This year’s most compelling consumer electronics innovations are all about making technology more empowering, with fewer annoying compromises.

Just look at what AMD is doing with its Ryzen AI Max+ processors, which let users run powerful AI workloads directly on their PCs without internet, or Framework, which is putting those processors in tiny desktops while continuing its mission to make endlessly repairable laptops. Matic Robots is running with the offline AI trend as well, offering a next-gen robot vacuum that maps your home and responds to voice commands without sending that data to the cloud.

The theme of democratizing tech also expands to entertainment. Dolby Vision 2, for instance, will bring the benefits of HDR—brighter screens with more vivid colors—to lower-cost TVs, while Ayaneo is expanding the retro gaming market with handhelds in every conceivable shape and size. Samsung, meanwhile, has achieved the holy grail in foldable phones, slimming down the Fold7 to more pocket-friendly proportions.

Meanwhile, wellness tech is tackling real problems instead of just crunching numbers. Therabody, for instance, is expanding beyond its popular massage guns with a wraparound band for back pain therapy, while Eight Sleep is evolving its smart mattress pad system to control temperatures across your entire body.

Of course, there’s always room for innovation on the kinds of gadgets you’re already using. To that end, Huawei is showing how smartphone cameras can take great zoom shots, and Google is making AI more accessible across a wide range of devices, from phones and wearables to next-gen headsets.

1. AMD

For bringing AI out of the cloud and under users’ control

While much of AMD’s focus these days is on the AI server business, it’s also betting on a future where some AI applications won’t need the cloud at all. Over the past year, its Ryzen AI Max+ processors have powered a wave of compact desktop PCs with impressive on-device AI capabilities from companies like HP, Framework, and Corsair. These PCs use huge amounts of unified memory to chew through AI tasks, allowing users to write code and edit text without any online servers or subscription fees.

Of course, AMD’s a big believer in the cloud as well, and aims to undercut Nvidia this year with its MI450 series, its first that can power rack-scale AI infrastructure with thousands of chips. (OpenAI is an early partner.) But AMD also believe its work on the server side will eventually benefit on-device AI, as its open software architecture will help developers create scaled-down models that can run offline.

AMD’s PC revenues grew 73% year-over-year last quarter at $4 billion, while server revenue pulled ahead to $4.3 billion on 22% year-over-year growth, proving that both sides can co-exist.

Read more about ⁠AMD, No. 13 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2026.

2. Google

For doing AI hardware right

While buzzy AI hardware startups have come and gone, Google keeps putting Gemini into more gadgets. In 2025, it took a big step into augmented reality, partnering with Qualcomm and Samsung on the latter’s Galaxy XR headset. It looks a lot like Apple’s Vision Pro, but with a heavier dose of AI via Gemini, which lets users ask about what’s on their screens and circle real-world objects to search for more info. More Google-powered headsets are coming in 2026, including lightweight glasses with “monocular” displays for one eye and a developer kit in partnership with Xreal.

Meanwhile, Google continues to make Gemini a key feature on the gadgets of today. Its Pixel Buds 2a allow for hands-free Gemini conversations, and the company has been publicly testing a Gemini-powered health coach that ties into data from Fitbit and the Pixel Watch. Not surprisingly, its Pixel phones prominently feature Gemini as the default voice assistant. The vision is clearly for an AI that persists across devices, and there are signs that it’s gaining traction: Google says Gemini has 750 million monthly active users, up from 90 million in October 2024.

Read more about Google, No. 1 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2026.

3. Matic Robots

For giving robot vacuums a much-needed reboot

Matic started generating buzz in 2023, when the home robotics startup emerged from stealth with $30 million in funding. In 2025 it delivered on its promises. Its first product is a $1,245 robot vacuum, and while its capabilities aren’t wildly different from others in the category, it just handles them a lot better.

For one thing, Matic does all of its room mapping and processing on-device, eliminating a major privacy concern with other vacuums that upload details of your home to the cloud. It also has built-in voice controls, so you can ask it to clean a spot or mop the room without needing Alexa or Google as an intermediary, and its cameras can detect layout changes without having to re-map the entire floor. Factor in other niceties like a tangle-free brush roll, multi-floor room mapping, and detection of when you’ve picked it up and put it down elsewhere, and it’s understandable why Wired and ZDNet have both called it the best in its class. Matic has indicated that vacuums are just the beginning as it focuses on building smart robots for the home.

4. Samsung Electronics

For a foldable phone that finally nails it

Thanks to Samsung, 202 was the year in which foldable phones stopped being such a compromise. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is 12 grams lighter than Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max, and only 0.7mm thicker when it’s folded in half. It genuinely feels like a regular phone, except you can unfold it to access an 8-inch screen that’s great for watching videos, playing games, or reading e-books.

While Samsung isn’t the only foldable phone maker achieving this level of thinness—Honor and Oppo are on the same level—the Fold7 has the advantage of actually being available in the United States. It’s software is also refined in ways that its Chinese rivals can’t match, with minimal bloat and handy multitasking features like the ability to toggle between two full-screen apps with one tap. Samsung says that within three months, the Fold7 had outsold its predecessor by 50% in the U.S.

Rumor is that Apple may release a foldable phone this year, possibly with Samsung as its display maker, but Samsung is already thinking ahead. Its Galaxy Z TriFold phone, which unfurls into a 10-inch tablet, launched in Korea in December and is headed stateside soon.

5. Framework

For leading the way on AI PCs

It’s one thing to promise endlessly upgradable laptops, but Framework keeps proving that it can deliver. In 2025, the Framework Laptop 16 became the first notebook to offer a graphics card upgrade module, allowing anyone who previously bought the laptop to swap out the original GPU for a newer and more powerful one. This builds on Framework’s track record of offering new mainboards for upgrading its laptops’ processors, along with an array of repairable and replaceable parts. 

Framework has also been expanding into new categories, including an AMD-powered desktop PC with serious AI chops and a rugged 12-inch convertible (yet still repairable) laptop whose screen flips around into tablet mode. All this results in a bigger repair and upgrade ecosystem for Framework to support, but the startup, which last raised $18 million in 2024 and just turned five years old, has shown that it can handle it.

6. Dolby

For enhancing TV screens with brighter, more realistic displays

The original Dolby Vision brought HDR video to TVs. When it arrived in 2024, TV makers were still overly fixated on 4K—never mind that most folks couldn’t tell the difference from mere HD. Dolby Vision’s benefits were obvious by comparison, enabling a brighter picture with more color detail that helped accentuate shadows and highlights.

A decade later, Dolby is plotting a sequel. With Dolby Vision 2, the company is working closely with content makers to address a common complaint with HDR: the video ends up looking too dark. Dolby is also targeting lower-end TVs this time around, with a tone mapping engine that helps compensate for the limited capabilities in budget sets. It’s also expanding beyond HDR with a feature that reduces the jerkiness in scenes with fast motion, but in a way stays true to the original cinematic intent.

It’s early days for Dolby Vision 2, but TCL, Panasonic, and Hisense all plan to support the format in new TVs this year, and Peacock is on board as an early content partner. If Dolby Vision 2 follows the trajectory of its predecessor, in a few years it’ll be tough to find a good TV without it.

7. Huawei

For solving smartphones’ zoom lens problem

The U.S. government may have its qualms with Chinese electronics giant Huawei, but it’s delivering a camera breakthrough that should make stateside smartphone users jealous. Typically each lens on a phone camera has its own individual image sensor, and phone makers often use lower-quality sensors on their zoom lenses to save costs. Huawei’s Pura 80 Ultra uses dual periscope lenses with a moveable prism, which allows both lenses to take advantage of a single high-quality sensor.

The approach not only reduces costs and saves space, it also lets Huawei offer the largest sensor yet on a smartphone telephoto camera. The achievement helped boost Huawei to a record score from independent camera benchmark site DxOMark, well ahead of anything you can buy in the U.S.

8. Therabody

For giving back-pain sufferers a combo treatment

While Therabody is best known for its Theragun massage guns—it’s sold 6.5 million of them to date—this year the company made a big expansion into back pain therapy. The Thermback is a wraparound band that combines heat and vibration for short-term pain relief with red light and infrared for long-term treatment. Yahoo Health and Prevention have both praised the product for providing real help with back pain while being easy to use.

The Thermback also ties into Therabody’s mobile app, where users can choose different treatment patterns based on what they’re recovering from. The app is a growing area of focus for Therabody, as it also introduced an AI fitness coach for its popular massage guns. Using data from platforms like Apple Health and Garmin Connect, the AI assistant suggests specific ways to use your Theragun after a workout. That’s one way Therabody can stay ahead of countless copycat products.

9. Eight Sleep

For bringing its sleep-control tech from mattresses to pillows and even blankets

Eight Sleep is moving beyond the mattress as it tries to build a more holistic sleep system. While its Pod mattress covers can provide heating or cooling underneath the body, the latest Pod 5 cover can also work with Eight Sleep’s new temperature controlled blanket and pillow cover. All three can then work in tandem to control temperatures across the users’ entire body, with the goal of maximizing deep sleep. Eight Sleep says pillow cover users are falling asleep 23% faster.

On the software side, Eight Sleep refined its algorithms so it can detect cardiovascular and respiratory abnormalities, and it released a Hot Flash Mode that provides rapid cooling for menopausal women. Investors are buying into the idea, infusing Eight Sleep with $100 million in August. The company says it will use the funding to develop an AI “Sleep Agent” that simulates outcomes for each user and adapts its temperature controls accordingly.

10. Ayaneo

For flooding the zone with fun retro handhelds.

Ayaneo is part of a budding industry of Chinese companies producing inexpensive Android- and Linux-based gaming handhelds, fueling a vibrant community obsessed with revisiting retro gaming classics. While it has plenty of competitors—Retroid, Miyoo, and Anberni, among them—none have been cranking out new hardware quite like Ayaneo.

In the past year alone, the company has put out a modular windows handheld, a small handheld in the shape of a Nintendo Famicom controller, multiple Android-based handhelds, a dual-screen gaming handheld, a dual-screen Windows handheld, and a new series of entry-level devices. It’s also working on its first smartphone. The company doesn’t divulge sales figures, but its Indiegogo presale pages have raised roughly $2 million in the last year.

And while these gaming handheld companies can be a bit mysterious, Ayaneo has been slowly stepping out of the shadows. When a few retro gaming influencers complained in January about shipping delays and customer service issues, CEO Arthur Zhang personally apologized and released a detailed improvement plan. That he needed to do illustrates the passion people have for Ayaneo’s brand, and is a sign of its transformation from an obscure hardware vendor into a portable gaming powerhouse.

Explore the full 2026 list of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, 720 honorees that are reshaping industries and culture. We’ve selected the companies making the biggest impact across 59 categories, including advertising, applied AI, biotech, retail, sustainability, and more.