Worst & weirdest at CES 2025 — Robotic owls, phone toasters, & unnecessary AI

After a week of high-profile releases, CES 2025 is over and there was some awful stuff on display. Here's the worst and weirdest products at the show.

There is a lot of amazing tech at CES. This year, I was particularly surprised to see that not only were there a lot of new products, but most of what I saw was imminently shipping.

That's a huge departure from year's past where most products were purely vaporware. You can see my existing roundups of gear for Apple users and for the .

It's not all positive though. Amongst the glitz and glamor are a number of products that are straddling the line between weird — and terrible.

Here's what I found, though there's certainly plenty more out there there.

Stringless guitar

Picking up the LiberLive C1 feeling like holding a futuristic version of a Guitar Hero gaming controller. I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing.

I just can't get behind these guitars. They look cringy to me. Image Credit: LiberLive

With rudimentary guitar training under my belt, I'm by no means proficient in the instrument but a stringless guitar seems soulless to me. It also required unlearning much of what I knew on actually playing.

I got to see a professional playing with the LiberLive guitar and it was unimpressive to say the least. Whether it was the performer feeling a little nervous in a unique environment or the awkwardness of the guitar itself.

There are situations where I may see this guitar making sense. Someone who doesn't play guitar but wants to could theoretically pick this up and get going.

Image Credit: LiberLive

But with a $500+ price tag, that's a big ask and definitely pigeonholes one into sticking with this guitar versus the ability to buy any design or brand of guitar in the future.

I know there are people that love these, but I don't think it's going to be my cup of tea.

AI-powered washing machine

Samsung has been adding AI capabilities to its machines for years but its latest Bespoke AI Laundry Combo may have taken things too far.

Apparently, the AI is capable of adjusting the washing cycle based on fabric. I have lots of questions though such as "how truly useful that is..!"

A washer probably doesn't need a full-on AI model. Image credit: Samsung

I can't imagine that AI is going to adjust the wash cycle so much more efficiently that I need to pay that high of a premium compared to the basic settings that have been on washing machines for ages.

Even with existing smart washing machines, like I have in my home now that offer app connectivity and alerts on my TV — which is useful — the custom settings are basically useless because there really aren't that many things to change.

Behind the continued unnecessary pushing of AI, this washing machine also can take phone calls. No. I just don't need my washing machine to handoff my phone calls while I do my laundry.

Phone charging toaster

Swippitt is pitching a new device where you place your phone inside of what looks like an oversized toaster it will give you a whole fresh new battery in just a few seconds.

Don't put a Swippitt in your home. Image credit: Swippitt

If the pitch sounds too good to be true, that's because it absolutely is. What this giant appliance actually does is mechanically replace the battery in their proprietary battery case.

It's basically all the convenience of a Mophie Juice Pack with added cost, counter space, and unnecessary app control. The holder houses multiple batteries so you can place your phone inside to get a fresh one while the ones in the holder are all charged up.

Maybe it's just me, but I fail to see the utility of this. The mechanical switching is yet another point that could fail in the product. It seems far easier to get everyone in the house their own MagSafe battery and call it a day.

This battery changing toaster is $500. Image credit: Swippitt

We've seen docking stations for multiple battery packs, like the one from RAVPower, but the Swippitt complicates this while adding cost at the same time.

The added convenience is minor and certainly doesn't compensate for the litany of downsides. The only potential use case I can see for a product like this is in a commercial environment.

Maybe there an employee is on the floor using an iPhone as a mobile POS or inventory device and instead of having to attach a magnetic battery, they can walk to the back and instantly have it swapped out and everything stays concealed and managed. Perhaps, it would make sense then.

But don't put this in your home.

Solar charging jacket

Anker makes some of the best charging products we've reviewed from whole-home backup to portable battery stations to MagSafe battery packs. Their latest concept product is a bit head scratching though.

It's a jacket, not bejeweled in spectacular 90's fashion, but instead emblazoned with a massive array of solar panels. It looks neither fashionable nor comfortable.

The Anker Solix solar jacket seems like a solution without a problem. There are better options out there. Image credit: Anker

That's not necessarily the point though, I presume. It's to provide helpful power while you're off-grid.

That utility though, seems minimal. The solar panels all can't be facing the sun at the same time and, even wearing something like a backpack would almost certainly block a good chunk of the panels, too.

In reality, I think a solar hat or blanket would make more sense and would be much more practical. Or, just use a few carabiners and clip a solar panel to the back of your backpack as you walk.

I'm just not ready for a massive solar panel-covered coat. Maybe in the future when the cells are small and flexible enough that it looks and works basically as a regular coat I'll get on board.

Furry purse robots

I guess the one thing you can't argue with is that the Mirumi robot is quite cute. So it has that going for it!

Otherwise, I have to file it at least under peculiar. It gives me vibes very reminiscent of the infamous finger-nibbling cat that was shown at CES for a few years in a row (turns out I was right as it's the same company that developed both.)

It's cute! But why?! Image credit: Yukai Engineering

This little robot that looks like a bit of a mix of a sloth and an owl clings to the side of your tote or purse. It's intended to be a little shy and will turn its head to bury its face if approached by a stranger.

It has distance sensors in it so as people pass by, it will lock on and "watch" them. Then of course gets shy if they come up to it.

The company plans to open preorders in February for $70.

Smart glasses

Don't call me a pessimist here, but I just can't get on board with the smart glasses yet. I do think that these have the potential to be the future, like the rumored Apple ones, but right now, they just aren't practical.

Halliday glasses aren't useful enough yet. Image credit: Halliday

I tried probably a dozen different smart glasses concepts at CES 2025 and none of them were close to feeling like something I'd buy or use.

Many of them have similar problems of having to be an indoor or outdoor application. Transition lenses still aren't fast enough yet to not look odd and regular glasses never look natural with dark lenses and vice versa.

That means you're stuck using them indoors for work or outdoor for things like navigation, responding to messages, or audio playback. Let alone how much bulk they still add — few look natural.

We're just not quite to the point of making them a mass market product.

There were a couple standouts and they did catch my eye because they frankly didn't *try* to do too much. Very simple tasks very well.

Even Realities G1B glasses look as normal as you get. Image credit: Even Realities

The Even Realities G1 look like normal glasses through and through. They have super thin titanium frames that look like anything you'd find at your local glasses shop.

For the tech, they have a tiny in-screen display that shows your typical, high-contrast, low-res, bight green text. It's projected just above your eye so you can glance up to see it.

Your phone does all the processing so it really is just a small low-res display hidden in some normal-looking glasses that I wouldn't mind wearing. I got to demo real-time translation and navigation — both of which worked well for those tasks.

Chamelo also got me excited. They are glasses that can change their tint level or color.

While these can be useful for just typical sunglasses or for filtering light inside, there are tons of applications here. Imagine ski goggles that can adjust or ones designed for fishing to help block the water but can go clear when you need them.

They also just looked good.

Again, I do think that smart glasses are growing in popularity but based on all the ones I saw at CES, we're still a few years away from anything being practical or affordable enough to be useable on a daily basis.

Most everything now is a gimmick, impractical, expensive, ugly, or just awkward. We'll have to see how they evolve before I'm ready to start using some with any regularity.