Best of CES 2025 Awards: Android Authority’s top products from the show!

It’s a new year, and with that always comes a brand new CES! As usual, Android Authority was on the ground in Las Vegas, checking out all the latest tech at the world’s largest consumer electronics show.

Although no one could ever see everything at any given CES (it’s too massive!), we have compiled the best of what we saw this year into the list below. There are a wide variety of products here across numerous categories, including smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, smart home devices, and more.

Without further ado, here are the Android Authority Best of CES 2025 Award winners!

People the world over have been loving TCL’s innovative NXTPAPER technology, which is an anti-glare display covering that works exceptionally well. TCL has also offered a cool feature on some of its phones and tablets called Max Ink Mode, which is a battery-saving e-ink-style display triggered through a physical button called the NXTPAPER Key.

While we’ve seen NXTPAPER displays in the United States, we’ve never had a phone with a NXTPAPER Key. That changes now with the TCL 60 XE NXTPAPER 5G! Not only is this phone coming to North America, but it is exclusive to that market.

To make things even better, the TCL 60 XE is also incredibly budget-friendly, with a starting cost of just $199. While its budget status will inevitably mean lower performance and lower-grade specs, the NXTPAPER features make this the perfect secondary phone or replacement for an old e-reader.

TCL hasn’t announced when the TCL 60 XE will hit store shelves in the US, but we’ll likely find out more at Mobile World Congress in a few weeks.

The Steam Deck has been a massive success. Since it came on the market, countless other gaming handhelds have launched, but none of them have had the same Linux-based operating system that comes with the Steam Deck (at least, not officially). That changed at CES with the Lenovo Legion Go S, which has a variant powered by the same Steam OS you’ll find on a proper Steam Deck, licensed directly from Valve!

Officially titled the Lenovo Legion Go S — Powered by Steam OS (clunky, I know), this is actually one of two variants for the new Legion Go. If you don’t like Steam OS for whatever reason, you can get a Windows-powered version with the same hardware options. The only difference is that the Windows model is white, and the Steam OS model is black.

Obviously, the Steam Deck still exists and will most likely continue to be the hardware of choice for many gaming handheld buyers. But the Legion handheld offers different specs and a slightly different configuration (offset sticks!), which you might like better than what’s found on the Steam Deck. Now, you have options!

The Legion Go S will hit retail in May 2025 with a starting price of $499.

Brands love to bring concept products to CES, and XGIMI joined the fun this year. Concept products are just that: conceptualized products that the company has no intention of actually releasing. In XGIMI’s case, it has created a prototype that it is calling Ascend.

Essentially, the XGIMI Ascend is a piece of furniture that includes three things inside: an XGIMI Aura 2 projector, a pair of Harmon-Kardon soundbars, and a 100-inch projector screen that rolls out of the top. In other words, the console includes a full home theatre setup, giving you the power to have a home theatre experience when you want it and have it all fade into the background when you don’t.

In addition to the ability to hide everything away, you can also turn the Ascend into a more ambient piece. To show this off, XGIMI rolled up the projector screen only part of the way and then played a crackling fire video.

This all seems like a really cool idea to us, so we can’t imagine why XGIMI wouldn’t want to bring this to market. We’ll need to wait and see what happens, but for now, the Ascend is just a concept.

Circular’s recent smart ring — the Circular Ring Slim — seemed pretty promising but didn’t fully deliver on those promises. At CES 2025, the company is back with the Circular Ring 2, and it has two very notable things about it.

First, and most crucially, it supports a digital sizing system. With most other smart rings on the market — including the Samsung Galaxy Ring — you need to order a physical sizing kit to determine which ring size you’ll need. Circular, though, has developed a way to do this digitally, right on your smartphone. This saves you time, saves both you and the company money, and saves the environment from plastic waste and burned energy for shipping.

Additionally, the Circular Ring 2 is the first smart ring with an FDA-cleared atrial fibrillation (AFib) sensor. This is crucial for monitoring heart health and was previously something for which you would have needed a smartwatch.

The Circular Ring 2 will be available for $380 in February or March 2025.

OK, OnePlus launched the OnePlus 13 back in December 2024, but that was only in China. The global version — meaning the one you’ll buy here in the United States — launched on January 7 during CES, which made it eligible for a Best of CES 2025 award!

So far, we are absolutely loving both the OnePlus 13 and the OnePlus 13R. The OnePlus 13 continues the company’s pursuit of premium flagship perfection with stellar hardware, a beautiful design, and a plethora of useful software features. In fact, in our review of the OnePlus 13, we gave it a rare perfect 5/5 score. Meanwhile, the 13R offers some incredible specs at a surprisingly low price.

Notably, the OnePlus 13 has the most extensive software update commitment yet from the brand, with a guaranteed four Android upgrades and six years of overall support. That’s still far shy of the full seven years offered by Google and Samsung for their respective flagships, but at least OnePlus is catching up.

Meanwhile, the OnePlus 13R has more storage, a better telephoto camera, a bigger battery, and last year’s performance powerhouse, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

Both phones are available now, with the OnePlus 13 starting at $899 and the OnePlus 13R starting at $599.

LG has had quite a few wireless TVs over the past few years. By “wireless” we don’t mean completely wireless — the TVs still need a power cable connected to the wall — but wireless in the sense that you don’t need to connect any peripherals directly to it. Instead, you connect your gaming consoles, Blu-Ray players, etc., to a wireless transmitter, and it beams the signal to the TV from somewhere else in the room.

These TVs have faced two problems, though. First, they are very expensive. Second, the wireless transmitter — known as the Zero Connect — needs to be placed within a line of sight of the TV. With the new LG 4K True Wireless QNED TV (QNED9M), the company has addressed both of those issues.

Because it’s QNED (an LG branding term for LCD) instead of OLED, the price comes down significantly. And the new wireless transmitter can actually be hidden away, such as inside a piece of furniture. This makes these TVs more accessible and better than ever.

We loved the value offered by the LG 4K True Wireless QNED TV, and are excited to see how well it does in the market when it goes up for sale later this year.

TCL’s second win of the show goes to its newest tablet, the TCL NXTPAPER 11 Plus. This tablet is notable because it is the debut of NXTPAPER 4.0, the newest iteration of TCL’s e-reader/anti-glare display technology.

The coolest thing about the NXTPAPER 11 Plus is the new version of the NXTPAPER Key. On the TCL 60 XE mentioned earlier in this article, the NXTPAPER Key is binary — it’s either toggled on or toggled off. On the NXTPAPER 11 Plus, the button is capable of multiple functions and even lights up to make it clear what it’s doing.

For example, a single press of the button swaps you into either the normal display mode, Color E-Ink Mode, or Max Ink Mode. Meanwhile, a double-press of the button launches an AI toolbox TCL developed with its partner Microsoft. You can customize how this all works, with long-presses included as a third option.

Along with this new button, NXTPAPER 4.0 is also sharper, more colorful, and offers better contrast than previous versions. For now, if you want the best NXTPAPER experience possible, you’ll need this tablet.

It will probably be a while before NXTPAPER 4.0 and the new NXTPAPER Key make their way to a phone. It will also be a while before you can get this tablet, as TCL wouldn’t tell us any pricing or availability information.

If you own a robot vacuum, you’ve likely faced this issue: the robovac is making its rounds, but it gets stuck when it accidentally sucks up a sock you left on the floor. Now, it’s not going to be able to continue its job, and you need to wrestle the sock from its jaws.

That won’t be a problem anymore with the Roborock Saros Z70, because it has a robotic arm that can pop out of the vacuum and move objects around. Using AI, the robot can actually identify the object on the floor and even move it to the proper place. For the sock example, it would pick up the sock and put it in your laundry hamper. For a toy left on the floor by your child, it would move that toy to the toy box. Neat!

Obviously, it is a Roborock vacuum, first and foremost, so it also has all the cleaning features you would expect from a top-tier Roborock, including support for mopping.

Roborock didn’t have much information to give us on pricing or availability for the Saros Z70, but it will likely launch this year — and likely be really expensive.​

Sometimes, when you’re at CES, you forget about fun. You’re always searching for the next ground-breaking, life-changing tech, so sometimes you pass over things that are just plain fun. Well, the Govee Gaming Pixel Light is pure joy, and we thought it deserved an award for it.

Think of the Gaming Pixel Light as a Lite-Brite but for the twenty-first century. You can upload GIFs and other animations to the device, and it will render them in 8-bit-style graphics at a speed of 30fps. It can also pulse and change with music and voices, and sync to your wider smart home.

Is it life-changing? No. Is it essential? No. But is it fun? Yes, this is a ton of fun, and any RGB lighting fan will love it.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any pricing or availability information for this yet. Stay tuned!

In 2022, Lenovo showed off a concept device: a laptop with a rollable display. Now, in 2025, Lenovo has actually made it a real product, landing as the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable.

Just like the 2022 concept device, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 starts out as a pretty typical 14-inch Windows laptop. When you hit a special button on the keyboard deck, though, the screen extends upward, becoming a 16.7-inch display. This is possible thanks to the flexible OLED panel.

Inside, the laptop has plenty of specs, too. It’s powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra 7 (2nd series) processor, and can be customized with tons of RAM and storage.

Unfortunately, this unique form factor makes the laptop ridiculously expensive, landing at $3,499 (ouch). Still, if you want to live on the bleeding edge of tech, it’s always going to be pricey.

Remember rear projection TVs? They were big, mostly hollow TV sets back in the 90s that used an internal projection system to throw images onto a display. While those are antiquated nowadays thanks to the likes of modern LCDs and OLEDs, a new form of TV is starting to come up that uses a similar principle as rear projection. These are called laser TVs, and Hisense launched a really cool one at CES 2025.

The Hisense L9Q TriChroma is a laser TV that comes in at 100 inches at the minimum. That’s right, it’s a go big or go home deal with Hisense. You can get an L9Q with a screen size of up to 150 inches, so start making room in your TV area.

Because the screen is so large and capable of making such bright imagery, the L9Q looks stupendous. It was easily one of the best-looking TVs on the show floor.

Unfortunately, laser TVs are a new-ish product category, which means they are exorbitantly expensive. Hisense hasn’t disclosed pricing or availability yet, but the previous-gen model started at $5,500, so expect a similar cost for the L9Q TriChroma.

SwitchBot has been selling its tiny little K10 Plus Pro ($599.99 at Amazon) robot vacuum since last year. In 2025, SwitchBot is upping the ante by revamping the little robovac slightly and introducing a line of “mods” to enhance its capabilities. It now has become (get ready for this) the SwitchBot Multitasking Household Robot K20 Plus Pro. Wowzers.

Anyway, you can get an idea of what this means in the photo above. The robovac goes under the “FusionPlatform” — the larger device. The two devices connect together physically, allowing the larger device to control the smaller device.

The larger device can then be loaded with various tools. For example, there’s a spot for a webcam, which would allow your robot vacuum to be a security sentry, going to a specific part of the house that you might want to monitor remotely. There’s also an air purifier, which allows you to have one small air purifier while still purifying the entire house.

What’s more is that SwitchBot is making the FusionPlatform customizable through 3D printing. Basically, it is encouraging tinkerers to design their own mods and make their K20 Plus Pro do whatever they want it to do.

SwitchBot has been mum on pricing and availability for this, but the K10 Plus Pro landed for $599, so it’s likely the K20 Plus Pro will land at a similar amount, at least for the base vac. The other accessories will be extra.

When Samsung makes an Odyssey monitor, you know it’s going to be insane. Samsung’s Odyssey product line is where the company puts its top-tier hardware, and this year is no exception.

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G6 for 2025 includes something we’ve never seen before on a commercial gaming monitor: an OLED panel with a whopping 500Hz refresh rate!

Granted, you’re going to need one hell of a rig to push enough frames to make 500Hz worthwhile, but if you’ve got the horsepower, the G6 can make it shine.

Samsung hasn’t announced pricing or availability for this monitor yet, but expect to spend well over $1,000, if not something closer to $2,000.

Timekettle has been making really cool translation products for a while now, with the W4 Pro being one of the best. That product actually received a Best of IFA 2024 award from us.

At CES 2025, though, Timekettle announced Babel OS. This new update brings its real-time translation hardware to the next level, allowing for faster, more accurate, and more natural-sounding translations in over 40 languages.

Best of all, though, is that you don’t need to buy new hardware for Babel OS. The update is coming to most of the recent Timekettle products, including the aforementioned W4 Pro.

CES is filled with robot vacuums, many of which are loaded with all sorts of wild new features. This is always exciting to see, but sometimes you want to get back to the basics (i.e., cleaning the house thoroughly), and that’s what the Eureka J15 Max Ultra provides.

This new Eureka robovac features an incredible 16,200pa of suction, which is pretty high. That means it’s going to be able to suck up a whole lot of dust and dirt, making your house nice and clean.

It also has extendable mopping brushes that work well at cleaning your floors and also getting into those deep corners other robovacs might miss.

To top it all off, the Eureka J15 Max Ultra is also not exorbitantly expensive, starting at $999. Granted, that’s not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but for what you’re getting, that’s not bad.

Garmin’s line of Instinct smartwatches has stayed pretty similar over the years. In 2025, though, the company is adding the Instinct 3 to the line, and it brings a feature we’ve never seen on an Instinct before: an AMOLED display.

That’s right, you have two choices now when you buy an Instinct 3: the traditional LCD panel or a bright AMOLED panel. Each offers distinct advantages and disadvantages compared to the other. For example, the AMOLED panel is full color, while the LCD panel is monochrome. However, the LCD panel features a solar charging ring, which means you will never need to charge it (assuming you go outside every once in a while). The AMOLED model does not support solar charging.

Once you’ve selected the type of display you want, you then pick a size. The Instinct 3 comes in either 45mm or 50mm cases, and you can choose between black or Neo Tropic colorways.

Regardless of which watch you select, remember that there is no touch screen support on any Instinct. You’ll need to learn Garmin’s five-button system if you’ve never used a Garmin before.

The Garmin Instinct 3 starts at $399 for the LCD model and $449 for the AMOLED model.

Our annual Best of CES awards go to the top-tier products that are ground-breaking in some way. However, CES isn’t just about the huge brands you already know and love — it’s also about the smaller, up-and-coming brands that are trying to make a name for themselves. To make sure those companies get some love, we created the Best of CES 2025: Breakthrough awards.

Below, you’ll find the 12 CES 2025 Breakthrough award winners. Be sure to check them out, as any one of these products could be the next big thing!

• Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD: This robotic lawnmower can go anywhere, even up hills as steep as 80 degrees!
• Beatbot Aquasense 2 Ultra: Need to clean your pool but don’t want to do it yourself? This nifty pool robot can handle all your pool cleaning needs.
• Dreo PolyFan 707S: You know those oscillating fans that move back and forth? That’s really inefficient. This fan uses mmWave to determine where you are and blow cool air in your direction!
• Narwal Flow: This robot vacuum has one of the most capable base stations we’ve ever seen. You could let it do its thing for nearly a month before needing to touch it!
• Botslab 4K PT Battery Cam W510: This security cam has a nifty accessory in the HomeBase H200, which gives you 16TB (!!) of storage space for all your 4K recordings.
• Anker Solix EverFrost 2 Electric Cooler: If you’re still dumping a bunch of ice into a beach cooler, consider upgrading to this electric cooler that can keep your food fresh for much longer (and keep it much dryer!).
• GlocalMe UniCord: If you travel a lot, you don’t need to have a charging cable and a SIM-powered hotspot. Get the UniCord, which combines both things into one!
• Tineco Carpet One Cruiser: This stick-style carpet cleaner can make your carpets look like new again and dry them automatically, saving you precious time.
• Yaber Projector K300s: This teeny, tiny projector is capable of covering your walls with a 100-inch image, perfect for your next movie night.
• Dreame X50 Ultra: Robot vacuums have one major obstacle, which is steps. The Dreame X50 Ultra, though, can actually climb over short steps, making it the ideal vacuum for cleaning your entire home.
• Captify: These smart glasses are designed specifically for folks who are hard of hearing. It captions voices in real-time, allowing you to always understand what people are saying.
• Lexar’s 15.6-inch starlight pexar digital picture frame: This digital picture frame is specifically designed to show artwork, making it the ideal frame for art-lovers who want a steady stream of different pieces that look natural on their wall.

Which of these products is your favorite? Let us know the top Best of CES 2025 award-winner in the comments below, and stay tuned for more CES coverage!