The 5 Most Innovative Tech Products That Surprised Us This Year (including A First For Robot Vacs)

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Welcome to ZDNET's "Breakthrough" Awards for 2025, our latest contented that celebrates nan astir innovative and forward-thinking technologies to transverse our editors' desks this year.

Over nan past 12 months, we've spent countless hours challenging nan inferior of foldable phones that dominated nan mobile conversation, lived full activity weeks done nan lens of caller smart glasses and VR headsets, and benchmarked much robots than ever, from ones that tin ideate and propulsion context done nan lenses of our phones, to ones that tin sweep, vacuum, mop, and execute each chore successful between.

Also: The 40 champion products we tested successful 2025: Editors' picks for phones, TVs, AI, and more

Amidst this relentless activity of maturing -- yet, perpetually innovating -- merchandise categories, identifying a existent 'Breakthrough' has ne'er been harder. These awards don't conscionable spell to nan fastest chipset aliases nan astir premium design; they spell to nan products that fundamentally changed nan conversation, group a caller barroom for innovation, and showed america a glimpse of nan exertion that will specify nan remainder of nan decade.

In nary peculiar order, present are nan recipients of nan ZDNET Breakthrough Award for 2025.

1. Huawei Mate XT Ultimate: The first tri-foldable of many

Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET

While Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Z TriFold continues to predominate nan headlines astatine nan extremity of nan year, it was a competing tri-foldable telephone that near nan biggest footprint successful 2025. The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate launched globally backmost successful February and saw contiguous fanfare. We witnessed nan hype successful personification astatine Mobile World Congress successful Barcelona, arsenic hundreds of journalists, analysts, and tech enthusiasts flooded nan Huawei booth to get a consciousness of nan Chinese tech giant's shape-shifting handset.

Also: I tested Huawei's $3,600 tri-foldable telephone - now I'm wondering why Samsung hasn't made this yet

Unlike accepted foldable phones that tin only crook astatine nan center, nan Huawei Mate XT Ultimate features 2 inward-folding hinges, converting a azygous 6.4-inch surface into a larger, tablet-like 10.2-inch display. The consequence is simply a existent multimedia depletion instrumentality that tin fresh into pants pockets, backpack sleeves, and more. 

While nan deficiency of Google services was a notable caveat of nan Huawei foldable, we recovered its wide functionality and different uncompromising characteristic group admirable.

ZDNET's Prakhar Khanna put it best: "The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate sets a caller benchmark for tri-fold phones, showing they're nary longer conscionable experimental -- but a bold measurement toward nan early of mobile computing."

2. Roborock Saros Z70: Literally a helping hand

Maria Diaz/ZDNET

Robot vacuums continue to play an basal domiciled successful thousands of households, but is location room to grow beyond vacuuming and mopping? Roborock put its money connected "literally moving obstructions" successful 2025 pinch nan Saros Z70 model, and it near a lasting belief connected ZDNET's smart location expert, Maria Diaz.

Also: This viral Roborock pinch a robot limb is 25% disconnected connected Amazon - truthful it's yet bargain clip for me

The Saros Z70 featured an OmniGrip mechanical limb tin of detecting and picking up lightweight objects, specified arsenic socks, tissues, and sandals, truthful agelong arsenic they weighed nether 300 grams. From our tests, nan motorized characteristic was successful astir of nan time, though nan automation required clip and practice. 

Thanks to a built-in camera, users tin besides remote-control nan Saros Z70 from their phones, driving nan vacuum while operating nan mechanical limb for illustration a claw machine.

"The Saros Z70 is nan adjacent level successful robot vacuum technology, and it's pioneering nan thought of a functional, multipurpose family robot that you tin genuinely trust on," said Diaz, and that's why it's earned a spot connected ZDNET's database of Breakthroughs this year.

3. Samsung Micro RGB TV: A color-perfect future

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

Several TV manufacturers launched their first micro-scale RGB LED TVs successful 2025, marking a important advancement successful LCD backlighting and colour accuracy. The basal exertion is exceptionally mini RGB LEDs -- pinch Samsung's loop measuring astatine little than 100 micrometers each -- that let nan TV to screen nan afloat spectrum of nan BT.2020 colour standard. 

Also: The adjacent large TV sheet leap was conscionable unveiled by Samsung - and it makes LED look outdated

We saw Samsung's 115-inch Micro RGB TV successful person, and nan precocious level of colour precision, contrast, and brightness made moreover OLED sets ray successful comparison. Notably, nan Samsung Micro RGB does not utilize nan brand's ain self-emissive MicroLED display; instead, nan latest TV employs individual backlights (LCD) to show color. Although confusing, our takeaway from seeing nan TV successful personification was that nan implementation is good worthy it.

Ultimately, nan Samsung Micro RGB TV is simply a beautiful paradox. It is some a glorious last section for nan property of nan backlit LCD and a brilliant, confusing prelude to nan era of existent mini LED. Expect to spot much title successful nan abstraction successful nan years ahead.

4. Meta Ray-Ban Display: The adjacent frontier of smart glasses

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

Riding connected nan fame of Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses, Meta went for a homer this twelvemonth erstwhile it launched nan Ray-Ban Display astatine Connect. While nan smart glasses retained basal features for illustration hands-free photograph and video capturing, they besides introduced a waveguide, full-color show that projected contextual accusation -- realizing nan existent multimodal capabilities of AI wearables.

Also: I tried nan Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, and they sewage maine excited for nan post-smartphone era

Through a companion accessory, an EMG neural wristband, users could navigate nan floating interfaces pinch various manus gestures. Our squad was capable to study and familiarize itself pinch nan controls wrong minutes of testing. From past on, nan Ray-Ban Display became a conveyance for ambient information, ranging from unrecorded captions during conversations to Meta AI responses and incoming notifications.

The Meta Ray-Ban Display's bundle value remains a constituent of strength, trading for $799. Within nan first weeks of release, nan latest smart glasses saw preservation demos pushed backmost by months. The mobility now is really competitors for illustration Google, Samsung, and perchance moreover Apple will respond successful 2026.

5. Antigravity A1: A drone that ne'er misses a shot

Cesar Cadenas/ZDNET

Antigravity, a sub-brand of celebrated camera shaper Insta360, launched this summer, and its first merchandise group nan barroom high. ZDNET's Cesar Cadenas tested nan A1 drone successful Los Angeles and recovered its 360-degree video signaling to beryllium a game-changer for contented creation. Effectively, you tin ne'er miss a changeable pinch nan A1's 8K sensor, and its 249-gram weight falls conscionable nether nan US government's 250-gram limit for recreational drone-flying.

Also: I replaced my recreation video cogwheel pinch this 360-degree drone wrong minutes of testing it

The Antigravity A1 useful successful tandem pinch a Grip Controller and Vision Goggles, nan second of which provides nan personification pinch a first-person position of nan drone's sensors arsenic they drift done nan sky. Thanks to nan goggles' micro-OLED displays and commendably low-latency video streaming, Cadenas was near impressed pinch nan afloat formation experience.

"Yes, it's costly [at $1,599], but I'd still urge nan A1 to anyone willing successful drones. Its easiness of usage makes it awesome for newcomers, and creators will beryllium impressed by nan video quality," said Cadenas.