CES 2025 has wrapped, and after days on the show floor, our Verge reporters have picked the year’s best tech. From next-gen gaming handhelds and bendable screens to new TVs, AI-powered smart home gadgets, smart rings, and futuristic EVs. Here are our top picks from the show
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00:00CES is almost over and that means there's only one thing left for us to do and that
00:07is our annual best of CES video.
00:09We've seen plenty of stuff like you'd expect at CES from laptops and monitors and gaming
00:14things and it is CES so we've seen plenty of TVs, some EVs, and a whole lot of smart
00:21home appliances.
00:22To make sense of it all, we're going to bring in our staff and they will tell you what their
00:25best picks for CES 2025 are.
00:32I came to Las Vegas pretty certain that Samsung's The Frame Pro would be my favorite TV at the
00:37show.
00:38Better picture, same stylish design, it seemed like an immediate recipe for success.
00:43But it turns out Samsung kind of misled us about the whole mini LED part of The Frame
00:48Pro.
00:49So I've been looking around to see what really captures my heart here at the show and I keep
00:53coming back to an old TV favorite, Panasonic.
00:59Panasonic came back to the US last year after a long break making TVs and this year it's
01:05back with the Z95V OLED TV.
01:09Now picture wise, it uses a four layer OLED structure.
01:14We're in a new brightness war era of the OLED TV market and year after year they keep getting
01:19brighter and brighter and brighter and this is another example of that.
01:23It is a stunning picture on the floor and last year's model also got great reviews,
01:28so I'm confident that this improvement is going to be even better once it ships later
01:32on this year.
01:33Sound wise, this TV does not care about being thin.
01:38It's got a sound bar built into the bottom, there are up firing channels, there are side
01:42firing channels.
01:44It's just a big bulky OLED TV that focuses on sound and picture and just being a home
01:50theater centerpiece.
01:52Now, there is one downside.
01:55Just like last year, the Z95V runs Fire TV OS from Amazon.
02:01It is my least favorite of the major TV platforms, but on the other hand, I've gotten very tired
02:07of AI being shoved down our throats here at CES.
02:10I don't want a chatbot on my TV, I don't want Microsoft's copilot on my TV, I just
02:14want simple software and yes, Fire TV has ads, it's ugly, there are certainly downsides
02:20to it.
02:21Amazon, please, just take a sledgehammer to this software and start all over someday.
02:25But as a TV, as a fixture of CES, the Z95V OLED, it's the winner.
02:35So my best pick for wearable is the Rokit glasses.
02:38Rokit glasses were everywhere on the floor at CES this year and while the Rokit glasses
02:42aren't technically the most advanced, they do answer the question of what would it be
02:47like to have a pair of Ray-Ban Metaglasses that actually had a display in them.
02:53Not only do they have an AI assistant, there's a micro-etch display in there that's totally
02:57discreet from the front, but you can see this green light display, stuff like that we saw
03:01on Holiday and even Realities, and you can have these apps like Live Translate so you
03:06can have a conversation and see the translation, but no one else can.
03:10There's a teleprompter, so if you're giving a presentation, you can see things, you can
03:13take photo and video and actually frame up the shot and just go click.
03:17That's the problem with smart glasses, you kind of have to see it to get it and believe
03:21it, but of the ones I saw on the show floor, these were the coolest.
03:26My pick for best beauty tech is L'Oreal's Cell Bioprint.
03:29It's this really awesome machine, initially it's intended for something like a dermatologist's
03:34office, but you go, you sit, you get samples from your skin, those samples are then dissolved
03:38into a buffer that isolate proteins from your skin, that gets put onto a cartridge
03:42that then gets put into a machine, answer a few questions, beep-bop-boop, and then you
03:47get the results.
03:48And the results tell you, like, is your skin's biological age in line with your chronological
03:53age?
03:54You can see how you're doing on certain factors like wrinkles, pore size, skin barrier function,
03:59and then it could tell you what problems you might be predisposed to, too.
04:03So the idea isn't so much to tell you what you should buy, but kind of clear up for you
04:08what you don't need.
04:10So instead of having a 10-step skincare routine that's going to break your wallet, you can
04:14be a lot more intentional based on what actually is your skin concern.
04:19Great for my wallet, but at the same time, now that I know I am responsive to retinol,
04:25I guess I have to go buy a retinol.
04:28At CES 2025, Siemens is transforming industries by bringing the real and digital worlds together
04:34with groundbreaking technologies, like industrial AI, digital twins, and software-defined automation.
04:41With thousands of AI patents and decades of innovation, Siemens leads in trustworthy,
04:46secure, and explainable AI that enhances human capabilities.
04:50The industrial metaverse allows real-time collaboration, testing solutions virtually,
04:55and deploying them seamlessly.
04:57At Siemens, technology isn't just imagined, it's built to help solve real problems.
05:02Before we jump back to seeing the best technologies of CES, a quick note.
05:05Sponsorships don't influence our editorial content, but they do help make videos like
05:09this possible.
05:10Now, back to the team.
05:11So for me, I think there's really only one choice for the best laptop of CES, and that's
05:18this guy right here, the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6.
05:21It's a 14-inch laptop, but it's got a rollable display.
05:24So hit a button, and it grows to a 16.7-inch tall boy that I just think is really quirky,
05:31but really, really cool.
05:32Usually when I think of Lenovo, I think, yeah, a little, you know, kind of boring business
05:37laptops, but this is a, I guess, business-focused laptop that has all the business.
05:42I mean, imagine you can go to the cafe and get some work done, and then just say, hey,
05:46you know what?
05:47I want extra real estate on my screen.
05:49Maybe the software will be a little janky, we'll have to see, but this was a concept
05:53a couple of years ago, and now it's going to be something you can actually buy.
05:56It'll be $3,500, so it ain't going to be cheap, but this is a quirky, cool, and weird, and
06:03interesting design that we never thought would maybe come to market, but now it is.
06:09CES is known for showing out-there products that are sometimes vaporware, or it's just
06:13all hype, but this looks like future tech that will actually become the present when
06:18it launches this year.
06:24So my pick for best car at CES in 2025 was the Honda Zero Saloon and Honda Zero SUV.
06:30Now, sure, we saw these cars in concept form at last year's CES, and EV sales are, shall
06:36we say, doing so hot right now with very little relief on the horizon, but Honda really helped
06:40revitalize what was gearing up to be otherwise a very sleepy CES from an auto enthusiast
06:45point of view with the introduction of these two electric vehicles.
06:47Now, you got to hand it to the designers here at Honda.
06:49They didn't pull any punches.
06:51There's a hint of Lamborghini Countach, a dusting of Aston Martin's Lagonda's shooting
06:56brake, and more than a hint of AMC Gremlin.
06:59In other words, enough 70s and 80s vibes to help offset some of the future shock from
07:03the minimalistic interior and all the marketing speak about software-defined vehicles.
07:08There's enough here that's weird, and interesting, and different that I'm sure some of it will
07:12survive through customer deliveries in 2026, if we actually end up getting there.
07:17For my CES 2025 Best in Show, I have chosen one of the wildest and wackiest things I've
07:28seen in the smart home in a long time, and this is the K20 Plus Pro multitasking household
07:35robot that is currently delivering a dog to me for some reason.
07:40I've always thought I wanted a Rosie the Robot, you know, a humanoid that's going to do everything
07:44for me, but this is a modular robot, and the idea is you can put different devices
07:50on this platform, and the platform can roam around your house.
07:53It can deliver you an air purifier.
07:56It can monitor your home through the camera.
07:59One of the great features about being modular is that they can develop more products for
08:03this and increase its capabilities.
08:05One thing they've teased is bringing a robot arm, which could be really helpful around
08:10the house.
08:11Plus, what's really fun for smart home geeks, the robot attaches to the Fusion platform
08:17with a claw docking system.
08:19This also is a data communication channel, so you can use it to stream video, has power,
08:26anything you can plug into it.
08:28It gives you flexibility to do whatever you want with a multifunctional robot in your
08:33home.
08:34What I like about this is it's modular, it's innovative, and it's practical.
08:38So those are my reasons.
08:39It's my pick for CES 2025.
08:45So my pick for the best of CES 2025 is the phone toaster, and let me explain.
08:51It's not a toaster.
08:53It's a charging system for your phone.
08:56It's a phone case that has a battery in it, and it gives your phone a little extra boost,
09:01so kind of familiar.
09:04When the battery's low, you just plop it into the phone toaster, it puts in a new battery,
09:10and you take it out, and you're on your way.
09:12It charges the old battery, so it's getting ready for the next time you need it, and it's
09:17compatible with basically any phone that they make a case for.
09:21Since the batteries are all the same, it just kind of slots in and it works.
09:25So it sort of makes sense for a household of people, maybe if you have teenage kids
09:31who don't remember to charge their phone, and then it's your problem that they didn't
09:35charge their phone, I can see a case for it then.
09:38The thing about the phone toaster is that it's going to cost $450, and the cases are
09:43$120.
09:45So this is definitely like a luxury.
09:48If you want to escape the mundane life of charging your phone with wires, this is something
09:54you could purchase.
09:55They've designed it in a way that kind of allows for phones to get bigger, which they
10:00probably will, and I actually really appreciate it.
10:04I think it's a cool idea, it's different, it's unique, and it's so CES.
10:12The Lenovo Legion Go S is the best handheld at CES 2025 because of what's inside and what's
10:18on the outside too.
10:20It's got a 120Hz variable refresh rate screen, one of the first handhelds to do that after
10:26the ASUS ROG Ally, and it's got SteamOS inside.
10:31It's the first authorized third-party handheld that Valve has worked with the manufacturer
10:36to create since the Steam Deck itself, and in May, you'll be able to get one with SteamOS
10:42for $499, one of the lowest prices we've seen in the handheld world as well.
10:48It's more comfortable than the original Legion Go, it looks better, it does ditch the detachable
10:54controllers, but it's a small price to pay for what looks like a great handheld.
10:58My only big question is battery life.
11:00This handheld's designed to run at about 20W with a 55Wh battery, only slightly bigger
11:06than the original Legion Go, while some competitors have huge 70 or 80Wh batteries now.
11:16Next-gen GPUs are finally here for your fancy PC gaming rig, and Nvidia really stole the
11:22gaming side of CES this year with the RTX 50 series.
11:25The flagship RTX 5090 will debut on January 30th priced at $1,999, that's a lot of money
11:33for a GPU, and it's even $400 more than the RTX 4090.
11:38But for those $2,000 you're getting a 2-slot card with 32GB of GDDR7 memory, and promises
11:45from Nvidia that it can double the frame rates in games like Cyberpunk 2077.
11:51Those doubling of frame rates might be largely down to DLSS4 though, thanks to its new multi-frame
11:56generation that uses AI models to generate frames and smooth out games.
12:01DLSS4 will also be available on the RTX 5080 and the RTX 5070 Ti, or Ti, I don't know,
12:10neither does Nvidia apparently.
12:11The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, Ti, 2080 Ti, Ti, Ti, Ti, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti.
12:19The RTX 5070 will also have DLSS4, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang even boldly claimed that
12:25it will deliver RTX 4090 performance for $549, hmm, that sounds impressive but I think the
12:33reality is you're only going to see RTX 5070 deliver the RTX 4090 performance in games
12:39that support DLSS4, thanks to those extra frames that it's generating.
12:44Either way, some of the demos of the RTX 50 series look super promising, with Nvidia using
12:49new RTX neural faces and neural materials to add even more AI powered elements to PC
12:55games.
12:56I think it's fair to say that the RTX 50 series is heavily focused on AI powered features
13:00this time around.
13:03And finally, my pick for best of CS 2025, and that's going to be LG Standby Me 2, and
13:10I'm going to call that the best sequel of the year.
13:14When the first one came out it was a little bit pricey, it was $1000 and it was sort of
13:19limited and not the greatest TV or monitor, but things are improving.
13:23So this year it is 1440p instead of 1080p, the battery life is better by half an hour
13:28so you get a total of 4 hours of battery time.
13:31But the biggest difference is that it's actually detachable, so you can just put it places
13:36and they're releasing a bunch of accessories for it.
13:38So there's the shoulder strap, if you want to carry it around your shoulder, but realistically
13:43what you're going to do with it, you're probably going to hang it on a wall and display it
13:46that way and it looks really nice.
13:48From there you can leave notes, draw something, put some photos up, it's really cool.
13:53The second accessory is the folio, so it looks like a massive iPad, and there's also a stand
13:58for vertical or landscape orientation, there's a bunch more, so that's really cool.
14:03They're also adding two USB-C ports, so on one you can add accessories, on the other
14:06one you can put a webcam if you want to take video calls on it, and there is an HDMI port
14:11as well.
14:12The only thing I don't like about it is that it is expensive, so I'm not entirely sure
14:15what to expect when it comes to price.
14:17The first one, as I said, was already expensive.
14:20And that brings us to the end of Best of CES 2025.
14:23Thank you for watching, thank you for being with us, reading all of our stuff on the website,
14:27there was a lot, watching all the videos that we published throughout the week.
14:31We'll also have one more video, I think we're going to have one more video, we tried something
14:35different last night, and um, I think it's going to be fun, but it's going to take a
14:40lot of editing.
14:41So, yeah, stay tuned for that.
14:44See you all soon.
14:45We got content.
14:46CES over.