The 2026 Esquire Gadget Awards

Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. We may earn a commission from these links. Here’s how we test products and why you should trust us.Florence SullivanRemember when tech was an optional part of your life? You would go to the computer room and surf the Internet. When you were done you would turn it off, close the door, and it was gone. Now? It’s difficult to go more than five minutes without a notification. Most of us have a device on our person at all times.But if you stop and think, you realize this has happened on a timeline that’s unprecedented throughout history. It has happened within a generation. My dad has a flip phone and a Gateway computer that somehow still turns on. He has never entered his credit card information on the Internet or even signed up for an online banking account. I, on the other hand, am sitting with a red-light mask on, reading on an e-reader (yes, separate from my phone), and getting ready for bed on an AI-powered sleep-tracking mattress cover. See, I’ve embraced all that the world of modern technology has to offer, and I’m the most relaxed, well-slept person in the office I know. Maybe the best way is forward.Still, we understand if you’re a little bit closer to my dad’s view of tech—though going full Luddite is a bit much—and are a little hesitant to adopt everything on this list. What we set out to do is find the best products, at all preferred levels of techiness. In this list, you’ll find the new folding iPhone Duo (well worth the wait), Dyson’s AI-powered toothbrush with a camera on it (incredible, trust us), and TCL’s best-in-class TVs. But there’s also a Pininfarina-designed screen that pretends to look like a painting, high-design vinyl speakers, and not one but three different pocketknives with varying degrees of technical innovation. Tech means different things to different people, and we’ve covered every base.To do that, we took a wide-net approach. And I mean wide. We put nearly a thousand products under the microscope this year, and these are the 91 that we unanimously agreed will make your life better. If you’re tech curious, we say lean in. Live a little. Who knows? You might sleep better, eat better, and improve your day-to-day. If you’re tech cautious, well ... in 20 years your toothbrush will probably have a camera on it, just like ours do now. These are the best and most noteworthy products and brands of the year. Watch out; they’re about to be everywhere. —Krista Jones, senior director, commerce and partnershipsThe Best in Personal GadgetsFlorence SullivanWhen the first flight delay hits, you’ll need this portable charger to power your tablet. When the flight gets canceled, it will charge your phone so you can rebook. The retractable cable makes it so that no matter how long you are stuck in transit and how many devices you need to charge, you won’t be left with a mess of cords when you finally have to scramble to a new gate. And when you finally reach your destination, jet-lagged as hell, you can use the foldable plug as your wall charger at the hotel. Absolutely brilliant.How will Apple do it? That was this year’s big question. The rumors screamed foldable, as did the CEO switch. Well? It’s a masterpiece. The foldable market needed something to make it feel serious, and Apple was the company to do it. A genius aspect-ratio choice from Cupertino is the reason why we think this is the best foldable to ever be released.This year also marks a first for Samsung’s foldable phones. The Z Fold8 Ultra is the first time the power and superior camera of the Galaxy Ultra phones are in a folding format. The form factor got an upgrade too. It’s super slim, so you never feel the difference between this and a regular Galaxy Ultra phone.This is the perfect laptop for anyone who wants the overall look and feel of a MacBook (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...) with the software of a PC. It has an impressively long battery life, a powerful processor that lets you multitask without slowing you down, and the touch screen that can give it a leg up over Macs. You’re getting the best of all worlds here.The Best Work-from-Home MonitorApple does most things well. But every now and then it will tweak a product so that it turns out just a little bit better. We could dazzle you with the specs: 27-inch, 5K Retina display; 1 billion colors; 14.7 million pixels. The list goes on. But the best Apple designs make you stop thinking about specs and let you just enjoy its glowing products. Put this on your desk and watch how work transforms.The Best Work-from-Home LightEver log off from a day at the computer and feel like you got hit on kickoff duty freshman year of high school? Head hurt, vision blurred, ears ringing? It’s from that screen light blasting straight into your retinas. A good light bar—like this one specifically designed to match Apple’s high-end aesthetics—alleviates that pain and illuminates your workspace.We really love these e-paper tablets for meeting notes, school notes, and productivity without having a stream of notifications—the kinesthetic effect of writing on memory is no joke. When using reMarkable’s new Paper Pure, our tester’s to-do and work notes never looked better.The Best No-Screen SmartwatchThe release of the Fitbit Air marked the moment when it finally felt like screenless smart bands were for everyone. The slim and comfortable band, the low price, and the lack of a required subscription (wink, nudge, gesturing to every other brand) made it one of our instant favorites of the year.Which is worse, losing your keys or your wallet? Keys, assuming you have another member of the house, can be remedied in a few hours. A wallet? Try a few weeks. So why has no one given the slim-digital-tracker treatment to wallets? (We cannot abide the Costanza monstrosities other brands sell.) Now we have Spotminders. It looks like a credit card (to fool would-be thieves for just long enough) and does one thing: tells you where your wallet is. Simple, headache-saving tech.It’s not as if you need an excuse to buy the new Apple Watch, but if you did we’d say this time around it’s for the aesthetics, not the tech. The dark-bronze aluminum is gorgeous, as is the radiant gold case and any of the matching Milanese loop bands. This marks a stunning new chapter for smartwatch elegance.Look, we love a smartwatch, and we love what other brands have done in the golf-watch space. But it can start to take you out of the game. We want course GPS, shot tracking, and club recommendations. TAG has put in development to improve all that stuff, and, crucially, it looks nice when you’re having a beer on the 19th. That’s what we want.The Best Running SmartwatchThere are a lot of runners in the smartwatch pack, a lot of brands chasing the Garmin. The flagship Fenix 9 is Garmin holding its number-one spot. When any other brand’s “ultra” starts to challenge, Garmin pushes a better battery, a brighter screen, and more accurate tracking. Like a race, it’s a cat-and-mouse game of inches, and Garmin, for another year, will hold the inside track.The Best Digital NotebookReal paper, in the form of paperbacks and notebooks, takes up quite a bit of space in your home, not to mention if you’re traveling. Having a handy e-tablet makes reading, note-taking, studying, and learning actually enjoyable endeavors.The Best in Home TechFlorence SullivanYou want the air in your house to be clean, healthy, and toxin-free. You want your living room to look sophisticated, and your kids want their rooms to have a certain aesthetic, neither of which fits a space-age air purifier. Rabbit Air sees this dilemma and puts forward its best-in-class A3, now with this Animal Parade front cover—fit for whatever room you’re looking to purify.We are avid Dyson testers, and we have watched closely over the years as what Dyson does sets the industry trends in brushes, lasers, and attachments. With the latest V16 Piston, we have a Dyson with everything. The motor is stronger than ever; the tech is smarter than ever.Vacuum companies lose the plot with all the extras. The towers, the self-emptying, the AI floor detecting—none of it really adds to what a vacuum cleaner is supposed to do. Bosch offers an antidote: a halfway hinge, an easy-empty canister, and a simple display with modes that you (not the computer) get to select. German engineering at its finest.The Best Rotary-Pump Espresso MachineWe used this machine—technically a semi-manual espresso machine—for months. Never once did we make bad coffee. Under- and overextracted, yes. But in all the bean switches, recipe tweaking, and shot dialing, the coffee was always passable. This, Meraki’s team told us, was intentional. You can play around with the second-gen machine, but that rotary pump, dual boiler, and three-tier setup will make it easy to pull consistent shots. It’s the dream at-home machine.The Best Fully Auto Espresso Maker A quorum within our voting testers always filibusters in favor of adding an automatic espresso machine. De’Longhi gives that category more care than any other brand. As a result, we recommend that it’s the only place you buy one. The Magnifica Duo will make anything a barista will—hot or cold—and it will do it with the press of a button so you can walk away and wrangle kids into school clothes. When you get back, the screen reads, “This is my best one yet.” That gets a smile from us every day.We’re already fans of Subminimal’s NanoFoamer, so we had to try this new, smaller cousin (or sibling?). The verdict: We’ll be using this thing for every homemade latte we drink from now until we kick the bucket. And it doesn’t just mix and foam—it can even be used as a whisk with one of the three attachments. Plus, it comes in ten fun colorways.We just had to try it. Could the iced-coffee maker be as good as every influencer says it is? In short, yes. You have a variety of flavors here—all of which come in aluminum pods—and then three delivery formats: still iced coffee, nitro cold brew, and iced espresso. We’re partial to the frothiness of nitro, but each comes out absolutely freezing. Ice isn’t even required.Fellow has been on a run of hits. Earlier this year, its Series 1 espresso machine launched, a big deal in the world of at-home espresso. Now it has retooled its Opus grinder, which is the brand’s conical model. We like a traditional, full-bodied espresso (yes, that means darker roasts, and yes, we know how shocking that might be to r/coffee), and this grinder is perfect for that. It runs no matter what, and paired with the Fellow espresso machine, it makes a countertop setup look divine.We awarded the original Rocco fridge two years ago, and we wrote an entire review of it. It’s quiet, holds two consistent temperature zones, and looks good. The new Essential loses the dual zones, but it also drops the price by simplifying the look into something we think is more versatile. Use it as a bar cabinet with the cutting-board top while you’re renting; build it in when you buy.The Best Digital Picture FrameIf you’re looking for a digital photo frame that’s truly the best of the best, the answer is clear. This thing looks so much like an actual photo frame with a printed photo inside rather than a piece of tech, so your guests will be all the more surprised when the cordless frame switches photos. One full charge lasts up to three months, so you won’t even have to think about charging it often.The Best Digital Art PosterIf you know anything about design, that Pininfarina name means something to you. The firm known for Ferraris and Fiats has now lent its touch to ... a digital canvas? The e-ink screen doesn’t look like a screen, and the digital-ness is hidden behind a frame that curves like a car and is wrapped, in our case, in a sumptuous suede. If the Matrix looks like this, plug us in.The Best Bedside CatchallSurprisingly, for how big-ticket some of this list is, it’s the little touches that make a product wow us. We’ve had other valets that charge our phone, but this one is special. Looking at the napa leather never gets old, and the wire concealers underneath help your nightstand stay clutter-free while keeping your devices charged. Plus, it’s modular, so you can swap out any of the frame and base colors to mix and match.Everything Balmuda makes has a little ritual built in. The clock, though, is all about the ritual. Your alarm clock sets the tone for your day. In the case of the minimalistic Balmuda Clock, every morning starts with a tranquil fading that gently lifts you to consciousness instead of jolting you awake. Because the first thing you look at in the morning should be this immaculate piece of design, not a phone screen.You have a kid and—bam—you’re instantly hours deep into Reddit product reviews. Let us do the work for you: Buy the Momcozy. Dual monitor, a nice Bluetooth app, and a no-WiFi option with a tablet for serious privacy. Oh, and there’s a talking feature—so you can tell them to go back to bed from the comfort of your bed.The Best Bottle SanitizerOne more unexpected winner you’ll want to get your hands on is this bottle sterilizer. Long gone are the days of dipping them in a boiling pot of water. (Hey, you can still do it, but once you try a sterilizer machine, you don’t go back.) This year, Baby Brezza released its new SuperQuick model, which works in just ten minutes—a fraction of the typical half hour.Here’s a dilemma: You live in an apartment with no space for an ironing board. Ever tried one of those tiny travel steamers? Dog shit. If you don’t have an industrial fashion-closet steamer, good luck. That is until now. Nori’s Cloud Max changed our tester’s life. Not only is it super easy to use, but it actually works. It heats up quickly and de-wrinkles clothes in just a few passes.This indoor herb and veggie garden might just be the most fun product we tried this year. The second-gen Auk Mini looks better than the first, and it gives you more row crop space with a smaller overall footprint. New big plant pots let you grow more than just herbs—cherry tomatoes will look gorgeous on your countertop. You—yes, you—will have a green thumb in no time.The Best Countertop Water Filter Off the bat, Ninja made one of the best filtration options on the market, removing more than 80 contaminants—all while leaving in valuable minerals and electrolytes for taste that other models often filter out. Plus, it works fast. No waiting for that god-awful drip. Next, it’s got a minuscule footprint. Oh, and to top it off, look at how handsome it is. Take that fridge pitcher filter and run it over in the driveway. The Ninja HydraSense is all you need.Ooni perfected the pizza oven. So ... what’s next? Well, how about perfecting the precook gadget? A spiral mixer is what real-deal commercial pizza joints use. A spiral mixer is more efficient and better with the heavy, developed doughs you need for pizza—or even sourdough bread. There’s a lot of science baked in, but just know this is what the pros reach for.When we do testing like this, over the course of a full year, we make a point of calling out “smart for the sake of being smart.” It’s an epidemic. But when you use a smart fridge, like GE’s model, you start to remember why this whole put-a-computer-in-everything movement started. In the store, after a long day, in between soccer drop-off and pickup and wondering what the hell is in your fridge? Now you just pull out your phone and check.We don’t need to tell you Vitamix makes the world’s best blenders. It has not, however, really captured the personal-blender market, where a handful of DTC brands are eating its lunch (or ... drinking its smoothie?). Now we have the Vitamix Nano: a simple 20-ounce blender with a “SmoothiePilot” ingredient-sensing function if you don’t want to adjust settings yourself. Whether it’s you or your robot copilot hitting the gas, the result is a delicious blended breakfast in under a minute.The Best in Sound and EntertainmentFlorence SullivanDon't let TCL's competitve pricing fool you—this TV doesn't spare a single expense. Thanks to souped-up quantum crystals (which, yes, is a real thing) this Google TV-enabled QLED screen boasts noticeably vivid colors and astoundingly high contrast. And thanks to sharp audio from Bang & Olufsen, you can probably forgo a soundbar. The attention to detail is remarkable—even the TV's long, sleek remote is an ergonomic marvel.It used to be that Samsung had zero competition in the art TV space. We could blindly award the Frame every year. But now? TCL, Hisense, and LG all make very good art TVs. Samsung is fighting, gloves off, for the title every year. Samsung’s Pantone certification and partnerships with the Met, MoMA, and a few high-profile artist estates gave it an edge this year. But it ran away with the win because of a better QLED screen and improved sound.Hisense made a lot of claims about its new dual-layer glare-reducing screens. In testing, this U7 sat right next to a floor-to-ceiling window in a room with a skylight. No matter the time of day, the screen is clear as can be, ultra-vibrant in color. It’s a feat we’ve seen only on the matte screens of art TVs, but with this your friends who come over to watch a game won’t ask, “Why does it look like that?”The Best Gaming ProjectorWhere TVs are pretty settled—none will do anything outrageous with picture quality year to year—projectors still have the capacity to surprise us. This year, Xgimi surprised us with this ultra-low-latency projector. Add to that great contrast, versatile optical zoom, and solid sound—you’ve got a portable gaming screen with no peer.The Best Family ProjectorThe Cine Compact 1 finishes out Leica’s cinema-freak projector lineup. It takes the same obsession with picture and color that it poured into its Cine 1 and Cine Play 1 and shrinks it down into an even more versatile form factor. The Cine Compact 1 is the best-looking—both on- and off-screen—projector on this list, but it’s made to pack up and move wherever you, and your family, might be.The Best Short-Throw ProjectorThis projector feels like magic. Plop it down below your screen of choice (or just a white wall) and you have the ultimate movie-watching experience at home, without the hassle of installing a 95-inch TV. No matter the time of day, no matter the lighting, you’ll get crisp 4K images paired with booming immersive audio. And none of that terrible rainbow effect, ever.The Best-Looking Record ConsoleSymbol Home, which regularly finds its way into our Home and Gadget awards for its stellar sofas and high-end listening furniture, went all out this year. In partnership with USM Haller—it was already stocking the classic mid-century systems—it brought a fresh take to its classic listening furniture. The result? Yes, it looks like USM, but it feels distinctly Symbol. Everything is integrated, ready to make the turntable both the functional and aesthetic center of your listening room.Wrensilva is another modern digital-meets-design company cranking out listening furniture. The new Studio is the brand’s most versatile, most accommodating piece yet. That is, obviously, down to the size. But it’s also down to what Wrensilva knows best: marrying vinyl’s quirks and digital’s ease of use. From the warm house sound to the gorgeous grained hardwood to the intentional implementation of Bluetooth—it’s all obsessively considered.The Best Bluetooth Speaker for AudiophilesWe do, also, understand the want for something totally digital. Under strict anonymity, our audio tester said they would rather live with this Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Pro than any sort of vinyl setup. Why? Because they “don’t have a garage to store records in, are not in-studio, and are not a producer.” The Zeppelin’s lossless streaming is so good that you can sit in front of this thing, stream Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, close your eyes, and feel like you’re really in Vienna. Plus, it’s so much easier to work into a room, decor-wise.The Best Compact Record-Player SpeakerOur tester loves her Victrola turntable, but her old setup with bookshelf speakers made her room feel a bit cramped. Victrola’s Soundstage fixes that problem—it’s a speaker that sits directly under your turntable. It has a minimalist design, so it doesn’t pull attention away from the main event. It’s also incredibly easy to set up and use with its paired remote, and you can even wirelessly connect it through Bluetooth and Auracast, so it works as a TV soundbar too.The Best Home-Theater SetIt’s been a minute since Bose really made a splash, but the pioneers of home audio are back in a big way with the Lifestyle Ultra set. With the soundbar, a subwoofer, and one surround speaker, it feels as if the entire movie theater has been brought to the living room. That Ultra Lifestyle surround speaker will double as an excellent stand-alone way to jam out when you’re in the kitchen, hosting, or cleaning up.The best home-speaker release of the year gets better when you pair two together. One of them is the perfect Bluetooth speaker, great for casual listening. But with two speakers, you’ll be able to produce an immersive soundstage you’ll lose yourself in. Our advice? Don’t experience it alone.The Best Bluetooth SpeakerMarshall makes some of the best-looking Bluetooth speakers on the market, but there’s substance behind the style. The Stockwell III shows why. With 40 hours of playtime on one charge and powerful 360 degree sound, it’s no slouch. Then, of course, there’s that classic Marshall stack look. It’s a clear winner.To celebrate the tenth anniversary of its flagship over-ear line, Sony put a luxe spin on its WH-1000XM6 headphones with vegan-leather cushions and shiny metal accents. These headphones have the sound and noise canceling to match. Suffice it to say, these are the best headphones of the year. They have it all and, arguably, a bit more.The Danish expert in making audio a fashion statement, Bang & Olufsen never fails to impress. Timeless design and premium consumer audio meet yet again with the Beo Grace. From the high-shine aluminum stems to the wireless charging case, Beo Grace is as luxury as luxury gets.The Best Apartment Home-Theater SetWe have a lot of serious movie and TV watchers at this magazine. They’re also all, mostly, stuck in city-sized apartments with neighbors, roommates, and partners who might not always want to be subjected to full Dolby Atmos. For those times when you don’t want to disturb a partner’s reading, Sonos has added headphone pairing to its affordable, apartment-sized Beam Ultra. Press one button and The Sopranos is in your headphones. Oh, we all want to watch now? One button, headphones off, and we’re back to room-filling sound.The Best in WellnessFlorence SullivanFlorence SullivanThe Best Smart ToothbrushAt this point, every toothbrush needs a screen. Every toothbrush needs that hub where you can see your latest sessions and spots you missed so that you can adjust for next time. Every toothbrush needs an illuminated handle timer. Every toothbrush needs a satisfying jingle. Every toothbrush needs to make brushing something you want to do, not something you rush through. In short, every toothbrush needs to be the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean 9900.The Best Toothbrush and FlosserWithin the office, this was the most widely questioned gadget of the year. Look, we understand that a camera on your toothbrush that runs AI flossing models can feel like the beginning of the robot takeover. But one week with the Dyson CameraJet will start to blur your allegiances. This will sound like boilerplate, but it’s true: Two minutes, twice a day, no additional flossing, and you always feel like you just went in for a cleaning. This, this, is what AI-camera-enabled robot models should be doing—not trying to replace taxi drivers.The fifth-generation Oura Ring feels like the final form. It won’t be, and we won’t say no to one in ceramic, nor will we say no to the inevitable upgrade that comes out next year. But this feels like the one Oura has perfected. The remarkable thinness is noticeable from the moment you first lay eyes on it. It’s as discreet and comfortable as it’s ever going to get, and after years of use, the app is only getting better. “One ring to rule them all” is right.The Best Red-Light Hair DeviceThere’s not an easier-to-use gadget on this list. You put the hat on, hit the power button, and for ten minutes your scalp and follicles get blasted with 650nm (that’s nanometer, visible red light). The result? Thicker hair, more hair. It won’t bring your line back like a trip to Turkey can, but it surprised our (originally skeptical) tester and fought back against a budding bald spot on the crown of his head.Yes, a red-light mask. They have been everywhere and on every gift guide for five years now. First off, that’s because they work. But some work better than others. At the top of the pyramid is iRestore, which specializes in professional-grade full-body red-light panels. Here it works with eight different wavelengths, which target any skin concern you could ever possibly deal with.The Best Running Recovery DeviceAt-home compression boots are by no means new tech. But they are an ever-evolving category. This year, Therabody came out on top. The JetBoots Pro Plus model takes things to the next level. Made to help reduce leg swelling, target muscle soreness, and offer fatigue relief, they’re a fan favorite, and it’s easy to see why. This new model includes more pneumatic compression, vibration, and infrared LED light, taking your leg health to a whole new level.Massage guns are also old news. But for a surprisingly simple concept, all the push has been at the top end of the market. Other brands make incredible models for $600, but no one makes a solid one—with the ability to heat up and cool down—at a price you can pay out of pocket. This year, Renpho did. The Active+ is deliciously simple. Turn it on, get a heat setting you like, and massage away your pain.This is the coolest launch on this list—definitely the most hyped. Hyperice and Nike, which have done a few more gimmicky recovery-shoe releases, finally put out a recovery slide that we think has staying power. The heat and cloud-soft footbed relax your foot muscles, and the gentle vibration shakes the pain away. After our biggest runs of the testing cycle, these are what we wanted to slip into.We asked all our testers: If you could have a sauna in your house (space and finances are not an issue) would you? Yes was the resounding answer. The reality for most of us is a sauna blanket—lay it out, plug it in, get in, and sweat it out. While there are a handful on the market, this year we loved this one from Hydragun. The zero-EMF, Faraday-shielded far-infrared carbon fiber (mouthful!) evenly distributes 185 degree Fahrenheit heat. When you’re done, fold it up and no one will ever know you have a sauna in your tiny apartment.The Best Home-Gym MachineThere will come a time in your life when you will become particular about two things: low-impact exercise and the aesthetics of all your home-gym equipment. The Technogym reformer is the best, most beautiful way to satisfy both. Reformer workouts are remarkably hard, effective at strengthening all the muscles that will make aging less painful (your core, spine, and anything that stabilizes), and the foolproof app-based classes mean you can now do them all correctly from home. That the Italian fitness company keeps one-upping itself in beauty is the proverbial cherry on top.Tired of paying $200 for a massage or begging for a back rub from your partner who always kind of half-asses it? This is where the robots come in. The Chirp Contour provides you with an at-home recovery-massage technique and spinal-decompression device to offer some relief. It has various interchangeable heads and even heated options, so post-workout you can go lie on it and work those kinks out.On the surface, this is just a great electric razor. A razor is a gadget that affects your daily routine, but this is so much more than that. When you’re done with a shave, just set it back into the clean and charge station and it will be ready to go next time, every time. The upkeep is automatic, allowing you to worry about getting the perfect shave—and that’s it.The Best Microcurrent DeviceMicrocurrent is one of those things that sounds woo-woo until you think about it. Tiny electrical pulses and repeated applications are able to temporarily stimulate your facial muscles to lift and tone your face. It’s dynamite on fine lines and droopiness under the chin. The incredible thing about this Nuface is that it pairs microcurrent with red light, which is better at longer-term cellular regeneration and health.Laifen’s new high-speed hair dryer actually dries your hair quickly and leaves it looking smooth, hydrated, and healthy—never dry, never frizzy. With six temperature options and three nozzles, it’s easy to customize your experience. The nourish nozzle is especially effective, as it uses a special pod to disperse essential oils throughout your hair, leaving it looking and feeling better than before.The Best Running Tracker and CoachIn other parts of these awards, especially with regard to sports devices, you might hear us ask, “Who is this for?” But Striv, a running-coach insole, is something we see as endlessly far-reaching. If you are healthy and able enough to run or walk, you could benefit from knowing how you strike and produce power. If you’re looking to run faster and with less pain, this is a product you need.The Best in GamingFlorence SullivanTurtle Beach finally made a sequel to its groundbreaking Stealth Pro headset. From comfort to sound, it’s everything a gaming headset should be, but what really makes it award worthy is that it’s fully multi-platform. Go from your PC to your Switch to your PlayStation with the press of a single button.It’s rare to see a gaming accessory so innovative it puts itself head and shoulders above its competitors, but Logitech has done it. This mouse is a real breakthrough in bringing the haptic feedback that console players love on controllers to the PC. Not only is the feedback more immediate, making everything feel more immersive, but it also helps you become more precise in those clutch moments.Gaming monitors can get pretty extreme, but this year’s winner is breaking new ground. With a shocking 1,000Hz refresh rate, this thing is future-proofed to the moon and back. If you want some of the smoothest gameplay you’ll ever see, this is the monitor for gamers who need to lock in.Yes, it’s a great mechanical keyboard, but that’s not why it’s a Gadget Award winner. Corsair has done the unthinkable, winning over the hearts of streamers and content creators alike by putting its Elgato Stream Deck straight into its latest keyboard. For you, that means 12 shortcut buttons that will launch any program or app you want. Go deep with custom settings per game, or figure out a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s really down to how much you like to tinker.This controller takes the existing gold standard of the Xbox controller and kicks it up a notch with grip-textured handles, wider triggers, a clickier D-pad, and built-in mappable paddles. Its intricate OLED smart display—which might conjure precious Sega Dreamcast memories—is a luxury you didn’t know you needed. A charging stand with two swappable batteries means the action never has to end and you can truly stay wireless on your couch.The Steam Machine promised to bring the modern PC-gaming experience to the TV, and it lives up to its promise. It looks like a console, and no matter how hard modders try, they can’t re-create something with the same specs that will look as chic on your media console—especially with the faux-wood faceplate. And when you boot it up, it feels like one too. Finally, it’s time to play some real video games on the couch.It sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? A fully personalizable, customizable soundbar and subwoofer dedicated to your gaming rig. It even comes with a full-blown control hub, a volume dial, and programmable buttons, the whole nine yards. Good luck, have fun, and don’t wake the neighbors.Everything about the new MSI Claw makes it feel like the Windows handheld the people have been clamoring for. It’s got textured ergonomic grips, an eight-way D-pad (that finally feels great), and an eight-inch 120Hz screen that makes you feel as though you’re playing on your monitor at your desk, only … you’re in bed. Easily compatible with your Xbox and Steam libraries, and likely to run pretty much anything in there, this is a power-pushing portable.The Best in Outdoor TechFlorence SullivanWhat makes a great outdoor TV? Mainly a bright-as-hell display, but also a sleek and slim frame, a sturdy mount, and a construction that makes you comfortable with some weatherproofing. In other words: Sylvox. Two-thousand-nit brightness accomplishes the highest priority. An industry-first pairing of no frame and IP66 water and dust protection takes care of the rest. At this price, it simply cannot be beat.The Best Smoke and Sear GrillThis may be the best grill ever built. Full stop. It’s tech heavy, for sure—connect the app, plug in the meat thermometers, and get real-time temperature measurements for what you’re cooking—but rather than overwhelm, these additions manage to make a delicious dinner feel utterly foolproof.The Best Small-Size SmokerWe think this is the ideal size for a pellet smoker. When we want to feed a crowd, we like the live fire, the getting up late to stoke. But on any odd weekday, we want to throw on a pork butt while we sip coffee, sit inside working all day, and have perfect pulled-pork tacos by the time the family is back for dinner. That is what Traeger—and this Westwood’s perfect 653-square-inch cooking capacity—gives us.When a brand does the electric-cooler-slash-mobile-fridge thing, we usually need a little bit more. Typically it’s never offered, but Tracova gives us a little bit more and then some. The cooling system is powerful, and it’s accurate. The interior organization is actually built for food prep—making it great for camping trips away. And if you don’t have anywhere to do prep, the pop-up station works in a pinch.The Best Lightweight PocketknifeYou pick up this folding knife and it’s instant. “Oh, damn ... how light is this thing?” One-point-seven-two ounces, to be exact. Once you start to live with it, you understand why Benchmade went on this endeavor. It sits in a pocket and you absolutely forget it’s there. You could put this thing in your gym shorts and go for a run without being uncomfortable. It’s insane. Special shout-out to the ambidextrous Axis lock, a dream for a lefty.The thing with multi-tools that will freak an EDC guy out is all the moving parts. Every tool is a stress point, a chance for something to go wrong. The James Brand took its hardworking sensibility and applied it to the Helton. There is no plastic in sight. There are only eight essential tools, and each of them locks—actually locks. There’s no need to carry a “just fine” multi-tool at this point—carry a Helton instead.The Best Durable PocketknifeOur tester doesn’t think he’s ever held a folding knife this sturdy. “It feels like a damn fixed blade.” This comes from a solid—two to four points harder than the category standard—liner lock that doesn’t flex under load. The composite handle is steady in hand, even if you’re cleaning fish all day. The only—only—issue we have is that MKC has built such a hardcore fan base that the drop is already fully spoken for. If we were you, we’d join the mailing list immediately.Click one of the flavor pods in place underneath the cap, press three times, and shake to dispense it into your water. That’s all you have to do to make hydrating ... well, fun isn’t the word. How about: more enticing to the taste buds. Our tester has tried each of the three flavor pods (vitamin-filled watermelon mint, caffeinated peach ginger, and electrolyte-rich lemon cucumber) and loved all three.The Best Rugged Phone CaseThe best products on this list are deceptively simple. Those knives, some of the wellness stuff, and an iPhone—all win on how they just disappear. But this Yeti phone case might be top of that usability list. (If you get it in safety orange, it will not, we guarantee, disappear.) But it keeps a phone safe, and that kickstand feels like it’ll survive one billion openings. Does the job it ought to do.My God, this is satisfying. Weeds are an inevitable part of having any ground-floor patio space you call your own. But now yucky chemicals are totally optional. The herbicide at work here is safe for kids, pets, and bees; rather than outright kill weeds with an onslaught of toxic agents, this works via dehydration.Everyone should buy five of these right now. They’re affordable. They’re only the slightest bit intrusive. And most importantly: They work. We had our doubts. Getting rid of fruit flies can’t be as easy as plugging in what visibly amounts to a midsize nightlight, right? We were wrong. It’s not overnight, but in just a few days, the backside of our trap—which attracts the bugs with a specialized blue and UV light spectrum—was littered with dozens of intruders. (Cartridges last two weeks.)More than ever, GoPro is for the real-deal videographers. We’re not saying a hobbyist wouldn’t love the Mission 1 Pro, but with a 50 MP one-inch sensor, GP3 processor, 8K60 video, 4K240 slow motion, and 8K30 or 4K120 Open Gate capture using the full sensor, it’s probably overbuilt for someone trying to capture a little footage on their way down the mountain. But that seriousness, funnily enough, is what can suck you in, can make you a real hobbyist video guy.Of course, we’ll list out the specs. Insta360’s X6 has larger sensors than its predecessors, 8K video at up to 50 fps, and 5K single-lens recording. The battery life is upgraded, and a new processor makes footage cleaner. But none of that tells you how damn fun it is to use.Nothing gets you feeling like a kid—smiling, giddy, damn near kicking your feet—like a good e-bike. Aotos has made the year’s best. The Flux X26 is a hell of a lot of fun, but it’s not overpowered for a ride to the grocery store. The fat tires will take on anything, the battery can get you 70 miles, and the throttle—well, that’s what makes you feel like a little kid again.The Best Fire-Pit AccessoryEvery man deserves to feel this manly. The pleasure of going out back and splitting wood is pure and, with the Breeo QwikSplit, possible for just about anyone. It feels condescending to even type out the instructions. Prop up the QwikSplit, put a piece of wood (this only works with split logs) onto it, and heave down the mallet. You can make kindling or fire starters—or just pass a little time feeling strong as hell.The Best Propane Fire PitSolo Stove has already perfected the fire of it all. Use the smokeless pits if you want the crackle; use the propane pits if you want ease. The upgrades now come with material. This year, it came via this gorgeous teak surround model. Nothing, and we mean nothing, will make your back patio look more sophisticated this year.You want the perfect steak? A pork butt? Your Thanksgiving turkey? The key, in just about every scenario, is a meat probe. Meater makes the best one, and it has been doing so for a few years now. The Meater Pro Duo gives you an accurate internal reading, as well as an accurate ambient reading to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and it streams it all straight to your phone.The Best Portable Outdoor SpeakerWe’ve loved Turtlebox for a minute, but there’s something we need to say about these speakers: They’re solid. Solid meaning they weigh a ton. If we’re hiking out to the beach, early morning, the full size can be a bit much but the Ranger a bit undersized. Turtlebox answered our prayers with a ’tweener. The Cub is perfect for solo or small group days at the beach and nights camping.