.jpg)
The top 10 gadgets of 2025
As part of our review of 2025, Dezeen contributing editor Rima Sabina Aouf shares her picks of this year's gadgets, including a tiny sunlight emulator, a video player for your dreams and a vest for listening to trees.
Artificial intelligence (AI) continued to be a big focus for new product launches over the last 12 months, with US technology company Meta attempting to take the lead with new wearables and smaller companies like Modem exploring alternative visions for ambient computing.
At the same time, this has been a bumper year for slimmed-down tech, with dumbphones, focus-promoting interfaces and intentionally minimal USPs making repeat appearances.
Read on for 10 great gadgets from this year:
In a year in which smart glasses flirted with their first attempt at a comeback since Google Glass, eyewear company Ixi's prototype stood out for what it doesn't do.
There's no camera, no screen, no speaker, no AI assistant – just two innovative "tunable" lenses that promise to switch from reading to long-distance prescriptions depending on where the wearer is looking.
If the auto-focus technology works smoothly when the product hits the market, this could be a game-changer for people with presbyopia – that is, eventually, almost everyone.
Gaia Communication System by Inxects
Far from your everyday gadget, design studio Inxects' experimental Gaia Communication System translates stress signals from the environment into physical sensations on the wearer's body.
Designed for architects looking to explore and understand the health of a site, the sensor-laden vest and gloves give users a new and visceral way of understanding the suffering of plants and animals due to pollution, climate change and habitat destruction.
With its focus on deep listening, this gadget is like a window into an alternate universe where technology connects us to, rather than disconnects us from, the non-human world.
Find out more about the Gaia Communication System ›
Fire for Life cooking stove by Escea
Fireplace manufacturer Escea used its design and engineering expertise to develop a safer, cleaner solution to the open fires people often have to make for cooking in refugee camps.
Its fuel-efficient flat-pack cooking stove is cut out of thin steel sheets and assembled on the ground by ReliefAid teams, who pop out the different parts and put them together using simple tools and equipment.
More than 8,186 households in Syria have been helped by the Fire for Life programme, Escea told us back in July.
Find out more about Fire for Life ›
Meta believes smart glasses like its new Ray-Ban Displays will soon be as ubiquitous in the world as normal glasses are today, though experts have sounded the alarm that the proliferation of surveillance is deeply concerning.
Less controversial is the company's Neural Band, which it trailed in July and announced as a complement to the AI glasses in September.
While there are also questions about what Meta and other companies plan to do with the biometric data from neural devices like these, the smart wristband controller is a compelling alternative to keyboards, mice and voice commands, and one that is inclusive of people with limited arm mobility.
Competitor Mudra offers a platform-agnostic alternative in the form of the Mudra Link wristband.
Find out more about the Neural Band ›
Dutch electronics company Fairphone seems to have hit its stride with the Fairphone 6, a device that combines the brand's trademark repairability and ethically oriented sourcing with zeitgeisty swappable accessories and solid, reviewer-approved tech specs.
The phone also introduced an innovative "Moments" mode, which replicates something of the dumbphone experience by letting users toggle between their regular interface and a more stripped-back one with limited apps.
With looks reminiscent of the Nothing phones, the Fairphone 6 is an alluring proposition.
Find out more about the Fairphone 6 ›
Sunbooster by SunLED Life Science
A compact device that clips onto the top of computer monitors, the Sunbooster delivers near-infrared light (NIR) to tired, cloistered office workers, replicating some of the energising benefits of sunlight.
NIR is invisible, so the Sunbooster doesn't have the super-bright presence of SAD lamps and easily integrates into a person's desk environment.
Find out more about the Sunbooster ›
Light Phone 3 by Light and Foxconn
The Light Phone 3 emerged as the strongest dumbphone offering in our road test earlier this year for good reason. It's probably the first contemporary dumbphone to feel aspirational, thanks to the attractive design of its hardware and operating system.
The square edges, perforated metal speaker grill and tactile knob and buttons channel the influence of German industrial designer Dieter Rams, while the stripping back of usually visual apps like podcasts and the calendar to a pure text format is surprisingly calming and lovely.
At a time when AI is ramping up the capabilities of our personal devices, minimalist phones like the Light Phone 3 are an important counter-trend.
Find out more about the Light Phone 3 ›
Following up on last year's Terra compass, Modem's Dream Recorder is another imaginative open-source AI gadget, this time targeted at the bedroom.
Its single function is to help users reflect on their dreams by generating videos based on their recollections, allowing them to start the day with a private ritual separate from their phones.
The Dream Recorder might not be the most useful gadget around, but it does get points for making audiences think about how AI can be done differently, outside the realm of Big Tech.
Find out more about the Dream Recorder ›
Suri has finessed its 2022 Dezeen Award-winning electric toothbrush design with the Suri 2.0.
The new design keeps the elegant aluminium body of the original, but introduces a new motor, pressure sensor and induction charging – a hard-to-accomplish feat in a product made of metal.
The company makes a point of rejecting unnecessary technologies like Bluetooth and app integration and continues to recycle its bioplastic brush heads.
Find out more about Suri 2.0 ›
Kibu headphones by Batch.Works and Morrama
This year's Dezeen Award winner for sustainable design, the Kibu children's headphones are intended to be assembled and repaired by kids themselves.
Made from recycled bioplastic, each part is interchangeable and easily snaps together without screws or glue, encouraging children to build the device and explore how each element works.
3d printed on demand in London, repairable at home and recyclable through Batch.Works, the headphones are also a great way to introduce kids to circularity.
The post The top 10 gadgets of 2025 appeared first on Dezeen.
