My Favorite New Hardware of 2025 ⭐

2025 was an incredible year for PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, Android devices, and other hardware. Even the venerable Commodore 64 made the list.
? Best of the best: HP OmniBook 5 16
In 2024, Copilot+ PCs based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chipset set my world on fire, turning Windows 11 on Arm into the obvious path forward for Windows and the PC. There is so much that goes into that, but the key, to me, is reliability. Intel- and AMD-based PCs are interesting for all kinds of reasons, but x86 is dead architecture walking at this point. I returned to this theme repeatedly in 2025 because it’s so important. Reliability matters and I love when it just works.

Qualcomm built out its Snapdragon X family of chips with X Plus and X Plus 8-core variants in late 2024, and then it introduced the entry-level Snapdragon X in January 2025, lowering prices further and giving PC makers a platform they could use to transform the critical $500 to $800 space. PC makers responded, but a May announcement by HP about a coming line of Snapdragon X-based OmniBook 5 laptops had me particularly interested. PC makers regularly send out high-end configurations to reviewers like me. But I wanted to see what the entry-level Snapdragon X could accomplish.

Just about anything, as it turns out. I bought one with my own money and fell in love. As I wrote in HP OmniBook 5 16 Review: It’s a Snapdragon Miracle, the OmniBook 5 is nearly perfect, and superior to x86 laptops that cost two, three, or even four times as much. The performance is consistently excellent, as is its reliability and efficiency. You get almost 10 hours of battery life, Windows Hello ESS security, and all the goodness that comes with every Copilot+ PC.

Since then, I upgraded my OmniBook 5’s SSD to a 1 TB unit, which went flawlessly. What I haven’t written is that I can’t stop using it. I planned to leave the OmniBook 5 behind in Mexico when we came back to the U.S. in mid-November, so I would have an excellent Snapdragon-based laptop in both homes. (My Surface Laptop 7 is here in PA.) But I couldn’t bear to be apart from it, so I flew home with the OmniBook 5. And I still can’t stop using it. I love this laptop. I’m using it to write these words, in fact.
❤️ Feel-good hardware story of the year
I’m struggling to not buy one for myself because the pull is strong, but I love that a YouTuber and Commodore enthusiast hatched a plan to bring back Commodore, somehow orchestrated the acquisition, brought back a ton of ex-Commodore luminaries to help him out, and launched a new line of Commodore 64 computers, and then started shipping the first units to customers in time for the holidays.

This is the feel-good tech hardware story of the year, and a nice reminder that not everything has to suck in this age of Big Tech enshittification and political nonsense. Every time I think about it, I just start smiling. And thinking, maybe next year we’ll get a new Amiga too. Fingers crossed.
?️ Little tech...