The year closed not with a whisper but with a parade of devices that felt both inevitable and slightly weird. Between holiday launches, CES pre-teasers and a last-minute trickle of products that missed earlier ship dates, December 2025 became a tiny festival of hardware: refined foldables, XR experiments, audio nostalgia, and a few genuinely clever oddballs.
What grabbed attention in December (and why it matters)
Across outlets that test and curate tech — from Gizmodo’s hands‑on pick of December gadgets to Android Central and Tom’s Guide year‑end awards — some clear threads emerge. Manufacturers doubled down on two things: rethinking old form factors, and repackaging beloved simplicity with modern guts.
Take foldables. Oppo’s Find N5, a favorite in Tom’s Guide’s ranking, shows how the category has matured: solid build, useful multitasking, and battery/charging credentials that finally answer one of the earliest knock‑on arguments against folding phones. Tom’s Guide called it their personal pick for 2025 — a phone that keeps working long after the launch hype fades. That continuity matters because availability still shapes winners; Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 impressed but wins extra points for broader reach.
If you’re tracking Samsung’s experiments, the company hasn’t slowed: recent demonstrations of a tri‑fold concept underline how aggressively brands are stretching the book‑style foldable idea into three panels and new use cases. For context on that design push, see Samsung’s tri‑fold prototype coverage in our archive (/news/samsung-galaxy-trifold-unveiled-at-apec-showcase). Meanwhile, XR hardware is nudging into real use — Samsung’s Galaxy XR efforts are on a global rollout path that could make headset experiences more mainstream next year (/news/samsung-galaxy-xr-global-rollout).
The season’s most interesting products
- Antigravity A1 drone (Gizmodo): a novel aerial kit that uses a 360° camera and AR headset to let you look around the sky like you’re in a bubble. It’s not perfect, but it’s one of the oddest and most imaginative drones we’ve seen.
- Oppo Find N5 (Tom’s Guide pick): a foldable that balances great battery life, fast wired and wireless charging, and a usable multitasking interface. Availability remains a caveat for many buyers, but the handset makes a strong case for foldables as everyday tools.
- Soundpeats Air5 Pro+ and JLab Epic Pods (Gizmodo): budget earbuds that punch above their price points — ANC and long battery life where it counts. If earbuds are your weak spot, these are worth a look.
- Boox Note Air 5C (Gizmodo): e‑ink note‑taking with more color depth than most readers — slower than tablets but excellent for focused reading and longform annotation.
- Robosen Soundwave (Gizmodo): for collectors who like their Bluetooth speakers with a side of sci‑fi, this transforming figure is a $1,400 statement piece.
- Pebble Index 01 (Gizmodo): a tiny, offline voice recorder ring that leans into privacy (no cloud, no subscriptions) — charming in its restraint.
- Designboom’s design picks: the PP‑1 turntable made from a single block of aluminum and the Infinix Zero mini triple‑folding phone both riff on minimalism and mechanical craft. These picks show designers are still eager to tinker with what “personal” tech should feel like.
A few recurring themes — good and troubling
1. Nostalgia as a design cue. From compact MP3 players and miniature Kodak cameras to a turntable with no tonearm, designers and firms are mining analog comfort. It’s not just aesthetic: many of these devices simplify interaction, and in doing so they sell calm.
2. Hardware optimism tempered by supply reality. Several outlets flagged that AI’s appetite for RAM in data centers is tightening the upstream memory market — expect pricing pressure on PCs, consoles and laptops in 2026. That will influence which ambitious gadgets actually reach mass buyers.
3. AI hype versus reality. Gizmodo’s consumer tech desk called out an “AI translator” that crumbled under testing — a reminder that not every device stamped with an “AI” badge does meaningful work. Customers and reviewers are getting savvier about separating genuine machine intelligence from marketing sparkle.
What to watch as 2026 arrives
CES 2026 looms large: expect more XR, more foldable experiments and a lot of AI‑branded features. Phone makers aren’t done either — momentum from winners like OnePlus and the latest Pixel models suggests 2026 will refine performance and software integrations, especially around on‑device AI. If you enjoyed Oppo’s recent design work, their X9 series is a useful read to understand the brand’s evolution (/news/oppo-find-x9-pro-review-battery-camera).
If you want one small shopping tip from the year’s noise: audio remains a forgiving category where value and novelty can coexist. Iconic full‑size cans and premium buds still stand out, but smaller brands are now delivering surprising battery life and ANC at far lower prices. And if you like the little conveniences, the ubiquitous Apple AirPods remain an easy, polished choice for many users.
2025 closed with a sense of both consolidation and curiosity — companies finishing projects they promised years ago, designers reworking the rules, and a consumer base that’s somehow hungry for both cutting‑edge folding displays and a tiny camera that fits on a keychain. It’s an odd cocktail, but it produced some of the year’s most memorable hardware moments. Keep an eye on supply chains and CES reveals; 2026 looks likely to be louder, prouder and a little harder to buy into.