Technologies

Apple AirPods Pro 2 Review: The Best Lightweight Earbuds You Can Buy

With better sound, active noise canceling and battery life than their predecessor, the AirPods Pro 2 deliver exceptionally good performance for their size.

Dec 2022

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 ($249, 249, AU$399) are better than the original AirPods Pro. After all, this second-gen version took nearly three years to develop, so you figure Apple could probably pull something together that might give you a reason to upgrade from the first-gen AirPods Pro or buy them over other great premium earbuds from Sony, Bose and other big headphone brands.

The good news is Apple has done just that. And while putting an exact percentage on how much AirPods Pro 2 have improved over their predecessors isn’t so easy (that’s something I’ll try to do in this review), suffice to say they’ve improved enough to earn a CNET Editors’ Choice award, particularly now that they’re being discounted at several online retailers with prices dipping to as low as $200 during flash sales.

Read more: Best Wireless Earbuds for 2022

9.0

Apple AirPods Pro 2

$249 at Apple

$229 at Amazon

$230 at Best Buy

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Like

Significantly improved sound and noise canceling
Powered by Apple’s new H2 chip
Better battery life (6 hours)
Upgraded microphones
Charging case has U1 chip and built-in speaker for Find My
New swipe volume controls
Adaptive transparency mode
Spatial Audio
Extra-small ear tips are now included

Don’t Like

Basically the same design as previous model
No high-resolution audio
No XL ear tips

Product details

Battery Life Rated up to 6 hours
Noise Canceling Yes (ANC)
Multipoint No
Headphone Type Wireless earbuds
Water-Resistant Yes (IPX4 — splash-proof)

Apple AirPods Pro 2 design: Small changes

Let’s start with the external design. This is one of those situations where Apple hasn’t really done anything to change the size and shape of the buds or significantly alter their physical appearance. The original AirPods Pro were compact and lightweight and fit a lot of people’s ears really well, so I can’t fault that decision.

Some people were hoping for shorter stems and perhaps some new color options or even better water resistance — yes, they’re still IPX4 splash-proof. But I figured Apple would stick with its tried-and-true design and focus on making improvements to the areas that had the most room for improvement, such as sound quality, noise-canceling performance and battery life, which is now up to six hours from about four-and-a-half hours with noise canceling on and an extra four charges in the charging case (30 hours total). Those numbers go up to seven hours and 35 hours total with the noise canceling off. A quick five-minute charge gives you about an hour’s worth of battery life.

There are some small but noteworthy changes to the design, particularly to the microphones placement. On the original AirPods Pro, the skin-detection sensor and noise-canceling microphone were combined on the inside of the bud. Now, they’re separated with the skin-detection sensor in the same spot, but the noise-canceling microphone has been moved to the top of the bud where it’s exposed to the outside world and better at picking up and processing ambient sound. The microphone configuration is similar to what you see on the AirPods 3, but the skin-detection sensor is smaller, and Apple says it’s improved that sensor so it more accurately turns on and off playback and is more energy efficient.

I should also mention that Apple now includes a fourth set of extra small ear tips, which should help those of you with really small ear canals who had trouble getting a secure fit with the originals.

But this isn’t like the AirPods 3, where Apple made big changes to the earbuds’ external design. As far as I can tell, these fit my ears the same as the originals. I personally would like Apple to include a new extra-large ear tip, but I do get a relatively good seal with the largest size that’s included. (I am able to pass the seal test in the Ear Tip Fit test that’s part of the AirPods Pro’s Ear Tip companion app, but I do have to sometimes adjust how the buds sit in my ears to pass the test.) I could probably do just a little better with an XL tip, and I sometimes use third-party foam tips to get a more secure fit. They have a little more grip, and that helps keep the buds very securely in my ears, particularly when I’m running with them.

Upgraded Apple AirPods Pro 2 wireless charging case

The new MagSafe-enabled wireless charging case is the same size but now has a built-in speaker and Apple’s U1 chip, which allows it to play sounds for use with Apple’s precision Find My feature (the case essentially has an Apple AirTag built into it). Previously, the buds could play a sound through their drivers, but often they were in the case, so you couldn’t hear that sound. Now, you can use Find My to locate the case or the left or right earbuds separately should one or all of them go missing (the buds use Bluetooth Low Energy or BLE for tracking). The case also now has a spot for attaching a lanyard, but sadly, Apple doesn’t include a lanyard with the buds.

It’s worth noting that you can’t charge the original AirPods Pro in the AirPods Pro 2’s cases and vice versa. If you try that, you’ll get a «mismatched AirPods» notification on your phone.

While Apple has retained the pinch controls on the stems, which I preferred to the touch controls on the original AirPods, it’s now added swipe controls on the stem for adjusting the volume. You can still ask Siri to raise and lower volume — these do have hands-free Siri — but a lot of people will appreciate the new swipe controls.

That’s really it as far as external design changes go and most of them are tied into some feature or performance enhancement.

New Apple AirPods Pro 2 drivers and internal components

As I said in my initial first look video, the real changes are on the inside, where everything is basically new. The AirPods Pro 2 are powered by Apple’s new H2 chip, which delivers more processing power while being more energy efficient. To get better sound, Apple has combined that chip with a new amplifier and new low-distortion drivers along with new digital processing algorithms. The H2, new microphones and algorithms are also what drive the improved adaptive active noise canceling that Apple says is twice as powerful as its predecessor’s noise canceling. And finally, there’s a new Adaptive Transparency Mode that allows you to hear the world around you in a natural, lifelike manner while reducing loud noises that might normally shock your ears. It’s a great transparency mode and you can turn the adaptive part off if you want.

Apple AirPods Pro 2 sound evaluation

You can definitely hear the improvements to both the noise canceling and sound. As for sound, you get better clarity, more bass punch with better definition, and just more all-around depth and dynamic sound. The sound just has a little more girth and dimensionality. I compared a few tracks I always use during testing, like Spoon’s Knock Knock Knock, and you can really notice a difference in the bass performance. The earbuds use Adaptive EQ, which uses an inward-facing microphone to monitor the sound going into your ears, and the H2 chip, which optimizes the audio that you’re listening to on the fly (there are no manual EQ settings). The chip’s increased computational power helps it process and optimize a wider range of frequencies, particularly the highs.

One of the more impressive things about the buds is how loud they play. For me, I found they played plenty loud at about 65% to 70% volume. I compared them to the new Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2. The AirPods Pro 2 sound excellent, but there’s something about the tonal balance of the Bose that I liked a little better at times — there’s a bit more warmth and naturalness to it — and the bass has a bit more oomph. But I had to push the volume up to about 85% to hear some of the finer details and to get the extra bass kick on the Bose. With the AirPods Pro 2 you hear more detail and get good bass even at more moderate volumes.

Some people were hoping that the new AirPods Pro would be able to stream Apple Lossless tracks over wireless. They currently can’t do that, which will certainly disappoint some people. Whether they’ll be able to do that in the future and possibly get other new feature upgrades is anybody’s guess. But for now, they use Bluetooth 5.3 and support the AAC LC3 audio codec, which offers 16-bit 48 kilohertz bit rates compared with the 16-bit 24 kilohertz bit rates of AAC. Not high-resolution audio, but a little bump up.

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro support 24-bit high-resolution audio. The catch is to get that 24-bit audio you need a Galaxy device equipped with Samsung’s One UI 4.0 and a music streaming service like Qobuz, Tidal or Amazon Music that streams high-res audio tracks. On all other devices, including Android phones and iPhones, those buds default to the AAC audio codec.

Apple AirPods Pro 2 noise canceling testing

The active noise canceling is impacted by how tight a seal you get from the ear tips. If you lose that tight seal, some ambient sound may leak in and you may hit the rare ANC hiccup as the AI shifts gears for a fraction of second to make adjustments (this is a phenomenon with all adaptive noise-canceling earbuds). But it was easy to sense that the noise canceling was reducing more cabin noise during a cross-country flight I took and also muffled more sound when I rode the subway in New York. The buds also have just enough venting to avoid that oppressive occluded feeling you sometimes get with ANC buds.

The noise canceling didn’t feel twice as strong to me as I switched between the AirPods Pro 2 and the original AirPods Pro, but by double the noise canceling power what Apple means is that noise canceling is improved across all frequencies and probably more so with high- and mid-range frequencies that are harder to muffle than lower frequencies. So you’re likely to hear more improvement with the muffling of people’s voices, for example.

Ultimately, the noise canceling is one of the best out there right now and just a slight step behind what I experienced with Bose’s new QuietComfort Earbuds 2, which arguably have the best noise canceling at this moment. But I’ll say it again, the noise-canceling experience can and will vary with the fit of the earbuds, so hopefully, you get a good fit.

If you happen to own an Apple Watch, you can fire up the Noise app — or complication, as Apple calls it — to get a readout of the exact decibel levels the AirPods Pro 2 are reducing with their noise canceling (you just need to have a Watch running WatchOS 9). It’d be nice if you could just see that same dB level check on your iPhone.

Apple AirPods Pro 2 Spatial Audio

I’m not going to talk too much about Apple’s Spatial Audio virtual surround mode, but it’s here and fun to play around with — it’s a nice bonus feature, and Apple seems to do it best compared with other buds that have their own virtual surround or spatial mode with head-tracking (for example, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro use 360 Audio). I prefer using Spatial Audio with movies, but I also tried it with various music tracks, particularly those that Apple designates as Made For Spatial Audio. It doesn’t necessarily make music sound better, but it does make it sound different, and it’s interesting to try it out with tracks you know well and want to hear in a different way.

iOS 16 brings Personalized Spatial audio to any AirPods that support Spatial Audio. Similar to what you do when setting up Face ID, the personalized experience comes from taking pictures of your ears, and the biggest benefit is the more accurate placement of dialogue directly in front of you when you’re watching a movie. That placement doesn’t move even if you turn your head if you have head-tracking turned on (you can also use Spatial Audio in «fixed» setting).

Apple AirPods Pro 2 voice-calling performance

The original AirPods Pro were mostly excellent for making voice calls and these are even slightly better. As I said, the microphones have been upgraded, and there are two beamforming microphones for calls — one on the outside of the bud and one at the bottom of the stem, both of which have some mesh covering them to help reduce wind noise. When you’re using the buds to make a FaceTime call over Wi-Fi instead of a call over a cellular voice network where the audio gets compressed, people may be able to notice a bigger difference in the clarity of your voice compared with what they would hear with the original AirPods Pro. (You can listen to a test call on the Verizon cellular network in my companion video review, at the top of this page.)

The one thing I noticed when comparing the AirPods Pro 2’s voice calling with that of the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 is that when you’re having a conversation, the AirPods Pro 2 let more background noise in, but your voice sounds clearer to callers. When you’re not talking, the Bose earbuds completely silence the background noise — it only bleeds in a bit when you start talking. The AirPods Pro 2 don’t try to silence the background noise; they just reduce it to lower levels. There’s something quite impressive about the Bose almost completely silencing the background noise, but the overall experience for callers (the people you’re talking to) seems to be better with the AirPods Pro 2, because your voice does sound clearer and they can hear you well over the reduced background noise.

I made calls with noise canceling on as well calls with the adaptive transparency on. People you’re talking with can’t hear a difference, but there will be a big difference on your end, particularly if you’re in a noisy environment, where you’ll want to turn the noise canceling on (there’s just enough sidetone to hear your voice in the buds with noise canceling on). In less noisy environments, it’s better to turn transparency on because you can hear your voice as it sounds and you won’t talk too loud. And the transparency does make you feel as if you’re not wearing headphones, though you may still feel them in your ears.

You can use one bud independently — with noise canceling on if you want — and leave the other in the case to charge. It doesn’t matter which one you use when making calls; with the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds it appears that you can only use the right bud for calls if you want to use only a single bud.

Apple AirPods Pro 2 buried features

I’ve spent most of this review focusing on the AirPods Pro 2’s top-level features and the things that people care about most, such as sound quality, noise-canceling and voice-calling performance. But the AirPods Pro do have a number of extra features and settings buried within iOS 16 under the Accessibility setting that allow you to tweak the buds, play masking sounds and even create a custom audiogram. And for those who have slight to moderate hearing loss, there’s a Conversation Boost that turn the buds into hearing amplifiers.

These features aren’t unique to the AirPods Pro 2 — they’re available for all the latest AirPods. But they’re worth exploring, and I suspect we’ll see more features added in the future. For instance, there was some chatter about new health features coming to the AirPods Pro 2. Those haven’t materialized, but you never know what could get added. For example, Spatial Audio didn’t come to the AirPods Pro until well after their initial release, and Apple never even hinted at when it originally launched the headphones.

Another nice little bonus: In addition to charging via Lightning, MagSafe or standard Qi wireless pads, the AirPods Pro 2 can even be juiced up with an Apple Watch magnetic charger.

Apple AirPods Pro 2 compared to other top earbuds

As I said at the beginning, it’s hard to put an exact number on just how much better the new AirPods Pro 2 are than their predecessor. But I’m going to go with somewhere around 40%.

The fact is that when the AirPods Pro came out almost three years ago, it was really their compact size, comfortable fit and Apple-only features like auto switching between all the devices on your iCloud account that were their big selling points. That’s all here still, but now the sound and noise canceling, which were good but not great before, are what you’d expect from a $249 set of buds.

Audio quality is subjective, and some people may slightly prefer the sonic traits of buds like the Bose I mentioned earlier or the Sony WF-1000XM4 or Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3, all of which have equalizer options in their companion apps. But others may actually prefer the AirPods Pro 2’s sound; it really does stack up well against what you get with other premium earbuds in this price range.

Final take on Apple AirPods Pro 2

While the AirPods Pro 2 will pair with Android devices, you do lose a lot of their special features, including Spatial Audio, so Android users are better off with buds like Google’s very good Pixel Buds Pro, Samsung’s excellent Galaxy Buds 2 Pro or the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 that I mentioned earlier. And you may find that other buds like the Bose or even Apple’s own Beats Fit Pro, which don’t sound quite as good or offer as good noise canceling or voice calling performance, may fit your ears more securely, which is an important factor when buying wireless earbuds.

I’m among those who wish Apple had made the AirPods Pro 2 look a little different than the originals. (I really do want them to come in more color options.) But if you’re an Apple user, they’re hard to beat so long as they fit your ears. While they may not quite be perfect, they feel like a much more fully evolved, refined product that packs not only an impressive set of features but top-notch performance in a very small design.

Editors’ note: This review was originally published on Sept. 22, 2022 and updated in December to reaffirm our continued positive experience with the headphones and add an Editors’ Choice designation.

Technologies

If You Miss MTV and Dunkaroos, This Indie Game Is for You

Mixtape is an upcoming game about being a teenager when «everything meant the end of the world or the start of the world.»

At a record store in northern Los Angeles, I walked past racks of albums, a DJ spinning records and a stack of Dunkaroos, a cookies and icing snack that was all the rage in ’90s America. It felt like stepping back into an earlier era, the same one backdropping the upcoming game Mixtape, a story about a group of self-mythologizing teens hanging out before life pulls them away from their suburban American town.

In an amusing twist of fate, the main brain behind the game is an Australian rocker who didn’t step foot in the US until his 30s. Johnny Galvatron (a stage name and lead singer of the band The Galvatrons), creative director at studio Beethoven & Dinosaur, dreamed up Mixtape based on a blend of American youth culture that was broadcast worldwide, along with his own upbringing loving music of the period and playing in bands.

In a recording room behind the record store, I chatted with Galvatron about why a man from the Antipodes would tackle American youth, nostalgia through the lens of music and analog audio tech, the earnest wrongness of being a teenager and why the US is like Middle-earth.

I also got to play a short slice of Mixtape ahead of the conversation, a demo I originally saw at Summer Game Fest last year (but with a couple extra scenes exclusive to this event). It opened up with the game’s older teen heroine, Stacy Rockford, skateboarding down a winding road with her friends, lazily pulling kickflips and calling out oncoming cars in the golden hour before twilight, a fitting start for a game about the last days before adulthood knocks.

From what I saw, there’s a bit of overlap with other nostalgia-laden narrative games about teens growing up, such as studio Don’t Nod’s Life is Strange series or last year’s Lost Records: Bloom and Rage. But Mixtape avoids the plotty drama of those games in favor of lionizing the humble wonder of teens killing time. And it does it in style, with kinetic editing and needle drops that immerse players in the MTV-drenched lives of kids whose rebellious days are numbered. It’s tonally different, reflecting Galvatron’s memories of being an earnest teen, liking music and tossing out strong opinions.

«There’s a lot of stories about teenagers where they’re portrayed as very shy and not confident. And that’s not really my experience of being a teenager,» Galvatron said. «I was very confident and wrong about things and about how I felt about music.»

Galvatron’s earnest teenagehood was in Australia, but setting the game there might have been too close to home. Plus, his favorite music and culture came from America. Despite not coming to the US until he was 32, he’s watched America every single day of his life, he said. Seeing it in person is like coming to a theme park, or a fantasy land: «To people who live in Western cultures, America is Middle-earth,» Galvatron said.

The game is split into chapters, each patterned after a carefully-chosen song. They all come together in the titular mixtape, the swan song of a cherished friend group, one last rock-out to tunes that speak to the moment. It was those songs that drove the creation of the emotional sequencing of Mixtape, Galvatron told me. Whereas most games start development by creating a «vertical slice» that represents the core loop of the game, Beethoven & Dinosaur made «a real shitty version of the whole game» and swapped around the songs to see what different stories the configurations told.

«We would play with that soundtrack until it seemed to have this cinematic flow to it, like a really lovely narrative that chained these songs together,» Galvatron said. «Once we had that right, we could put the story and the characters in.»

Picking the songs was a delicate process to find the right tone (and to ensure variety, as Galvatron joked he kept wanting more Devo songs, which the team vetoed and limited him to one). There’s a pivotal moment in the game where the main character Rockford is betrayed by her friend, and despite digging up the saddest songs they could think of, none worked. So they flipped the emotions to the other extreme, trying tunes evoking over-the-top happiness like Stuck In The Middle With You, and went with songs from the artist BJ Miller from the 1960s, «and that seemed to make it just all the more devastating,» Galvatron said.

I saw parts of 4-5 song chapters out of what Galvatron told me will be a total of 26 or 27. But each felt like a sublime snippet (in Pixar parlance, a core memory) that the player gets to control, from an embellished shopping cart escape from the cops to a flailing first kiss of awkward tongues to rocking out in the car on the way to a party. It sounds mundane, but these delightful moments hearken to a time in everyone’s lives when the people and the songs around you elevated the simple into the unforgettable.

«We don’t have skill trees, we don’t have (gameplay) loops. We have moments where mechanics, music, dialogue, narrative all meet and hit these crescendos,» Galvatron said, and emphasized the importance of their brevity. «Get in, deliver the mechanic, make it beautiful, make it a great experience. Don’t overstay your welcome.»

It’s undeniable that Mixtape reaches back into the past to evoke a feeling of place and time, specifically this moment in the American 90s where music was blasting from cassette tapes and CDs. There’s a warmth to this equipment, Galvatron noted, and to the music it produces. Moreover, the tactility lends itself very well to touching, spinning and clicking motions on game controllers, giving players a real feel for the music they’re playing on screen.

Yet when I asked how he felt the game fit amid our current era of nostalgia — which media like Stranger Things have built IP empires upon with period-appropriate references, fashion and songs — Galvatron asserts that the game has a different aim than prompting viewers to remember specific songs, CD players and Tamagotchis. «What I want people to remember is when you defined yourself by the singles you liked, by art, and I think that’s something naive and sweet,» he said.

If the rest of the game meets the bar set by the demo I saw, players will be pretty awestruck by the polished, electric delivery of moments from scene to scene. Mixtape feels intentionally designed, likely meticulously storyboarded, to land moments with camera angles and timing that make you feel along for the ride.

Beethoven & Dinosaur’s strengths are leaning into the grandness of cinematics and music, Galvatron said. «That’s how I remember being a teenager,» he said, «[it’s] something theatrical and fast, and everything meant the end of the world or the start of the world.»

Technologies

These MWC Phones and Gadgets Wowed Me, but Where Are They Now?

From AI hardware to wearable phones, these products promised a lot. So what happened to them?

Mobile World Congress sees the biggest and best tech companies, the world over, gather in Barcelona to show off their latest, greatest products. MWC 2026 runs March 2 to 5 and we expect to see several major phone launches, some wild concepts and a lot of tapas. But what about products we saw in prior years?

From Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S phones to incredible hardware from Xiaomi, we’ve seen some amazing devices in the years CNET has been attending the show. But we’ve also seen a lot of unusual products that have promised more than they’ve delivered.

From concept devices that are quickly forgotten to new gadgets that boast revolutionary functions, these are the MWC tech launches that arrived with a fanfare… but aren’t necessarily where you’d expect them to be today.

Humane AI pin

AI might still be the biggest buzzword in tech, thanks to every phone company cramming their devices with all kinds of bizarre AI functions. But at MWC 2024, one company wanted to take that further. The Humane AI pin was a wearable badge that you could talk to and ask questions about your schedule, the weather or things like sports results. It could read answers out and even project them onto your hand with a laser. Because everyone loves lasers.

Sounds fun, right? And the company’s rhetoric around how AI-based devices like this will replace phones sounded compelling. However, the product, well, sucked (just ask CNET’s Scott Stein, who spent extended time with it) and the company was eventually swallowed by HP, with the Pin itself ceasing to function in February last year. If you were one of the early adopters, do let us know what you’ve done with that $699(!) paperweight now.

Motorola Rizr

MWC is a great place to show off concepts that will excite technology nerds like us. Motorola has a good history of this at the show and the Rizr is one of my favorites. This phone didn’t just have a flexible display like we’ve seen on many of today’s foldable phones, its display could actually mechanically unroll at the push of a button, extending the top of the screen to give a more immersive display for watching videos or playing games.

It was amazing to see in person and it was certainly a different idea on how to use flexible displays. But that’s all it was; an idea. Motorola hasn’t deployed the Rizr’s mechanical unfurling into any of its products, with its upcoming Razr Fold launch being just a standard book-style foldable. The reason is obvious: The technology is likely expensive and probably fragile too. Three years on and Motorola hasn’t said a thing about this cool concept, but I’ll still keep my fingers crossed for this year.

Xiaomi SU7 EV

Xiaomi might be better known for its superb camera phones, but the Chinese firm has fingers in many pies, including scooters, vacuums, air fryers and, er, water pistols. It was no surprise then that during MWC 2024, the company showed off its first EV, the Xiaomi SU7. With sleek, sporty looks and a promised range of over 470 miles, I was excited.

I was excited again when the company showed off an even more performance-focused model at last year’s show, which had already delivered some blistering track times on the infamous Nürburgring. But I’ve yet to get behind the wheel. While Xiaomi is already producing and selling cars in its native China, the company has no plans to launch in the UK or wider Europe until at least 2027 and they almost certainly won’t sell in the US at all.

As a result, I feel like I’ve been teased somewhat with the promise of this slick, powerful EV that would have sat perfectly on my driveway. In reality, I still have a big wait ahead of me, if the SU7 European launch happens at all. Sales of the SU7 in China have surpassed those of the Tesla Model 3, according to a report by Car News China. Meanwhile, the same story shows that the SU7 Ultra’s sales have declined dramatically due to a number of controversies and lawsuits around the car and Xiaomi’s rollout.

Samsung Galaxy Ring

Samsung’s Galaxy Ring made for an interesting MWC in 2024. Here was a new type of wearable that promised advanced health and fitness tracking, while blending into your daily life by sitting unobtrusively on your finger. And that’s what it does, with CNET giving it a healthy 8.5 out of 10 in our full review.

But that was in 2024, and a full two years later, I’m left wondering what’s happening with the wonderful world of smart jewelry. Samsung has made no official comment around a follow-up, through rumors suggest we may see one in late 2026 or 2027. Smart ring manufacturer Oura, meanwhile, has filed a public lawsuit against Samsung and other smart ring companies claiming patent infringement. This is likely one of the reasons we’ll have to wait for a Galaxy Ring 2. While other smart rings do exist — like the Oura Ring 4 — it’s not a category that flourished after Samsung launched its ring.

There’s no Google Pixel Ring, no Apple iRing and not even an LED-infused Nothing Ring (1). Most other smart rings are made by smaller companies, such as Pebble’s recently announced $75 recyclable ring. Smart rings may have a place on our hands for a while yet, but Samsung’s lengthy delay in launching a follow-up might suggest that it’s not exactly a priority product.

Motorola wrist phone

I said that the aforementioned Moto Rizr was «one of» my favorite MWC concepts.That’s because the company’s flexible wrist phone from 2024 absolutely takes my top spot. This candybar-style Android phone had a fully flexible body that let you to wrap the whole thing around your wrist and wear it like something resembling Leela from Futurama’s wrist-mounted doodad.

I found it extremely intriguing. Here was a phone that doesn’t bulge out your skinny jeans when it’s in your pocket, but that’s also just a glance away like a smartwatch. And compared to the precision engineering required for the Rizr, the wrist phone’s technology seemed relatively achievable. After all, we already have flexible displays and this didn’t even require any specialized tiny motors — you just whack it onto your wrist like a ’90s slap bracelet.

But, like the Rizr, the wrist-mounted phone remained just a flight of fancy I experienced oh so briefly for a few days in Spain. And like any holiday romance, perhaps it’s best for me to simply remember it for what it was and not spend my days pining for what could have been.

With MWC 2026 just a few days away I’m excited to see new and wild products show their face, and I’m curious to see which of them will have staying power.