A few things happened in September, and by “a few” I mean a metric ton. We had Apple’s annual fall hardware dump, which included several new iPhone 17s, a few new Apple Watches, AirPods Pro 3, and the iPhone Air. That was followed up by Connect, Meta’s annual dev conference, where it unveiled the future for smart glasses, and again, involved several new gadgets, including a first-of-its-kind pair of smart glasses with a screen in them. Oh, and who can forget the flood of gadgets from IFA 2025 in Berlin?
As a nice digestif, we even had Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit, which gave us a preview of the future of computing from the inside. The wild part is, all of those conferences and events don’t even cover all the gadgets we liked in September, so we made this list to make sure you got all of last month’s wild releases down.
Apple might not be the first of the big phone providers to go super-thin in a flagship phone (that distinction belongs to Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge), but this is still the first hyper-thin iPhone, and that’s a big deal. My colleague, Gizmodo’s Senior Editor of Consumer Tech, Raymond Wong, called it a “magic slab of glass,” and while I haven’t had a chance to use the phone in-depth myself, I did get to at least hold it, and I see the appeal.
It’s as thin and light as promised, and the fact that Apple managed to cram all of the compute power in the top portion of the phone and still deliver a serviceable battery life really is a feat of engineering. You don’t need an iPhone that’s this thin and light, but once you have one in you’re hand, you’re going to be tempted to buy one, even if the camera is barebones.
After trying Insta360’s new action camera out, we’re going to have to add swordplay to our list of usual tests. In case you missed it, Gizmodo Staff Writer Kyle Barr, tried out the Insta360 Go Ultra and, yes, it survived a blow from a sword, which is good news for anyone who’s bringing action cameras to a renaissance fair or to a reenactment of the movie Hook.
It’s not just durability; the Insta360 Go Ultra can record in 4K at 60 fps and comes with a magnetic mount that allows you to fix the camera in a lot of places, including square in the middle of your chest if you’re wearing a shirt while filming, which you probably should be. If you’re looking for a high-res, portable action camera that can survive sword attacks, this is worth a look.
After several long years, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 got a real number update, and it was worth the wait. While the AirPods Pro 3 retain the same $250 starting price as the last generation, they get a few key upgrades, including better active noise cancellation, a redesigned fit, more ear tip sizes, and perhaps most importantly, two brand new capabilities: heart rate tracking and live translation.
Apple seems to be embarking on a new identity for its AirPods with health features in particular, and if you’re at all interested in keeping tabs on your biometrics, but don’t feel the need to strap an Apple Watch on your wrist, the AirPods Pro 3 could be the perfect gateway. AirPods Pro 3 are proof that you don’t need a generation update every single year—you just need one that feels worth the anticipation.
Would you buy a mouse that doesn’t click? Sounds like a trick question, but in the case of Logitech’s G Pro X2 Superstrike, that question is kind of literal. This mouse uses haptics to simulate clicking, which sounds like a gimmick, but is actually useful if you’re a competitive gamer. According to Logitech, the architecture of its G Pro X2 Superstrike mouse (Haptic Inductive Trigger System, for anyone interested) offers 30 milliseconds lower latency than a mouse with an optical switch, which uses a beam of infrared light to determine when you press the button.
Are you fast enough to even take advantage of technology like this? Probably not, but the fact that you could is impressive, and using haptics in a mouse instead of real-life clicks is objectively interesting if nothing else.
Sure, the iPhone Air may have stolen the show, but the base iPhone 17 and the 17 Pro/17 Pro Max versions also had a lot to like. We called the iPhone 17 base the “best iPhone value in years” thanks to its 120Hz always-on display, its great battery life, and its excellent performance, while the 17 Pros also held it down with the longest battery, the best performance, the best cameras, and a new “Cosmic Orange” model. Sure, the scratching didn’t help the fanfare, but you’re probably going to slap a case on these things anyway. If you’re in need of an iPhone upgrade, now may be the time.
What do I say about the Meta Ray-Ban Display? I’ve delved deeper and deeper into the burgeoning world of smart glasses over the last year, and Meta’s Ray-Ban Display (the company’s first pair of smart glasses with a screen in them) feels like the pair I’ve been waiting for.
They come with navigation abilities, message notifications, translation, a POV camera feature, and Instagram integration for watching Reels—and that’s on top of doing all the stuff that previous non-display smart glasses have done.
Sure, privacy problems abound, and they’re not quite a phone replacement yet, but based on my hands-on with them at Meta’s annual Connect conference, the Meta Ray-Ban Display are an exciting start and might just be the first pair of smart glasses you want to buy. Trust me, Meta’s Neural Band (a wristband that lets you control the smart glasses’ screen with your fingers) is just as magical as it sounds.
Wired security cameras might be a pain to set up, but they’re also superior in the fact that they have a higher likelihood of staying powered up—no battery and no climbing ladders to charge them when they die. The Reolink Elite Floodlight WiFi security camera is no different and delivers fairly high-res 4K footage and doesn’t require a subscription. It’s got a huge 180-degree FOV, too. You will have to buy a microSD card to store your footage—there’s no cloud storage here—but the simplicity will likely appeal to some.
If the iPhone 17 is the best-value iPhone in years, the Apple Watch SE 3 may take the title for the smartwatch side of things. For $250, you get the proverbial “greatest hits” from the Apple Watch feature set, including an always-on display, an S10 chip, and even Apple’s “double-tap” gesture. There’s also 32 hours of battery life, which may not be enough for people who need the most out of an Apple Watch (that’s what the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is for), but should be plenty for most.
We would have liked to see some new colors here, but still, a good value is hard to beat, and that’s a note that the Apple Watch SE 3 hits perfectly in tune.
