative technology. Imagine faster speeds, more reliable connections, and many more devices connected: just about any gadget or sensor will be able to get online, with network congestion beaten for good. 6gworld.com

The Roborock Saros Z70 is evidence that there’s plenty of innovation to come in the smart vacuum space. The Saros Z70 brings with it a mechanical arm on top, so if you’ve forgotten to clear the floor in advance, this robot can do it for you. As well as picking up toys, papers and shoes that have been left behind, it also offers top-tier automatic cleaning power.
£TBC, roborock.com

Pebble was one of the smartwatches responsible for launching the category to begin with, and although the wearable was discontinued in 2016 after breaking a few Kickstarter records, it’s now making a comeback: the original brand founder, Eric Migicovsky, says fresh hardware is on the way, though we don’t have much in the way of detail right now.
repebble.com

The Segway Xyber electric bike certainly makes a statement, with its chunky design aesthetic (making it look more like a motorbike), powerful acceleration capabilities, impressive battery range and choice of riding modes. It’ll handle on-road and off-road riding very well indeed, and certainly make you stand out from
your fellow cyclists.
$2,999.99 (about £2,325), segway.com

Samsung has done it again with its S series of flagship phones: the top-tier Galaxy S25 Ultra is faster and better-looking than ever before, while also retaining the S Pen stylus that helps to make it stand out from the crowd. There’s a good case to be made that this will end up being the best Android smartphone of 2025, when the final reckoning is made.

When it first appeared, Amazon Alexa broke new ground in terms of what a digital assistant could be – and now it’s ready to reclaim its top spot from the likes of ChatGPT and Copilot who have since overtaken it in terms of AI features and performance. Watch out for new hardware soon to go with the more capable AI chatbot.
£19.99 a month, amazon.co.uk

Formula 1 24 steps up to the mark to make full use of the extra horsepower under the hood of the PS5 Pro, and the result is a game that could define a (single) generation. The title enables 8K/60Hz picture quality on Sony’s latest console, including improved ray tracing so cars and circuits look ultra realistic.
£69.99, playstation.com

Foldable phones with a single hinge are so 2024 – the Huawei Mate XT adds an extra hinge and an extra display panel, and Samsung is expected to launch its own model before the year is out. It means you’ve got even more options for your apps and media on the go, though for the time being these multi-fold models come with steep prices attached.
€3,499 (about £2,930), huawei.com