2025 Gadget Purchases: Hits and Shits

In a follow-up to my 2025 Subscriptions Review, I wanted to share some of the gadget purchases in 2025. Each of these could have been a post of their own but the lack of time is how we have ended up with this very long post about all the big gadgets I got in 2025. From about 11 products:

• 7 were hits
• 2 were shits (the Yeti wasn’t a 2025 purchase, but I want everyone to know that it is shit)
• 2 were somewhere in between

1. Best Purchase of 2025: Elgato Wave XLR

When COVID made work from home normal, I setup my desk. And since then, I’ve used a Blue Yeti Mic in White, USB. I figured a USB mic would be good enough for work calls, streaming, Discord calls. Turns out, this, yet another Logitech product is absolutely utter shit. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be so. For one, this garbage comes with a 15-year-old mini-USB. And the biggest issue with trash-mic was that it would require me to unplug and re-plug it every time I joined a call or started a stream. Every single time. The worst part is that this is somehow a known bug.

Each day I worked from home, having to unplug and replug this damn mic before every call to make sure it worked, got really tiring. The frustration got so bad that I decided I’m going to get rid of the junk and solve this once and for all — enter the Elgato Wave XLR.

This has been absolute user-experience delight. Setup once and forget, I have not had any connectivity or reliability issues with this mic.

Good:

• No more connectivity issues
• Plug and play, truly
• Sleek profile

Bad:

• Unintuitive Interface panel, I have no clue what some of the options on the Interface mean
• More wires and another controller on my desk

Links to Buy:

• Elgato Wave DX – Dynamic XLR Microphone
• Elgato XLR Cable
• Elgato Wave XLR Control Interface
• Blue Microphone Boom Arm

2. Worst Purchase of 2025: The Nanit Baby Monitoring Camera

My God, this product is shit. This product seems to have been vibecoded into existence. The marketing of the product vs the product are so misaligned that I am even ashamed to claim that I own this product. Picture this:

•  you have a tiny new fragile baby whose breathing needs to be monitored
•  you buy and setup a smart-camera that claims to monitor and alert you about breathing patterns
•  each time you need to turn on breathing monitoring, you have to manually turn it on — whoever made this design choice should be sent to product manager school
•  there is no, and I mean absolutely no, clarity on whether the app will alert if it is in the background and my phone is set to Sleep focus
•  there is a confusing app option to use less battery (for fucks sake, you should always use less battery)
•  you setup baby cry alerts
•  you are in the room when baby is crying
•  the app keeps spamming you with cry notifications because there’s no fucking snooze option for the notifications!

This whole system is built by people who probably were parents 5 years ago and wanted something like this. I want to throw this entire system in trash but I spent way too much on accessories and the whole system.

The Nanit system has 1 job. It will simply not make give you the confidence that it does it. I wake up every hour or so to check the baby myself. Writing this section has me unreasonably irate, that’s how bad this product is.

Good:

• Nothing.

Bad:

• Everything

Much better alternative: Aqara G3 Hub with this tripod stand.

3. Most Disruptive Purchase: The Unifi Stack

Middle of this year, amongst all the chaos in my life, my Amplifi Alien setup decided to die on me, leaving the household without Internet and an annoyed pregnant wife. This was my perfect opportunity to switch to the Unifi stack! Unfortunately, I learned a lot of expensive lessons along the way.

Read my detailed update on my transition to the Unifi WiFi stack.

4. Mac mini M4

As I started taking my vibecoder journey more seriously, I ended up getting the Mac mini since I needed Xcode to test my iPhone apps more thoroughly. Features such as push notifications cannot be tested without Xcode. I also wanted to get into making some apps for the Mac. The Mac mini has been an absolutely amazing plug-and-play device that has seamlessly blended into my work desk. The only change I had to make was swapping out my 2-HDMI switch for a 3-in-1-out switch.

I connect my Logitech 915 TKL and Razer Basilisk v3 Pro in Bluetooth mode when I am using the Mac mini. (I toggle to the proprietary Lightspeed and HyperSpeed technologies when I am using my main desktop.)

My HDMI switcher

Good:

• Very compact form factor
• Powerful
• Runs everything needed for Xcode and Apple App Development
• Nice addition to the existing Apple ecosystem

Bad:

• macOS

Link to Buy: Mac Mini M4 2024

5. Plugable USB-C Docking Station

Much like the death of my Amplifi Alien, my Mokin docking station died as well. This was a catastrophe for my desk and had to be addressed immediately. I needed something as quick as possible since my entire desk was unusable without my USB devices. I have 2 very specific requirements for my docking station which make the selection very tricky:

• At least 6 USB ports
• Has to be USB-C to allow my webcam to be used as a Windows Hello device

I ordered the Anker 14 ports docking station which was delayed in delivery. While waiting for its arrival, I found the perfect solution – the Plugable Docking station.

Good:

• Sleeker profile
• Cheaper than the Anker
• Exactly the configuration I needed (USB ports and USB-C connectivity)

Bad:

• No USB-C ports

Link to Buy: Plugable Docking Station

6. iPhone Air -> iPhone 17 Pro

I upgraded to the iPhone Air and then switched to the 17 Pro simply because it is more powerful, takes better pictures and feels better while holding.

iPhone Air Good:

• Slim

iPhone Air Bad:

• Uncomfortable to operate with one hand
• Bad camera

7. Oura Ring

I have the Apple Watch for health tracking and pretty ok with it. The health data has generally been useless to me. The watch is more quickly glancing through notifications. When AMEX Platinum announced the $200 credit for the Oura Ring, it coincided with my physician asking me to better track my sleep. Figured I’d get it. So far, the data has been useless:

• I know the nights my sleep has been bad, so telling me that is just annoying
• There are nights when I felt like I slept well but the ring says I didn’t, so that’s demoralizing
• There’s nothing really actionable it tells me
• The AI-powered food calories tracker is useful, but I never remember to take photos
• The Ring is uncomfortable, I spent a few days with their sizing kit and yet, the actual ring is tighter than the testers

I will keep the ring the subscription till AMEX is subsidizing it. But generally, meh.

Good:

• Form factor
• App

Bad:

• Useless data

8. Ninja Glass Crispi Table-top Air Fryer

I love snacking. I am forced to be healthy in my snacking. I love the convenience of an Air Fryer, I hate the following about cheap air fryers:

• Look ugly
• Can’t see inside
• Bulky to handle
• Takes a lot of precious counter-top space
• Get messy and absolutely inconvenient to clean (yea, using liners is as inconvenient)
• Inconsistent heating

As we moved from fall into winter and our toddler grows, I wanted to add some convenience and fun in our lives. And Instagram’s perfect timing, they advertised the glass bowl counter-top sleek looking Air Fryer. I bought it instantly. And this has been a hit in our household. My wife has started using the air fryer, I have been making a lot more foods with it. Here’s why I love this:

• Looks sleek
• Can see inside
• The containers come with lids
• Dishwasher-safe bowls

Things we make regularly:

1. Costco Mozz sticks and fries topped with some garlic salt
2. Whole Foods Harissa Cheese Pockets
3. Trader Joe’s mini pizzas

Link to Buy: Ninja Crispi Pro 6-in-1

9. Space heater that doesn’t dry the room

The room for our kid was always a few degrees cooler than the rest of the house. The house heater had no problems, so we needed a space heater. unfortunately, the one I previously had seemed like a fire hazard and would make everything very dry. A friend recommended an oil-based space heater, which at first seemed like a bigger fire hazard, heat and oil…

Anyhow, since it was a recommendation and I’ve heard of this company, and it has pretty decent ratings on Amazon, I ordered it. It is fantastic.

Good:

• Does what it advertises
• Simple to use
• Cable hooks
• Wheels

Bad:

• Heavy

Link to Buy: De’Longhi Dragon Digital Oil Heater

10. Baby-bottle washer, sanitizer, and drier

For our second kid, I dreaded washing bottles. The whole process of hand washing each bottle and part, then sanitizing has to be one of the most boring and exhausting tasks of being a parent. Good thing I didn’t block all ads on my home network because how else would Instagram target my wife with the ad for one of the best parent-purchases in our house. The Momcozy Auto Bottle Washer is fantastic. I would recommend to any parent.

We load rinsed bottles, throw in a tablet, and in a few hours there are washed and sanitized ready-to-use bottles! I love it. Also, the design is very thoughtful with the extended pipe for water release.

Good:

• Easy setup
• Extended water-release pipe
• Washing and sanitizing in-one
• Respects the very precious counter-top space

Bad:

• Recommends proprietary tablets that are always sold out or delayed shipping
• Not enough space for nipples and lids

Link to Buy: Momcozy Baby Bottle Washer, Sterilizer & Dryer – All-in-One

The Final Rating

Manan’s 2025 Gadgets Scorecard