Tech-tober is in the books, and boy, howdy, was it a busy one! With Google and OnePlus launching their latest and greatest phones to an assortment of amazing new ANC earbuds to wonderful wearables and beyond, we’ve been up to our eyeballs in reviews, sharing the best and worst of these products with you. The beginning of this month and theGoogle Pixel 8launch may seem like a lifetime ago right now, so in case you’ve missed a review or three, let’s take a look back at the best of this bumper crop of glorious gadgets.
1Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro
October has been launch month for the latest Pixel flagship for years now, and while the Pixel 8 series is notwithout its faultsorannual launch bug, the Pixel 8 Pro’s camera and editing upgrades and seven years of coming system updates make it thebest Android phoneyou can buy today. The decision for theGoogle Pixel 8 Proto finally abandon its slippery curved screen and go with a flat front makes the phone much easier to hold and use comfortably. (It also makes finding agood screen protectormuch easier.)
The matte glass back also adds grip and style, answering the prayers of the Pixel faithful. Alongside the slightly more rounded corners of the phone, it makes the Pixel 8 Pro a phone that looks identical on the surface but feels like a perfect upgrade in the hand. It’s an utter shame that the normal Pixel 8 is still stuck with the shiny backplate, but those extra-rounded corners allow the Pixel 8 to be used more comfortably one-handed for those with smaller hands (like me).
The biggest claim to fame for Pixels remains the amazing photos that come out of them, and the Pixel 8 Pro is no exception, with Phones Editor Will Sattelberg:
The Pixel 8 Pro’s camera system is as good as I’ve ever seen from Google, with nearly every shot looking great on the first try. It’s not without some quirks, but all three sensors — and the main lens in particular — are producing better images than ever before.
With the Pro now costing $1,000, Google has to well and truly prove itself as a steady, stable flagship you may count on day in and day out. While we still have minor thermal concerns for the Tensor G3 powering the Pixel 8 series — and its Samsung modem still can’t quite compete with Qualcomm’s secret sauce — the Pixel 8 Pro has performed almost perfectly over the last few weeks, and we’re hopeful that can continue from now clear into 2030.
Google Pixel 8 Pro
TheGoogle Pixel 8misses out on most of the new editing and camera upgrades that the Pro got — we’re stuck with the old ultrawide camera and miss out on the telephoto entirely. However, for the vast majority of people, the $700 Pixel 8 is a supremely suitable smartphone that would satisfy most folks, having the same power from the Tensor G3 chipset and Pixel features like Hold for Me and the Pixel Recorder app without being a full $1,000.
Google Pixel 8
2OnePlus Open
Given the delays and confusion around OnePlus’s folding phone before it finally arrived this month, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this phone was going to flop. Every first-gen foldable has been riddled with issues — just look at the Pixel Fold — but with OnePlus able to draw on Oppo’s past mistakes with the Find N series, theOnePlus Openmanaged to hit the ground running and stun us all.
Thinner, lighter, and with a gapless hinge, the OnePlus Open handily beats the hardware on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, and the inner screen is the least reflective of any foldable we’ve seen yet. This may not sound like a big deal, but a screen with a lot of glare often ends up shining a light upon the creases, blemishes, or uneven spots in a folding screen, and it also makes the phone easier to use outdoors. Its one downside is a camera bump that puts the Nokia 1020 to shame — and how it contributes to the phone’s slipperiness by not letting it rest flat and stable on tables.
Oxygen OS certainly has its issues, but despite them, the OnePlus Open has some software aspects absolutely nailed, such as multitasking with one app on each side and a third app floating over the two. You can also have three full-height apps in a carousel and swipe between them, even letting some apps have a wider layout than others. Given that the main premise and promise of fold-style phones is productivity, what the Open accomplishes fulfills a dream many of us have had since the first Galaxy Z Fold back in 2019.
Even if OnePlus won’t sell half the folding phones Samsung does because this phone isn’t being sold by carriers, this should give Samsung the kick in the pants it needs to start getting competitive in this space again. After all, when manufacturers compete and innovate, it’s we tech buyers who win.
OnePlus Open
3Fairphone 5
TheFairphone 5made some waves back in August when it was announced at IFA in Berlin, but it quickly got swallowed up in the fall frenzy of new phones and gadgetry. The Fairphone series has mostly seen and felt like a neat concept but not a phone that most people would actually want to buy and use for years upon years. The Fairphone 5 banishes that notion in short order with upgraded specs and some smart design choices.
While Google turned heads with seven years of updates for the Pixel 8, the Fairphone 5 will be supported for eight years, possibly even ten years. The Android software Fairphone uses is pretty vanilla — well, close to Pixel, but without all the Pixel feature drops — but there’s no needless duplicate apps like you’d find on a Samsung or OnePlus. The default home screen is quite lackluster, but that’s whatthird-party launchersare for. (I recommend Niagara for a super-fast setup and easy app scrolling.)
The cameras here are a bit lacking, but the 90Hz OLED screen is a nice step up from previous years, and it has even bezels on all sides, something not even the Pixel 8 has been able to manage. Despite the uncertainty surrounding Fairphone’s future, this is by far the most repairable and socially responsible phone available.
Well, available in Europe, anyway; Fairphone hasn’t shared any plans to make this available in the United States.
Fairphone 5
4Motorola Razr
The Motorola Razr+ might have stolen hearts and minds this summer with a bigger front screen and better cover screen app implementation, but the “regular"Motorola Razris quite worthy of attention, too. Starting at $700, this clamshell finally brings us an actual, genuine affordable foldable. Yes, the smaller cover screen isn’t as useful, and the memory management kills apps a bit too often, but this phone nails the spirit of a flip-style folding phone and feels like a breath of fresh air amid a sea of glass-backed phones.
The vegan leather finish to the back of the Razr may seem like a small deal, but the added grip of this material takes it from a fashion choice to a functional one. Not only will this phone better stay put in your hand, it’ll stay securely in your pocket and on that slightly sloped glass table on your friend’s patio. I am the queen of cases, but if ever there was a phone you didn’t actually need a case to protect, it’d be this one. And with 30W wired charging, this will also recharge faster than the Z Flip 5.
Motorola Razr (2023)
5Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC
Anker’s Soundcore brand has turned out some super comfy earbuds in the past, be they ultra-affordable or as premium as they come. TheAnker Soundcore Liberty 4 NCfeatures almost all the same features as the Liberty 4 in a slightly more compact case with better battery life, better colors, and a lower price.
The noise canceling here might not be Sony or Bose-level, but they do well with lower-frequency noises, and the Soundcore app remains one of the best companion apps for earbuds around: easy to navigate and easy to get the equalizer exactly the way you want. And that equalizer is important because the Liberty NC 4 can be a bit heavy-handed with the bass. You’ll also want to keep an eye on your volume, as these buds can crank it up to 11. (Tinnitus sucks, kids, and it never really goes away.)
Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC
6Jabra Elite 10
On the topic of comfy earbuds, the new king of comfort among premium wireless earbuds, the Jabra Elite 10, pack some impressive punch considering how light and unobtrusive they feel. Unlike the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds we reviewed back in September, the Elite 10 have a wonderfully textured soft-touch finish that make them easy to grip when taking them out of the case or repositioning them in your ears, and they come with silicone tips so that you’re not having to fight the doomed war of earwax vs foam.
For $250, the sound quality could be a bit more impressive, but they sound perfectly adequate, and the same goes for the ANC which helps block out noise and makes your music the only sound in the world. James Holland found the Jabra Elite 10 to be very much like the Beats Fit Pro, which will be fine once these buds get discounted down to that $150-$200 price range during the upcomingBlack Friday audio deals.
Jabra Elite 10
7Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones
Bose released its successor to the Bose Noise Canceling 700 from 2019 in October, and the BoseQuietComfort Ultraearn that impressive $430 price tag with best-in-class audio, downright addictive automatic controls, and a new take on spatial audio that doesn’t fall into the sourcing pitfalls or gimmicky hype that most others do. And, of course, nothing quite beats the ANC here.
From crowded airports and theme parks to a toddler stomping around upstairs and the landscaping crew that showed up too early again, almost all noises were blocked out easily, and Bose’s Immersive Audio filled the void left behind to help it feel less like I’m listening to the headphone tweeters next to my skull and more like I’m listening to audio in an actual room.
The controls here are a bit unique, as you won’t be turning these headphones manually off after every use like you would toggle off that slider on the QuietComfort 45 or new Bose QuietComfort. Instead, when you take the QuieetComfort Ultra off your head and set them down, they’ll enter sleep mode. If you pick them back up within 24 hours, they’ll wake right back up and resume your music playback, and if you don’t, they switch completely off.
This had a few downsides, as it sometimes led to audio being piped to the seemingly sleeping headphones instead of a TV or tablet’s speakers, but being able to just slip my headphone on without pressing any buttons and get right back into a jam session felt good. The capacitive volume slider also made these headphones impressively easy for me to control my listening levels.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones
8Anker Soundcore Motion X600
Among a sea of smart speakers and ultra-portablefeature-stuffed portable Bluetooth speakers, it’s easy for beefier boomboxes like theAnker Soundcore Motion X600to sometimes slip through the cracks. With a modern cylindrical design, this three-driver speaker can offer up a great range of even sound quality thanks to the one up-firing driver in addition to the two front-facing tweeters.
Able to survive pool parties and getting caught in the rain, the X600 gets bassy and rumbly when the metal comes a-rockin'. The mids can get a tinge muddy at times, but the built-in spatial audio feature goes a long way towards compensating for it, and the long battery life can help it party with you all day and into the night.
Soundcore Motion X600
9Google Pixel Watch 2
Google’s second generation of theGoogle Pixel Watch 2gave us many of the quality-of-life improvements we wanted, from battery life that can actually last a full day and through the night before needing to go back on the charge to a smoother digital crown to a chipset powerful enough to actually launch apps in a timely manner. The ability to transfer this watch from one phone to another without having to factory reset and set everything back up from scratch is insanely freeing, though this is a Wear OS 4 feature rather than an exclusive Pixel Watch 2 feature.
But for the most part, Google hasn’t tried to reinvent the wheel with the Pixel Watch 2. The design is so scarily similar that without reading the model name on the bottom of the device, they’re damn near impossible to say which is which. This means not terribly much has changed, but these small upgrades — like the jump to the Snapdragon W5 for much more consistent performance — add up to help make it one of thebest Android smartwatches around.
Do we wish that the Pixel Watch 2 could get up to 2,000 nits brightness the way theSamsung Galaxy Watch 6did? Absolutely. Could Google have won more brownie points if it has upgraded the Pixel band system to something more standardized rather than switching from wireless charging to the old pogo pin docking cables? You bet. But if you’re not a fan of Samsung or the Galaxy Watch 6, this is your only real Wear OS 4 option that can expect timely updates and proper power for running apps smoothly.
Google Pixel Watch 2
10Apple Watch Series 9
While incompatible with Android phones, the Apple Watch Series 9 remains the favorite wearable for Will Sattelberg, who writes:
WearOS is in a much better place than it was when I first tried the Apple Watch nearly four years ago, but WatchOS is still my go-to pick for the best wearable platform around. From the excellent first-party watch faces to the endless offerings for fitness tracking, there’s plenty to like here for iOS users, even if converts may miss the customization Wear OS brought to the table.
Consistency is the name of the game for wearables, and though Samsung’s done its best to make Wear OS dependable over the last three years through its partnership with Google on Wear OS 3 and 4, the Pixel Watch 2 could learn a thing or two from Apple about finding a good system and sticking to it. Instead of changing chargers and tweaking the proprietary watch band only a year after establishing both, Google should have switched to a charger that’s both faster and more reliable and left the band system alone unless it was going to standard lugs.
And even though I’ve worn and adored the auto workout detection and sleep tracking on the Galaxy Watch 5 and 6, when it comes to activity tracking, Apple Health has it beat handily, both on workout variety and consistency.
Apple Watch Series 9
What to look forward to this November
We didn’t quite get to all Techtober reviews during the month itself — I myself am sitting on at least three more reviews at the moment — and while we’re running full-speed towardsBlack Friday’s upcoming sales, we’re still bringing the best devices to you. There’s still more audio awesomeness to explore this month alongside a continued look at the new Chromebook Plus line, with the Lenovo Chromebook Plus Flex 5i shaping up to claim the crown among Best Chromebooks, and a small tsunami of accessories, too.
So, keep an eye peeled for our latest reviews throughout the coming month, alongside deals on our best-reviewed products like the Google Pixel 8 Pro, OnePlus Open, and Bose QuietComfort Ultra.
