My Favorite Tech & Accessories of 2025

As 2025 comes to a close it felt like the right time to reflect on tech and accessories that have left a lasting impression on me. So I've created a list of items that includes cool stuff that you might not have seen on the channel yet and others that you have been asking me about in the comments for a long time. And since this time of year also comes with its fair share of deals I'll also point out a few special offers I've secured with the brand's feature here where With that let's get into the tech that defined my 2025 starting with the most impactful smartphone, the Oppo Find X9 Pro. Now if we leave foldables aside this feels like the pinnacle of what a traditional smartphone can be right now. An uncompromised powerhouse in a footprint similar to an iPhone 17 Pro Max. What sets it apart is how consistently strong it is across the board. But the real standout remains the camera. Up until now my all-time favorite smartphone camera lived on the Oppo Find N5. The Hasselblad setup on the X9 Pro though is on another level altogether. Whether it's video or stills and results still catch me off guard and I'm not even going to get into the optional Hasselblad telephoto lens which genuinely puts most other smartphones to shame. Battery life only reinforces that feeling. The 7500 mAh silicon battery delivers three to four days on a single charge which quietly raises the question about what everyone else is doing. Add to that ColorOS 16 which I covered in a dedicated episode which I'll link at the end of this one. A fantastic display and a refined overall experience and there's really only one missing here. Maxing. A full side-by-side comparison with the OnePlus 15 is coming soon so subscribe because why not? One of the most surprising creative tools I used this year came from Antigravity and their world's first 360 drone capturing 8k 360 footage that shifts the mindset from controlling a camera to simply exploring the world from above. With the A1, the vision goggles and the grip controller, flying becomes immersive, less intimidating and genuinely fun. Made even better by the lightweight vision goggles with an outer screen that lets others share the experience. Turning my head, seeing the world wrap around me, feeling present inside the scene instead of watching it on screen creates a very different relationship with flight and three motion control plays a big role here. I simply point where I want to go and the drone follows, removing the mental load of piloting and letting curiosity lead. What's great is being able to fly first and frame later, capturing everything in a single flight and deciding on the shots in post. At 249 grams and up to 39 minutes of flight time, this little drone really made me want to get out and explore and I'll leave the details linked below. An everyday little helper this year ended up in my wife's car. The ESR MagSafe car charger with Omnilock is a great example of how meaningful upgrades can improve daily routines more than big ones ever could. You see, for daily driving, it solves fewer noises easy. Mounting, charging, stability and heat and because it uses G2.2 with true 25 watt magnetic wireless charging paired with ESR's CryoBoost active cooling, the phone stays cool even during turn-by-turn and music playback. In practice, this charger can top up the latest iPhones to around 60 percent in about 30 minutes without the usual slowdown caused by heat. The Omnilock arm offers full 360 degree rotation, locks firmly onto the air vent without damaging it and absorbs vibrations on rough roads. On the other hand, strong 1600 grams magnets let the phone snap into place one-handed and keep it there without a second thought. It also ships with a 58 watt dual-port adapter, installs quickly and doesn't block airflow and I'll leave details about it below. If there's one piece of tech that really helped me at the beginning of this year and quietly stayed with me ever since, it's this. The Insta360 Flow 2 Pro. It's the tool that I relied on to shoot my 2025 episode at Apple Park in Cupertino, walking through the campus and visitor center with nothing but my iPhone. This isn't just about stabilization, it's about removing friction, letting me move freely, film solo and trust that tracking simply works. In fact, with D-Track 4.0, active zoom tracking, multi-person tracking and full 360 degree pan tracking, it starts to feel less like a feature set and more like a quiet camera assistant doing its job. With Apple Dock Kit, pairing works directly inside the native camera app and tracking carries over to support third-party apps too. While the built-in tripod and foldable design means it's always ready when needed. It works just as well for time lapses, quick setup shots and solo filming and if there's one piece of gear that constantly earns its place in my travel kit, it's this. I'll leave the details linked below. The tiniest of helpers for me this year, especially during massive events like CES and IFA, was also the Plot Notepad. Those events move crazy fast and important details tend to disappear somewhere between booths and meetings and this little device quietly kept me in check. What makes the Notepad stick with me is how unobtrusive it is. Clipped to my shirt or jacket, it's ready to capture notes exactly as they happen. Before this, staying organized meant juggling handwritten notes or scattered voice recordings across devices and later wasting time searching through them. But now, everything is transcribed, structured and searchable. The real clutch here is Ask Plot, where instead of re-listening to hours of recordings, it lets me jump straight to the exact detail I'm looking for. You see, the Plot Notepad turns raw conversations into something usable because it's designed as a note-taking and meeting assistant, where privacy is taken seriously with compliances across multiple privacy frameworks. This is one of those tools that stays out of the way and lets the story lead and it's absolutely worth keeping close and you'll find it below. In the desk setup spectrum, the piece of tech I spend the most time with every single day is the Asus 6K ProArt monitor, which, quite simply, is a unicorn of a display at a very reasonable price. A 32-inch 6K panel at the right pixel density means Mac always looks the way it's supposed to look. Text is 219 pixels per inch sharp, scaling makes sense and I finally have enough space to work without constantly shifting windows around. I can push the monitor further back on my desk, which is easier on my eyes, and I still get significantly more usable space than a traditional 27-inch display, and that alone changed how I work. Add to that proper factory calibration and consistent colors and it means I'm not correcting for the screen or second-guessing the video edits or graphic work. Now, for some, it might not be ideal because it's 60Hz and the speakers are easily forgettable, but the actual creative work, accuracy and clarity is superb and it's not pretending to be an XDR display. But it is close in terms of what it delivers. Believe it or not, my studio display has been living in my storage ever since this guy came over. Another amazing monitor I want to give a shout out to is this BenQ 27-inch one. It's a 4K nano glass panel packed specifically for the Mac, where you have Mac color tuning that unifies the colors with the MacBook and it looks gorgeous. What's impressive here is the design, as this thing is built super sturdy and controlling it happens via the simplest and most useful OSD menu. On top of that, there is a dedicated little menu app called DisplayPort 2, which provides tons of cool options including enabling keyboard control to adjust the brightness and volume and even sync between the devices. The power supply is built-in and on the back, there are plenty of ports including the all-favorite USB-Cs that provide 90W of power and an additional 15W for other devices. There are handy USB-As for those pesky mouse dongles, including one on the bottom for easy access. What impressed me the most, however, is the speakers, which for the first time on a third-party monitor sound fantastic. And for the price, this is a 27-inch Mac monitor package that is hard to ignore. Definite recommendation on my side. Now, I did say in my Christmas Tech episode that if I had to pick just one handheld console, it would be the Nintendo Switch 2. That said, the ROG Xbox Ally X, which came out not long ago, has been splitting the time more than expected, mostly because it's a more premium AAA handheld. When I first unboxed it, the added bulk compared to its predecessor honestly caught me off guard because it really feels noticeably chunkier. But once I started playing, the initial reaction faded quickly. The grips are simply more comfortable, specifically during longer sessions, and unlike earlier versions, the Xbox-focused interface here is clearly trying to feel more Switch 2-esque or Steam Deck-inspired, with far less direct interaction with Windows. And for the most part, that actually pays off, but Windows is still lurking in the background. Of course, credit where it's due, sleep and wake behavior has improved significantly, which makes the whole experience feel a lot more handheld console-like, and performance has never really been a concern here. With the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor and 24GB of LDDR5X memory, it really handles titles like a champ. Now, if there's one thing missing at this point though, it's a slightly larger and OLED display. If you've stumbled upon my unboxing of this device, you might have caught the case I immediately used, which raised a few questions in the comments. This is the dbrand Project Kill Switch. Perhaps the best way that I can describe it, is the 1989's Batman Vehicle Armor, but for the Xbox Ally X. In its core, this is a protective case that wraps around the entire unit, which is officially licensed under the Design for Xbox program. Aside from the included stick grips, there's also a built-in kickstand, and it can also be paired with an optional screen protector, which comes in a pair. But on the go, the best part here is the travel cover, which when placed on, protects the screen, the buttons, the sticks, and because this time of year moves way too fast, if someone needs it now, the Switch 2 and Ally X Kill Switch cases are not only linked below, but also available at Best Buy locations in the US, so you can just walk in and pick one up without hoping the delivery makes it on time. Now, on a more personal level, the piece of tech that almost never leaves my bag is the remarkable Paper Pro Move, which came out the second half of 2025. This is the smallest e-ink tablet Remarkable makes, and that's exactly what makes it special. It's easy to carry, easier to reach out for, and it doesn't ask for attention. If Remarkable is new to you, the simplest way to describe it is this. It's the closest thing to paper note-taking I've used, but with the benefits of being digital. Writing on it feels analog, yet everything syncs through the Remarkable app and shows up across other devices when needed. In practice, it's become my everyday notebook. I pull it out to jot down quick notes, sketch ideas, or contemplate on things without distractions. Out of all the devices I've mentioned so far, this is perhaps the most inspiring for me, and that counts for a lot. Battery life is close to two weeks, which means it's one less thing to think about on a daily basis. And yes, it also handles PDFs and books, but perhaps one of my favorite features is the browser extension that lets me save articles to read later on away from the screen. Pretty awesome. One of the most unexpected pieces of tech for me this year was this Ugreen NAS, specifically the entry-level model, because it seriously made me question how much I still need to rely on cloud storage. Now, I'm not new to NAS systems. In fact, at the studio, we use Synology for backups and footage archives, but those setups tend to come with a learning curve that not everyone wants to deal with. What Ugreen did differently here is make the whole experience far more approachable without stripping away useful features. Setup takes minutes, the drives slide right in, and the interface actually explains what's happening instead of burying everything into menus. It's super easy to use, and from there, it quickly becomes my central backup hub. Automatic iPhone backups, time machines for my Mac, photo syncing, and even media libraries that I can access on the TV. Everything, of course, is stored locally on my own drives, expandable as needed, and accessible remotely without paying monthly subscription fees. Files, by the way, transfer faster than typical cloud solutions, accounts can be managed securely, and RaidBed NTSC keeps the data protected if a drive ever fails. The reason this thing is cool is because it feels less like managing a server and more like having a private cloud that's fast, scalable, and under your control. If you enjoyed this video, then you should definitely check out either of those two episodes here, which include some other cool tech and accessories to explore. Like and subscribe to the channel, as well as my newsletter, and as always, it's been an absolute pleasure, this is E, over and out.