Welcome to my literal version of airplane writing as I compose this intro from high above the US, on my way back from trying on not one, not two, but three different pairs of Meta smart glasses. The most exciting of the trio is, no doubt, the Meta Ray-Ban Display – as the name suggests, there’s a head-up display embedded in the screen. These and more were announced at Meta Connect 2025.
But you know what my favorite part of the whole event was? I got to use the just-released iPhone 17 Pro Max to capture the whole thing (and I’m wearing the new AirPods Pro 3 to kill all this plane noise). You’ll find our full reviews of that phone, and the also new and unfeasibly thin iPhone Air, linked below.
What also loomed large at Meta Connect was AI. Meta AI is the backbone of all these new wearables, and it seems miles ahead of Apple’s iPhone offering in the form of Apple Intelligence; but everyone is playing catch-up with OpenAI, whose ChatGPT is now so embedded in our lives that the company commissioned a major study to find out how people are using it.
Some of these new devices and products may be so good that they’re worthy of a TechRadar Choice award, and it won't just be the TechRadar team doing the judging. We want to know what you think of this year’s crop of technology, and you can find out how to vote for your favorite phones, laptops, smartwatches, smart home tech and more below.
As for me, I’ve been to California twice in two weeks, and I think I’ve earned myself a rest and a good rewatch of James Gunn’s Superman on HBO Max, which features in this week’s list of streaming recommendations.
See you when I’m back on the ground.
Lance Ulanoff, Editor at Large
