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If you want to get excited about consumer tech again, look at these innovations. They include breakthroughs in material design and miniaturization to make your gadgets even sleeker; new technologies to improve your health and wellness; and some clever applications of AI and data analysis. The next big thing in consumer tech is really about making life better beyond your phone, not just spending more time using it.
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Elegoo
For speeding up 3D printing
3D printers aren’t known to work quickly, but Elegoo figured out how to speed up the process. Using a tilting resin vat, its Saturn 4 Ultra 3D printer is able to peel off layers of release liner faster than conventional lift-and-release mechanisms. The result is vastly improved print speeds and fewer errors without having to rely on expensive specialty resins.
FreePower
For giving countertops a jolt
The dream for wireless charging has always involved building it into ordinary surfaces. But it’s typically required unsightly stickers or indentations to show where your phone should go. FreePower has come up with a more elegant solution, using an LED halo to light up the charging area when you wave your phone over it. The company, which previously went by the name Aira, debuted the technology this year and is now working with designers and fabricators to integrate it with stone and wood countertops.
Honor
For putting other foldable phone designs to shame
By using novel battery chemistry, Honor has achieved the holy grail for foldable phones, rivaling traditional handsets on size and weight without compromising battery life. While most lithium-ion batteries use all graphite in their anodes, the Honor Magic V3 foldable replaces about 10% of that material with silicon carbon, a much denser material, but one that requires special nanomaterials to contain swelling. The more compact battery results in a phone that’s 5% narrower and only 12% thicker than an iPhone 16 Pro Max when folded, and of course it unfolds to reveal a tablet-like screen inside. No other foldable phone comes close.
Lenovo
For cracking the code to lighter laptops
Magnesium alloy is theoretically a great material for laptops because it’s lighter than aluminum but stronger than plastic. On its own, however, it’s prone to corrosion. Laptop makers can work around this problem by spraying on a protective coating, but that in turn makes the material look cheap and plasticky. After years of analyzing alternative ways to formulate the material, Lenovo came up with a “high gloss stainless magnesium” material and put it into mass production for its laptops, starting with the Thinkbook 13x Gen 4. Lenovo says it could be a breakthrough for the aerospace and transportation industries as well.