It’s time for the largest tech conference every year. The show floor has officially opened at CES 2025, and after a flurry of press conferences from a ton of companies yesterday, the Engadget team is ready to check out the biggest booths in person here in Las Vegas. We’ve heard that Sony and Hyundai Mobis, in particular, will have interesting and highly visual setups at their stations, and are also stoked to finally go to the startup-rice venues like the Venetian’s Sands Expo. CES usually sets the stage for each year, and judging by everything that’s already been announced so far, AI will continue to find its way into every possible corner of our lives.
We’ll be giving out awards for our best things at CES 2025, but before we make those decisions, there’s a lot more to see and touch. This year, we’re noticing a lot more AI earbuds and AR glasses than usual, though the fact that AI is more prevalent than ever is less shocking. The carpets and casinos continue to be a sensory experience that really reminds us of the mingling of tech and excess, too.
If you want to live vicariously through us, there is no better place to keep up than our liveblog, which will be updated regularly throughout today. You can also tune in for our live coverage of all of the biggest press conferences happening today, including Honda and Delta, which is hosting the first press conference ever held in the Sphere. Keep your browser tab open here, and you might feel like you’re right in Vegas, surrounded by weird robots!
Live340 updates
Windows fans often look at the svelte lines of the MacBook Air with a major case of FOMO. And it’s exactly that group that should check out the new ASUS Zenbook A14. Devindra Hardawar got a chance to check it out at a pre-CES preview event and came away impressed:
The ASUS Zenbook A14 weighs less than 2.2 pounds. (Sam Rutherford for Engadget)
“It weighs less than 2.2 pounds (or 1kg), half a pound lighter than Apple’s smallest MacBook Air. In almost every respect, the ZenBook A14 outclasses Apple’s ultraportable, with specs like a 14-inch OLED screen and up to 32 hours of battery life. The only downside is that it’s running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X and X Elite chips, which limits compatibility with older Windows apps (along with some devices).”
All that and a starting price of $900? Yes, please.
Read more: The ASUS Zenbook A14 is the MacBook Air competitor I’ve been dreaming of
I’m not a parent, but I’m familiar with the problem of getting kids to “wind down” at the end of the day. That’s where the Moonbuddy comes in. The egg-shaped “calming companion” helps kids calm down and literally breathe easier. Cheyenne MacDonald explains:
The Moonbuddy guided breathwork device shown wearing the Bear sleeve (Moonbird)
“[T]here’s no accompanying app, so the activity is entirely screen-free. Moonbuddy is activated by a button on the back, and there are four different breathing modes that range from 6 breaths per minute to 10.5 breaths per minute. Once you’ve selected an exercise, the device’s squishy belly will begin to expand and contract slowly to match the desired breathing rhythm.”
Read more: Moonbuddy is an adorable guided breathing device that’ll help your kid wind down
If you’re scrolling all the way down on this liveblog, this isn’t the first pair of AR glasses you’re seeing from CES 2025 — nor will it be the last. Like many of the other ones we’re seeing this year, the RayNEO X3 Pro is lightweight and includes a rudimentary display. From Karissa Bell (who’s tried on more than these than I can count):
The RayNeo X3 pro AR glasses. (Karissa Bell for Engadget)
“Like AR glasses from Meta and Snap, RayNeo use microLED projectors and waveguides to produce a full-color AR display. The field of view is just 25 degrees — notably smaller than what Snap or Meta have in their products — but it’s impressively bright. Even under the fairly bright lights of a Las Vegas casino ballroom, I had no problem seeing the menus or even reading text (the display outputs 2,500 nits, according to the company).”
Read more: RayNeo AR glasses hands-on at CES 2025: Surprisingly light and bright
There was a lot to love about the redesigned M4 Mac Mini, but the curiously placed power button — on the underside — was an annoyance for some. That’s why the Satechi M4 Stand & Hub is already a welcome accessory. As Amy Skorheim notes:
The Mac Mini M4 Stand & Hub has a notch cutout allowing access to the power button. (Amy Skorheim / Engadget)
“Probably the most compelling feature is the notch that makes accessing the petite PC’s power button easier. The stand elevates the Mac Mini off your desk, but leaves a concave space so that you can reach the power button on the bottom of its rear side.”
That’s not all, of course. The hub also adds more ports, an SD reader and an SSD enclosure, to boot. All for $100
Read more: The latest Satechi hub fixes an irritating M4 Mac Mini flaw — and looks good doing it
A lot of people say the Apple Vision Pro’s virtual display — a wall-sized virtual screen for your Mac . That’s why Daniel Cooper’s hands-on demo of the Xreal One Pro AR glasses is so intriguing. These new specs seem to deliver that sort of giant augmented reality monitor experience for a mere $600. From Dan’s hands-on:
Image of a handsome man (Daniel Cooper) wearing Xreal One Pro AR Glasses while playing a Nintendo Switch. (Photo by Daniel Cooper)
“The point of the new X1 chip is to ensure the glasses can do all the spatial brainwork without needing to rely on whatever device you’re hooked up to. That enables you to have ultra-wide displays that could be used to give yourself a mega desktop if you need to get some serious work done. Or, if you want to pin a games console in one place in your virtual environment, you can now do that even if you’re wired up to something low power. Speaking of, I got to try two different demos, the first playing Super Mario Odyssey on a Switch, and then one with an ultra-wide desktop display on a laptop.”
Read more: Xreal’s new One Pro AR glasses are surprisingly good
A lot of people in my neighborhood have backup generators tethered to their homes. I understand the thought, but the 5-figure price tag has always been a no-go for me. That’s why the Biolite Backup is intriguing. It’s a thin backup battery specifically designed for your fridge. As Amy Skorheim explains:
Backup by Biolite (Amy Skorheim / Engadget)
“The concept will be familiar to anyone who’s ever used an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) — something gamers have been using for years to ensure uninterrupted play. In essence, it’s a large battery plus inverter that plugs into your wall. You then plug in any appliance or device you don’t want to ever lose power — a fridge is a good example. When the power inevitably goes out, the battery senses the lack and flips the output to feed from the stored charge. When power is restored, the cells refill themselves, ready for next time.”
Read more: Backup by Biolite is a giant (but sleek!) battery that keeps your fridge running during outages
There’s lazy, and then there’s lazy. Personally, I don’t think it’s a big deal to swap snap-on MagSafe batteries on my iPhone. But if you do, the Swippit Hub is for you. As Nathan Ingraham explains:
Swippitt Hub (Nathan Ingraham for Engadget)
“It’s a breadbox-sized hub that contains five battery packs that can fit into a a custom-made iPhone case. When the battery is in the case, it works like similar product, keeping your phone juiced up. The trick is that when the battery is empty, you pop your phone into the top of the box and it automatically removes the battery from the case and drops in a fresh one.”
That’s it — that’s the product
Read more: The Swippit Hub keeps your iPhone loaded up with fresh batteries
Image of a handsome man (Dan Cooper) wearing a pair of Even Realities smart glasses in a crowded casino ballroom. (Photo by Daniel Cooper)
While true augmented reality glasses are still many years away, the Meta Ray-Bans have gained a lot of fans over the past year by doing a few things very well, and delivering a lot of value for their $300-ish price tag. And the new Even Realities G1 smart glasses that Daniel Cooper tried out at CES appear to be building on that model. The G1 uses a rudimentary display to add low-res graphics prompts, but it still likes like a regular pair of glasses. From Dan’s hands-on:
“The company opted not to throw too many features at the G1, focusing instead on where it could make a real impact while respecting the battery. For instance, activate your phone’s navigation and you’ll get turn by turn directions showing up in your field of vision. Similarly, you should be able to use the glasses as a prompter, with the system’s built-in microphone following along as you speak. That microphone can also be used for real time translation in a number of foreign languages, as well as transcribing your dictations. Plus, you’ll get the option to have your smartphone notifications dropping in front of your eyes, sparing you the indignity of looking at your phone or watch.”
Read more: Even Realities’ G1 smart glasses are useful and elegant
Huang unveils the Project Digits box. (NVIDIA)