CES 2025 was filled with delightful tech, weird robots, and more generative AI than you could shake your disappointed head at. Here are the five technologies that I’m most excited about, and two that I hated with a fiery, burning passion.
Shokz OpenFit 2
It’s no surprise that the Shokz OpenFit 2 is my most anticipated product. It’s pretty much just the headphones I use while participating in my favourite hobbies, only with better sound quality, a longer battery life, and physical buttons. They’re everything I could have hoped for, and I want them now.
LG Signature OLED T
Arthur C. Clarke once wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Transparent OLED TVs are the epitome of that for me.
LG’s transparent Signature OLED T looks gorgeous, and it’s a glorious luxury. It’s not something that anyone needs, but it has the ability to transform living spaces. I want to see what the best interior decorators and interior architects can do with a TV this beautiful.
Like all fancy new TV technologies, it’s limited just to the very rich for now (it’ll retail in Australia for a price north of $80,000). But I love the idea that in 10 years it might be possible for these to be in living rooms. I can’t wait.
LG’s Indoor gardening appliance
Living in an apartment, one of the things I’m sad that I miss out on is having a small garden. I want to be able to grow my own chilis and basil. LG’s Indoor Gardening Appliance looks sleek, beautiful, and means I could have fresh basil on tap without having to put in any effort. I love both basil and laziness. Sadly, it’s unlikely to ever be released in Australia, but I want one.
Kirin Electric Salt Spoon
It’s not CES without at least one gadget that’s harmlessly very stupid. The spoon that makes food taste saltier with ever-so-slightly less salt is that gadget this year. Everyone who wrote about using it that I saw said that it was pretty much a placebo effect that they could barely taste.
It’s still a great idea, that if perfected has the potential to help people with heart problems enjoy food that tastes salty without risking another quintuple bypass. What a lovely pipe dream. I wish those crazy kids luck.
Samsung’s AI-powered micro-LED mirror that judges you
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the prettiest of them all?” “Omg ew, not you. You need more of this specific brand of concealer. Let me teach you how to apply it.”
This is how I imagine a conversation going between a user and Samsung’s AI mirror. It is not, of course, how it works at all, but I love the idea of it.
What the mirror actually does is scan your skin for pores, wrinkles, melanin, and erythema, and then suggests beauty products from Samsung’s cosmetic partners. It’s like if you had a kind, but lightly judgemental skincare TikTokker in your bathroom. It’s vaguely dystopian and will be terrible for self-esteem, but it’s also the kind of product that CES was made for, and it’s delightful within its confines.
I joke. I’m actually terrible at skincare and have no idea what products to use and would find this product genuinely useful, assuming it works, but it’ll all come down to how it actually dispenses the advice and whether users are in the right headspace to be judged.
Worst products from CES 2025
Generative AI, just in general
With the recent news that OpenAI is losing money even on the US$200-a-month ChatGPT Pro plan, some might wonder if AI is actually going to become a sustainable business model any time soon. That’s not even considering the likely incoming copyright suits, the environmental fallout from powering all those data centres, and the fact that the output isn’t very good.
However, all that aside, every PC maker has gone all in on AI nonsense this week. It was perhaps a bit on the nose to be celebrating technology that makes climate change significantly worse and uses a ridiculous amount of water one state over from one of the worst wildfire disasters in US history, but CES has never been one for subtlety.
The Eve PaintCam
On the face of it, the Eve PaintCam is a hilarious product. It’s a security camera that shoots paintballs (or even capsaicin pellets) at intruders and animals. Users can choose between the Simba (yes, that’s the actual name) designed for shooting “special projectiles for specific animals”, or three models designed to shoot human intruders.
It’s one of those products that’s all fun and games until you take your kid’s eye out with a paintball when they sneak out to a party, or coat your elderly neighbour in capsicum spray when she comes over to ask for sugar or something.
The Slovenian company behind it promises that it uses AI targeting to track objects in real-time (for precise aiming), and recognise individuals, animals and various objects with precision. I do not find this comforting.
One, I don’t love the idea of casually including facial recognition in casual smart products because that is one hell of a slippery slope. Two, I do not trust consumer-grade facial recognition, given how often my phones can’t recognise me after a haircut or a particularly bad night of sleep.
It’s a product that seems hilarious until you think about the potential consequences.
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