The Best and Coolest New Gadgets of May 2022

For more of the latest and greatest product releases, check out our full collection of the best new gear.

May was a mammoth month in terms of new product announcements. Sony finally released new noise-canceling cans, the WH-1000XM5. Sonos announced the Ray, its most affordable soundbar to date. And Google gave us a preview of the next-gen Pixel smartphones that will be released later this year. But that’s just the starting point. Below, we’ve rounded up all the cool new gadgets that were announced this month.

(For the best announcements of last month, April 2022, click here.)

Sony WH-1000XM5

The Sony WH-1000XM5 are the company’s newest flagship noise-canceling headphones and the successor to the 2020-released Sony WH-1000XM4. The new models have been redesigned with a more lightweight body and wider earcups. They have more powerful active noise-cancellation and improved microphones for call clarity. They also have a new fast charging ability. The downside? At $400, they’re pretty pricey. Available now.

Read our review of the Sony WH-1000XM5.

Price: $400

DJI Mini 3 Pro

DJI

DJI announced its most capable lightweight drone, the DJI Mini 3 Pro. It weighs just 249 grams, exactly the same as the company’s other “Mini” drones, but it packs a high quality camera, as well as advanced sensors and capturing capabilities that allow it to fly and shoot as if it were a way larger drone. It also can be bought with a remote controller with an integrated touchscreen display so, unlike DJI’s other drones, it doesn’t occupy your smartphone while you fly.

Price: $909+

Read our review of the DJI Mini 3 Pro.

Sonos Ray

The Sonos Ray is the company’s new entry-level soundbar. It costs $279, which is $180 less expensive than Sonos’s other budget-friendly soundbar, the Beam (Gen 2), but it comes with some key tradeoffs. It connects to your TV via optical (instead of HDMI) and doesn’t support Dolby Atmos; Sonos’s pitch is that it’s a good fit for people with older TVs that only have an optical connection. The Ray also lacks a microphone for smart voice controls.

The Ray is available to preorder right now, with an expected delivery of June 7.

Read our review of the Sonos Ray.

Price: $279

Sonos Roam’s New Colors

Sonos

Sonos announced that the Roam, its smart ultra-portable speaker, will be available in three new colors: olive, wave (light blue) and sunset (orange). They are priced at $179, which is exactly the same as the existing white or black models. You can order the Roam in these fresh colors right now.

Price: $179

KEF LS60 Wireless

KEF

The KEF LS60 Wireless is the company’s first pair of active floorstanding speakers. They work very similarly to the company’s LS50 Wireless II music system (which is our pick for the best active speaker system), so you can stream music in a myriad of different ways. But the LS60 Wireless also borrow acoustics technologies from KEF’s super high-end Blade and Reference lines of speakers. Effectively, it’s an all-in-one system made for super audio enthusiasts.

Price: $7,000/pair

Mophie Speedport 30 and Speedport 67

Zagg

Mophie announced two USB-C wall adapters that are made with Gallium Nitride (GaN), a material that’s significantly more energy- and space-efficient than silicon. The Speedport 30 ($45) is 30-watt charger that’s optimized to charge your iPhone, iPad or MacBook Air while you travel. The Speedport 67 ($70) is a 67-watt charger that’s also optimized for charging a MacBook Pro. Both chargers are exclusively available from Apple.

Price: $45 — $70

House of Marley Redemption ANC 2

House of Marley

House of Marley, an eco-conscious audio company named after Bob Marley, announced the Redemption ANC 2, a stylish pair of wireless earbuds with active noise-cancellation. They are made of bamboo fiber composites and recycled plastics, and have features (noise-cancellation, transparency, adjustable EQ and a wireless charging case) that you expect in a premium set of wireless earbuds.

Price: $170

Line Linestand

Line

The Linestand is a 3-in-1 MagSafe stand — capable of simultaneously charging an iPhone 12/13, AirPods (so long as it has a wireless charging case) and Apple Watch — that comes integrated with a VESA mount so you can attach to a compatible monitor arm and create a kind of floating MagSafe charging system. The main downside is that, in order to actually charge your devices, it requires you to have two MagSafe chargers and an Apple Watch charging puck of your own.

Price: $169

Anker Soundcore Motion Boom Plus

Soundcore

The Soundcore Motion Boom Plus is a powerful boombox style portable speaker. It packs two 30-watt woofers and two 10-watt tweets — that’s 80-watts of total power. Additionally, the Bluetooth speaker has an IP67 rating, so you can dunk it in one meter of water, have it stay there for a half hour, and it’ll still survive.

Price: $180

McIntosh MCD12000

McIntosh

The MCD12000 is McIntosh’s latest high-end audio component. It’s a CD player with an extremely high-quality DAC that’s capable of reference-quality playback. And, as you’d expect, it features the mesmeric blue power meters, signature glowing lime-green lights and black lacquer finish that are all synonymous with the American audio company.

Price: $12,000

Google Pixel 7, Pixel 6a, Pixel Watch and Pixel Buds Pro

Google

Google held its annual developer’s conference, Google I/O, earlier this month — and it announced a bunch of new products. There’s the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, which are its next-generation smartphones that will be released in the fall. The Pixel 6a is a new midrange smartphone that’ll be available this summer; it costs $449. The Pixel Watch is company’s first smartwatch that will be released in the fall. And the Pixel Buds Pro are its first wireless earbuds that have active noise-cancellation.

You can read more about these individual products via our recap of Google’s big event.

Eve Outdoor Cam

Eve

The Eve Outdoor Cam is the first smart outdoor camera that supports HomeKit Secure Video technology, which allows it to detect people, pets or vehicles, as well as store up to 10 days of fully encrypted videos. Like many other smart cameras, the Eve Outdoor Cam can shoot 1080p video, supports two-way talk and has a night mode. It has an integration motion light, too, for extra security.

Price: $250

Sony LinkBuds S

Sony

The Sony LinkBuds S are the company’s newest wireless earbuds and they are designed to fill the mid-range gap between its entry-level LinkBuds ($178) and its flagship WF-1000XM4 ($280). Despite their name, however, the LinkBuds S share a lot more in common with Sony’s high-end buds than the basic model. The have noise-canceling and transparency modes, and they support Sony’s high-resolution (LDAC) audio files. They lack wireless charging, however.

Price: $200

Read our review of the Sony LinkBuds S, here.

Anker 563 USB-C Dock

Anker

The Anker 563 is a new USB-C docking station that has the special ability of allowing any of Mac with an M1 chipset to connect to up to three external monitors. Normally limited to just one external monitor, the Anker 563 is able to circumvent this issue by having two HDMI ports and a DisplayPort. It also has seven other ports — that’s 10 ports total, for those keeping count — making it a really robust hub for a Mac power user.

Price: $250

Marantz CD 60

Marantz

Marantz is showing love to the true audiophiles who still adore the warm and rich sound of CDs. The company’s newest CD player blends a modern look with advanced circuitry, and it’s designed to integrate well with the other high-end components in your hi-fi system. It addition to playing CDs, it has a USB-A port (located on its front panel) that allows it to play of a vast array of digital files( including MP3, WMA, AAC and WAV, FLAC) from a connected USB storage device. Marantz is advertising it as the perfect partner for its Model 40n integrated amplifier, which it announced earlier this year. It’ll be available this June.

Price: $999

Klipsch Reference Premiere and Reference Speakers (2022)

Klipsch

Klipsch announced refreshed versions of its high-end lines of Reference Premiere and Reference loudspeakers for 2022. Both loudspeaker lines — which consist of floorstanding speakers (with and without Dolby Atmos height modules), bookshelf speakers and center channel speakers — have been upgrade with improved tweeters (with larger Tractrix horns for even more high-frequency response and extension) and improved cabinet bracing. Both lines can be used in a hi-fi or home theater system.

Price: $299 — $3,000

Denon PMA-900HNE Integrated Amplifier

Denon

The Denon PMA-900HNE is the company’s first integrated amplifier that has HEOS, Denon’s wireless multi-room streaming platform, baked right in. This allows the PMA-900HNE to wirelessly connect with any HEOS-enable wireless speakers or soundbars. Additionally, the stereo amp can deliver 85-watts per channel, is capable of high-resolution playback (up to 24-bit/192kHz), and supports Bluetooth and AirPlay 2 streaming as well.

Price: $949

HP Envy and Spectre Laptops (2022)

HP

HP announced its refreshed lines of Envy and Spectre laptops, which are its mid-range and flagship line of ultra-thin laptops, respectively, for 2022. All these laptops have been upgraded with the latest 12th-gen Intel chipsets, superior Wi-Fi connectivity and improved 5-megapixel webcams (which were previously 2-megapixel webcams). As before, both lines will be available in traditional clamshell and 2-in-1 (called x360) designs. The laptops range from 13-inch to 17-inch models.

Price: $899 — $1,399

Corsair Voyager a1600

Corsair

After nearly two decades of making high-end components and peripherals for gaming, Corsair finally announced its first-ever gaming laptop. The Voyager a1600 is destined to be a powerhouse of a gaming laptop that runs on an AMD Ryzen 6000-series CPU and packs AMD Radeon RX 6800M graphics. Maybe most interestingly, it features a Touch Bar-esque screen with ten “S-keys” above its Function keys; these S-Keys are powered by Elgato’s Stream Deck software and allows gamers to customize for easy live stream controls.

There’s no release date at this time, but you can reserve the Voyager a1600 via the company’s website.

Price: $2,700 — $3,000

Logitech MX Mechanical and MX Mechanical Mini

Logitech

Logitech announced a pair of wireless mechanical keyboards, the MX Mechanical and the MX Mechanical Mini, that are designed to perfectly partner its MX Master mouse. The two keyboards feature the same switches that you’ll find on its high-end gaming keyboards, and the neat thing is that Logitech gives you the option to buy the keyboards with your preference of sound and clicky-ness: tactile quiet, linear or clicky (you can test out how each sounds on the company’s website).

Price: $150 — $170

Insta360 Sphere

Insta360

The Insta360 Sphere is a 360-degree camera that’s specially designed to be strapped around either of DJI’s Mavic Air 2 and Air 2S drones — it doesn’t block any of its tracking or object avoidance sensors. When attached, the Sphere is able to capture an immersive 360-degree while also making the drone appear to be completely invisible and non-obstructive to the shot.

Price: $430

Samsung Odyssey Neo G8

Samsung

First announced at CES 2022, Samsung’s Odyssey Neo G8 is officially available to preorder now and will officially start shipping on June 6th. The gorgeous 32-inch curved monitor has a Quantum Mini-LED display that supports HDR and has a super high 2,0000 nit peak brightness. And, most importantly, it’s the first 4K monitor to have a 240Hz refresh rate.

Price: $1,500

64 Audio Hi-Res Extension Cable

64 Audio

64 Audio is best known for its super high-end in-ear monitors designed for music professionals, but this week the hi-fi company announced something a little more affordable: a 10-foot extension cable that supports high-resolution audio. It’s the ideal accessory for anybody who wants a little extra slack between their studio-quality headphones and their computer monitor.

Price: $100

Marshall Willen and Emberton II

Courtesy

Marshall announced two new portable and rugged Bluetooth speakers this week. The Willen ($120) is a brand-new speaker for the company — and it’s by far its smallest. It’s roughly the size of your smartphone (although slightly thicker) and comes with strap so you can attach it to things, like your bike’s handlebars or a backpack strap. The Emberton II ($170) is a slightly larger second-generation speaker that boosts improved battery life and app support adjusting the EQ and software updates. Both speakers have Marshall’s signature rock n’ roll aesthetic.

Price: $120 — $180

Pro-Ject E1 Turntable

Pro-Ject

The Austrian hi-fi maker has introduced a new entry-level turntables, named E1, which stays true to the company’s ethos of using high-quality components. Each model has a true sub-platter design, a solid MDF plinth and comes with the Ortofon OM5e cartridge (which costs roughly $70 on its own). Pro-Ject will offer the E1 turntable in three different configurations: one bare bones (E1, $349), one with a built-in phono preamp (E1 Phono SB, $399) and one with a Bluetooth audio transmitter (E1 BT, $499).

Price: $349+

Anker 633 Magnetic Battery

Anker

This is a 10,000-mAh portable battery that magnetically clicks to the back of your iPhone 12 or iPhone 13 and wirelessly charges it. (For reference, Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack only has a capacity of 1,460-mAh.) It also has a built-in kickstand and USB-C and USB-ports for charging additional devices. It’s important to note that the Anker 633 Magnetic Battery doesn’t fully support MagSafe — it won’t fast charge your new iPhone at 15 watts, but instead tops out at 7.5 watts when wirelessly charging.

Price: $80

Apple Thunderbolt 4 Pro Cable (3 m)

Apple

Apple is finally starting to sell its extra-long Thunderbolt 4 cable. It’s braided (which kind of prevents it from coiling) and measures three meters in length, making it one of the only Thunderbolt 4 cables that length that you can buy. It’s the perfect partner for Apple’s Studio Display and Mac Studio, albeit a very expensive partner.

Price: $159

Wyze Room Sensor

Wyze

Wyze has launched yet another smart home gadget to expand its growing ecosystem — this time it’s a room sensor. It works in tandem with Wyze’s smart thermostat (released in late 2020) to help better regulate the temperatures in specific rooms of your home. It can only work with the Wyze Smart Home Thermostat.

Price: $25

Optoma UHD55

Optoma

Optoma’s newest 4k projector is relatively affordable yet delivers pretty impressive specs. It’s rated at 3,600 lumens and project a picture that’s up to a 300 inches (huge). It can deliver a 4K image at 60Hz or a 1080p image at 240Hz refresh rate, the latter of which is more than enough to handle the speed of next-gen consoles like the Xbox Series X or PS5.

Price: $1,800

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