Could insect-watching be the next bug… er, big thing?

TechRadar’s Editor at Large and birdwatching enthusiast Lance Ulanoff has been won over by a pair of new launches from Wonder – the brand behind his beloved Bird Buddy. The Petal looks (kind of) like a big yellow flower, but inside is a HD camera with a 1/1.9 inch sensor, capable of shooting 12MP stills. This can be placed using a bendable stem, while a solar panel disguised as a leaf ensures it doesn’t run out of charge.

While the stem can be wrapped around anything you like in your garden, if you really want to get into nature-spotting even further, you could pair it with one of the brand’s new Wonder Blocks. This modular habitat system can be customized to attract different kinds of wildlife – you could plant flowers and watch for bugs, or invite bees to nest, for example.

Just like with Bird Buddy, the camera captures photos and videos of the birds and insects that come to visit. It then sends them to the Wonder app, which uses AI to identify them, so you can get to know your garden’s inhabitants a little better.

This drink-cooling robot cat might be cutest gadget of CES 2025

Along with your TVs and graphics cards, CES always delivers plenty more unusual gadgets, and the prize for this year’s cutest bit of tech goes to the Nékojita FuFu. This dinky mechanical cat clings to the top of your cup, and blows on your drink to cool it down to sipping temperature.

The FuFu (an onomatopoeic name meant to mimic a person breathing) comes with a range of different blowing modes. Currently, these include ‘The Princess’ (slow, steady breaths) and ‘Look at That!’ (which gets increasingly stronger). These modes are randomized, to make this coffee companion seem more lifelike.

This is the work of Yukai Engineering, which has built something of a name for itself when it comes to gadgets that walk an unsteady line between appealing and just plain weird. This year, it’s also showing a furry creature that’ll cling to your bag handle and watch people as they go past, and previous CES showings include a cuddly toy that nibbles your fingers.

Is this the future of immersive experiences?

If I had the choice of game/TV show to try in immersive-experience form, it wouldn’t necessarily be The Last of Us. The superb PlayStation horror/HBO thriller is terrifying at the best of times, so actually living it… well, no thank you.

Our Senior Staff Writer Hamish Hector is clearly braver than I am, though, so he took one for the team and stepped into the world’s first interactive The Last of Us exhibit at CES. And he died. Of course he did. But he had fun, and that’s the main thing, right?

We’re not sure if this well ever end up being more than a tech demo, but as Hamish says, it was “a super awesome experience. I loved the blending of real and virtual elements to create an immersive interactive story that felt like you were thrust into the game world.” Here’s hoping it’s made available to a wider audience at some stage.

Instant CES Day 1 catch-up

Need a quick primer on everything you’ve missed over the first day of CES? We’ve pulled together our round-up to CES 2025 day 1: featuring the 11 best gadgets we’ve seen so far.

And there was plenty of it – from smart glasses to smart rings, hi-res audio players to OLED TVs and – inevitably for CES – robots. Lots of robots.

First climb: Garmin’s new Instinct 3 smartwatch

CES is tiring at the best of times, but TechRadar’s Editor at Large Lance Ulanoff really went above and beyond to try out the new Garmin Instinct 3 in Vegas.

The Instinct 3 is the latest version of Garmin’s popular outdoor smartwatch, and brings with it either a new AMOLED display or a new solar-powered screen, new metal-reinforced bezel and a built-in flashlight, among other upgrades.

And of course it tracks multiple activities – including climbing. So what else could Lance do but give it a go…

@techradar
♬ original sound – TechRadar

Check out the video above to see how he found it, but it case you’re worried, he made it back to ground safely.

First listen: LG’s impressive new Bluetooth speakers

Here’s a slight surprise from the CES 2025 show floor – a celebrity tech collaboration that’s actually good. LG has announced a new range of Bluetooth speakers made in collaboration with will.i.am and they’ve surprised TechRadar’s Managing Editor of Entertainment Matt Bolton by offering “big, beautiful sound and a smart design”.

The new xboom speakers are a range coming in different sizes, but the star (to our ears) was the LG xboom Stage 301 (above) which is designed like the stage speakers you see at concerts. It can also sit on a stand, so you can use it with a mic for karaoke, busking or just as a big party speaker.

In our demo we found it delivered “really full bass that felt suitably deep but not overwhelming at all, and with tons of space for the rest of the music to leap out at you”. You can read our full report on the whole range below.

Nvidia reveals the planet’s most powerful consumer graphics card

It wasn’t exactly a surprise after months of leaks and speculation, but Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (in perhaps his finest leather jacket so far) has finally revealed the RTX 5000 series graphics cards at CES 2025 – and put AMD and Intel firmly in the shade.

As TechRadar’s Computing Editor Christian Guyton noted, “it might not be called the Nvidia Titan RTX, but the RTX 5090 might as well be”. The flagship card’s specs are astounding and, frankly, so is the price at $1,999 (£1,999 / AU$4,039). Too much for a ‘consumer’ graphics card? Read our full report to make up your mind…

The ‘greatest gadget we’ve seen at CES’ so far?

It’s a bold claim, but TechRadar’s Homes Editor Ruth Hamilton makes a strong case for the Switchbot K20+Pro being the finest thing, in pure gadget terms, we’ve seen from CES 2025. It is, after all, a vacuum that can clean your floors, but also act as your air purifier, security camera and sandwich deliverer.

Like the SwitchBot K10+ Pro, this new model is a Lidar-powered modular bot that can have different SwitchBot appliances stacked on top of it. That means you can add a security camera, fan or a clip-on tray to deliver you anything up to 8kg in weight. It’s been a long time coming, but a Jetsons-style home robot could finally be close…

Eyes-on with Samsung’s new The Frame Pro TV

We’ve always been a little ambivalent about Samsung’s popular The Frame TVs at TechRadar, but that could soon change. Our resident TV expert Matt Bolton has just seen a demo of the The Frame Pro mini-LED TV at CES 2025 and says “the new screen is a total game-changer”.

When compared to the classic The Frame model, the difference is apparently “night and day” due to the inclusion of the company’s Neo QLED mini-LED tech and local dimming, which improves realism and means the “colors are massively richer and bold”.

I saw The Frame Pro in action next to a regular 2024 The Frame TV, and the difference is staggering. We’ve always had a slightly cool relationship with The Frame TVs here on TechRadar, because they’re wildly popular and we understand why people like them, but it always rankled that they used such mediocre image tech.

First look: LG C5 OLED TV

LG’s new mid-range C5 OLED TV wasn’t given the fanfare of its G5 and M5 flagship TVs, but TechRadar’s Matt Bolteon (Managing Editor, Entertainment) managed to track it down for a demo. And if you’re in the market for well-priced panel in 2025, it’s shaping up very nicely.

There’s no pricing for it yet (and that’ll be key), but it’ll effectively be an LG C4 with improved processing, a slightly brighter display, and new webOS features. We’ve called it “another great-looking set” – to find out why, check out our full report from the show floor below.