5 smartest tech reviews of the week: mind-blowing AR glasses and Samsung’s AI-powered vacuum

As affordable smart glasses go, the RayNeo Air 3s are almost certainly the best we’ve ever tested. Both the color and contrast of their dual micro-OLED screen are generally vibrant and bold, even if they can appear a bit washed out when you’re in a brighter setting. Meanwhile, the glasses’ quad-speaker setup produces decent, rounded sound that won’t immediately have you reaching for your headphones.

Yes, some of the best smart glasses out there offer better performance than the RayNeo. But few of them manage to do so for a price that could actually be considered good value for money. There aren’t many smart glasses offering this kind of performance at an MSRP as low as $269, meaning these may be your best shot so far at experiencing smart glasses the way they should be experienced.

The Samsung Bespoke AI Jet Ultra is an impressive, albeit eye-wateringly expensive stick vacuum. Its suction is impressive, acing most of our cleaning tests, and it’s also a dream to use, thanks to its maneuverable design and hassle-free auto-empty dock. Even with its high price, it happily rivals most of the best cordless vacuums in terms of performance and build.

Where it proves less effective, however, is those much-vaunted AI features. While it detects the difference between linoleum and carpet, it doesn’t always spot subtler shifts in flooring type or the edges of rooms – although it does seem to dial up the suction for higher quantities of dirt. All in all, it’s a great vacuum – we’re just not sure it’s quite as smart as promised.

For anyone that wants to know who’s knocking at their door or keep an eye on their deliveries, a video doorbell is well worth the spend. But the Blink Video Doorbell and Sync Module 2 makes this calculation even easier, thanks to a combined $69.99 / £59 price for both the doorbell and the sync module that adds 256GB of local storage.

That bargain price alone likely qualifies it for a spot on the list of the best video doorbells. But it sweetens the deal with its extra flexibility: thanks to its use of removable lithium batteries, you can easily juice it up without having to remove the whole unit or wire it into your mains supply. That offers a whole lot of versatility for such an affordable gadget.

The Potensic Atom 2 is a sub-250g drone that offers an impressive feature set. Not only can it capture normal and HDR video at up to 4K and up to 30 frames per second, but it’s also able to shoot slow-motion and timelapse footage. You can also operate the camera using manual or automatic control, while AI Quickshots and AI Track make filming a specific subject a breeze.

But the big benefit of this non-DJI drone is its super-competitive price. Coming in at scarcely more than the entry-level DJI Mini 4K, it offers enough power and features to beat many of the best beginner drones, all while costing not much more. If you want an alternative to DJI, this may well be the drone for you.

The Onxy Boox Palma 2 has a form factor that’s pretty much unique as far as e-readers go – as long as you set aside quite how similar it is to its predecessor. With a 2:1 aspect ratio and a 6-inch screen, it slips into a pocket as comfortably as a smartphone, and comes with built-in speakers, a microphone and rear camera. Just in terms of sheer novelty, it deserves to be counted among the best e-readers.

However, this sequel hasn’t evolved all that much since its predecessor. While it has an upgraded processor, we didn’t notice a huge bump in terms of performance and the build of the device is largely the same as before, albeit with a new fingerprint scanner in the power button. On screen though, its user interface has been streamlined, giving everything a cleaner, more contemporary look, upping that style appeal even further.