The Best Gadgets of October 2025

October was full of frights, but at least the tech on offer proved to be an occasional delight. We started off the month with a new slate of handheld gaming PCs from Lenovo and the dual might of Microsoft and Asus. Then, Apple came along and dumped a whole gaggle of gadgets on our doorstep, all sporting its new M5 chip. In between that, we had the chance to check out more wireless earbuds, wearables, and way too many AR smart glasses, some that are worth wearing and others of dubious quality.

Nothing came through announcing its most controversial phone yet, the budget-end Phone 3a Lite which comes preinstalled with several apps you can’t completely delete. DJI launched product after product, none of which can come to the U.S. due to its upcoming federal ban. Microsoft’s Xbox brand is suffering after quarter after quarter of declining hardware sales. But, hey, at least we can say smart candles are a thing, finally.

But if you really want to see how October compares to the rest of 2025, check out Gizmodo’s Best Tech of 2025 awards. Don’t worry, there’s more to come as we crunch along the leaf-strewn path toward the end of the year.

Apple has a penchant for dropping its big chip launch late in the year, but this October was even more “Scary Fast” when it launched a refresh of the iPad Pro, Vision Pro, and 14-inch MacBook Pro, all with the M5 chip. Both the laptop and tablet are still top of their class with category-leading performance and build quality. Each device also packs surprising upgrades. The new MacBook Pro features extraordinarily fast storage read and write speeds. Meanwhile, the Vision Pro now supports third-party peripherals, specifically the Logitech Muse stylus and the PlayStation VR2 controllers, which may provide a new slate of interesting apps on Apple’s aging visionOS.

While we had to wait a long while for the first novel Xbox gaming hardware in five years, what arrived was more of a PC than any console sharing the same branding. However, for PC gaming, it showed up in style with extra comfortable controller-like grips and a new SoC (system on a chip) that managed to perform well in our benchmarks. The more important aspect is the new Windows UI for handhelds, dubbed the “full screen experience.” This makes it easier to access your game launchers and the games themselves on the relatively small, 7-inch display. The FSE still has several lingering issues that need addressing, but it’s still a better experience than base Windows used to be.

We too are oh so tired of the standard hockey puck-shaped robovac design. That’s why the Matic robot vacuum proved much more enticing and—dare we say it—fun than the traditional robovac we’ve come to expect. The device remains quiet despite its surprisingly solid vacuum power. Plus, in our tests it proved to be very good at navigating a home, even though it isn’t built to slide under the 2-inch gap under your couch. If we can go back to when designers were thinking of making robots look cute without losing out on cleaning capabilities, we’d be better off.

Don’t run around a busy street wearing the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), more than other noise-canceling devices. These cans proved to sport some of the best active noise cancellation (ANC) capabilities of any headset we’ve used this year—enough to tune out the “literal armageddon,” as Senior Writer James Pero aptly put it in his review. As for sound quality, the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) have quality bass that loses out slightly in the midrange tones. It’s still one of the best pairs of headphones we’ve used all year, and it will have stiff competition in that vein when the Sony WH-1000XM6 has made such a name for itself.

Google’s more affordable wireless earbuds may not best the Pixel Buds Pro 2 in pure sound quality, but for the $100 price point, you’ll still get some surprisingly solid active noise cancellation. The buds fit comfortably even in ears that usually reject foreign objects thanks to their plastic wings that help keep them in place. And before you ask, yes, these buds desperately want you to talk to Google’s Gemini Live, but it’s the kind of “feature” that can be easily ignored. They include most of what you want from a pair of wireless earbuds without demanding you fork over hundreds of dollars.

Let’s say you’re looking for a stay-at-home, “desktop replacement”-level laptop that isn’t some 18-inch behemoth. That’s where the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i comes in. It’s not a thin or light laptop by any metric. It comes with a massive 400W power brick that is practically half the size of this 16-inch gaming machine. And yet, it’s one of the most feature-packed laptops we’ve used this year, with a beautiful OLED display, a great-feeling keyboard, and enough ports for all your extraneous dongles. It can’t be your mobile battlestation, not with that demanding power brick and proprietary port, but it’s the perfect device if you don’t want to lug around an entire gaming desktop PC room to room.

Finally, the Google Pixel Watch can sit among Apple’s and Samsung’s latest wearables without feeling like it lacks in any key area. The Pixel Watch 4’s domed display helps the smartwatch feel unique, but Google has finally nailed the basics, like a solid battery life and accurate health-tracking sensors. We also appreciated the redesigned fast charging dock that displays the watch face if you need to glance at the time or check your battery level. Sure, Google may have replaced Google Assistant with Gemini, which means it may occasionally lie to you with the sort of confidence that would make Saul Goodman nod in approval. Gemini may occasionally prove useful, though at least the smartwatch is much better more of the time.

The Lenovo Legion Go 2 is not the handheld PC we would recommend to anybody as a great all-rounder. It’s too big and expensive for the model with the best specs ($1,350). At the same time, it’s the one that will make your games look their best with its massive 8.8-inch OLED display. By next spring, the Legion Go 2 may also support the Xbox full screen experience (FSE) that’s currently exclusive to the ROG Xbox Ally. However, with some tinkering you can get both the FSE running on the device, which helps massage some of the pain points of using Windows on a handheld.

Meta Ray-Ban Display

Meta’s first real pair of true AR glasses has stunned the entire tech world. Voices carry on the wind whisper, “Wait, they actually did it?” After spending some time with the Meta Ray-Ban Display. It’s become clear the smart glasses with displays are one of the most promising gadgets of the year. The screen quality is rather good considering there’s little to no light bleed on the other side of the lens. More importantly, the Neural Band is one of the most unique and surprisingly effective control options we’ve seen for this type of wearable. The current problem is that it lacks enough apps to show off everything the smart glasses are capable of. We’ll see what may change in a generation or two.