If you’re in New South Wales, South Australia or the Australian Capital Territory, you’ll probably also know the Labour Day public holiday is partly meant to help you adjust to the start of daylight saving time, where the clock moves one hour ahead.

To help make the transition potentially easier, I’ve hunted down eight deals on sleep tech and related devices such as sunrise alarm clocks, eye masks, earplugs and more that should see you survive the long weekend, and hopefully improve your sleep moving forward.

• Follow our dedicated live coverage of the Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2026 sale for more deals and discounts

Casio's CRW-001 gadget, the catchy name for its retro digital watch ring, sells like absolute hotcakes. Since its December 2024 debut, periodic restocks of the niche little watch-ring hybrid continue to sell out. We're not sure whether this can technically be classed as one of the best smart rings, but this weird little gadget certainly has its devotees.

Now, a new version is apparently on the horizon, according to a report by Russian website Casioblog, spotted and translated by Notebookcheck.

Dubbed, sensibly, CRW-002, the new smart ring is based on Casio's iconic metal A168 watch series. It's said to be available in steel and gold, and will sport some of the same text as sported on the original A168 watch, with phrases like 'Chronograh', 'Illuminator' and 'Water Resist'.

The band of the ring is also a replica of the strap, injection-molded, according to the images posted by Notebookcheck. Features reportedly include "dual time, a 60-minute stopwatch, an LED backlight, a calendar, 12- and 24-hour formats, and Time Flash, which blinks the light on the hour and at a time you set", according to Notebookcheck.

The price is said to be $135 (around £100 / AU$195), which lines up with the average prices of the CRW-001 (around $200 / £105 / AU$250), and it's reportedly set to be released in November.

More than a novelty

Retro-style Casio watches are evergreen and nostalgic, perhaps because they're part of a growing counterculture.

Analog is back in. Be it retro keychain film cameras, vinyl, or DVDs and Blu-Rays, people are becoming sick of increasing surveillance capitalism and anti-consumer practices, and are looking to return to a time when tech was exciting — albeit without losing their modern conveniences. Wearables are also a part of this movement.

The Casio F-B100W, the Bluetooth-enabled digital watch with a simple step tracker linked to an app and a Find My Phone functionality, has sold like crazy. It was a sell-out hit in Japan, and some outlets in the UK, and very recently landed in the US. I called it "an absolute belter of a watch for the price" and the "most fun" smart wearable I've worn this year when I tried the Casio F-B100W in September 2026.

While the ring-watch has a... unique look, shall we say, obviously enough people like it o make it a hit, and it makes sense Casio would want to repeat its success.

Every time a new smartwatch is released, it’s sold on its ability to collect new and improved types of health data. Any old fitness tracker knows more about your body’s comings and goings than you do, but without interpretation, these figures, statistics and metrics are all just numbers to you and I. A graph of my blood oxygen through the day, or my HRV while sleeping, won’t tell me how fit I am.

That’s why the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 feels like a breath of fresh air. Its core upgrade isn’t some new facet of health to track, or a different kind of number which it can count, but something simpler. It ties into recent Samsung Health changes to actually provide actionable advice based on your data.

It’s the aggregate watch. All your workouts and body data are condensed into a Fitness Index, which compares your wellness in several different departments to other Samsung users on average, and helps you expand your exercise regimen to improve. Your sleep schedule, daily cadence and heart rate turns into your Energy Score, which helps you understand if, and when, it’s time to workout.

All of that is to say, that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 is far more useful than most wearables I’ve tested, because it actually makes your data mean something. Its smarts may be unnecessary for prolific exercisers, who already know how to use their data, but the average person who cares about health but hasn't yet dived into their fitness with the same granuarity will find it incredibly useful.

Perfect it is not. There are all the usual smartwatch quirks: navigation, and information locations within the UI, can sometimes feel counterintuitive, and it’ll easily pick up scuffs and marks over time. More significantly, the battery life is poor: it’ll go for about a day of use on a single charge, or even less if you’re doing multiple exercises per day, but this has always been a sticking point with Samsung watches.

Some features are also only available if you own a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, and although one could argue that these are more minor tools, it’s still a shame that not all buyers get the same smartwatch.

Still, this feels like one of the most accessible smartwatches you can buy, in terms of its feature set and performance. It’s worth buying if you’ve been on the fence, liking the idea of a smartwatch but never feeling like they justify themselves; this one does.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: Specifications

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: Price and availability

• 40mm Bluetooth model starts at $349.99 / £319 / AU$649
• 44mm model starts at $399.99 / £349 / AU$699
• Available to pre-order July 9

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 was unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, 2026, alongside the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

There are many variants of the watch. You can choose between Bluetooth or LTE connectivity, in 40mm or 44mm size, in a range of body and band sizes and colors, with certain different types of band. You can see some of the prices below for the main four configurations.

At that price, the watch slightly undercuts the Apple Watch Series 11 – bearing in mind that Apple’s sizes are slightly bigger. However it’s slightly more expensive than the Galaxy Watch 8 was, which is sad but unsurprising in the current tech market given the supply chain crisis.

It’s worth pointing out that lots of the new Galaxy Watch 9 features come from Samsung Health, and many other Samsung wearables are also compatible – and get many of the new tools as a result. They won’t be baked into the watch interface like on the Watch 9, but you’ll still get access to the new tools for cheaper.

And of course, if you’re not interested in this aggregated data, there are budget wearables for literally a fifth of the price which will do the job just fine. If you need any old smartwatch or tracker, you can get one offering a lot better value for money.

• Value score: 4/5

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: Design

• Relatively thin and lightweight: solid on wrist
• 3,000 nits screen works well outdoors
• Unchanged design from Watch 8

To look at it, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 is incredibly similar to its predecessor. You’re getting the same circle display, housed in a squircle metal ‘cushion’. The similarities are more than aesthetic: design-wise, this is basically the same watch.

That’s not a complaint; we gave the Watch 8 a five-star design score. It’s a sleek watch, with two barely-protruding but easy-to-tap buttons on the right edge. It’s small enough to be comfortable to wear in bed, and light enough not to wiggle around when you’re running or working out.

The watch has a 5ATM rating for waterproofing (up to 50 meters), a MIL-STD-810H certification for protection (against extreme temperature, altitude, dust, drops and many more military-grade requirements) and is also IPX8 rated. That is to say, it’s pretty well protected… though it’ll show its war wounds. My review unit, as you’ll see in images, quickly picked up a few dings and scrapes.

All these similarities extend to the screen. A Super AMOLED panel with a max brightness of 3,000 nits, it’s nice and bright for when you’re out in sunlight, or to double as a torch if you need one. Not once did I struggle to see what was going on.

Mostly, the screen was responsive, but a few times it wouldn’t recognize my touch if my swipe began off the screen (as the screen isn’t huge, it’s easy to miss on gestures). On the 40mm, then, some gestures can be a little finickity, but I don’t imagine this is the case on the 44mm model.

You can buy the watch with Sport, Misty or Fabric bands, in a range of colors. My test sample had the former, which quickly gave me a rash; if you have sensitive skin, I’d recommend avoiding this strap. Luckily, loads more are available to buy online, and they’re easy to replace with a simple press-to-release catch system on the watch body.

The watch’s user interface seems quite simple on the surface, but mastering it can speed up the way you use your watch. Swiping down for quick settings or right for notifications is easy, as is pulling up to see your app drawer. Swiping left brings you Tiles, which are basically on-watch widgets which you can customize. They let you easily see metrics, start tracking certain activities or see information from weather or calendar apps, and learning to use these properly transformed my time with the watch.

It’s not quite perfect, and there are some navigation quirks which are quite annoying. It’s hard to change app on the fly; for example if you’re tracking your cycle ride while also navigating on Google Maps and managing your tunes on Spotify, you’ll constantly have to jump back to the main menu rather than swiping between menus. But these are minor gripes.

• Design score: 5/5

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: Features

• Aggregates all your data for useful scores
• Offers pointers and feedback which are mostly useful
• Requires Samsung phone for all features

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 feature set revolves around the brand’s redesigned Samsung Health. The key note change is this: instead of simply recording and reporting all your health and fitness metrics, the watch (and app) will boil all your data down into several key metrics, and then provide feedback and analytics.

Some are really useful. Fitness index was a handy way to compare my strengths and weaknesses in several departments, while Heart Health is a handy way to nudge you towards best cardiovascular practice. However not all are equal: Daily Cardio Load should help you decide whether you’re exercising enough, but it only takes into account logged workouts, rather than actual activity (ie, 20,000 steps will count for less than a 100 meter run), so its feedback doesn’t feel relevant. Likewise, the energy score felt light years from accurate; I’d wake up feeling exhausted, and be told by the watch that my energy level was ‘excellent’.

But for good or ill, it’s great that Samsung Health actually does something with the data the Watch 9 collects. Features like the sleep score and sleep coaching, and the aforementioned Fitness Index, can give you useful pointers towards various goals. For example, the latter tool can give you recommendations to hit health targets, and show you data over time.

Again, the results are sometimes mixed. Running coach – which is admittedly in beta – gave me a laughably incorrect assessment of my running habits, giving me a 4-week training plan which I could complete in two days.

Some might find the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9’s approach a little oversimplistic, and if you’re in that camp, you might need a device geared more towards pros.

I was constantly surprised by what the Galaxy Watch 9 could track. You can use its sensors to measure body composition, stress and antioxidant levels in the body – obviously these won’t match the accuracy of an actual medical test, but it’s useful for contributing to the aforementioned metrics. I also really appreciated receiving a sweat loss figure during runs, telling me how much to rehydrate.

During testing, I paired the Galaxy Watch 9 with both a Samsung phone, and later a non-Samsung one. Unfortunately, some features are gated for Galaxy device owners, like ECG or blood pressure, so if you have another device you’re missing some of the tech you’re paying for.

Generally, Bluetooth connection was reliable. I had a few unexpected drop-outs, but most of the time, the watch could re-pair to my phone easily. Only once did I need to reboot the watch to regain connection.

Beyond the fitness tools, the Galaxy Watch has plenty of useful extra tools like a torch, music controls and Play Store for extras. I really appreciated the ability to set vibration alarms, so my wrist-mounted wake-up call wouldn’t also rouse my partner, and set alarms on my wrist before bed.

• Features score: 4/5

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: Performance

• Mostly accurate for exercises and sleep tracking
• Battery only lasts a day per charge
• Lots of activities to train, but they range in usefulness

Let’s start with one of the weak elements of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: its battery life. In my testing, it generally lasted a day of serious use; by that I mean workouts tracked most days (sometimes multiple a day), a night of sleep tracking, and notification handling. In fact, during busy days, I’d have to top it up in the afternoon.

A sole day of battery life isn’t ideal, as it means charging the device takes up a significant amount of your potential use time. By reducing my workout frequency, turning off raise-to-wake and reducing notifications handled, I managed to get the device to last closer to two days, but not everyone will want to switch off many features of their fancy smart device.

When it comes to tracking activities, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 felt largely accurate. Its location results matched other trackers I’ve used, as well as GPS mapping tools, and heart rate data was comparable to another fitness watch I used at the same time.

Sleep tracking was a little more iffy. The watch was great at recognizing sleep time versus idling in bed time, avoiding a common wearable problem in which your pre-sleep book reading or post-wake-up dawdle would count as more sleep. However it didn’t always catch my waking up during the night, and sometimes didn’t report all my sleep data after I woke up. Oh well – I was just happy to wear a fitness tracker which wasn’t so big that it disrupted my sleep.

The watch’s sleep coaching is quite useful: after a test, I was told I sleep like a penguin, and given some tasks to accomplish to get better rest. Since many of these are self-reported, I lied a little bit – yes, Galaxy Watch, of course I meditated before bed – but pointers to get out of bed quickly after an alarm were handy.

Generally, the Samsung is adept at auto-recognizing pauses in your workout: when I stopped at traffic lights, it could tell when I was motionless, and when I’d resumed. It’s a little more unreliable for auto-tracking exercises though. When I took the watch on holiday and spent days wandering around a city, it’d sometimes track my wanders and other times neglect to. Don’t rely on this tool.

The Galaxy Watch has about ten activities available to track via its menu, but you can easily add more from a pre-determined list, or create your own activity if your favorite one is missing (there was no bouldering, so I had to make my own). These are often quite basic – when making bouldering, I could only set it to track duration and calories burnt – but it all contributes to the fitness metrics.

Done a workout? Good luck finding the data. As far as I can tell, you can’t see past workouts on the watch, even via the Samsung Health applet. You can see any done on that day on Samsung Health, but your long list of past workouts is hidden incredibly well within the app (I only found it by clicking a ‘View Records’ pop-up at the top of the app – not the other ‘View Records’ which takes you to your steps. It’s silly!) . Presumably, the brand doesn’t think you’re going to want to see historic data, but I often find this useful to check against.

• Performance score: 4/5

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested

I used the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 for three weeks, wearing it on my wrist most of the time over that period. For the first week it was used alongside my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, and the second two with the Fairphone 6 Plus.

During that span of time I slept with it, wore it while working, and took it on a week-long holiday. I also tracked various kinds of exercise including runs, walks, bouldering, cycles and tennis, and used all of Samsung Health’s features all that time.

I’ve been reviewing gadgets for TechRadar for eight years, and in that time have tested countless smartwatches and Samsung Galaxy devices. I’ve completed multiple marathons and am training for another, giving the Galaxy Watch 9 something to work towards.

Six years on, the premium exercise equipment company shows no sign of slowing down: its slickly-produced live and recorded classes feature instructors who are treated like celebrities in their own right, and its algorithmic, addictive content meshes with its high-end machinery to make for a 'magic formula' which keeps Peloton power users addicted to indoor cardio.

Now Peloton has announced a trio of new treadmills that will launch starting October 1: the Peloton Tread Flex, the Tread Vision, and the Tread Vision Plus.

Let's start with the Peloton Tread Flex. Costing $2,195 / £1,999 / AU$3,499, it's Peloton's cheapest treadmill, and its cheapest product so far, although it won't be available in regions outside the US until spring 2027. It's designed for smaller spaces and smaller budgets, and it's also Peloton's first folding treadmill, with four caster wheels to help you tow it around in its upright configuration without needing tools.

"We've put a lot of work into that," Nick Caldwell, Peloton's Chief Product Officer, tells me when I meet him and VP of Product Management Meg Higgins at Peloton HQ in London. "It's 46% of the footprint of our Tread Vision base platform, and also super quiet... You're getting great value with the capability to do folding and flex, and you're going to get a ton of new software features with this as well."

Some of those software features include the great-looking ReRun feature, which extracts and replicates the elevation profile of real-world routes, like parts of the New York City Marathon, and replicates them on the Tread. The Tread will respond by adjusting the gradient automatically to replicate the route, and show you your progress on a virtual map. Not only is this cool in its own right, it also allows runners hoping to tackle popular races around the world an opportunity to dry-run those iconic courses.

"Out of the box, we'll have some built-in ones," says Higgins. "We'll take the New York City Marathon and break it up into five digestible chunks... so you can get dialed-in training for the course." Higgins adds that runners will be able to upload GPX files from their outdoor runs and replicate them on the treadmill, too.

Next up is the Tread Vision, a more powerful non-folding, AI-powered model starting at $3,495 / £2,999 / AU$4,999. It features a new cushioning system underneath the tread for more comfort and energy return, and a redesigned button system with jump-up and jump-down options alongside the old dial system. But the real advancement is the Movement Tracking Camera.

"We've created a new form feedback system for runners", Caldwell tells me. "This is using vertical displacement to a) count your steps, give you a cadence figure, and b) it'll tell you whether or not your form is correct, and whether your running efficiency is being maximized".

Covering stats like vertical oscillation (how much you bounce while you run) as well as cadence, the system will give you a Running Efficiency Score, as well as personalized AI-powered feedback. We've seen similar features in products like the Peloton Guide, and incorporated into earlier Cross Training labelled devices, but here Peloton has applied it to a treadmill.

"We've already seen this improved folks who are trying to do marathon prep, and things like that," adds Caldwell, indicating that it's more accurate than similar running efficiency-based metrics from wearables such as the best Garmin watches.

Finally, we have the Tread+ Vision, priced at $6,695, with pricing for other regions TBC. This treadmill also features Sled Mode, a Hyrox-style workout that has you grip two vertical bars and replicate a sled-pushing exercise against variable levels of resistance.

"There is one other competitor that has this on the market, that treadmill costs $15,000," says Caldwell. "I know this thing isn't cheap, but, like, you know, for around seven grand US, you're getting an immense value in the form of the highest-quality energy return service, and now Sled Mode."

With all these treadmills, you get Peloton IQ features such as the new ReRun functionality and an IQ Pace Target, which uses AI to calculate times for you to aim to achieve for various distance. These features are also coming to historic treadmills too.

"The only thing that is gated is the Run Analysis because it uses that Computer Vision camera," says Higgins. "Our philosophy is if the hardware allows it, to give it to everyone."

You also naturally get access to Peloton's smorgasbord of live and historic classes, depending on your subscription tier. Heart rate zone-specific workouts are a new addition to the roster, allowing people to connect heart rate monitors and wearables from Garmin, Apple, Google and now Whoop, alongside new running, walking and hiking workouts.

Seeing the Vision

Seeing as we were at Peloton HQ, I had the opportunity to have a quick go on the Tread Vision to try some of the new running tools for myself. The cameras were quick to set up, putting in some information such as my height and capturing my body in vertical orientation as a phone camera does.

During a brief 10-minute test run, I can attest to feeling as though there has been some improvement of the energy return of the belt compared to my experience with the previous model. The belt was nice and spacious, and using the jump-up and jump-down buttons as opposed to, or in conjunction with, the dial was helpful when following the class's cadence as dictated by the instructor. No more spinning the dial too far and trying to course-correct during a class.

After that short test, I ended up with a fairly pedestrian Running Efficiency Score of 66, viewable in the Peloton app, with individual scores for specific metrics, and some apparently genuinely helpful advice on working on my vertical oscillation. However, given the brief nature of the trial, I imagine the feature would become more accurate with longer workouts — at least, that's my excuse.

I'm looking forward to trying all three new treadmills over a longer test period — stay tuned.

Polar has released its latest sports smartwatch, the Street X. With a brief to create an ‘urban sports watch for those who live, work, and train in the city’, Polar has produced a chunky G-Shock-style watch that is tough, lightweight, and ‘always ready’ to go.

The rather basic design and poorly implemented user interface stand in contrast to gorgeous and sleek alternatives such as the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8. The Street X might offer a 50m water rating and military-grade durability (perhaps a little redundant for city dwellers), but this comes at the expense of a design that is properly thought through and finessed.

Thankfully, there are no issues with the bright 1.28-inch AMOLED display that's covered by tough Gorilla Glass or, indeed, GPS accuracy that keeps up with more expensive smartwatches, including the Garmin Tactix 8.

Solid performance continues with mapping tools that allow for route navigation and mixed-terrain training, although GPS tracking often takes upwards of a minute to lock in. In a day and age when we expect instant results, this is frustrating.

Based on our experience with the Street X, we don’t expect it to feature in our best smartwatches guide. Accuracy aside, its running features can’t keep up with Garmin’s dedicated offerings.

Polar Street X: Specifications

Polar Street X: Price and availability

• $249.99 USD / £219 UK / $429.99 AUS
• Pricier than expected, given the materials and specs
• Cheaper alternatives exist from more established brands

The Polar Street X sits alongside the Finnish brand’s cheaper Pacer range, rather than the more expensive Vantage and Grit series’. . At $249.99 USD / £219 UK / $429.99 AUS, it is significantly cheaper than the Pacer Pro and only a little more expensive than the Pacer. The watch ships in three different colors: Night Black, Snow White, Forest Green.

One of the best alternatives, also boasting an AMOLED display and onboard GPS, is the Amazfit Active 3 Premium. Priced at $169.99 / £169.90, we were so impressed that we awarded it an incredible five-stars.

If you’re a Garmin fan, then the slightly pricier Forerunner 170 at $299 / £259.99 / AU$479 is worth a look. We found it to be “extremely accurate” during treadmill tests “despite packing Garmin's older heart rate sensing technology.”

• Value score 4/5

Polar Street X: Design

• Chunky shockproof design with a budget feel
• Fiddly strap but a comfortable fit
• Very poorly designed user interface

The Polar Street X boasts a classic shockproof design with a five-button configuration similar to the best Garmin watches. They are chunky and clunky, and accessing the top left side button to go backwards through menus is incredibly awkward for a right-hander wearing the watch on the left wrist. I also wasn’t a fan of the long button presses that were required to avoid accidental presses. In practice, these were a second or two longer than they needed to be.

Both the case and bezel are made of ‘bio-based plastic’, which means renewable biomass sources were used rather than petrochemical alternatives. It’s also robust enough to protect the internal components from damage even when dropped. Durability credentials include a 50 meter water resistance rating and MIL-STD-810H testing that demonstrates the Street X’s ability to withstand high and low temperatures, rain, sand, dust, and vibration.

The AMOLED display isn’t huge; in fact, the 1.28-inch diameter felt a little restrictive, especially considering the poorly designed user interface, which fails to take advantage of the full screen. Menu items are also curved at the bottom of the interface, but they don’t follow the circle shape of the case, which is rather jarring.

The 416px resolution delivers a clear image and is protected by Gorilla Glass, which is ideal for users who are prone to dropping their smartwatches. The screen is touch-enabled, features ‘always on’ functionality, and features an ambient light sensor.

I often think one of the most overlooked elements of a smartwatch design is the strap, and Polar has fallen foul of that too. The strap includes an awkward catch design, which I found incredibly fiddly. That said, once the watch is securely positioned on the wrist, it is comfortable to wear, even for long periods of time.

• Design Score: 3/5

Polar Street X: Features

• Extensive training and health tracking
• Navigation features including route guidance
• Smart features and utilities for a broader smartwatch experience

At the heart of the Polar Street X is a set of tracking tools for training, including Training Load Pro for making sure your body doesn’t become overstrained. For runners there is a Running Program feature where you can select one of four running events: 5K, 10K, half marathon, or marathon, and get a personalized, adaptive training plan that fits you and your goals. This is a simple but well-implemented solution for keeping you on track.

The Street X offers all the health tracking that you would expect, including continuous heart rate, step count, and calorie burn. Beyond this, Polar has packed the watch with a skin temperature sensor for early indication of fever, inflammation, or impending illness. Polar also says that “women can use these skin temperature insights to better understand which phase of their menstrual cycle they are in." Skin temperature sensors are common in wearables now, as devices like the Apple Watch and Oura Ring use them to calculate cycle tracking and help predict illness.

The features that set the Street X apart from super-budget alternatives relate to mapping and navigation. With built-in GPS, users get the benefit of route guidance, breadcrumb trails, and elevation profiles. The ability to return back to your start point either by the same route or beeline means you can pick whichever option suits you when you get to your end point. There’s also a built-in LED flashlight, altimeter, and compass.

• Features Score: 4/5

Polar Street X: Performance

• Accurate GPS, but signal lock-on takes far too long
• Extensive metrics help athletes improve
• Training features are nice to have, but serious runners will want more

My experience of the Street X smartwatch was a bit of a mixed bag, with some elements performing brilliantly but others struggling. There’s no denying that it offers a solid set of features that go beyond some budget alternatives, but the implementation of these is far from perfect.

Take the onboard GPS as an example. Given the price, I wasn’t expecting incredible things, but having to regularly wait over a minute for a GPS lock left me underwhelmed. That said, once the GPS signal was found, it was as accurate as one of our trusty benchmarks, the Garmin Tactix 8.

The watch offers over 170 sports and activities as well as the ability to manage training loads, strain and tolerance. I primarily used running, cycling, and walking modes, and even though all the required data and functionality were present, I found it difficult to navigate around, even after a number of times using the watch.

The Street X features basic maps with a range of navigation tools. I was impressed by the inclusion of ‘Back to Start’ navigation with the ability to choose either ‘Via Beeline’ or ‘Via Same Route’. The maps clearly display the necessary turn-by-turn directions, so getting lost is next to impossible.

After exercising, an extensive set of metrics, including energy used, pace, cadence, and speed zones, can be viewed on the watch, although they are far easier to digest in the Polar Flow app. It’s also possible to choose from a drop-down list of options to record how the exercise felt, but you can only add more detailed notes using the app.

The Street X offers optical heart rate measurements as well as heart rate zones and heart rate variability. Heart rate readings matched my dedicated heart rate tracker.

In terms of smart features, the Street X packs everything you’d expect from a mid-range smartwatch, including notifications, weather, Find My Phone, and music controls, although for the last, it is only controlling your phone’s music, not anything loaded on or streaming from the watch itself. The only smart feature I was left craving was the ability to reply to texts.

The watch has a built-in LED flashlight, which I used to navigate around my poorly lit neighbourhood, although it wasn’t really bright enough to light my way. And in reality it was no stronger than the torch on my iPhone, so the watch’s flashlight was surplus to my requirements.

The battery performance sits at 10 days for general use and 43 hours for constant GPS. This is reasonable for a sub-$250/£250 smartwatch. Recharging from empty to full took me 70 minutes, although 0-50% took only 30 minutes.

• Performance score: 4/5

Polar Street X: Scorecard

Polar Street X: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested the Polar Street X

I wore the Polar Street X smartwatch almost continuously for a month. During this time I went on a number of runs, cycles, and walks while comparing the unit to the Garmin Tactix 8 and Huawei Watch Ultimate 2. I also compared the heart rate measurements with a dedicated heart rate tracker.

First reviewed: September 2026

Apple gave its now two-year-old Vitals section a makeover in preparation for the upcoming Readiness view in the soon-to-be-released redesigned Health App. In the meantime, you can see Readiness in Fitness. It uses readings from Apple Watch (Vitals, Sleep, Activity) to come up with a Readiness score. Basically, the number, on a scale from 1 to 10, tells you how ready you are to take on the challenges of the day. Today, I'm a 7!

I'm not a health nut, but I try to keep physically active and in shape, and I generally watch what I eat (and sometimes that means watching myself eat a donut). On my Apple Watch Series 12 — as with previous Apple Watches — I enjoy tracking my workouts and, ever since I started wearing the watch to sleep, my sleep score. Apparently I get, on average, roughly 4.75 hours or so of sleep a night (ugh).

For my needs, knowing that I completed a workout and that my sleep is good (or not) is enough, but perhaps I'm not typical. Certainly, Apple has seen an opportunity to transform the Apple Watch into a true and more proactive health wearable, one that can not only measure vitals in real time but also alert you to potentially serious issues.

Apple Watch knows a lot about you

We've all read stories of the Apple Watch detecting potential heart issues and people then getting checked out by a professional and discovering a real, albeit treatable issue. Apple Watch has long been able to help you in dire situations like a car crash or fall. When I took a spill not too long ago, I set off Apple Watch's fall detection (I wasn't hurt, so I stopped it from dialing emergency services), and I saw it do the same when a relative took a particularly dramatic tumble, where I think we let the call go through (she's fine). I do often recommend the Apple Watch as an eldercare device.

These are all positives, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the level of physical data my Apple Watch is now collecting and collating in the Health app (and Fitness App) is overwhelming.

With Apple leaning harder and harder into health tracking, Apple made a major sensor change for the Apple Watch Series 12. Its new sunburst-style heart rate sensor features large green LEDs (replacing the sparser red diodes) in a ring array capable of taking heart rate readings every five seconds (there's also 24% more watch surface-to-skin contact). Now I have Heart Rate Variability (HRV) readings that are fed to, among other things, the enhanced Vitals section in Health.

It's here that I happened to notice a single "Slightly Off" Vital reading and started spiralling, wondering, worrying, and also laughing because it would not be the first time I've been called "Slightly Off". Normal readings are called "Typical", and, I guess, if you're lucky or super healthy, "Favorable."

What's wrong with me?

Vitals combine respiratory rate, wrist temperature, Blood Oxygen, Recovery HRV, and sleep duration (each day shows the average for each measurement). The single "Slightly Off" reading was attributed to a high heart rate while sleeping. Apple Watch Series 12's ability to measure heart rate every five seconds (previous Apple Watches could only do it every five minutes) meant that this was probably a pretty accurate reading.

According to Vitals, my typical sleeping heart rate is 51bpm. On September 25th, the heart rate shown was 60BPM. That's not super high, but based on my average, it is, in fact, "Slightly off".

So what am I to do with this information? For now, nothing. After all, this is a single day and, since then, I've had nothing but "Typical" Vitals measurements.

We're still weeks or more away from a Health App redesign that might make all this data even more digestible, to say nothing of all the AI features (Live Rewind and Siri Recap) that are due in late 2026.

Even though Apple Watch Series 12 doesn't look much different from its predecessor, I've come to realize that the almost constant heart monitoring, and the sheer mountain of data the wearable is now collecting, is potentially a health game changer. I still find it all overwhelming, but I can guarantee I'll be watching like a hawk for the next "Slightly Off" reading.

If you’ve been eyeing one but don’t want to spend flagship smartphone-level money on a smartwatch, this deal on the Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) Sapphire Edition for AU$849 will get you most of the core functionality for a much lower price.

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Having launched in 2023, our Garmin Epix Pro review called the watch “essentially an AMOLED-screened version” of the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro, but still earned itself 4.5 stars out of 5 for being one heck of a multisport wearable. Some of the features introduced here include the Elevate Gen 5 heart rate sensor, Up Ahead, Hill and Endurance scores and fast charging support.

You can also find your typical Garmin fare here like sleep scores, VO2 max, notification functionalities, music control, onboard music storage, estimated race prediction times, maps for golf courses and ski resorts, and many more usually found in a premium multisport outdoor watch.

The Fenix 9 offers a faster processor, brighter screens, more onboard file storage, improved mapping, a 40m dive certification, built-in speakers and microphones for calls, and new sport profiles that, honestly, aren’t really necessary for every athlete.

If you’re not too fussed about having all the latest and greatest additions but want a very capable premium watch to track all your adventures this summer, you can’t go wrong with the Garmin Epix Pro Gen 2 for almost half the price.

Considering all my tests with the Apple Watch Ultra 3 had it cleaving remarkably close to an electrical heart rate monitor, I was ready to believe Apple's accuracy claims were true.

Barely an hour after I got my Apple Watch Series 12 review unit from Apple, I hit the gym and gave the smartwatch its first test drive. While I didn't have my heart rate monitor available, I did have the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro, so I strapped it onto the other wrist and tracked the same workout on both wearables.

The Garmin Fenix 9 Pro is a five-star watch, an expensive do-it-all device that's stuffed with features and boasts highly advanced health tracking credentials. It uses Garmin's Elevate V5 heart rate sensor, which previously fell within around 5 bpm (in terms of average heart rate) of an Apple Watch Ultra 3 during previous tests with a Garmin Venu 4. Hardly a significant margin of error for most people, and enough to give a good impression of your general fitness.

I was also interested in other statistics, like calorie counts, and how alike the two wearables' readings would be to each other.

The results

During my 40-minute strength session, my average heart rate was 125 bpm, according to Apple. According to Garmin, it was 132 bpm: a seven-point difference between the two wearables.

It's slightly outside my 5 bpm threshold for insignificant differences, but only just. My theory is that as I wear each watch more, their algorithms will tighten up, and I'll see closer results. It will be very interesting to compare both to an electrical Polar H10 heart rate monitor.

However, the difference in calorie expenditure was more worrying. Garmin recorded a calorie expenditure of 340 kcal — meanwhile, Apple recorded 242 kcal as my total expenditure for the session. This 88 kcal difference is equivalent to one smallish apple, or a couple of spoonfuls of your average Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

Calorie expenditure on a smartwatch isn't an exact science. One research paper published this year in the journal PLOs One said that 'proprietary differences in device algorithms and sensor design introduce another layer of variability, with comparative studies reporting an error of more than 20% in [energy expenditure] across widely used models.' So we should expect some deviations between watches, based on differences in algorithm, and it shouldn't matter so long as measurements on that device are consistent.

However, an 88 kcal difference is over that 20% margin for error, which is very interesting. Stay tuned: I'll be testing the Apple Watch Series 12 further, over longer workouts and against different wearables, to determine whether its accuracy claims hold water.

Like the best smart rings, these passive 'set and forget' trackers work in the background to collect fitness and recovery information, which is then pumped into your AI-powered health app of choice to inform future habits.

According to a Bloomberg report and a separate post on MacRumors, Apple has been working on prototypes 'for months', but isn't quite sold on whether to move forward. Apple's senior vice president of services Eddy Cue is mentioned in the reports 'to be pushing for wearables with simpler interfaces, like the screen-free Whoop and Oura Ring'.

Not only do I think it's a good idea — I reviewed a whole bunch of screenless trackers this year, and rated the Cirqa as my favorite in TR's official Garmin Cirqa review — but I also think Apple's been laying the groundwork for a device like this. Here are the features I think an 'Apple Whoop' needs to be competitive — and they've all been introduced to the best Apple watches within the last few years.

1. An Action Button

All screenless fitness trackers offer very few ways for the wearer to actually interact with the hardware. The Whoop uses a haptic sensor on the top of its puck, which you have to tap to stop an alarm or put the device into Bluetooth pairing mode. Unfortunately, every time I've tested the Whoop, I end up repeatedly tapping the top of the device like a nodding bird until the LEDs change color. But when you're actually tracking workouts on most screenless devices, you either start the workout manually in the accompanying app, or just go, and hope the device's automatic activity detection picks it up.

The Garmin Cirqa's tactile button, in combination with its haptics, is much more useful. Press it once, and the device vibrates to signify a workout has started. Press it again, and it vibrates to confirm that the workout has ended. It's that simple. No pausing workouts, as it would defeat the point of capturing a whole holistic representation of what your body's doing during activity and recovery.

Apple has the perfect mechanism for this: the Action button, first introduced on the Apple Watch Ultra in 2022, and since ported over to the iPhone. A screenless Apple fitness tracker could include that little orange button as a straightforward way to stop vibrations or sounds of an alarm, or start and stop workouts like the Garmin Cirqa.

2. A longer battery life than other Apple Watches

Apple has recently taken steps to address perhaps the biggest criticism of Apple Watches: battery life. For a long time, Apple Watches were stuck at 18 hours, until last year's upgrade in battery and efficiency bumped them up to 24 hours. As of 2026, the Apple Watch Ultra 4 now clocks in at 48 hours between charges.

This is for a full-power Apple Watch with GPS workouts, a 3,000-nit brightness liquid retina display, and communications features out the wazoo. I imagine a screenless fitness tracker, which just has the Health Sensing System and related sensors like the gyroscope to run, would last considerably longer — perhaps five days between charges, ideal for a set-and-forget tracker designed to be worn constantly, including overnight.

3. The latest Readiness Score and Vitals improvements

Speaking of which, Apple's already laid the groundwork for advanced recovery tracking with its new Readiness score and improved Vitals apps. Apple's latest Health Sensing System, with a larger surface area for improved skin contact and redesigned electrodes, allows its watches to track overnight heart rate variability much more accurately, and more often, than previous generations — 24 times more often, to be exact.

This allows Apple Watches to deliver an accurate Readiness score, showing on a scale of 1-10 how recovered you are and whether you're ready to expend energy, as well as overhauling the Vitals app. Recovery and overnight health are key components of screenless fitness trackers, as they're designed (as mentioned above) for constant wear, ticking away in the background to monitor expenditure and recovery without other distractions.

A screenless fitness tracker interfacing with Apple Health is crying out for Apple's new Health Sensing System and its accompanying overnight Readiness and recovery features. With it, the Apple fitness band might be able to beat the likes of Whoop, Google and Garmin (all of whom have used Readiness scores for years) at their own game.

Which screenless fitness tracker is the best? Vote in our poll below:

The best health and fitness wearables are racing to pack as many features as possible into their small form factors, and the three most recent Pixel Watch models — the Pixel Watch 3, Pixel Watch 4, and Pixel Watch 5 — are now getting a major upgrade.

As announced by Google, the free update rolling out now to devices will let users monitor blood pressure trends, sleep breathing metrics, and (something the Apple Watch doesn't have yet) insulin resistance trends.

When it comes to blood pressure and insulin resistance, these aren't instant clinical readings — these smartwatches aren't quite advanced enough for that yet — but longer-term patterns, with assessments popping up once a month.

We knew these features were coming too, because they were announced alongside the Pixel Watch 5 unveiling back in August. What wasn't clear was exactly when the features would land, and now we know.

Lots and lots of data

Google says the insulin resistance trend model has been trained on more than a trillion data points gathered from over 5 million users, while the blood pressure model was built with billions of minutes of raw heart and movement data.

With the sleep breathing quality trends feature, you'll get a report each morning on how your breathing varied over the night. This can help you assess overall sleep quality and figure out the best routine and environment for optimal sleep.

Meanwhile, Pixel Watch 4 and 5 models are also getting Breathing Emergency Detection in select European markets (including France, Germany, Ireland, and the UK). This can spot dangerous drops in oxygen saturation and even place a call to the emergency services.

If you're a Fitbit Air user rather than a Pixel Watch user, you'll get blood pressure and insulin resistance trends on your device "later this year," but you'll need a Google Health Premium subscription to access them, which isn't the case with the Pixel Watches.

The best Garmin devices can do a lot, but there are a few ways they fall short right now. But if a new rumor is correct, Garmin fans could expect to see an interesting new feature for dedicated athletes in future products.

That idea comes from the5krunner, which recently published a report claiming that Garmin has quietly snapped up specialist fitness firm Moxy Monitor, with that impression supposedly confirmed by “a source with direct knowledge of the transaction.”

Moxy Monitor makes muscle oxygen (SmO2) sensors that are used by elite athletes to help them train more effectively. It’s a market that Garmin has apparently been considering entering, with the company filing a patent for an algorithm to measure SmO2 data earlier this year, the 5krunner says.

The report adds that a response by Moxy Monitor’s founder to the outlet’s questions “implicitly confirms the deal.” That’s because Moxy Monitor’s founder directed questions towards Garmin rather than his own company’s press office. Garmin itself has made no comment on the rumored acquisition.

Keeping up with rivals

If you’re a high-level athlete, the revelation of Garmin’s rumored purchase might be an exciting one. If it proves to be accurate, future Garmin wearables might be able to integrate SmO2 measurements and help serious sportspeople improve their performance.

As the5krunner points out, the deal could also lead to Garmin releasing new devices. Since you can’t take SmO2 readings from your wrist and instead need to use a near-infrared spectroscopy sensor, the5krunner says that new hardware would be required if Garmin were to put Moxy Monitor’s tech to good use.

And the report points out that Garmin competitor Whoop has patented its own SmO2 strap. That means that Garmin’s purchase of Moxy Monitor gives it a way to keep up with its rivals in this area without having to build an entirely new system from scratch.

Garmin products can already read SmO2 data from third-party straps, and that will likely to continue to be refined with Moxy Monitor on board. That might be the most immediate change we see, with new hardware further out on the horizon.

Whatever the outcome, anyone wanting to get more serious fitness metrics from their Garmin devices might just get a boost if this acquisition turns out to be the real deal. But with Garmin not confirming anything for now, we’ll likely have to wait for confirmation before knowing exactly how this could play out.

It’s been two years since the release of the Huawei Watch D2, and the Chinese brand has decided it’s time to offer an upgraded model, aptly named the D3. With the D range, Huawei was the first to introduce blood pressure monitoring capabilities in a smartwatch, providing a simple way to track the important health metric without needing a dedicated monitor.

In my Huawei Watch D2 review I gave the smartwatch an impressive 4.5 stars. I had high praise for the blood pressure monitoring and clever strap but was left underwhelmed by the bulky design, high price tag, and lack of smartwatch features. Huawei has gone some way to address these concerns, but not universally and in some ways not enough. As a result, the D3 isn’t yet one of the best smartwatches around, but as a medical-first device, it approaches and blends the lifestyle and medical aspects well.

The D3 is primarily a medical device rather than one of the best fitness trackers or running watches. That’s evidenced by its CE-MDR certification that is proudly presented on the watch’s product page. Its commitment to medical reporting means that at times Huawei is forced to prioritize function over form. This is the case with the blood pressure monitoring.

To be able to offer ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, the D3 has to feature a mechanical airbag and pressure sensor. This is attached to the inside of the strap, and even though Huawei has narrowed the thickness of the airbag compared to the D2, it still lacks the comfort of most other smartwatches that don’t have this onboard hardware.

In testing I didn’t have time to compare the D3 against a dedicated blood pressure cuff, but I was able to check it was in the same range as my expectations. The watch takes less than a minute to carry out the check, and all you have to do is place the watch at the same height as your heart and remain still.

Because single measurements are insufficient to determine trends, I used the auto-reminder feature to alert me so I didn’t forget to capture regular measurements. After doing this for several days, I was able to see how my blood pressure changed depending on the time of day and what my average performance was. In addition to this, it’s possible to easily generate a report to share with your GP from within the Huawei Health app.

Blood pressure monitoring is the D3’s magic trick, but the watch offers other health tracking, including pulse wave arrhythmia analysis and beat-by-beat ECG. During testing, I experienced repeated poor signal issues with the ECG measurements, but the arrhythmia analysis worked perfectly.

While I was working through the health metrics, I strapped on a dedicated heart rate monitor so I could carry out an independent comparison. Both devices reported identical rates, although the D3 was slightly slower to adjust to changes. Finding each health metric is simple and straightforward thanks to the rotating crown control, and the interface clearly guides you through the required steps to perform each one.

Huawei has worked hard to reduce the bulk of the watch, stripping off 2mm from the watch thickness and bringing it down to just 11.3mm. That’s pretty impressive, but unfortunately this measurement doesn’t take into consideration the sensor, which protrudes out the bottom, and despite its smooth surface, feels a little uncomfortable on the wrist.

The watch features an enlarged 1.92-inch AMOLED display with 3000 nits of peak brightness. It is colorful, vibrant, and looks fantastic, offering the same excellent visibility when used both inside and out. Unfortunately, there’s still a significant black strip between the edge of the display and the surrounding case, which results in a lot of dead space. An edge-to-edge display would look far better.

The D3 prioritizes medical reporting, but it also offers over 100 workout modes and a generous range of smart features, including notifications, Bluetooth calling, NFC payments, and voice note recording. These elevate the usefulness of the watch and make it a handy companion for everyday life.

I said earlier that I had an issue with the price of the D2, and Huawei has done nothing to make the D3 more affordable. In fact, it’s £50 more than its predecessor was at launch. The only thing that softens the blow is that if you purchase the watch before September 22, 2027, then you’ll get 10 months of Bupa Well+ health services.

It’s hard to get away from the fact that the D3 is focused on a very niche market. If you’re concerned about your blood pressure or would simply like to keep an eye on it, then the D3 is the perfect solution. The trade-off is a watch that is bulkier and slightly more uncomfortable than most other smartwatches of this size, but we have to give the D3 credit: when even Apple Watches are focused on hypertension detection via LEDs, Huawei continues to back its unique cuff-based solution.

Huawei Watch D3: Specifications

Huawei Watch D3: Scorecard

Huawei Watch D3: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested the Huawei Watch D3

I wore the D3 for 72 hours, and during this time I performed every medical test that the watch offers. Despite not having time to compare the blood pressure results to a dedicated monitor, I was able to compare the heart rate readings to a heart rate monitor. I also used the D3 to keep on top of my notifications, check the weather, and record some voice notifications.

First reviewed: September 2026

In a world in which most smartwatches now have the same features and similar specs, it's always nice to see something innovative. The Amazfit T-Rex line is a range of rugged adventure-focused smartwatches that are generally — like almost all of Amazfit's products — great value alternatives to more expensive wearables such as the best Garmin watches.

Despite focusing on solar charging, as seen on some top-tier Garmin watches such as the Fenix 9 Pro, the T-Rex Dual Solar brings innovation all of its own. Amazfit's newest smartwatch not only provides battery-lengthening solar charging from the front, but also a secondary, more efficient solar charging plate on the back of the watch. With enough sunlight, this back plate can reportedly revive a completely flat battery. That means if you're out of power, you could invert the watch and wear it inside-out, or leave it on a rock with the back plate facing the sun, to bring it back to life.

Amazfit says that "for those who adventure at the edge of the map, solar offers something more: a way to bring a completely depleted watch back to life using sunlight when traditional power isn’t available, helping users regain access to essential functions like maps and route information."

However, the most interesting bit is that Amazfit has finally cracked what Garmin has not been able to, as yet: bring solar charging to an AMOLED watch. The Amazfit Dual Solar, as its name suggests, charges from both sides, even though it's got a bright AMOLED screen, as long as you're in conditions of 50,000 lux or more for three hours or more. Without exception, Solar charging Garmin watches uses lower-power memory-in-pixel displays in conjunction with Garmin's Power Glass solar charging tech.

Sara Webster Wylie, VP of Global Marketing at Amazfit, says: “With T-Rex Dual Solar, we didn’t want users to have to choose between the bright, premium display they want every day and the battery endurance they need outdoors. Bringing AMOLED and solar together for the first time lets us deliver both.”

Other specs & pricing

In normal conditions, the watch packs up to 25 days of battery life, extended up to 35 days in optimal solar conditions, and 41 hours of use in 'accurate GPS mode'. A flashlight with red and white modes is built into the titanium casing, while its sapphire crystal screen is capable of up to 3,000 nits of brightness.

With full color preloaded maps (including ski maps), intelligent route planning with turn-by-turn directions and Apple Watch Ultra-style waypoints, and LiveShare (Amazfit's equivalent of Garmin's LiveTrack location-sharing feature), it's certainly a powerhouse of a watch.

Unusually for Amazfit, it's also very expensive, priced at $649.99 in the US. Other regions' pricing is TBC, but that's around £500 / AU$900. Having seen what Amazfit can do with budget devices such as its five-star Amazfit Active 3 Premium, I'm excited to get my hands on a high-end model.

We loved Garmin’s screenless Cirqa tracker when we reviewed it earlier this year, but that doesn’t mean it’s a perfect device. And that’s exactly what some Garmin users have discovered recently, with the device seemingly deleting many people’s workouts as soon as they’re finished.

The issue has surfaced in reports posted on Garmin’s support forum. There, users have complained that workouts are not logged when they are ended in a certain way, despite the Garmin Connect app showing the exercise in progress and the Cirqa wearable vibrating to indicate it has received the instruction to end the session.

Specifically, users noted that the problem arose if they began a workout using the dedicated button on their Cirqa, then ended it in the Connect app. When that happened, the session seemingly went missing. As one forum member put it, “If you start an activity with the button, you have to end it with the button.”

Garmin appears to be aware of the bug, with a company representative posting a potential solution on the forum. There, the rep said that “if an activity is started from the CIRQA, Garmin Connect may first display an ‘Activity in Progress’ message with Resume and End options. Selecting Resume opens the activity recording screen, where the activity can then be stopped and saved. Once the activity is saved and a sync has completed, it should appear in Garmin Connect.”

Confusion and frustration

What’s confusing about this bug — and what has clearly rankled many members in the Garmin forum — is how a logical action is having the opposite effect to the one that is expected. You would think that ending a workout in the Garmin Connect app should automatically log the workout’s details, regardless of whether the exercise was started in the app or on the Cirqa itself. Instead, the workout is apparently deleted.

The good news is that Garmin appears to be aware of the issue, as the company rep followed up with another message acknowledging that “Several users in this thread have reported losing activity data after selecting End from the initial prompt.”

They then explained that “We’ve shared the feedback mentioned in this thread internally for further review, and are reaching out to some users to gather additional information.” Despite that, there’s not yet any solid date for when a fix might arrive.

The news comes at the same time as another report of glitchy Garmin behavior (via the5krunner). People using the Garmin Fenix 9 smartwatch with Mac computers have noticed that the Garmin Express app — which updates the watch’s software and installs offline maps — is not compatible with the latest macOS 27 release. That’s because it’s not compatible with Apple silicon chips and requires Apple’s Rosetta 2 translation layer, which has been removed from macOS 27.

While most Fenix 9 functions can be managed in the Garmin Connect app, the Express app issue will still be irritating in some scenarios. In this instance, Garmin has said it is working on a fix.

If you’ve noticed disappearing workouts with the Cirqa wearable, though, there could be a longer wait, as Garmin has not announced when a patch might land. For now, you’ll have to remember to start and end workouts on the Cirqa itself or use the workaround provided by the Garmin forum rep.

As the only smart electric toothbrush and water flosser with a built-in camera, the CameraJet uses imaging, machine learning and precision fluid dynamics to identify gaps between teeth and deliver a jet of mouthrinse. The CameraJet has received much attention since its launch, with many praising Dyson for pushing the boundaries with new innovation in oral health, and others questioning its price, reporting faults online, and asking whether we need a camera in a toothbrush at all. But for a brand that revolutionised the vacuum with cyclonic suction, restyled the hair dryer and pioneered bladeless fan technology, the Dyson CameraJet was never going to be an obvious product.

Back in May 2026, I visited Dyson’s factory and global HQ in Singapore to take a first look at the Dyson CameraJet. I went behind the scenes in Dyson’s oral health care labs where six years of research, development and engineering for the CameraJet had been taking place and spoke to Rich Bacon, head of product development at Dyson, to find out what makes the CameraJet so unique. I also asked him about the potential security implications of having a smart camera in the bathroom, and how Dyson hopes to improve our oral health.

Why now?

When I first saw the CameraJet I immediately wanted to know why Dyson is branching into attempting to make one of the best electric toothbrushes and why now?

The Dyson team said it likes to start with a problem people experience every day and ask whether they can solve it better through engineering. “Oral care is an area where many people want to improve their routines, but often struggle with consistency, technique, or understanding how effectively they're brushing,” Bacon explained. “Dyson research shows 9 in 10 people do not floss as regularly as they should, reinforcing the need for a solution that helps target the gaps between teeth as part of an everyday routine.

“The technology is now at a point where we can combine WiFi, AI, intelligent sensing and fluid dynamics with a highly engineered brushing experience, making this the right time to bring the product to market.”

By combining two devices – a toothbrush and water flosser – in one, the CameraJet has the potential to save us time in our daily routines and also help us brush for the recommended time. “In our research we found that a lot of people brush for 45 seconds, but the optimum time is for two minutes, or ideally three,’ says Bacon. ‘When I’m using this device myself for three minutes, it’s much more convenient than having separate devices to clean your teeth.”

What excites Bacon most about the CameraJet is its sophisticated engineering combined with a simple user experience. “There’s a huge amount of technology working behind the scenes here from the camera and machine learning, to its Gap Optical Targeting and precision fluid dynamics,” he says. But the user doesn't need to think about any of that. As engineers, that's always our goal: solving complex problems in a way that feels effortless for the person using the product.”

Bacon believes that this technology has the potential to make oral care more consistent and personalised. “Many people brush their teeth in exactly the same way every day without really knowing if they are cleaning effectively, and many are not flossing as regularly as they should. Dyson CameraJet brings brushing, precision-flossing and mouth-rinsing to your routine to target the gaps between teeth where plaque can build up.”

Privacy included

But in an age of AI, the internet of things and relentless data collection, having a camera in your bathroom is a natural cause for concern. For Dyson, privacy was also a key consideration, however. Bacon reassures me that the camera is only active during live viewing or auto-jetting; no images are recorded or stored on the product or in the cloud, and images remain private to the user.

“We take privacy very seriously,’ he says. “The MyDyson app is a great companion piece and comes with unique cleaning insights such as location coverage. Through the app, you can also access guided cleaning, coverage mapping and personalised feedback so you have a better understanding of where you are cleaning well and where you may be missing.”

The app is a closed ecosystem, but could it one day become a broader health-data platform, similar to how people use Oura or Apple Health? “The app has been designed as a platform that can evolve over time, and the immediate focus is on useful, evidence-led insights that help people understand their brushing and interdental cleaning habits,” says Bacon. “There is an opportunity to help make those behaviours easier to see, understand and improve. Any future information or guidance would need to be grounded in robust evidence and developed responsibly, but our ambition is to empower users with helpful, accurate feedback about their oral care. We're always exploring how technology can help people get more from our products.”

Teething problems

Since its launch, there have been reports on Reddit of a small number of early production batches malfunctioning, so TechRadar reached out to Dyson for comment.

‘We are aware that a small number of early batches of Dyson CameraJet products may have experienced a component issue,’ says a spokesperson for Dyson.

‘We are isolating those batches and are taking all the necessary steps to support our customers. We have had a very positive reaction to the new Dyson CameraJet and are experiencing strong demand globally and we are seeing some shortages of supply as we are in the process of scaling up production.’

Whether or not you’re tempted to try a toothbrush with a built-in camera and smart app, it’s exciting to see Dyson engineers paving a way with new innovations in oral health. And for that, I think we have a reason to smile.

It’s a pretty similar upgrade to the Series 12, which you can read my preview of here — it gets the redesigned rear as part of the new health-sensing system, there’s a new S11 chip inside with a Secure Enclave and separate always-on processor, a new Readiness Score that looks set to take on Oura and Whoop, two new AI features will begin rolling out later this year, and it can deliver HRV (heart rate variability).

But one key change is a bigger battery: the Apple Watch Ultra 4 has a 5% larger battery than the Apple Watch Ultra 3, paired with more efficiencies to deliver Apple's promised runtimes. That means the Ultra 4 can truly go the extra mile, with a promised up to 50 hours in normal use, up to 84 hours in Low Power Mode, and up to 45 hours in Max Extended Workout Mode.

Those are strong numbers, and thus far, it’s lasted in lockstep with the Ultra 3, offering more than a day of use and getting pretty close to a full two days. I’ll need more time with it before I can say whether that bigger battery and the efficiency gains translate into a meaningful real-world improvement, but so far, there’s plenty of endurance here.

There’s also a new Apple Watch Charger in the box. It looks the same as the previous one, but the cable has new tech that lets it charge even faster, with Apple promising up to 18 hours of battery life from a 15-minute charge. That’s mostly been the case in my testing so far, but I want to put it through some more charging cycles before I can say exactly how much of a difference it makes.

And just like with the Series 12, I’m holding off on a full verdict for now. The new Readiness Score is one of the biggest changes to the Apple Watch experience, and I want to give it enough time to build a picture of my data before I draw any conclusions. Apple says it generally takes seven nights of wear to calculate a score.

The redesigned health-sensing system and more frequent heart-rate and HRV tracking are already interesting additions, particularly on a watch built around fitness and endurance. It’s paired with full activity tracking, dual-band GPS, hypertension notifications, blood oxygen tracking, and satellite connectivity. Being able to pull up real-time heart rate and have the watch sample this data more frequently should make the Ultra 4 even more useful for workouts, while HRV adds another metric that brings it closer to competing devices.

There’s also the AI side of things, although that story isn’t fully here yet. Sound Recognition and faster Shazam are already available, while Live Rewind and Siri Recap are slated to arrive later this year, initially in beta and in the U.S. I’ll need more time with those once they launch to see whether they actually change how I use the Ultra 4 day-to-day. And, certainly, the Ultra 4 could have an advantage over the Series 12 when running these features thanks to its larger battery — time will tell.

So, for now, the Apple Watch Ultra 4 is very much an evolution of the Ultra 3 rather than a reinvention, but the bigger battery is a really nice surprise. The changes are mostly under the hood, with health sensing, processing, battery life, and charging all getting some attention.

I’m going to spend more time with it before I deliver a full verdict, especially when it comes to Readiness. But after several days, the Ultra 4 is already shaping up as a familiar Apple Watch Ultra with a little more endurance and a lot more data happening underneath the surface.

The Apple Watch Ultra 4 is up for preorder now at the same price of $799 / £749 / AU$1,349 and will officially launch on September 18, 2026.

Unveiled at Apple’s September 9, 2026, ‘Surprise and shine’ event, the next-generation mid-range Apple Watch — err, flagship for everyone in between the SE third-gen and Ultra 4 — doesn’t change much in terms of looks over the Series 11, but does usher in a redesigned rear as part of a new health-sensing system, a new SoC under the hood to power some new features, and a good bit of AI on top of what we knew was coming with watchOS 27.

And while I do have a full review coming, I’m waiting to gather more data and get my first taste of a Readiness Score — Apple’s fresh take on contextualizing all your data in an upgraded Vitals experience that I’m pretty stoked to try. In most cases, it will take just seven nights of wear to calculate.

While there are new case types — Ceramic arrives alongside Titanium and Aluminum — the Series 12 design is very similar to the Series 11. You can pick between a 44mm or a 46mm display, and it’s still an Always-On OLED that goes pretty close to the edges and even curves down a bit. I’ve specifically been testing the black aluminum, which looks fine and a bit plain — more importantly, it retains the slim profile.

Thankfully, all your previous bands will still work, but on the back you’ll see the new health-sensing system. The layout is different; it looks almost like a sundial with new placements for electrodes and diodes. Apple also swapped in a green LED, which is more efficient at getting readings. Despite the changes, the watch still sits on the wrist just as well. Of course, it still protrudes a bit from the back; see the photo below.

This, in conjunction with the new S11 chip, which is actually a derivative of the A20 Pro in terms of design and components, makes use of a Secure Enclave and an always-on processor section to improve sampling rates. This is the big ‘aha’ achievement, as it lets the Apple Watch track HRV and real-time heart rate whether you open the app or use the complication, and it also speeds up pedometer performance for faster step tracking.

Heart rate variability is a really sweet metric to have, and its arrival on the Apple Watch brings it closer to some competitors. This will also inform the Readiness Score. My Apple Watch still needs one more night of sleep tracking and one more overall HRV rating — it’s helpful that the watch can keep you informed about what’s needed, and fair to expect it to take about a week of wear before you get that reading.

Still, I am bullish on how Readiness will perform and will circle back with full thoughts on that front in due time. For now, the ability to pull up real-time heart rate is great for workouts, whether it be something more endurance-focused or just a walk and/or run. I really like the steps complication, as it auto-updates, and a quick glance at your wrist can show you how you’re pacing for the day.

As of yet, I’d note that actively having these complications running — either steps or heart rate — doesn’t seem to tank the battery life. It’s very much a full day of use, after a day or two of indexing, like the Series 11 established last year.

And then there’s the AI side of things, which I’m only getting a taste of for now. Sound Recognition and faster Shazam are already here, and both are nice little quality-of-life additions, but the more intriguing stuff is still to come.

Live Rewind and Siri Recap are slated to arrive later this year, initially in beta and in the U.S., and I’m especially curious to see how useful they are in the real world. The former can capture and transcribe a recent snippet of a conversation thanks to a rolling 15-second buffer, while the latter can recap what you’ve been talking about throughout the day down to the facts.

I’ll need more time with both once they launch before I can say how much they actually change the Apple Watch experience, but they’re another piece of the Series 12 story that could become more interesting as the year goes on. It also pushes the Apple Watch — mainly Series 12 and Ultra 4 — as more of an AI wearable, beyond activity or health tracking, notifications, and on-wrist apps.

For now, the Apple Watch Series 12 delivers more of the same in a familiar package, with better processing that’ll speed up classic features and enable new ones in two key areas. It’s a refresh of sorts for activity. The updates to Vitals, HRV, more frequent heart rate tracking, and Readiness bring it in line with other wearables like the Oura Ring, Whoop, or Fitbit Air. Simultaneously, it’s getting smarter with new audio recognition features and even taking on more of a role with AI functionality — a real first step for Apple.

We’ll be back soon with our full review, but if you have an older watch or have been waiting for Apple’s take on further contextualizing health data — or just really need HRV — this might be an excellent year to upgrade.

If you’re sold, the Apple Watch Series 12 is up for preorder now and begins shipping tomorrow, September 18, 2026, at the same starting price as the Series 11: $399 / £369 / AU$649.

This metric looks at a myriad of watch data to determine whether you’re in optimal shape to tackle a physically or mentally demanding day. That’s accompanied by a simple prompt to put that score into context. However, this isn’t a new development for other wearable owners: if you use an Oura Ring, a Garmin watch, a Whoop or even a Google Fitbit Air, receiving a readiness score of some description won’t be new to you. So why did Apple feel now was the time to join the Readiness party?

“It’s down to the evolution and the advancements we've made in the hardware technology, which has really brought about this to be the right time,” says Craig Bolton, Director of Fitness Technologies.

“We've built many health and fitness features, and quite a few of them are related to Readiness. The Health Sensing System unlocks the ability for continuous heart rate variability and all-day heart rate measurements and that's really important and critical when we think about trying to bring a really accurate and concise and simple feature to users.”

How Readiness scores work

Readiness scores can be viewed from the dedicated Readiness Watch app, Watch complication and the redesigned Health app. It looks at your sleep score, vitals data including temperature and blood oxygen, as well as your most recent workout data and training load.

Apple confirmed to us that workout data can be taken from third party apps as well as Apple’s own apps. To start seeing scores, you need to record seven night’s worth of sleep data to establish a baseline.

Unlike Oura, Google and Garmin, Apple has opted to score users Readiness on a scale of 1-10 as opposed to 1-100. Apple has its reasons for choosing a different scoring scale and it underpins how it thinks about delivering new fitness features.

“All of our features in general and particularly in the health and fitness space, we want them to be simple and intuitive,” explains Bolton. “We thought providing a score alongside a simple category saying you’re ready or to pace yourself gives that instant glanceable view. If you're waking up in the morning or throughout the day and you want to have a quick check-in, that can give you that little insight that you need.

“One of the principles that was really important to us was if you want to go deeper, there is more depth there. So you can instantly see what's driving that score up or down, tap into it to your heart's content, and dig into the various apps and features that are driving scores.”

Why HRV is key to getting you ready

Readiness scores are strongly tied to Apple’s ability to continuously monitor heart rate at a much higher sampling frequency than previous watches, thanks to the new Health Sensing System. The Apple Watch Series 11 can continuously monitor heart rate every five minutes. The Series 12 and Ultra 4 can do that every five seconds. Apple says it’s this massive improvement in the fidelity of heart rate monitoring that explains why only the Ultra 4 and the Series 12 can dish out Readiness scores.

There’s another heart-related metric that’s vital and that’s heart rate variability. This is the measurement of the intervals between heart beats. It’s a measurement that again has featured on wearables for some time and has been used to better understand stress, recovery and the effect of diet and exercise on your body.

For Series 12 and the Ultra 4, Apple is introducing two HRV measurements: overall HRV and recovery HRV. It’s the latter that’s most relevant for your Readiness scores and can additionally be viewed inside of Apple’s heart app on the Watch.

“It's a critical element to this,” says Bolton. “[Recovery HRV] feeds into Readiness, but it’s also part of our Vitals experience as well. So you’re going to be able to independently look at HRV recovery through the course of the night and throughout the day and that’s providing added insight and education about what that could mean for you.

“For us, the real value here is we're taking that and we're partnering it with these other existing features like sleep and other vitals and also your activity, to give this really distilled and synthesised version of all your metrics and what they might mean for you.”

Rooted in research

It will come as no great surprise that Apple hasn’t just plucked its Readiness score out of thin air. It’s a metric that’s been developed through various studies conducted by Apple. That includes Apple’s Heart Rate and Movement study, which was first announced in 2019. Data was used from the study to “tune the experience” of Readiness scores. Apple’s Heart Rate Accuracy study, which summarises the accuracy of its new Health Sensing System also played its part too. There were also additional studies conducted surveying people to understand their fatigue levels and how people felt versus what their metrics said.

“We also did some testing and studies to make sure that the Readiness feature was behaving the way it should for users,” says Bolton. “The reality is sometimes in the morning you will wake up and this may confirm exactly what your body's already telling you. In some other instances it may actually surface something that you didn't notice about before. But in terms of the underlying data, the features that provide it have been studied and there's a lot of rigour independently on each of them.”

Readiness is not just about the AM

Before Apple, Readiness scores were something you mainly glanced at in the morning. On the Watch Ultra 4 and the Series 12, Apple sees Readiness as an all-day affair. That means what happens during the day will have an impact on your Readiness score, whether that’s completing a tough workout or something has changed in your vitals data.

“So something that our new health sensing system unlocks is this continuous heart rate monitoring throughout the course of the day,” says Bolton. “This could potentially lead to us or the feature recognising that you've got an elevated heart rate throughout the course of the day and that will change your Readiness. So as you're going throughout the day there's this value that it brings as well.”

While previous takes on readiness scores have felt more fitness-centric in terms of who will find this metric most valuable, Apple believes this is something all Watch wearers can get value from glancing at.

“You might have someone who’s managing a busy week with kids, work and trying to get adequate sleep, squeezing a workout in here and there," says Bolton. “For that person, sometimes it's just going to reaffirm or confirm to them something that they already know or they're already feeling in their body that today's a good day or you're not feeling things aren't great today.

“For that same person, it may actually surface something that they're not already noticing. So they've been under some stress at work. This might give that sort of little red flag to say, hey, it might be time to recover or take it easy because of some of these metrics we're seeing.

“You don't have to be an elite athlete to get value out of this, and anyone who's wearing the watch and sleeping with it at night can get this incredible insight each day to help them get through it.”

The TechRadar Readers' Choice Awards 2026 comprises nearly 100 categories, but we know that not everyone is interested in voting in every one, so on this page you can vote in just our Fitness & Home Tech categories.

These include smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart gym equipment, air fryers, smart lighting and home security. You can vote in the survey just below — or follow the links to see other specific categories, or to vote on the full list instead.

The shortlists were chosen by TechRadar's editors based on the best products we've tested or the most popular products of the year. You'll need to vote before 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026 for it to be counted.

• All categories
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Once the deadline has passed at 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026, we'll tally your votes to find the winners in each category.

We'll announce the winners in our big TechRadar Awards 2026 Week, starting Monday October 19th. We'll reveal the winners of the Reader's Choice Awards, as well as the winners of our TechRadar Product of the Year Awards, which are chosen solely by our expert judges.

How many products will do the double? We'll be curious to see — but right now, all you can do is vote for what you think should win, so vote away!

At AU$479 (or AU$549 for the Music version), however, it isn’t the most affordable as far as fitness smartwatches go — so when I found the older (but higher-tier) Forerunner 265 discounted by 38% on Amazon, I knew this was a deal too tempting to pass up.

Featuring a more accurate dual-band GPS technology, 13 days of battery life, more size options and on-watch music storage, the Forerunner 265 is hard to beat for just AU$498.

The Garmin Forerunner 265 was the first small Forerunner model with a touchscreen AMOLED display, replacing its predecessor’s monochrome memory-in-pixel display, to make it look and feel similar to something like an Apple Watch or a Samsung Galaxy Watch.

It also features dual-band or multi-frequency GPS for high-precision tracking in dense cities or heavy tree cover, which is technically superior to the Forerunner 170’s single-frequency multi-GNSS tracking.

The 170 is only available in the single 43mm size, while the 265 comes in 46mm and the smaller 265S is 42mm, providing more options for different wrist sizes.

The biggest criticism from our reviewer is the Forerunner 265’s price hike over its predecessor, and slightly worse battery life, which can be credited to the switch to an AMOLED display, but this discount takes care of the former in spades.

Interested in other Garmin products? Check out the latest Garmin Australia coupons here.

The Google Fitbit Air is one of the best cheap fitness trackers, a $99.99 / £84.99 / AU$199 fitness band that offers a basic level of fitness tracking within its free tier, and an advanced AI-powered fitness coach with an additional premium subscription. We liked it at the free tier, although the app is a bit limited, and the premium experience will depend on your tolerance for interacting with chatbots.

However, both tiers are about to get a little bit better, which means the Fitbit Air is becoming even better value, with the addition of Google's new Health Guardian suite of features. The suite comprises a trio of tools, introduced earlier this year on the Google Pixel Watch 5. News site Gadgets & Wearables dug through version 5.07.2 of the app and found the three new features in the app's code.

Pixel Watches get four new tools rather than three, but Google's Breathing Emergency Detection requires the watch's emergency contact and notification infrastructure, which the screenless Fitbit Air doesn't have.

What's new

First up for the new tools is Insulin Resistance Trends. Insulin Resistance is an important metric, as it tells you how sensitively your body responds to blood sugar, and insulin resistance is of course a major precursor to type-2 diabetes. This metric "analyzes multi-week physiological data to track shifts in your metabolic health", pointing at resistance levels going up and down. However, for truly accurate blood sugar metrics, you'll need something like a continuous glucose monitor.

Next up is Blood Pressure Trends, which "passively measure your pulse and motion patterns throughout the month to estimate your blood pressure trends without requiring a cuff or manual calibration". Blood pressure via LED technology is very new to wearables, and it's amazing to see it in a device this cheap. However, it's worth noting this isn't a replacement for a cuff, just a likely indicator of trend. You'll still need regular measurement with either a cuff or a doctor's appointment for anything serious, but it can be an indication to start paying attention to your blood pressure.

Finally, Sleep Breathing Quality is a sleep feature showing you how much time you spent in 'optimal breathing' the night before. Google Health Coach, the AI chatbot you get in the app's premium tier, can offer advice about how to improve this based on your sleep score and other contextual information.

In fact, while you get the basic numbers for all three new metrics, the Google Health Coach can dip in and surface these stats to offer actionable advice. For example, you can use your Insulin Resistance Trends in combination with your nutrition logging to allow the coach to help you make a meal plan to bring that number down.

Worth buying?

While I'm not the biggest fan of Google's AI Health Coach, I did like the Fitbit Air as a whole, and new, useful, actionable metrics can only add to its already-excellent value proposition.

Whoop can estimate daily blood pressure ranges, but it doesn't offer an Insulin Resistance Trends metric, for example, whereas the Garmin Cirqa doesn't cover blood pressure estimates or insulin. Both competitor wearables have SPO2 blood oxygen sensors, however.

Health Guardian tools are only general indicators of your body's trends. However, if any of these metrics matter to you, for many people the Google Fitbit Air is cheap enough that these new features could be an incentive to pick one up over its more expensive rivals.

That’s not because Apple announced some sort of killer smartwatch feature that will bury the Fitbit range alive. No, it’s because viewers got to see Apple’s new plans for its Health app, which now comes with an AI-powered makeover that will likely stir up some painful emotions for many Fitbit fans.

Of course, adding AI into an app doesn’t automatically doom it. But the parallels between Apple Health and the Google Health app that Fitbit users have been lumped with — with all its wild hallucinations and crazy wellbeing inaccuracies — is undeniable.

Indeed, if the Fitbit experience is anything to go by, there’s a risk that Apple customers could be in for a bumpy ride.

Coming to your iPhone

Why might Fitbit fans be ringing a Google Health-shaped alarm bell? Well, Google-owned Fitbit announced a total overhaul of the companion app for its wearables back in May 2026 — and it was almost immediately unpopular.

The rebranded app was accused of being “unbelievably bad” amid missing features and confusing user interface decisions that made the app much less enjoyable to use than the one it replaced.

But that was just the tip of the iceberg. As the weeks and months rolled on, social media started overflowing with user complaints directly squarely at one target: Google Health’s AI assistant.

This tool is meant to analyze your wellbeing data and make suggestions on ways you can improve your fitness and live a healthier life. The problem, though, is that the AI seemed to frequently go off the rails.

I’ve written about how Google’s AI has been giving people “unhinged” fitness advice, feeding them “nonstop lies” and spinning up completely fictional food-tracking metrics. It’s a real concern and has proven to be a tremendous source of frustration to anyone unfortunate enough to have to use it.

And now with the Apple Health revamp, a similar feature might be coming to your iPhone.

An anxious wait

In any other app, patchy performance like this might just be a slight irritation. But in an app like Google Health, where the AI is making suggestions that could directly affect your physical wellbeing, the effect is much more serious.

Can Apple escape such problems with its own AI revamp? I’m not sure, despite Apple's excellent track record and cautious implementation of LLMs. After all, Apple tried to go its own way with Apple Intelligence but fell so far behind the competition that it had to enlist the help of — you guessed it – Google.

That means that the same AI models that have messed up Google Health so badly are now propping up Apple Intelligence, and with it, Apple Health.

That said, there’s no guarantee that Apple Health will go the same way as Google Health. While Google’s AI is powering many of the features inside the likes of Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, we don’t know exactly how that’s going to work in Apple’s Health app do-over. Has Apple tweaked Google’s models to its own tastes or imported them wholesale?

I’d hope that Apple has made some modifications of its own. Apple's website states that 'all of our health innovations are subject to rigorous scientific validation and are developed with clinical experts from start to finish'.

Not only that, but the company is extremely hot on user privacy and security, and what could be more vulnerable than your health data? With almost every health-related feature that it has introduced in recent years, Apple has emphasized the steps it has taken to encrypt, protect and otherwise lock down your sensitive wellbeing information.

Considering that Google could be perceived to be, relatively speaking, far more lax about user privacy, I’d be shocked if Apple hadn’t taken a peek under the hood to ensure that its Health AI is as secure and reliable as possible. It would have been hard for Apple not to notice the furor that Google Health has caused Fitbit fans.

There’s no way Apple would want that kind of feedback from its own users, so I’m hoping it’s made some adjustments to ensure that its own AI is a little less eccentric, shall we say, than Google’s.

We’re not going to know for sure until the new Health app becomes available, which won’t be until 'later this year,' Apple says. Until that happens, it’s going to be an anxious wait for any Apple user aware of the carnage suffered by their Fitbit-wielding colleagues.

According to VW, this is the “world’s safest e-bike” — and it might be right.

To call it an e-bike is to oversimplify the setup, because the Volkswagen comes in three parts: the bike, the glasses, and the helmet.

Beyond typical assistive riding and plenty of lights, the two big things this bike boasts are an integrated rear-view camera and a dashboard display. The camera provides a view of what’s going on behind you without you needing to turn your head, with it also warns you when another vehicle is approaching in your blind spot via a radar sensor.

This, and stats such as your speed, can be viewed on the display and on the glasses’ monocular display.

The see-through screen appears in front of your right eye and will display your speed, a basic map and directions if you’ve planned a route, and warnings about blind spots. The glasses themselves are very lightweight at 47g, and offer an excellent eight-hour battery life.

Admittedly, the helmet is a bit big and goofy-looking, but it both protects your head in a fall and features built-in lights — white on the front; red in the back to make you more visible to drivers and signal if you’re braking or turning, just like a car — as well as other electronics. It comes with an IP67 dust- and waterproof rating, and built-in crash detection. Battery life is decent at three hours (commuters should be fine, although avid riders may have welcomed more), although I wish it matched the eight hours of the glasses.

My test ride

Safety is very much the focus of this e-bike, and I can see it becoming the ultimate vehicle for commuting across cities such as London, where cars can come at you from all angles. Making myself more visible, and getting a heads up when a driver is close behind me, are major wins.

I got a taste of this during my demo. While this year's IFA test track was larger than last year’s, it’s still a bit compact for putting an e-bike through its paces. Nevertheless, I got a great feel for how well VW’s bike handles corners, and was able to get a little speed on the short straightaways.

It was also possible to get a sense of how distracting — or not distracting, as the case proved — the HUD of the glasses might be. It sits just in the corner of your vision, so you have to actively look at it to view your speed. As such, your eyes are still facing ahead and will easily see a turn or oncoming vehicle.

The display also simplifies to become less obstructing, reverting to a simple VW logo when your eyes are focused on the road. Directing your sight back at the HUD will reactivate it.

The only thing I’m not sold on is the helmet. The safety credentials seem great but the relatively low battery life and goofy design left me wishing I’d stuck with the regular helmet I was offered on the test track.

We’ll still need to review the e-bike to gauge how well Volkswagen’s design stacks up against the competition, but my first impression is a very positive one.

It’s also been an ideal fitness companion since I began using one with the Series 0 back in 2015, but while my current Apple Watch Series 11 is a fantastic device, I’ve been testing alternatives — and there’s one thing many of them do that Apple Watch doesn’t… until now.

Apple Watch is finally getting the feature I’d buy a Fitbit for

In case you missed it, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 will introduce a new ‘Readiness’ feature to watchOS.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Google and Fitbit, Garmin, Whoop and others have been offering a similar feature for years. Google’s Daily Readiness Score acts as a sort of fulcrum between all captured metrics, including heart rate, sleep, exercise, rest, and much more. It takes all of those data points and turns them into a single, easy-to-parse number that shows how prepared your body is for the day ahead.

The idea is that if you’ve had a rough night of sleep, have had a lot of stress, or just haven’t been moving much, you’ll get a lower score, which suggests you’ll probably want to take it easy.

On the flip side, if you’re well-rested and have been smashing your workouts with energy to spare, you’ll get a higher score to help push you to keep it up.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been begging, on this very site and elsewhere, for Apple Watch to take a leaf out of Fitbit’s book. The best Apple Watches excel at making fitness tracking easy and accessible to all, and this felt like the biggest missing piece of the puzzle after years of very welcome improvements.

How does it work?

Apple went to great lengths to highlight that the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 offer the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable (which presumably includes the best smart rings, too). A big part of this is a revamp to the underlying sensor technology that Apple Watch uses, with the new hardware checking for heart rate readings 60 times more frequently than last year’s models, as well as 24 times as many HRV readings at night.

Because there’s a lot more data to work with, Apple’s algorithms and the S11 chip are able to more accurately determine your readiness score. It also ties into the Vitals app, which arrived with watchOS11, to allow you to more easily spot patterns and trends in health data, and understand how your body is responding to exercise and daily life.

So, will I put my money where my mouth is? It’s hard to say. I moved from the original Apple Watch Ultra to an Apple Watch Series 11 last year, and absolutely love my current wearable. That makes it hard to justify the upgrade, as much as I’ve been banging the drum for this feature for almost a decade. Maybe next year…

When Apple announced its Live Rewind feature at its Surprise and Shine event earlier this week, many observers were concerned that it would allow you to secretly record other people without their consent. After all, the tool just requires you to press a button on your Apple Watch and it plays back any audio that was captured during the last 15 seconds.

Is this feature a privacy nightmare, one that turns every Apple Watch into a “mass surveillance device,” as some people have worried? Or have people misunderstood what is happening, with Apple putting enough safeguards in place to prevent abuse and privacy violations?

Social media users seem to be divided, with some calling it “creepy and antisocial,” while others pointed out how it could be useful for deaf people or those with autism. Let’s take a look at the facts to find out what’s really going on.

How does Live Rewind work?

What is this Live Rewind feature that is causing so much consternation? According to Apple, users of the Apple Watch Series 12 or Apple Watch Ultra 4 will be able to double-press the Digital Crown and receive a text transcription of what was said over the last 15 seconds. The company says this is useful if you missed something important, are deaf or hard of hearing, or are trying to recall a tip or recommendation from a friend.

Some people have worried that this would allow you to surreptitiously record other people without their knowledge, then save these recordings to your device for nefarious purposes.

However, Apple explained during the event that the feature never records or stores audio, it doesn’t identify anyone’s voice, and audio cannot be accessed by anyone (including Apple). To clarify matters, Apple has published an Audio Intelligence Privacy Overview that lays out how this feature — and Apple’s other new Audio Intelligence tools, including Siri Recap — works in detail.

When it comes to Live Rewind, any audio is processed in the Apple Watch’s Secure Enclave. This is a separate part of the S11 chip that, in this instance, processes audio. The Secure Enclave is siphoned off from the rest of the device and no part of the operating system can access it or the raw audio it handles. That includes both first- and third-party apps, and not even Apple can get to anything in the Secure Enclave.

Apple’s privacy paper notes that audio is never saved or recorded when you use Live Rewind. Instead, the audio is processed by the Secure Enclave and used to generate a transcript, then permanently deleted from both your device and from iCloud. There’s no way anyone can listen to the audio at a later date or extract it from your device.

Audio flows into the Secure Enclave on a rolling basis, which means that old data is continuously overwritten and deleted when new audio comes in. When activated, Live Rewind tries to send the last 15 seconds of audio to your iPhone. If it can’t — such as if your iPhone is not within wireless range — the audio is immediately discarded. If the process is successful, the audio is converted to text on your iPhone, deleted, then the text is sent back to the Secure Enclave in your Apple Watch.

The saved text stays available on your Watch for 30 seconds after the screen dims, after which it is discarded. You can optionally choose to save it to the Siri app, where it is end-to-end encrypted. This is the only instance where something is saved in the Live Rewind process. As mentioned previously, the text does not contain any speaker attribution.

You can ask Siri about your transcripts, at which point the text is sent to Apple’s secure Private Cloud Compute servers. If you use iCloud with two-factor authentication and have secured your device with a passcode, any transcripts from Live Rewind are synced using end-to-end encryption and not even Apple can decrypt them.

Respecting those around you

What about other people? Will they know that you’re using Live Rewind? Can you use the feature secretly?

Thankfully, you can’t really use Live Rewind without anyone knowing. When you double-press the Digital Crown, your Apple Watch plays an audible chime that occurs even if your device is in silent mode or you are listening via headphones. A full-screen animation also plays on screen and the microphone icon is displayed. Whether visually or through sound, your Apple Watch tries to alert other people about what is happening.

Apple also says that Live Rewind is opt-in rather than opt-out, and you can enable it when setting up a new device. You can also enable or disable the feature in Siri Settings on your Apple Watch or in the Siri Settings section of the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.

Although it would be polite to do so, there’s no way for Apple to force you to ask permission before using Live Rewind. But you might take some solace from the fact that there’s no way for anyone to save or extract the audio that the feature uses, nor can they attribute speakers. All a user gets out of it is a text transcript.

These privacy guardrails go some way to distancing Live Rewind from Meta’s so-called “Pervert Glasses” and their consent-busting data collection.

The Google Pixel Watch 5 is one of those smartwatches that’s pretty easy to review after a week of wear. It’s fast, it’s accurate, it looks nice and it’s comfortable to wear. There are a few big, groundbreaking changes in this edition: more accurate fitness tracking GPS, Breathing Emergency Detection and Insulin Resistance Trends, which are great, but they work largely in the background, improving existing features, or waiting in the wings to detect an event that (hopefully) may never arrive.

Gemini has become smarter, but that change is a result of the entire Google ecosystem rather than the watch specifically. The watch does give you the means to access Gemini on-wrist, which (if you have an internet connection) is like a little constant Hitchhiker’s Guide companion. It’s less useful for driving the functions of the watch day-to-day though, and I ended up using it the same way as other, more basic voice assistants. I’ve found some problems with Gemini, both as an entity in itself and as an agentic on-wrist assistant, which I’ll discuss later in this review.

The unique charging stand — in which the watch is vertical like a little clock — and the curved teardrop design, sizes and band-switching mechanisms are identical to the previous editions.

The biggest changes day-to-day are in the fitness features, thanks to the Google Health revamp. Google Pixel Watches used to use Fitbit software, but since Fitbit morphed into Google’s AI-first Google Health app, the free version is quite stripped-back, and the premium version is heavily reliant on an AI chatbot (again, based on Gemini) to interact with your data, build workouts, log food and generally use it in a meaningful way.

Your mileage will vary for this, based on your patience threshold with AI, but the subscription-free version of the app is sparse. That might be okay if you have the super-cheap Google Fitbit Air, but those spending $429.99 / £399.99 / AU$699 on a premium smartwatch, and don’t want to pay for Google Health Premium on top, might feel left out in the cold in terms of fitness features.

But, thanks to Wear OS’s vast library of third-party apps, the Pixel Watch’s elegant, repairable design, and some quality improvement and accuracy tweaks, the Google Pixel Watch 5 cements the series’ position as the best Android-native watch to buy for another year.

Google Pixel Watch 5: Specs Table

Google Pixel Watch 5: Price and availability

• Starts at $399.99 / £369 / AU$649 for the 41mm model
• $429.99 / £399.99 / AU$699 for the 45mm model
• LTE at an additional cost

The Google Pixel Watch 5 starts at $399.99 / £369 / AU$649 for the 41mm model, and $429.99 / £399.99 / AU$699 for the 45mm, which is the model I tested. The pricing is roughly equivalent to the Apple Watch Series 12, while being slightly more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy Watch9, so I’m happy that it represents reasonable value for money — unless, that is, you’re buying it primarily for fitness.

The reason I say that is because you’ll need a premium subscription to the Google Health app, which costs $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$14.99 per month, to unlock all its features, whereas Samsung and Apple don’t lock core fitness features behind a paywall.

Apple’s own premium tier, Apple Fitness+, is a Peloton-style workout content service, not a paywall behind which your health information is locked. With this in mind, I’ve taken half a star off the Google Pixel Watch 5’s value score.

• Value score: 3.5/5

Google Pixel Watch 5: Design

• Teardrop-domed Actua 360 display
• Comfortable to wear
• Materia 3 expressive software

I’ve always liked the design of Pixel Watches, and the Pixel Watch 5 looks and feels basically identical to the Google Pixel Watch 4. That domed teardrop Actua 360 display is just as bright as the Watch 4 at up to 3,000 nits, with the same bezel size. It’s a beautiful display, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The 60Hz refresh rate makes scrolling maps and messages, and other interactions, butter-smooth.

I do kind of wish the watch face had a raised bezel for protection, but that would completely ruin the look of the watch. As is, I love the design — I actually think it looks better than the squircle Apple Watch — and the watch is well protected from minor scrapes thanks to its Custom 3D Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The watch is also repairable, able to be taken apart at home to replace the battery and display.

I’m wearing the 45mm model as I write this review, and it doesn’t look too big for my wrist, while the 41mm is a nice pebble shape that’ll look good on small wrists. A small digital crown acts as a button, a scrolling mechanism, and even a snooze button when the watch is on charge. The charging puck has you balance the watch vertically, with the screen reoriented to look like a clock. It’s a lovely design all round.

Wear OS 7, wrapped in the Pixel Watch’s Materia 3 Expressive design language, is a joy to interact with day-to-day. Notifications look nice, and the icons and messages resizing as I scroll is a great touch. My only software design quibble is Google’s divisive Google Health app which some commenters call ‘messy’ even in its free tier, and I dislike having to interact with the chatbot. However, that’s a Google suite problem as opposed to a specifically Pixel Watch 5 one.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Google Pixel Watch 5: Features

• New background health features
• Third-party app ecosystem
• Gemini intelligence features

A number of new features debut on the Google Pixel Watch 5, most of them driven by the new, improved Gemini intelligence. In practice, Gemini here is largely an extension of the tools on your Android phone, although raise-to-talk to ask Gemini a question is a nice touch. You can also use it to call or message contacts hands-free, and all the usual use-cases, such as setting timers.

Gemini, once given permission to access your contact details, will work in the background across your phone and your watch with tools like Proactive Assistance (a feature which requires a Pixel 11 phone to pair the watch with), which uses Gemini to anticipate your next move based on the content of your message. One example Google gives is your friend requesting contact details for a babysitter: Gemini will pull up the babysitter’s phone number in a draft message ready to send with a tap on your wrist. It’s clever stuff, and it helps the watch begin to feel more like the agentic personal assistant we’ve been promised.

Health-wise, we get new emergency tools, with last year’s Loss of Pulse Detection feature returning alongside Breathing Emergency Detection, which monitors for severe drops in blood oxygen caused by choking, pneumonia, drug overdose, or any other airway-limiting urgent health issue.

Google says its feature works by triggering a strong haptic vibration and notification, followed by a countdown. If the countdown is not cancelled, Google says the feature “automatically prompts your connected phone or LTE-enabled watch to call emergency services. Once the call is connected, an automated voice message informs the emergency operator that a breathing emergency was detected.

“It explains that you aren’t responding and shares your precise location. If you’ve set up emergency contacts, the feature sends a message notifying them that you may need help.”

Blood pressure trends and insulin resistance trends (both metrics that would normally require the use of specialized gear to measure) can now be viewed as monthly reports generated by your watch reading other vitals using its LEDs. While these features aren’t as accurate as a blood pressure cuff or an invasive glucose monitor, they provide a general indication as to whether you may need to visit a doctor. You do not need a paid Google Health subscription to use these ‘Health Guardian’ features.

All of this is added to the Pixel Watch’s impressive existing feature ecosystem, with music control and storage, GPS workouts, access to third-party apps, on-wrist phone conversations and messaging, and all the usual communications features you’d expect from a flagship smartwatch.

• Features score: 5/5

Google Pixel Watch 5: Performance

• GPS accuracy improved, and was responsive during testing
• Heart rate tracking lines up with other wearables
• Comfortable to wear day-to-day, but battery life still a sticking point

Another year, another Pixel Watch, another battery complaint. My biggest gripe about high-powered, communication-forward watches as opposed to lower-power models, like the best Garmin watches is the battery life. While the Pixel Watch 5 does have fast charging, and you’ll be able to top it up from empty to full power in less than an hour on the charging puck, it’s frustrating to have the watch die on you mid-morning after you’ve been wearing it for just a couple of days, especially if it does so before your gym session.

Daily charging, or at least every other day if you don’t have the always-on display enabled, is a necessity, while a 2.5-hour hike drained around 25% of the watch’s battery life during my testing.

At least the Google Pixel Watch 5’s metrics were up to snuff. Heart rate readings were in line with other wearables, with only very minor deviations against a Polar H10 heart rate monitor. Our writer Michael Sawh took the Google Pixel Watch 5 around the London Marathon course’s infamous Isle of Dogs route, well-known for causing GPS blackouts, and found it performed very well against an Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Garmin Fenix 8 Pro. You can read his full breakdown here.

The AI is useful, but not as useful as Google wants you to believe. Surfacing contextual information from your contacts is nice, and the voice assistant is fine, but there are too many edge-cases for it to be truly agentic. I asked Google Gemini on my watch for directions to my local train station, but rather than immediately surfacing directions it sent me back to my phone to open Google Maps to enable and confirm the route, then back to my watch, where I still had to open the Wear OS Google Maps manually.

Worse are the inaccuracies. As a stress test, I asked Gemini to find a local yoga class in my city center that started before 9am: it gave me two that started at 10am (without telling me), and one example that was completely fictitious — although Gemini said both the class and studio were on a particular street in my city, it was actually 14 miles away, and it got the time wrong anyway. Google may be very excited about the prospect of everyone having a virtual assistant to optimize their lives, but right now the technology doesn’t quite match up to the hype.

• Performance score: 3.5/5

Google Pixel Watch 5: Scorecard

Google Pixel Watch 5: Should I buy?

Buy it if…

You have an Android phone
The Google Pixel Watch 5 is the best Android / Wear OS watch on the market right now.

You want accurate GPS

It performed favorably against Garmin and Apple rivals during our tests.

You want repairability

The Google Pixel Watch 5 can be taken apart, and you’re able to replace its battery and display.

Don’t buy it if…

You want rugged

The teardrop shape may look nice, but adventurers may want a raised bezel to protect their watch’s display.

You want battery life

The Google Pixel Watch 5 may charge fast, but one missed nightly charge and you’ll likely be stuck with an inert watch at some stage over the next day.

Also consider

How I tested

I wore the Pixel Watch 5 for around 10 days, testing it in the gym, on runs, and on hikes. I compared it to a Polar H10 heart rate monitor during a run, and our writer Michael Sawh tested its GPS against Garmin and Apple watches. I stress-tested Google Gemini with tasks and questions, and used the watch as my primary wearable during my testing period.

First reviewed: September 2026

Though I didn’t get the design upgrades I was hoping for (I wanted Apple to do a 180-degree turn and debut a completely fresh look for its watches), we got some smart new color options in the process. But that aside, the new monitoring tools do more than make up for the lack of visual upgrades — they’re smarter, insightful, and more personal than ever.

It’s hard to tell if all the new wellbeing tracking tools will be available for previous models — for anything powered by Apple Intelligence, it’s likely that these will remain native to the Series 12 and Ultra 4 — but we still think they’ll make for welcomed additions for health-conscious users.

On-camera fitness testing

As part of the wider Health app revamp, health monitoring using the Apple Watch paired with the iPhone's camera is a new feature, starting with full body assessments. The assessments allow the Health app to measure VO2 max — the the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use while exercising, a key measure of fitness — along with flexibility, strength, balance, and movement mechanics.

All you have to do is prop your iPhone vertically against a wall so that your whole body fits in the frame, and it will get you to follow a coach-guided workout. Apple says in order to measure VO2 max, you’ll need an Apple Watch, AirPods Pro 3, or a third-party heart rate sensing device.

Health Age

Apple is slightly behind on the Health Age feature — Garmin and Whoop got there first with Fitness Age and Whoop Age, respectively — but it’s finally coming to Apple Watch.

Health Age can be found under the new Longevity tab in the Health app, a hub for displaying deeper insights for different health topics including heart health, mental wellbeing, nutrition, and hearing health.

Your Health Age reading takes different aspects of your health profile into account and combines them into one score to show how your metrics compare to the average health and fitness level for your age and gender.

Health Sensing System

This is a technical upgrade to the Apple Watch itself, and a welcomed improvement to how the wearable reads your health data.

Both the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4 come fitted with new LED sensor arrays designed for better skin contact, including a new heart-rate sensor for more accurate heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) measurements — which helps to determine the new Readiness score, which we'll discuss in a moment.

Under the new sensors are larger green LEDs, which now measure your heart rate up to every five seconds, all day long. Apple claims that it's the most accurate heart rate measurement on any wearable, and it can back this up with testing results. We can't wait to try it ourselves against an electrical heart rate monitor.

Readiness Score

Much like the Health Age metric, the new Readiness Score is a tool that's been widely adopted by rival wearables in the past — and now it’s Apple’s turn.

Diving into your Vitals, Sleep Score, recent activity, and other metrics, you'll be presented with a score from 0-10, along with a brief explanation to tell you if your watch thinks you need to pace yourself, or if you have the capacity to push yourself further.

It's a clever and handy tool that could stop you from overtraining, or change your plans to fit in a long run on a day in which you're ready for action. Readiness also updates multiple times a day as your Apple Watch gathers new data, telling you exactly what's affecting your overall score.

Insights tab

The Health app's new Insights tab looks very comprehensive. Throughout the day, Insights displays timely information about your health metrics including heart, sleep, readiness, fitness, vitals, and cycle tracking data.

It gives you short summaries about how different fitness categories are impacting your long-term health, while the 'For You' section offers personalized recommendations and even relevant health articles based on your data.

The Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 are the latest models to join Apple's family of wearables, and both pack quite a punch on the features- and health-tracking front, thanks to the combination of the new Health Sensing System and deeper Apple Intelligence integration.

Of course every new Apple Watch offers improvements over the previous generation — the question is always whether it offers enough to make it worth the upgrade. To help you decide, I've compared the new Apple Watch Series 12 against its predecessor, the Apple Watch Series 11, so you can see all the changes side-by-side.

Apple Watch Series 12 vs Apple Watch Series 11: Specifications

Design

We weren't expecting a visual overhaul with the Apple Watch Series 12, and nor did we get one.

The new model packs the same digital crown and side button that you'll find on most Apple Watch models, and size-wise the only difference is that the Series 12 is 1mm wider; if you can spot that in real life, you have sharper eyes than I do.

However, there are some design changes worth talking about. The key one is that as well as being available in Aluminium and Titanium, as the Watch 11 is, there's also now a Ceramic version — the first since the Series 5.

The Ceramic Watch 12 comes in two colors, Pearl White and Night Blue, while the Aluminum model is available in Space Gray, Black, Light Gold and the stunning new Dark Bronze shade, perfect for both casual and smart wear. The Titanium versions come in Radiant Gold and Natural.

Sticking with the Apple Watch 11? Then your choices are between Space Gray, Jet Black, Rose Gold, and Silver for Aluminum, and Slate, Gold, and Natural Polished in Titanium. And to reiterate, there is no Ceramic Watch 11 — so if you want that, you'll need the new model.

Features

Minor design changes aside, the key reasons to upgrade to the Apple Watch 12 relate to its health-tracking smarts.

Many of these stem from its new S11 chip. Apple — inevitably — describes this as its "most powerful wearable chip", and it powers the new Health Sensing System and Audio Intelligence features.

Let's start with the Health Sensing System, the redesign of the previous generation's LED heart rate sensor array. The Series 12's electrode surface area is now bigger, allowing for better skin contact for ECG tracking. It also packs new optical-sensing photo diodes to capture light more efficiently, while its brighter green LEDs support accurate HR in motion. In short, it's the most accurate Apple Watch ever, tied with its sibling the Apple Watch Ultra 4.

It records heart rate continuously, up to every five seconds, and heart rate variability (a key part of sleep tracking and recovery metrics) up to every five minutes. That's a massive 24x more frequently than it did before, ensuring peak accuracy (in theory).

However one of the new standout features is the new Readiness Score, which has finally arrived on Apple Watch. Every other health wearable seems to have one, and Apple's Readiness Score will combine your rings, vitals and other health metrics into a single actionable, frequently updated number.

There are also a significant redesign of the Health app which thrusts Apple Intelligence to the front of the experience. Now, Apple Watch lets you explore health profiles while offering personalized guidance thanks to Apple Intelligence. Once the Health app gets a sense of your health habits, it will tweak its recommendations so that they align with your health levels and data.

Health Age is another new feature that aligns your metrics and fitness level with your actual age, similar to features on Whoop and Garmin.

The Series 12 is packing tons of new fitness features, but Apple Intelligence — or at least, audio intelligence — is brand new and unrelated to health.

Audio Intelligence is comprised of four features. The Series 12 can listen out for sounds, be that a doorbell, traffic, or oncoming pedestrians, and will send alerts right to your watch face — which is ideal for users who are hard of hearing. You can also Shazam songs from your wrist.

Slightly more suspect are Live Rewind and Siri Recaps. Live Rewind allows you to go back 15 seconds to remember parts of a conversation. Didn't catch what the waiter said was new on the menu? Just double-press the digital crown and your watch will generate a transcript for you to read. Siri Recaps is a feature that, when active, listens constantly in the background, providing you with a summary of your day in the evening, including conversations.

We've covered these two features in more detail here, including Apple's privacy assurances and why the Cupertino giant might not be reading the room on this feature, as surveillance-capable wearables are receiving a lot of pushback at the moment.

You can pre-order the Apple Watch Series 12 now, which will be available starting September 18.

But how does it compare to the previous gen, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 — and is it worth upgrading? Read on for a full comparison of both watches, so you can make an informed decision.

Apple Watch Ultra 4 vs Apple Watch Ultra 3: Specifications

Apple Watch Ultra 4 vs Apple Watch Ultra 3: Price and availability

• Price is unchanged from last year
• $799 / £749 / AU$1,399
• Available from September 18

Here's an easy one to start with: the Apple Watch Ultra 4's price is unchanged from last year, at $799 / £749 / AU$1,399. It's available from the September 18, so if you were considering getting an Apple Watch Ultra 3 but were holding out, there's no reason not to wait a few days for the latest model.

Apple Watch Ultra 4 vs Apple Watch Ultra 3: design

Physically, little has changed in terms of looks, but there have been subtle tweaks. The titanium case is still there, slightly wider and slimmer than last year, and it lasts six hours longer than the Ultra 3 to make it to two days, or 18 hours with continuous GPS use.

The watch's heart rate accuracy is even better thanks to the new Health Sensing System. This redesign of Apple's LED optical heart rate sensor tech offers better skin contact thanks to an increased electrode surface area. Heart rate readings are now being taken up to every five seconds, with heart rate variability, an overnight measure of rest and recovery, being read up to every five minutes.

This makes Apple's heart rate sensor the most accurate of any wearable, according to Apple. It has apparently conducted tests against rivals using ECG chest straps, much like we do in our reviews.

I can attest that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is as accurate a wearable as it gets, so I'll be intrigued to test the new Ultra 4 against my trusty Polar H10.

Apple Watch Ultra 4 vs Apple Watch Ultra 3: Features

• Finally, a Readiness Score
• New Audio Intelligence features
• Redesigned Health app

At last! Apple Watch gets a Readiness Score, a feature almost every other fitness wearable has had for years. Typically from Apple, it looks like the bee's knees, feeding into Vitals to generate a holistic overview of your night, and updating throughout the day, like Garmin's Body Battery function. A new Health Age feature also compares your current fitness level to those in your age group, much like Garmin's Fitness Age or Whoop's, er, Whoop Age.

It's unclear at the moment whether the Ultra 3 will get these features, or if it will be an Ultra 4 / Series 12 exclusive. But all the Apple Watch Ultra 3 features, including LTE and satellite connectivity, are available on the Ultra 4.

An incoming redesigned Health app on iPhone is Apple Intelligence-forward, offering personalized AI-powered insights, and what is clear is that this will also work with the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and all Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhones. This Health App will show you Readiness, Longevity, and allow you to measure your VO2 Max using a coached guided workout on your iPhone's camera, then update it according to your activity levels and metrics.

Audio Intelligence features are exclusive to the Ultra 4 and Series 12, and include Shazam on your wrist, Sound Recognition (your watch will let you know the doorbell's rung or a siren's going off, for example), and two more features which are sure to prove controversial.

Live Rewind has your watch listen to and instantly recall a conversation up to 15 seconds previously, by double-tapping the crown of your Apple Watch. Siri Recap listens throughout the day and uses Siri AI to process live audio files, serving you a summary of the day in the evening. There are numerous controls and privacy safeguards in place here, but there's no doubt they'll come across as creepy to many. You can read all about Audio Intelligence on Apple Watch here.

Siri Recaps is a new Audio Intelligence feature that turns your Apple Watch into an always-listening device. The idea is that Siri Recaps, which lives on the Siri app, uses the Apple Watch's sensors to provide a summary of your day, including conversations that have taken place. It can be toggled with a schedule, or at the top of the Smart Stack.

It's a little like the Amazon Bee, which is a microphone attached to a smart band, which is used to capture and summarize conversations. While I can see this feature as being useful for people who attend lots of meetings (having a virtual assistant taking minutes in the background all day long could be very useful), there are understandably privacy concerns here.

We're told the Recaps feature doesn't record or store audio and it can't show a transcript. Instead, it processes events live as they take place, using Siri AI to turn that raw data into actionable notes, never written into permanent storage. Below is a screenshot from Apple's presentation:

Your watch, like a smartphone or smart speaker, already has to always listen for a wake word (like 'Siri' or 'Alexa'), but the audio it's listening to is not logged or recorded: only interactions starting with the wake word are.

But add an always-listening AI assistant into the mix who's taking notes on your day-to-day, including your conversations with others who may not know they're being surveilled, and suddenly Apple's latest handy feature starts to look a lot creepier. Apple's other big new Audio Intelligence feature for watches is Live Rewind, which can produce a transcript of the last 15 seconds of audio on your watch face — whether a wake word was said, or not.

I'm frankly surprised Apple even went through with this feature at this time, considering the bans and backlash other AI-powered surveillance wearables are getting.

I'm thinking, of course, about Meta, and its smart glasses being banned in some public spaces and generally disparaged with names like 'pervert glasses'. Smart glasses have obviously garnered a real stigma thanks to people drilling out the LED recording light and using them to discreetly record inappropriately and without consent for clout, content, or their own personal use.

This has created a general feeling of malaise around wearables equipped with discreet cameras and microphones in general. Like Meta Glasses, the Live Rewind and Siri Recaps features have accessibility potential for those hard of hearing, but they're going to make most people uncomfortable.

Watch: Audio Intelligence features being announced

Apple is keen to evidence its trustworthiness, with on-device AI and Private Cloud Compute and an insistence that it doesn't record or log audio and transcripts. However, if people think they're being discreetly recorded without their permission, it's possible Apple Watch wearers could experience their own slice of the abuse hurled at Meta Glasses wearers.

I wrote earlier this year that wearable tech has to separate itself from surveillance capitalism if it wishes to be cool again. It seems Apple has taken a step in the other direction.

Update: Apple has published an article on its website, specifically about Audio Intelligence, and much has been made about how Audio Intelligence protects user privacy and is used responsibly. You can read the full article here.

In short, Apple says audio is not recorded or stored because "there is no recording to share, forward, or produce if requested by any party, because no recording exists". Instead, audio data is processed by Siri live, and raw audio "is never accessible".

Your data is not accessible to Apple either, thanks to Private Cloud Compute, and "independent security experts can verify this promise at any time". Siri Recaps auto-delete after seven days too. Apple is serious about getting users to trust this feature.

Apple's hotly anticipated ‘Surprise and Shine’ event has been and gone, leaving a foldable iPhone Duo, the iPhone 18 Pro, AirPods 5, and many more new products in its wake.

The iPhone Duo is, of course, the biggest talking point — it's Apple's first foldable iPhone, and will "redefine what an iPhone can do, while still feeling natural and familiar," according to the Cupertino tech giant.

Elsewhere, Apple refreshed its wearable lineup with the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4; the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max got a variable aperture feature; and AirPods 5 are bringing new Audio Intelligence features to the table.

We've picked out the key points of every new product announcement below.

iPhone Duo

It's finally official — Apple's first foldable phone is here. The iPhone Duo (yes, not the iPhone Ultra) is its answer to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, combining a 5.4-inch outer screen with a 7.6-inch Super Retina XDR inner display and lots of neat software tricks.

Powered by the "desktop-class" A20 Pro chip, the iPhone Duo has a titanium frame that's apparently been strengthened by ceramic fibers, and it'll be available in two colors: 'star white' and 'night sky' (a dark blue).

Interestingly, the iPhone Duo also lacks a few key iPhone features, including Face ID, but it was undoubtedly the star of Apple's iPhone 18 Pro launch — and we'll be bringing you our hands-on first impressions very soon.

• 5.4-inch cover display, 7.6-inch foldable display
• A20 Pro chipset with C2 modem
• 48MP Fusion main camera, 48MP ultra-wide
• Starts at $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,499

iPhone 18 Pro

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are, of course, being billed as the best iPhones yet. They both use Apple's new A20 Pro chip, which boasts a 20% faster CPU and 40% faster GPU, but performance improvements are just the beginning.

For budding cinematographers, the biggest upgrade for both phones is the variable aperture in their 48MP main cameras. You'll be able to widen the lens to let in more light for nightography, or make the aperture smaller for greater depth of field to capture more details in a single shot.

The battery life has been upgraded on both phones, too. Apple says the iPhone 18 Pro has the same battery life as the iPhone 17 Pro Max — that’s 36 hours of video playback. The iPhone 18 Pro Max's endurance is up to 45 hours.

The only catch? Both phones will cost you a little more than last year. The base model starts at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,099 rather than $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,999, while the Pro Max starts at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,299 rather than $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,149.

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max launch on September 18, and you can snag them in Silver, Black, Glacier (a sort of lilac), or Burgundy.

For a breakdown of how the iPhone 18 Pro compares to the iPhone 17 Pro, check out our iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro comparison.

• Variable aperture in 48MP fusion main camera
• iPhone 18 has a 36-hour battery life, the same as iPhone 17 Pro Max
• A20 Pro chipset: 20% faster CPU, 40% faster GPU
• Price starts at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,099 for 256GB; launches September 18
• Comes in Silver, Black, Glacier, or Burgundy colors

Apple Watch Series 12

The Apple Watch Series 12 brings a few new design tweaks, including a new color — dark bronze — alongside space grey, black, and light gold, all in 100% recycled aluminum. A new Ceramic Shield 2 lens is 60% tougher than the previous generation, while the biggest performance change is in the sensor.

The new Health Sensing System offers better skin contact thanks to an increased electrode surface area. Heart rate readings are now being read up to every five seconds, with heart rate variability (a measure of recovery) being read up to every five minutes. All this enables features like the new Readiness Score (it's about time, as every other wearable has one), an improved Vitals app, and an incoming redesigned Health app on iPhone to match, which allows you to measure your VO2 Max using a guided workout on your iPhone's camera. Health Age behaves like similar features you'll find on a Whoop or Garmin, comparing your fitness to the averages in your age bracket.

However, it's Audio Intelligence that's proving the most interesting (and most controversial) feature, as Siri Recap and Live Rewind listen throughout the day to provide summaries of your day and instantly recall conversations, respectively.

• Aluminum / ceramic body, Ceramic Shield 2 lens
• 24-hour battery life
• Starts at $399 / £369 / AU$649
• S11 chipset
• Redesigned Health Sensing System, Readiness, Audio Intelligence

Apple Watch Ultra 4

Apple's big beast returns with all the upgrades of the Series 12 above: a redesigned Health Sensing System for better heart rate accuracy (the most accurate of any wearable, according to Apple), Readiness Score, improved Vitals app, Health Age, and so on. It also gets all the Audio Intelligence features previously mentioned, which, along with Live Rewind and Siri Recap, offer sound recognition (doorbells, sirens, and so on) and Shazam on-wrist.

Ultra-specific improvements are thin on the ground. The battery now stretches from last year's 42 hours to a full two days. In GPS mode, you get 18 hours, enough for all but the toughest ultramarathons. Very little else has changed, design-wise: there are no new colors or dramatic upsets. The Ultra 4 does, however, get the new Ceramic Shield 2 protection in addition to a super-hard titanium case.

• Titanium body,
• Ceramic Shield 2 lens
• 48-hour battery life
• Starts at $799 / £749 / AU$1,349
• S11 chipset
• Redesigned Health Sensing System, Readiness, Audio Intelligence

AirPods 5

You've got two new AirPods to choose from: the AirPods 5, and AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case and Volume Swipe.

Key upgrades for both models include Live Translation, next-generation Adaptive EQ, and 50% more noise reduction over the AirPods 4. Battery life is also up to 22 hours (if you carry the case with you).

And no, there are no cameras here, low-res or otherwise — even in the top-tier set. We didn't expect that particular feature in AirPods 'til 2027, and we were right to stay firm on it — it seems Apple eyes in your ears are still a way off.

As well as the Wireless Charging Case, the pricier AirPods 5 also boast the volume swipe feature of the latest AirPods Pro. They'll cost you $149 / £149 / AU$249 — so less than the original AirPods 4 with ANC, but more than the standard AirPods 5 at $129 / £129 / AU$219.

• 50% better ANC than the previous generation, plus Adaptive Audio
• $129 / £129 / AU$219 for the AirPods 5
• $149 / £149 / AU$249 for the AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case
• Personalized Spatial Audio, Live Translation, Adaptive EQ
• Volume swipe functionality, longer battery life (up to 22 hours using the case), plus wireless charging in the step-up model

Apple Event 2026 — reactions

• iPhone price hikes — here's the full list of every price increase from the iPhone 18 Pro to a 21% rise for one iPhone Air model
• 15 things we learned from Apple's big iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro launch — from its first-ever foldable to new AirPods
• The iPhone Duo lacks Face ID, a telephoto camera, and the Action Button, but I still want it more than every Android foldable I've ever tested — here's why
• iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro: 5 key differences between Apple's newest and previous best smartphones
• I'm a pro photographer — here’s why the iPhone 18 Pro’s variable aperture is its biggest camera upgrade
• Apple Watch Ultra 4 vs Apple Watch Ultra 3: what's changed, and should you upgrade?
• Apple Watch Series 12 vs Series 11 — new Ceramic model, Health Sensing System, Audio Intelligence and all the key upgrades
• Apple iPhone 18 Pro & Apple iPhone Duo preorders: everything you need to know, including start times, deals, and pricing
• Apple continually teased the idea of a 'personal hub' at its recent event, but then didn't launch a HomePod mini 2, and I'm mad about it
• Thanks to Siri Recaps, your Apple Watch is always listening as you go about your day — but Apple may be risking a Meta Glasses-style backlash
• Good news: Apple almost totally dodged inflation on the new iPhones, AirPods and Watches — bad news: the price of all other iPhones just got jacked up

Apple Event 2026 — how to rewatch

You can rewatch Apple's ‘Surprise and Shine’ keynote via Apple’s YouTube page or via the embedded video above.

Blog posts

This phone has been rumored for years, so it’s almost hard to believe that it could finally be launching today, but all signs suggest that it is — and it won’t be alone, as other phones, plus new wearables and AirPods, look set to be unveiled too.

So, below, we’ve detailed how to watch today's Apple Event, along with all the things we expect to see announced in Cupertino. And to follow along with the announcements as they happen, head to our Apple Event 2026 live blog.

How to watch Apple’s iPhone Ultra launch

Today's major Apple launch is being held at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, Cupertino, California. As with all these events, it will also be streamed online, so you don’t have to attend in person to witness it.

It starts at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST, which is 3am AEST on September 10 for people in Australia. So there’s a good chance you’ll either be at work or asleep while it happens, but you’ll be able to view a recorded version of the video after the live stream has ended, and we’ll also have full coverage of the event here on TechRadar, so you can always just stick with us for our analysis and impressions.

As for how to watch, that’s easy: simply hit play on the video embedded above. Alternatively you can head to YouTube, or Apple’s event page. You’ll also be able to view the livestream on Apple TV.

So, there are lots of ways to watch today's event, and if you press the ‘Notify me’ button on that video, you’ll also get a reminder when the event is starting.

What to expect at Apple’s iPhone Ultra event

The iPhone Ultra is almost certainly going to be the most eye-catching announcement at Apple’s Surprise and Shine event. This foldable phone will reportedly have a passport-like form factor similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, with a 7.8-inch foldable display and a 5.5-inch cover screen.

But in addition to this, we’re also expecting Apple to announce the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone 18 Pro Max. These will likely have similar designs to the iPhone 17 Pro series and the same screen sizes, but a powerful new chipset and potentially a variable aperture camera.

And it’s not just phones at this event — we’re also expecting to see the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4. The main updates here could be the addition of Touch ID and an upgraded chipset, and the Ultra 4 might also gain new sensors.

The AirPods 5 could also land here, as might Apple’s first smart home display, and we might also see updates to the company’s HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K lines.

Beyond hardware, we also expect all of Apple’s next software versions to launch in finished form at today's event, including iOS 27, iPadOS 27, watchOS 27, macOS 27, and tvOS 27, with the headline feature in most of them likely to be Siri’s AI overhaul.

And finally, today's Surprise and Shine event will be the first public outing for Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, so it will be interesting to see how he comes across.

However, I've had the most fun this year with a watch that costs just £55 / AU$119 (around $75).

The Casio F-B100W is a digital quartz watch which connects to your phone via Casio's Mobile Link Bluetooth function, providing a handful of techy features. So I guess you could say it's technically a smartwatch. Looks-wise, it's very similar to the classic, outrageously cheap F-91W, only a little bigger and packing a fourth button on the side rather than the F-91W's usual three.

The F-91W is beloved among watch nerds as a reliable, cheap 'beater' watch you can where anywhere. We've written about it in the past — it was worn by a young Barack Obama, due to its reliable timekeeping and seven-year battery life it was even used as a bomb timer by Al-Qaeda, and its got serious counterculture appeal due to its low-tech defiance of modern trends and the analog revival.

I'm a great advocate of having a 'beater' watch to throw on and wear during gardening, DIY, construction work or any time you want a break from your smartwatch. However, I've always thought the F-91W looked like a child's toy on the average person's wrist, with a tiny size of just 38.2 × 35.2 × 8.5 mm. The F-B100W is slightly bigger at 41.9 × 38.1 × 8.8 mm, a difference of less than 4mm, but it goes a long way towards feeling more like a watch.

It packs more features than the F-91W: as well as a timer, stopwatch, LED and alarm functionalities, it's got dual-time zone features and some very basic fitness tracker functionality thanks to its Bluetooth capabilities: notably, a step counter.

Not only do your steps display on the watch's LCD screen, but it also feeds your steps into the Casio Watches app, where you can see historic graphs of your steps across weekly and monthly views. In this way it acts as a virtual pedometer, just like the original Fitbit did before things got complicated. It also, unbelievably, has a Find My Phone feature, activated by holding the bottom-right button down.

And that's it. It's a stripped-down Bluetooth watch which looks like a classic Casio, with the most basic of fitness tracking functionalities, a useful Find My Phone feature and a two-year battery life. Reader, I am in love.

It's an absolute belter of a watch for the price. I enjoyed taking it for a five-mile hike and watching my step count tick up, and it's extremely light on the wrist at 26g. I've always liked the look of Casio watches, and as someone who perpetually misplaces almost everything I own, the Find My Phone feature is a near-essential tool. I like that it's got a step counter broken down by graphs, but I also like that this is the only fitness tracking functionality it has, apart from the timer and stopwatch — which are in themselves ideal features for interval training, or timing rest periods in the gym.

In an era of all-singing, all-dancing smart technology that tracks everything, and often requires a subscription to sell your own data back to you, it reminds me of a simpler time in wearable technology. It's not a great contributor to surveillance capitalism like lots of wearable tech these days (beyond having to make a Casio account): it's just a fun digital pedometer, and is good value enough to be a 'fun' purchase for many people, rather than a serious investment.

It's accurate, as you can set the time of the watch with your phone and the digital quartz movement is notoriously reliable, and will cost you nothing more than £55 / AU$119 (around $75) and a cheap watch battery every two years — a pack of 10 might run you about $5.99 / £4.99 / AU$8.99.

The F-B100W is sold out on Casio.com right now in the UK, and is "coming soon" in Australia. It's not yet available in the US, but keep your eyes peeled for restocks — this archaic-looking, secretly-smart digital watch is the stripped-back digital pedometer you never knew you needed.

Promising "a new generation of brain wearable", neuroscience company Atlas has launched its first wearable: a brain pattern monitor that sits behind your ear, and feeds back data on your attention span, levels of stress, and energy burn.

It's called The Atlas 1.0 Pioneer Edition (via New Atlas), it'll cost you $499 (about £370 / AU$695), and the initial batch of pre-orders have sold out in just a few days. The company says to "stay tuned" for the next release, though there's no indication of when that might be (or when it'll be available outside the US).

There's some impressive data behind the wearable. Atlas says it's spent six years gathering over 500,000 brain records to build its first wearable, brain recordings taken while people go about all of their usual daily activities — and in lab tests, it apparently outperformed a $30,000 "research grade" electroencephalography (EEG) monitor.

The idea is that by understanding your brain patterns — when you're most present, when you're most stressed, when your brain is working hardest — you can learn to optimize and manage the neural workload. So, for example, the Atlas 1.0 might tell you that social media stresses you out, so you can limit how much you use it during the day.

Map your own mind

"Atlas gives you a map of your own mind, so you can understand what brings out the best in you, change what doesn't, and become who you want to be," Atlas co-founder and CEO Ana Montero said in a press release. "For the first time some of the most important moments in a human life are becoming measurable."

The wearable is completely non-invasive, and doesn't interfere with your brain patterns in any way — it just tells you what's happening with your neurons, and connects this activity to whatever else is going on. If your mind wanders while working unless you have background music playing, Atlas 1.0 will be able to tell you about it.

A few more details: you get two days of battery life between charges, the app is iOS-only for now, and you need to pay $29.99 (about £22 / AU$42) a month for a subscription as well as the up-front cost. Cutting-edge brain science doesn't come cheap, and you may have to ditch the Netflix subscription to be able to afford this.

Brain wearables do seem to be having a moment as the tech gets better, cheaper, and more miniaturized: last month we tested the Nurosym electrical vagus nerve stimulation device that hacks your brain for better sleep, lower anxiety, and improved relaxation.

Apple’s watchOS 27 is almost upon us, and it’s going to arrive alongside the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 at the company’s Surprise and Shine event tomorrow. When that happens, there could be a new feature for the best Apple Watches that finally fixes a problem that has bugged me for years.

According to information supposedly found in the watchOS 27 beta and posted on the MacRumors forum, Apple is planning to boost the Workout app with a new feature that adds more control to your strength-based exercise routines.

Specifically, the leak asserts it will take the form of “richer details in strength workouts”.

“The new implementation can describe individual sets and store repetition counts, weight, equipment, body side, and duration for each set,” the leaker added. “A workout activity can now represent a session with multiple sets, with different loads and repetition counts in each.”

In other words, Apple might finally be implementing features that rival apps have offered for years. SmartGym gives you this kind of functionality, for example, and it’s one of the best Apple Watch apps around — it was even named Apple Watch App of the Year by Apple in 2023. Apple is evidently aware that its Workout app has fallen behind in this area — but will its solution be enough to catch up?

It’s about time

While I’ve been able to log my workout sessions in my Apple Watch’s Workout app, I’ve had to store the actual routines — including rep and set counts for each machine — in the Notes app. It means having to constantly flick between the two apps while I’m exercising, which is far from ideal.

Add to that the fact that the Workout app just records a single monolithic workout, with no way to log my reps and sets, and I come away from my time at the gym with no insight into how I did on any particular exercise.

So if this rumor ends up being on the money (and the feature actually works as intended), it could end up being one of my favorite additions to the Apple Watch ecosystem. If Apple is able to let me create an exercise plan filled up with rep and set counts, then take me through it when I hit the gym, I’ll be one happy camper.

That said, there are still some unanswered questions. For instance, SmartGym works completely independently of your iPhone and shows you everything you need on your Apple Watch face. Will Apple’s updated Workout app be able to do the same? That would make it even more useful.

And yes, you can already create a set and rest timer system, with labelling to show which exercises you've completed, using the lesser-known Custom Workout routine, but is still much more limited than I’d like it to be. It’s more of a workaround than a real solution.

With the new Apple Watches and their features set to be unveiled tomorrow, there’s not long to wait to see if my wish becomes reality. If Apple is finally able to match its rivals, it’ll be a case of better late than never — but I won’t mind one bit.

In recent months, we’ve seen quite a few tidbits consisting of news and leaks surrounding Garmin’s unannounced Cirqa Smart Ring, and it’s starting to feel increasingly likely that the company is about to launch a new product to take on the likes of Samsung and Oura.

As spotted by Gadgets & Wearables, a new certification listing on the website of the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency has revealed a spate of mysterious product codes, all of which were filed by Garmin on the same day.

The codes all sit underneath the same certification listing, which implies that they could be different models of the same product – perhaps different colors or sizes, for example. Probably different sizes, as many other smart rings cover sizes ranging from 3-5 or 13-15, and that might be the key clue that points towards this product’s true identity.

If it is indeed the Cirqa Smart Ring, it would be Garmin’s first attempt at a device like this and the second in the Cirqa line. It would follow the Cirqa band, which thoroughly impressed us when we reviewed it earlier this year, and would be designed to take on Oura and Samsung, which are currently responsible for some of the best smart rings on the market.

Not long to go

Couldn’t the devices in the Brazilian certification documents be Garmin watches rather than smart rings? After all, Garmin has never acknowledged that it’s even making a smart ring, so how do we know this listing points to that seemingly top-secret device?

While we can’t be sure, the fact that there are ten separate models appears to point towards a smart ring. A watch wouldn’t need so many different variants, as you’d normally only have a couple of different sizing options. A smart ring, though? They tend to come with far more variations to account for the different finger sizes users will have.

One of the model numbers in the Brazilian listing was AA5124. This number also surfaced in a leak in August, whereby a Garmin product explicitly named the Cirqa Smart Ring appeared in Indonesian regulatory filings. Also included in that filing was an unknown device with the AA5124 model number, suggesting it was part of the same family. With AA5124 appearing among the ten variants in the latest leak, the links to the Cirqa are strengthened.

There’s no solid estimation of when the Cirqa might finally be released, so we’ll have to keep waiting for now. But with the strong suggestion that the Cirqa has just appeared in another official certification process, we might not have long to go.

Since moving to multiple model sizes for its premium outdoor smartwatch, the largest ‘X’ models quickly came to represent the introduction of exciting, cutting-edge innovations that then start to filter down to the rest of the best Garmin watches. But I wasn;t convinced a multi-LED flashlight on the top of the watch case was something prospective Garmin watch owners should get excited about.

Garmin claimed it would be a “game-changer for sport, adventure and daily life”. In the early weeks of testing the 7X, that wasn’t my experience. I’d quite quickly written it off as rather gimmicky. The question I kept on asking myself was; ‘why would I choose it over reaching for the pretty good LED flashlight I have on my phone?’

It probably wasn’t until being out of that testing bubble of a month with the 7X and I started simply living with it, that my opinion began to change. I was using it more and more each week.

It probably wasn’t until being out of that testing bubble of a month with the 7X and I started simply living with it, that my opinion began to change. I was using it more and more each week.

It started to become the flashlight I used when trying to quietly hunt out charging cables at night moving around my flat without turning on the main light and getting a telling-off. I didn’t need to be a further nuisance and look for my phone because I already had an exceptionally bright light on my wrist. Then it became the source of light on darker sections of my nighttime running routes or helping me to navigate my way back home from the gym. When I was dabbling in some DIY, it was less awkward to use than a phone to line up fixings.

I began to appreciate that Garmin didn’t just slap on a flashlight because it could. It wanted to show how useful a wrist-based source of light could be. I now also had a flashlight I could set to strobe or match my running cadence to improve visibility. It could also switch from white to red light for a still bright, yet less intrusive way to illuminate what lay ahead and around me.

As Garmin moved to share the flashlight love to other watches in its range, it also continued to evolve its abilities to become smarter. Now when I went out for a run or walk after sunset, the watch would display a prompt to turn on the strobe mode to make sure I was thinking about staying seen as day turned into night. There’s a distress mode that when set up from the Garmin Connect app, can display emergency contact information on screen while flashing an SOS light pattern.

It’s no big surprise that rival watchmakers thought it was a great idea too. Suunto, Coros, Amazfit and Polar now all have torch-toting smartwatches.

Are there any downsides of having a flashlight on a smartwatch? Well, it does mean creating more space on the watch case for it. That’s likely why so far it’s mainly been included on larger more rugged watches like the Suunto Vertical 2, Amazfit Cheetah 2 Pro and the Polar Street X, although Garmin has managed to plant it onto its slimmer Forerunner and Venu series watches.

Another consideration is battery life. Running a flashlight while also using GPS or any other onboard watch sensors will contribute to that battery drain, but unless you’re planning to keep it switched on continuously for hours, I’m not sure the type of battery life drop you’ll experience is going to be anything to be massively worried about.

How could it become even smarter? I think Garmin in particular has shown it can be more ingrained with your current environment or the time of day. Further integrating with safety features is an obvious one. Especially for anyone that goes on solo adventures. Could we get a UV mode or even be one strong enough to start a fire for that added outdoor appeal? As smartwatch makers focus on making brighter watch displays, should the same happen for the built-in flashlight?

When it feels like there’s more of a focus on breaking new health tracking ground or cramming our lives and screens with more metrics , it’s easy to forget about some of the simpler gadgets that makes a smartwatch a useful thing to own. I’d now put the LED flashlight in the bracket of things I hope to see on any new smartwatch. We’ve not seen one on an Apple Watch Ultra model yet, so maybe that’s to come. I’ve definitely seen the light and it’s in the form of a feature I thought had gimmick written all over it. How wrong I was.

When the Fenix 8 finally dropped in 2024, it quickly earned a reputation as the best Garmin GPS watch money can buy, even if that meant parting with a lot of money. I gave it a thorough test on the 11-day trek to Everest Base Camp, and with Garmin’s full suite of training features, a bright AMOLED display, microphone and speaker, plus an LED torch, there was no doubt that it was a big step up from the hugely popular Fenix 7.

Last year, Garmin followed the Garmin Fenix 8 up with the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro, which took the winning formula and added built-in LTE cellular and inReach satellite connectivity for phone-free messaging and SOS alerts. I tested it at the Love Trails running festival this summer, and genuinely started to doubt the rumours that a Fenix 9 could really be imminent. What more could there possibly be to add?

I went along to the Fenix 9 release in Chamonix to find out, and immediately afterwards I strapped the Fenix 9 Pro on and hit the trail. It hasn’t been off my wrist since, and between its refined design, faster processing, plus some very fun new navigation and tracking features, I can say it’s a clear improvement over the Fenix 8.

Built with a titanium case and bezel, the 9 Pro is lighter, more durable and resistant to the elements. Side-by-side with my 8 Pro, it looks nicer and more expensive thanks to a nanomoulding construction process that produces a more streamlined build without the need for screws. This also makes it significantly thinner, in all sizes, and with the arrival of a 43mm case option (which I’m testing), it’s more wearable day-to-day than its predecessor.

The 3,000-nit AMOLED display is brighter, sure (although not as bright as the 8 Pro’s MicroLED option), but it’s more the improved clarity that I find myself appreciating. The green light option that’s been added to the LED torch makes a fantastic difference to my night vision, whether I’m out late on the trail or trying to make a cup of tea in the middle of the night without disturbing my entire household.

Garmin is already the industry leader in maps, and the Fenix 9 Pro map loads faster and adds a new Perspective orientation, which I think is useful when navigating in urban areas, and it’s more useful to be able to see what side streets and road junctions are up ahead.

Rolled out with the Fenix 9 are improved Stamina readings, including new Stamina Zones, which I’ve started using to help me manage my effort and pace when I’m on the trail. Brand new is the Garmin Epic feature, which essentially lets you group workouts such as training blocks, long-distance treks or adventure holidays so you can see their cumulative effect. There are also updates to the Rucking activity mode, so it now reflects the additional energy demands of your pack weight.

Like the Fenix 8 Pro, this watch boasts LTE-M cellular technology, which means I can easily respond to messages and phone calls from my wrist so long as my phone is nearby. There are some improvements to LiveTrack and Location Tracking, which are useful for both urban explorers and long bouts in the wild.

For hikers like myself, inReach satellite connectivity means I can reach emergency response from almost anywhere on the planet, and it does mean I can message friends and family when I’m offline; however, that’s only through the Garmin Messenger app. When I spoke to Garmin’s Global Lead Product Manager Jon Hosler in Chamonix, he admitted that the brand’s functionality here does lag a bit behind competitors like Apple, which have more control over the cellular ecosystem, but he also stressed that the Fenix remains a performance watch first and foremost.

In summary, the Fenix 9 Pro plants a flag firmly at the GPS watch summit as a top-of-the-line option. It’s brighter, faster, ludicrously well-featured, and, unsurprisingly, even pricier. All of that said, this shouldn’t be considered a realistic upgrade for Fenix 8 users, who are already sporting a fantastic timepiece. But compared to anything before the 8, it’s better by a country mile.

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro: specifications

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro: price and availability

• Starts at £949.99 for smallest 43mm
• Prices for Fenix 9 start at £859.99
• Reaches up to £1,209.99

The Fenix 9 Pro starts at $1,099.99 / £949.99 / AU$1,749 for the 43mm case size without inReach connectivity. With inReach, pricing starts at $1,199.99 / £1,029.99 / AU$1,899. The Fenix 9 Pro Solar is the same price, while the regular Fenix 9, which has a fibre-reinforced polymer case instead of titanium, starts at $999.99 / £859.99 / AU$1,599, and that’s for both the 43mm and 47mm.

The largest and most expensive 51mm Fenix 9 Pro with inReach is priced at $1,399.99 / £1,209.99 / AU$2199, and for that you get yourself a considerable increase in battery life with up to 31 days in smartwatch mode / 56 hours in activity mode compared to 10 days / 18 hours in the 43mm watch.

If you’re looking at a model with satellite technology, you’ll also need to factor in the cost of an inReach subscription if you actually want to use it (which starts at £7.99 / $7.99 a month), and all in, it definitely prices a lot of people out.

But the high price shouldn’t come as a surprise for anyone familiar with Garmin Fenix watches, and it’s hard to criticize it on being a high-performing piece of tech made with premium materials. There are plenty of other great options out there right now, including the Fenix 8, which you’re likely to find at a discount now that the Fenix 9 has been unleashed.

• Value score: 4/5

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro: design

• Titanium case and bezel
• Slimmer design
• Brighter AMOLED display

I tend to feel a bit indifferent to changes in materials in my GPS watches, but I have to admit that the titanium case and bezel on the Fenix 9 Pro do make this look and feel like the expensive watch that it is. It’s sleeker and less rugged, down to both the materials and the nanomoulding process, which removes the need for screws.

It’s not totally fair to do a side-by-side comparison with the Fenix 8 Pro here because the latter isn’t available in 43mm, and that accounts for some of the 15g weight difference (equalling an almost 25% increase), but suffice to say that my Fenix 9 Pro is considerably lighter and thinner (to the tune of 16%, according to Garmin), and it has a less sporty aesthetic, which for me is a huge upgrade. If I’m being honest, this is the first Garmin watch I’ve tested that I’m happy wearing all of the time, though I might take it off to go to a wedding.

The AMOLED display is brighter than both my Fenix 8 and 8 Pro models, while the new, more subdued colour scheme is a bit more sophisticated, and it’s all a little sharper whether I’m looking at the stats of a run or using maps to navigate. I’m also amazed at how accurate the touchscreen keyboard is for typing out text messages, even on the smallest display available.

Other than that, everything will feel familiar to existing Fenix users, including the five-button setup, intuitive widget-based layout and responsive touchscreen (that is sometimes a little too responsive, pulling up the weather forecast when I’m in the shower). I’ve finally taken the time to add a bunch of widgets that I use frequently to my quick list, such as my endurance score and recovery estimates, last activity, moon phases and tides, so it’s ready to go before I even leave the house.

You’ll need the enormously comprehensive Garmin Connect app to view your metrics, and the slightly clunkier Garmin Messenger app if you want to use satellite technology for messaging, and if I were to pinpoint a weakness, I’d say it’s a shame that these two aren’t yet integrated into one app.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro: features

• Updated build
• Better maps and LED torch
• New training and adventure tools

First up, maps have been updated, and according to Garmin, they render 40% faster than on the 8 Pro and pan 30% faster when you’re searching for something up ahead. There’s a new perspective view added to the map orientation, which you can enable to better see what’s up ahead.

Also new are Stamina Zones, which use heart rate, pace and speed, and Hosler explains that they can be more useful than Heart Rate Zones for managing your effort. I’ve added them to the data screens in different activity modes, so I can see what zone I’m in and how much of my potential stamina I’m using. It’s more obvious in interval training, where I can see my zones dip and rise, but even on long plods it’s an interesting way to see how much gas I might have left in the tank at a current pace.

After an activity, I can view the top contributors to my Endurance Score (hiking for me), and see estimates of how long I should be able to run at a given pace: apparently over seven hours at my easy pace and nearly 20 minutes at max effort, which I’m yet to put to the test.

Garmin’s commitment to upgrading Rucking mode in recent years signals that this is an activity in ascendancy, and it now calculates better estimates of your energy expenditure rather than just being a way to catalogue different activities. The Fenix 9 allows you to set a calorie goal rather than distance or time, and to edit your pack weight mid-activity, which Hosler explains gives ruckers more accurate readings when they’re hiking uphill with water or rocks that they ditch for the descent. I often hike with a heavy pack, and now my activity report shows the difference between my calories burned through activity and the additional calories from the weight of my pack. This is mildly interesting, and could in theory change my fuelling strategy on a long thru hike.

A very fun – if non-essential – feature rolled out with the Fenix 9 and 9 Pro is called Garmin Epic, which lets you group workouts. When I heard about it in the press conference, I worried it might be similar to the gratuitous Adventure Journal in the Coros Nomad, but after testing it out, I genuinely love it. I gave it a quick test in Chamonix by grouping together all five hikes and trail runs I went on so I could see my cumulative distance, time on the trails and related health stats. But it’s also retrospective, so I’ve been able to make an Epic for last year’s trek to Everest Base Camp and finally see that entire, unforgettable trip as one adventure, from the map of my entire 11-day route to my total elevation gain. I can share my Epic with friends and family, but I can see the demand for Garmin to develop this into a video that users can share on social media.

As for connectivity, I have an active inReach subscription, so I’m able to signal for help from anywhere, but fortunately haven’t had to do so yet. This feature does rely on the Garmin Messenger app, and most of my friends and family are not on there, so this is an area where the Fenix lags behind the Apple Watch Ultra 3. In our conversations, Hosler was clear that he doesn’t consider this watch a true replacement for a satellite device like my Garmin inReach Mini 2, but more of a nice-to-have backup. LiveTrack has improved and now you can send a tracking link directly from your phone, which has good implications for urban runners as well as hikers.

And last but not least, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention everyone’s favourite feature: the upgraded LED torch, which was being heralded by elite trail runners like Katie Schide, Tom Evans and Elsey Davis in Chamonix, who all said this was among their top Garmin features.

The Fenix 9 and 9 Pro have both added a green light option, which is better for night vision, though perhaps not quite as kind to your significant other when you’re looking for your running socks at 5 a.m. It may not be a substitute for a headtorch on a night run, but when your torch runs out of batteries, you’ll be glad you have your Garmin.

Add on to this all the features of the Fenix 8, and I can’t imagine what else you could possibly want from your watch.

• Features score: 5/5

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro: performance

• Reliable sensors
• Lightning-fast maps
• Better night vision

The Garmin Fenix 9 Pro has all the same sensors as its predecessor, and after testing the two out on the same run, I’m confident that the readings were all virtually identical (though Hosler did explain that GPS differences can be down to the two watches being on different wrists and pointing in different directions).

I prefer the smaller case size, but it does mean I’m sacrificing battery life. My battery lost 17% during my first two-hour hike, which was a little shocking, but going forward I’ve been using Max Battery mode for longer sessions, which uses energy-saving measures and means a little less accuracy from GPS.

In the last 10 days, I did four short hikes and runs in Chamonix, two spin sessions, a pool swim, a long trail run, a short treadmill workout and a base run. I ran the battery all the way down, had to charge it once, and now it’s at 61%. In regular use, where I’ll typically have it in activity mode for at least 30 minutes a day, I expect to have to charge it once a week, and for a multi-day trek, I’d expect to be charging it at least every other day. That said, if you compare the 51mm Fenix 9 Pro and 8 Pro side by side, the 9 Pro has a better battery life, so if you’re after endurance, size up.

The display is really easy to see in all light conditions, brilliant sunshine and torrential rain and is really responsive when I lift my wrist, although this naturally declines as the battery runs low.

I put maps to the test straight away in Chamonix, charting a course to a mountainside cafe on the Tour du Mont Blanc, and it all renders so quickly and smoothly I don’t even really have to stop and think about it. Though I didn’t find the perspective view that helpful on the trails, it was great for navigating through the busy streets of Chamonix, which often poses a challenge as my phone doesn’t work well there. On my first test, I tried going off-course to see if the maps would reroute me and it didn’t work, but I’ve since been able to chalk that up to Garmin rolling out the watch to the world at the very same time I was testing it, as when I got back to Scotland, I went out on a 12k trail run and found the rerouting to work perfectly.

he LTE connectivity means I can leave my phone in my backpack, and that is really quite refreshing. I did send my boyfriend a link to track me on my most recent trail run via Garmin Connect, and he was able to do so, if not with a fair amount of apathy. I’ve also sent some test messages to my few Garmin Messenger contacts; it’s easy to type directly on the watch, and the message sends in a flash.

I don’t love wearing a watch to bed, but thanks to the slimmer design, I’ve been able to test out the sleep tracking, and it’s really accurate. My subsequent training Readiness scores and Recovery predictions have been pretty in line in accordance with how I feel.

Also at night, the green light function on the torch has quickly rendered my beloved red light nearly obsolete, making it easier than ever to creep around the house without bumping into things and even read a book in bed without turning my lamp on.

• Performance score: 5/5

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro: should I buy?

Buy it if…

Your adventures take you into the wild

The Fenix 9 Pro has all the field tools for a backcountry adventure, and the technology to help get you out of there if things go wrong.

You’ve been running on a Fenix older than the 8 for years

Even the fabulous Fenix 7 pales in comparison to this one.

You’re a tech junkie with a big budget

All the best tech is on display here at an aspirational price.

Don’t buy it if…

You have the Fenix 8

The Fenix 8 is a cracking watch, and while we admit this is an upgrade, we can’t make a compelling case to switch

You’re saving up for a down payment on a house

This watch comes with some serious sticker shock

Also consider

How I tested

I’ve tested this watch from the French Alps to Scotland, over multiple hikes, trail runs and road runs, with a few indoor workouts on the bike, treadmill and in the pool thrown in. I’ve compared it with the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro and the Suunto Vertical 2 for good measure, and spent hours talking to Garmin experts and poring over the data in the watch and on the Garmin Connect app.

IFA is a great place to find fascinating new gadgets and devices, ranging from next-gen AR glasses to self-driving personal mobility vehicles, and from weird new kitchen appliances to armies of humanoid robots.

We've chosen the top products from those that were nominated for our IFA 2026 'Best in Show' awards to produce this list of our 25 winners, based on how innovative they are, how well they serve their intended use, and the degree to which we think they'll influence their area of the tech market.

There were many more products that we really liked, of course, but we had to be ruthless — here are our top picks from IFA 2026.

Anker Soundcore Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro

The best technology delivers real-world benefits, and what could be more beneficial than a good night's sleep? The Soundcore Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro use in-ear PPG optical sensors to monitor your heartrate, which is more accurate than other optical tracking methods thanks to the rich capillaries and stable position of your ear canal. That monitoring delivers data to the smart-screen, phone-free SleepHub charging case.

The Sleep Earbuds Pro feature passive isolation as well as 30dB active noise cancelling, and the case-based snore monitoring system detects and masks the sound of your partner snoring using its built-in sounds. Despite the addition of multiple new components the housing is thinner than previous generations, and even more comfortable for side sleepers.

Anker's BioSync dynamic audio system monitors relaxation in real time, dynamically adjusting the audio content and structure to help you find the most effective sleep sounds. Sleep earbuds are something that can truly improve your health and happiness by improving your sleep, and these look like a really smart upgrade.

Agibot A3

Agibot is doing some amazing things with humanoid robots, and the full-sized Agibot A3 combines multiple capabilities in a lightweight, extremely dynamic model: if you're assembling a robot dance troupe or planning a big exhibition, the A3's the bot to buy.

The A3 weighs just 55kg, has a power-to-weight ratio of 0.218kW/kg, and delivers up to 12kW of instant peak power, enabling it to somersault. Its battery runs for up to 10 hours and is hot-swappable in seconds, so it's great for applications where it needs to last all day. It'll happily fit in an SUV for travel, too.

In addition to voice and app control, the A3 delivers industry-first touch sensing that adds physical interaction to its controls. It also has a 360-degree multi-array mic system for accurate voice recognition, even in noisy environments.

One of the most exciting features of the A3 is its large-scale swarm co-ordination, which uses precise UWB positioning to enable performances by up to 100 individual robots. That makes it possible to create very complex, high-impact performances for big events, as well as enabling multiple units to work smartly in environments such as factories or warehouses. The awareness and the uptime make this a great new approach to robotics.

Hypershell X Ultra S

The Hypershell X Ultra S exoskeleton helped mountaineer Adriana Brownlee in -30C temperatures on Mount Everest, supported athlete Aurélien Fontenoy's 4,037km Route 66 journey while recovering from injury, and is currently being trialed by search and rescue organizations worldwide.

Before Hypershell, exoskeletons cost $100,000 and above; the same capabilities are now available to consumers for less than $2,000, in a device weighing under 2kg.

The X Ultra S is an end-to-end AI motion-control system that uses an AI model to transform raw sensor data directly into motor torque, enabling faster response, smoother adaptation, and more natural human-machine synchronization.

There are 12 active modes, including walking, cycling and running, and a new Gentle Assist mode for older adults and users with short or shuffling strides. Fitness Mode adds resistance, turning a walk into a workout.

But it's the price that won us over here — this could be a game changer for getting people with limited mobility out and doing more things that they love, from hiking to just visiting the local stores.

JMGO IRIS Ultra Max

The IRIS Ultra Max is one of the world’s first true 4K 120Hz flagship smart projectors, delivering native 4K (rather than pixel-shifted) at 120Hz from input to output, all from its very compact case.

The Ultra Max's dual iris system has 6+9 blades, the highest count in its class, which promises to improve stray light suppression by 11.34% for a more accurate picture, while delivering class-leading contrast, with a quoted ration of 10,000:1. The MALC 6.0 Triple-Laser Engine delivers an impressive 6,500 ISO lumens of brightness, making it more visible in more lighting conditions, and with a promised ability to recreate 110% of the BT.2020 color space, with an astounding color accuracy of delta-E of 0.7, meaning it's truly capable of pro-level color range and accuracy.

The IRIS Ultra Max also introduces an industry-first 3-in-1 Optical System that integrates 0.88–1.7:1 Optical Zoom, Four-Way Lens Shift (V ±130%, H ±53%), and an AI-Powered Gimbal (360° H, 150° V) into a unified projection architecture. This makes it more more flexible than traditional projectors to positioning, because it has so many different options for correcting its picture. It gives small home theater setups top-tier performance without compromise.

DJI Osmo Pocket 4P

Designed for vloggers and movie-makers alike, the Osmo Pocket 4P is the world’s first dual-lens pocket gimbal camera. It delivers cinema-grade imaging in a pocket-friendly form, and features DJI's Academy Award-winning Ronin stabilization.

The main lens is a wide-angle 20mm equivalent with an f/2.0 aperture, and a new 1-inch CMOS sensor that offers 17 stops of dynamic range and over one billion colors via DJI's new 10-bit D-Log 2 color profile.

That's supplemented with a 60mm medium-tele portrait lens, which gives you 3x optical zoom and up to 12x digital zoom. Its f/1.8 aperture is particularly good for creating bokeh effects by compressing the background and pulling it closer to the subject.

The Osmo Pocket 4P also features the latest version of DJI's ActiveTrack, which uses AI algorithms to maintain tracking lock at up to 12x zoom. It can actively track up to eight people, framing groups and centering anyone new who steps into the field of view.

RayNeo GT Max AR Glasses

The RayNeo GT Max AR Glasses are the world's first AR glasses to support Dolby Vision playback as part of creating a virtual cinema experience. They deliver up to 1,200 nits of perceived brightness, a 120Hz refresh rate, and real-time SDR to HDR conversion for super-clear images, too. Their optical system is 29% thinner and lighter than traditional designs, and delivers an industry-leading 59-degree field of view.

One of our favorite features is the adjustable virtual screen sizes, with a choice of 227 inches, 267 inches or 307 inches. That's clever: the tighter size is ideal for spreadsheets and productivity apps if you're using them as a display for a phone or laptop, while the larger sizes deliver immersive gaming and video.

Steady, Pinned and Follow modes enable you to anchor the screen or have it move with you, and 3DoF spatial tracking maintains the screen position without straining your eyes, and keeps subtitles, taskbars and image edges within the viewing area as you move. These look like the most advanced way to take a screen with you everywhere, and they could be indispensable for long flights.

TCL P80 Ultra

If you spend as much time on your phone as we do, you'll be blown away by the screen of the TCL P80 Ultra. It's the first phone to integrate NXTPAPER eye-comfort technology, with a 1.5K sharp AMOLED display for reflection-free reading even in bright sunlight, and a button that instantly turns your P80 Ultra into an e-reader with paper-like viewing.

The P80 Ultra has nano-etched anti-glare glass, eliminating surface reflections without reducing brightness. It also features circular polarized light technology, which changes the light output to more closely replicate the characteristics of natural light, and flicker-free dimming.

The camera's pretty special too. It's a 50MP 3x periscope telephoto lens with a 50MP 1/1.56-inch large-format sensor, capturing more light per pixel than smaller sensors and enabling 6x lossless zoom. Image stabilization eliminates motion blur in photos and video, and TCL's MuseFilm filters promise cinematic-quality images. But it's the groundbreaking display that really won us over — a lot of people will find it much kinder on the eyes.

Lenovo ThinkBook 14x Gen 2

Lenovo's ultra-light laptop makes even ultraportables look positively porky: at just 2.18lbs / 990g and just 12.9mm thick it's one of the lightest and thinnest laptops around, making it ideal for business travelers and students alike — especially if you opt for the backlit keyboard, which is really helpful in dimly lit rooms and airplanes.

Lenovo has somehow managed to give the ThinkBook 14x the super-thin treatment without sacrificing connectivity, so in addition to its Wi-Fi 7 it features two 10Gbps USB-C ports, two 5Gbps USB-A ports and an HDMI 2.1 port, so there's no need to haul a hub around with you. It also has a spare M.2 slot that enables you to expand its storage, which makes this a solid long-term investment.

The ThinkBook 14x Gen 2 is also one of the most customizable ultraportables, powered by Intel Core 7 (Series 3) processors and with display options including vivid OLED and touchscreen LCD. It's good-looking too, with a choice of metallic finishes including Luna Gray, Celestial White, Mystic Violet and Veil Blue.

EarFun Wave Pro X

EarFun's headphones consistently deliver premium performance without the premium price tag, and the Wave Pro X are the brand's best yet. They feature a patented dual-driver system that places a 40mm diamond-like carbon driver and a 10mm liquid crystal polymer driver on a precisely aligned axis, creating a more natural and detailed sound than you typically get from multi-driver designs.

The Wave Pro X feature an 8-mic AI system that continuously optimizes the hybrid ANC system, even in wired AUX mode, and the Qualcomm QCC3095 chipset delivers Bluetooth 6.0, aptX Lossless, LDAC, USB Audio and Auracast. Add AI translation and up to 90 hours of battery life to the mix and you've got a truly excellent pair of headphones — EarFun has been working on these for a long time, and even delayed them in order to get the tuning just right.

Urevo CyberPad 3

The CyberPad 3 is a home/office treadmill that's designed differently to traditional models. Its WalkFree Adaptive Speed Control uses pressure sensors built into the running board, which detect your stepping motion to automatically start and stop operation; when you're walking or running it takes data from the motor to calculate speed adjustments in real time.

Its multi-user support is smart too, capturing raw weight and stride-rate data to generate a structured user profile that's directly linked to the speed-control algorithm.

The support structure is made from Q235 steel with a side frame of die-cast aluminum, and it utilizes a redesigned transmission path to deliver an exceptionally compact construction: the ultra-slim body is under 11cm thick. Despite its small size it features a 15% incline-lift mechanism and a 42cm running belt, with its size based on analysis of human shoulder widths.

Plaud One

Plaud One is a wearable AI companion that combines three key features that are usually separate: wearable conversation capture, context that builds across day-to-day conversations, and AI that can analyze data and take appropriate action. It can capture online meetings, and face-to-face discussions and phone calls, and it has built-in eSIM and 4G LTE for phone-free operation.

What makes Plaud One different is that it understands context. Instead of treating each recording as a standalone transcript, it can retain context across multiple discussions — so a conversation from one meeting can be connected to a later conversation or call.

That understanding enables the Plaud Agent to help you take action, identifying next steps and completing tasks across tools such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion, and Slack.

Minisforum MS-S1 Max-P495

The MS-S1 Max-P495 delivers large-model AI computing from an exceptionally small footprint with a very high specification. It combines AMD Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 with up to 192GB of unified memory to run 128B+ LLMs locally, delivering up to 126 TOPS, and its unified memory architecture eliminates VRAM bottlenecks while also reducing latency.

That power is cooled by a high-performance thermal solution featuring a copper base, six heat pipes, dual fans and phase-change cooling, and it's encased in a fully scalable design, with a slide-out chassis for easy upgrading and a rack-ready form factor.

With 4x PCIe expansion, dual 10Gb Ethernet, dual 40Gbps USB4 v2, Wi-Fi 7, and a built-in 320W PSU, the MS-S1 Max-P495 delivers future-proof power for desktop systems and scalable AI clusters alike — it's a mind-blowing beast made to meet a new kind of research and development need.

XPPen Magic Pro 13

XPPen's Magic Pro 13 is a mobile drawing pad designed for creative pros, featuring an industry-first hardware-level drawing display mode that delivers low latency, native color output and higher bandwidth video transmission over a simple one-cable connection, giving you a paper-like experience with 16K pressure sensitivity and cursor hover support.

It's the first drawing pad in its category to come with dual-USB support, enabling you to benefit from a high-speed data connection while charging your Magic Pro 13.

The Magic Pro 13 features the new Shelf digital asset management system and XPPen's Canvas software, designed to deliver a simple and intuitive sketching experience for capturing ideas when inspiration strikes. And for creatives on the move it offers two thermal management modes, balancing performance and energy efficiency based on different creative scenarios.

Strutt ev1c

Strutt's ev1c reimagines the power chair with three major advancements: Strutt's evSense sensing array, a quad-drive drivetrain, and a modular, connected design.

eVSense uses two LiDARs, 10 time-of-flight sensors, six ultrasonics and two cameras to create 3D maps in real time, powering the Co-Pilot collision avoidance for people, pets, and edges, and the Auto-Pilot, which enables you to select on-screen destinations, or use LLM-powered voice commands such as "Take me to the kitchen" — basically it's a self-driving personal mobility vehicle.

The drivetrain features four-wheel independent suspension, ABS, active steering, and an integrated electronic stability program (ESP), safely managing 13-degree slopes, cobblestones and rough terrain without slippage or tipping. And when it's time to travel, it breaks down into five modules for easy trunk storage. It looks like a genuine move forward for this kind of mobility device.

xTool M2 Color Craft Laser

The xTool M2 is the first desktop machine to combine full-color CMYK printing, laser engraving and laser cutting into one enclosed Class 1 system, delivering a full print-then-cut workflow. Simply print your full-color design onto a piece of wood, leather or acrylic, and the xTool M2 Color Craft Laser cuts or engraves the exact contour with camera-guided precision. And there's a built-in air-assist pump, an industry first for a semiconductor laser, that keeps cut edges clean by reducing carbonization and yellowing.

Having these three capabilities in a single device is a huge power-up: instead of having to print on one machine and engrave or cut on another, you can turn your raw idea into a finished, professional-looking product in a single operation. It's ideal for stickers, labels, signage, personalized gifts, and small-batch products — you could start a whole business with this one device. And because it's an enclosed system, it's also very safe.

Perlegear AX1 Smart Adaptive Mount

The Perlegear AX1 Smart Adaptive Mount answers an interesting question: what if your TV mount was as smart as your TV? The AX1 is an AI-powered, motorized TV mount that can automatically adjust the height of your TV to different viewing positions, so for example you might have it low for solo TV watching, but raised for watching sports with friends, or for following an on-screen fitness app or motion-based game.

The AX1 is controllable via gesture commands, its mobile app, via remote control, or via Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri. It can distinguish between single- and multi-person viewing, with the latter calculating the best screen height for the group, and it's capable of moving a 200-pound / 90kg TV up to 15.7 inches / 400mm vertically, with real-time obstacle detection that stops and reverses the move if the path is blocked.

Speediance Gym Monster 3

The brilliantly named Gym Monster 3 delivers serious strength training for home workouts, combining the experience of a Smith machine, barbell, dumbbells, cable machine, rowing machine, pulley system, and squat rack into one streamlined setup with up to 200lbs / 90kg of intelligent digital resistance.

Twin 800W direct-drive motors deliver smooth, consistent resistance through every rep, and it's adjustable in one-pound / 0.45kg increments, so you can progress at your own pace, rather than make big jumps you might not be ready for.

The Gym Monster 3 is controlled via a clever Bluetooth Ring Control that enables you to make adjustments without stepping away or breaking your flow, and it features four dedicated training modes: Standard, Chain, Eccentric, and Fixed Speed. It also features a built-in AI coach that can guide you from your first session onwards.

Midea GreenApex Dishwasher

The humble dishwasher hasn't changed much since Josephine Cochrane's 1886 invention went electric in the late 1920s and gained spray arms in the 1950s. But the Midea GreenApex is very different from traditional grease-busters. It's a dual heat-pump system that uses a single coordinated heat pump platform to deliver washing, rapid drying, and dry storage in a single appliance.

The GreenApex is 50% more energy efficient than conventional dishwashers, delivers 30-minute rapid drying and 168 hours of dry storage without continued system operation, and offers gentle heat-pump drying at around 45°C, so you don't need to worry about high temperatures damaging more delicate items. It feels like a major leap forward for an appliance type that doesn't often have the phrase 'cutting-edge' associated with it.

Reolink OMVI 2i Ultra

The Reolink OMVI 2i Ultra Security Camera features an innovative, decoupled dual-lens tracking system in which the individual lenses operate fully independently of one another. Unlike in other dual-lens or hybrid zoom security cameras, the two lenses here are not mechanically linked, so the fixed 130-degree 4K wide-angle lens never moves, while the telephoto camera is free to rotate anywhere, including to cover areas outside the field of view of the main lens.

This means that when the 4K camera's on-device AI spots a person, vehicle or animal, it triggers the pan-tilt camera to lock onto and follow that subject even after they exit the wide camera's field of view — but you don't lose any recording from the wide camera's view during that time.

You can also use the wide-angle view to redirect the pan-tilt camera to a particular location by simply tapping that point in the live camera view, or have the wide camera and the pan-tilt camera monitoring two distinct locations, such as your driveway and a side gate.

Navimow H510 Pro

The Navimow H510 Pro features four key innovations: precise edge finishing, zero-turn steering, adaptive mowing intelligence, and 3D modelling.

Rather than edging with a trimmer line, which can be noisy and cause minor damage, the H510 Pro has an extendable robot arm that performs zero-gap edging quietly and safely — it's the most interesting and smart version of this technology that we've seen.

The all-wheel-drive system protects your turf too, with a zero-steering system that avoids dragging the wheels across the grass during lateral turns. And the Adaptive Mowing Intelligence feature analyzes grass growth patterns to determine the optimal mowing frequency, using the 1/3 cutting rule to preserve lawn health.

With 3D terrain modeling rather than the industry-standard 2D, and a sensor array including infrared as well as LiDAR and vision for low-light reliability, and triple-sensor avoidance to protect wildlife, the H510 is a smart solution for even the most challenging lawns.

DJI Romo 2 Series

The Romo 2 Series is a robot vacuum that won't be defeated by obstacles such as deep rugs, sliding door tracks and other barriers. That's because it has robotic legs that can step over obstacles as high as 4cm, and double-step thresholds up to an impressive 8.5cm.

It also features a built-in LiDAR-guided ultra-wide-swing robotic arm to extend the mop's reach, and its powerful suction system features an automatically lowering plate that forms a semi-seal on carpet for better extraction of dust and allergens.

The Romo 2 Series also benefits from the tech of DJI's flagship drones, with a Structured Light-Speckle projector and dual fish-eye vision sensors for full 3D depth perception. It can detect items such as cables and training pads as thin as 2mm, and its AI can distinguish between debris and liquid, as well as deal with transparent obstacles such as glass doors and mirrors.

Acer Vero 16

With so many laptops sacrificing easy maintenance and repairability for super-skinny styling, the Acer Vero 16 is a breath of fresh air. While it doesn't skimp on style or power — it's highly portable, delivers up to 180 platform TOPS with an Intel Core Ultra X9 processor 388H, and can be configured with a stunning 16-inch 3K OLED display — it's made with longevity in mind.

A tool-free latch provides easy access to the Vero's innards, and the battery and SSD are replaceable, while the system is designed to support the next two generations of processors if you want to upgrade. Fully 70% of the chassis consists of a blend of PCR (post-consumer recycled) and bio-based oyster shell material, and it meets US military standards for toughness. This is a laptop that's built to last, in a way that's rare to see — and very welcome.

Asus ProArt GR1X

The Asus ProArt GR1X is tiny, measuring just 150 x 150 x 51mm. But there's nothing small about its specification. Designed for advanced content creation and local AI workflows, it delivers data center-class compute inside a mini PC, removing the need to run LLMs remotely while eliminating cloud latency, cost, and IP protection concerns for pro creators.

The ProArt GR1X features the groundbreaking Nvidia RTX Spark 'superchip', which means you get a 20-core Grace CPU and a 6,144-core Blackwell GPU, delivering up to one petaflop of FP4 AI inference performance. With up to 128GB of LPDDR5X unified memory at 9,400MHz, it enables you to run up to 120B-parameter LLMs locally, and render entire 3D scenes on-device in Windows 11.

That kind of power demands highly efficient cooling, and Asus has developed an advanced precision-cooling system that delivers 1.6x more efficient thermal coverage than standard compact systems. Asus also solved the challenge of metal-enclosure signal attenuation by embedding the Wi-Fi 7 antennas behind a glass-like signal-transparent material. It's quite the design coup, and an impressive showcase for Nvidia's new elite chip.

EcoFlow STREAM 5000 / STREAM AC 5000

The EcoFlow Stream series is a plug-and-play modular system for residential solar energy generation and storage that's designed to be renter- and apartment-friendly. It can add battery storage and smart power-management to existing solar PV installations, as well as being employed to create a new home system from scratch.

The Stream Series features EcoFlow's Oasis 3.0 home energy management system, which understands dynamic energy tariffs, keeps an eye on the weather forecast, and continuously analyzes your home energy needs to optimize generation, storage and consumption.

That means you can give the EcoBot AI agent instructions such as "I need my car charged by 7am tomorrow at the lowest possible cost" and it will implement the necessary steps, or have your energy schedules reconfigured automatically when you have visitors or other instances of increased demand.

From October the EcoFlow Stream series will also get a new feature: Local Mode, which gives you uninterrupted operation and local app control even if there are cloud or connectivity outages. It's a very powerful (no pun intended) system that's been designed with the real world in mind.

Tapo D260

The Tapo D260 wired/wireless security camera is a video doorbell that delivers all the benefits of high-spec security without the potential downsides: it stores facial recognition data locally to protect privacy, and no features are locked behind a subscription. It's advanced, yet totally cost-free once you buy it.

It has 4K resolution, a wide 180-degree field of view to cover the entire doorway, and delivers sharp detail in subjects up to 30 feet away.

The D260 features multiple intelligent detection and recognition features, including radar as well as the obligatory infrared motion sensor. These enable it to discount false alerts from things such as moving branches or passing headlights, while on-device AI can recognize people, packages, vehicles, and animals.

If you wish, you can opt in to build a library of family and friends using facial recognition, and there's even a voice changer to disguise your voice when speaking to unfamiliar callers. In a world where people are sick of subscriptions, this offers a great security upgrade without the monthly fee.