The Finest Devices of March 2026

March insanity is over. No, not faculty basketball. I’m, after all, speaking about Apple’s personal March bonanza headlined by the $600 MacBook Neo. The low-cost and colourful laptop computer simply stole the highlight this month.

The remainder of Apple’s March product launches had been largely spec bumps, however all of them—the M5 MacBook Air, M5 Max MacBook Pro, Studio Display XDR, M4 iPad Air, AirPods Max 2, and that iPhone 17e—earned excessive marks in our critiques. Haters will name us Apple fanboys, however these are the second, fourth, and fifth generations of earlier merchandise, so it’s no shock that they’re extra polished than earlier than.

It wasn’t all Apple releases, although. There had been loads of notable gadget releases from different manufacturers. Sonos returned with two new audio system—the wi-fi Play and the wired Era 100 SL. Nothing skipped the flagship this 12 months to deal with the actually flashy midrange Phone 4a and Phone 4a Pro. We had been one of many first to evaluation the brand new Ikea Varmblixt donut lamp that now modifications colours. And we additionally acquired to bug everybody within the workplace with the adorably annoying Nintendo Talking Flower.

It’s somewhat bananas to suppose that the primary fourth of the 12 months is now behind us. We’re truthfully simply praying that the RAM apocalypse doesn’t worsen and trigger the costs of devices to extend. But it’s laborious to be optimistic when even an organization as giant as Sony is compelled to hike up the worth of its PS5 Pro for the second time in lower than a 12 months.

The MacBook Neo could begin at $600 ($500 with an training low cost), however the 13-inch laptop computer is something however low cost or flimsy when it comes to construct high quality. It’s all the pieces that makes a MacBook a MacBook. It’s sturdy because of its unibody aluminum development, the keyboard and trackpad are terrific, and the Retina show is sharp. Sure, it comes with tradeoffs like two USB-C ports (no MagSafe for charging), no backlighting on the keyboard, and solely 8GB of unified reminiscence, however for $600 it’s laborious to essentially complain about them. More than something, the A18 Pro chip is proving greater than succesful sufficient. The MacBook Neo is much larger than a Chromebook or midrange Windows 11 laptop computer. Plus, it is available in a bunch of enjoyable, eye-catching colours.

See MacBook Neo at Amazon

Sonos’ {hardware} comeback begins with the Play wi-fi speaker—and what an incredible one it’s. Smaller and cheaper than the Move 2, the Play speaker is proof that Sonos nonetheless is aware of tips on how to make nice {hardware}. There aren’t any gimmicks right here, simply an all-around great-sounding moveable speaker with stable battery life (as much as 24 hours) and easy-peasy pairing with different Sonos audio system for expanded sound. Diehard Sonos followers should discover issues to nitpick within the Sonos app, however the firm’s CEO, Tom Conrad, has repeatedly emphasised rebuilding the software program expertise till it’s distinctive once more. So far so good.

See Sonos Play at Amazon

The viral Ikea Varmblixt donut lamp is returning in LED kind with two issues that make it extra versatile: adjustable lighting colours and good house compatibility (Matter and Thread). Compared to the unique, caramel and shiny donut lamp, this new 12-inch model is white and matte. Our good house reviewer, Wes Davis, discovered it somewhat dim, however that’s not essentially a dealbreaker, particularly in case you’re planning to make use of it as an accent mild. The better part? The new Varmblixt prices the identical $100 because the non-smart model. How is that attainable? Don’t ask questions!

Nothing launched two midrange telephones in March: the Phone 4a and the Phone 4a Pro. The former sticks to the tech startup’s signature clear and industrial aesthetic and swaps out the Glyph Interface lights for a Glyph Bar, and the latter skates to a brand new metallic physique and clear digicam bump that matches proper in with its premium Headphone 1 and Ear 3 wi-fi earbuds. Like the Phone 3, the Phone 4a Pro has a spherical Glyph Matrix display, although it’s bigger and has fewer sq. LEDs. Still, the premise of the Glyph Matrix is identical: to indicate customized notifications. It’s no flagship cellphone, however its placing design alone earns it a spot on this month’s greatest devices record.

There’s cause why open-ear wi-fi earbuds have gotten an increasing number of widespread: they don’t clog up your ears and nonetheless permit you to hear your environment. Asus’ ROG Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds are the primary of their type designed particularly for gaming in thoughts. Do they go the sniff check? According to Gizmodo’s personal James Pero, they undoubtedly do. They sound good, the mic high quality is stable, and so they include a 2.4GHz USB-C dongle for low-latency audio transmission, which is one thing you need whenever you’re gaming. If a headset is simply too huge and common gaming wi-fi earbuds too stuffy, these open wi-fi earbuds may simply be the best pair.

Nintendo’s Talking Flower is a quite simple gadget. It shouts out the time on the hour, and each half-hour, it’ll randomly blurt out one thing from its preprogrammed library of phrases. It has no sensors or microphones and doesn’t connect with the web, so it’s not truly listening to you, which is to say your privateness is secure. Can or not it’s annoying AF? Absolutely! One of our workers reporters points “quiet time” to cease it from yapping within the workplace an excessive amount of. But come on, for $35, it’s a small pleasure that doesn’t attempt to promote you on something however being cute and enjoyable. Thank god, it doesn’t attempt to embrace any AI performance.

We didn’t have AirPods Max 2 on our March bingo card. Five years after the unique pair of wi-fi over-ear headphones invaded the heads of tens of millions of youngsters worldwide, Apple’s second-generation model provides simply sufficient of an improve to make the cans price contemplating. Apple tossed within the H2 chip first launched on the AirPods Pro 2, and with it comes 1.5x higher lively noise cancellation and new options like Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, and Live Translation (to call just a few). The draw back is that they feel and look precisely the identical because the earlier AirPods Max fashions, proper all the way down to the heavy weight and similar shade choices. Oh, and so they nonetheless value a whopping $550, which is on the pricier finish of the wi-fi ANC headphones spectrum.

See AirPods Max 2 at Amazon

Compared to Insta360’s Antigravity A1 360 drone, DJI’s Avata 360 is much cheaper: about $530 versus $1,600. Both drones have twin fisheye lenses positioned on the highest and backside to seize 360, spherical movies whereas zooming round within the sky. The 360 drone can seize in 8K decision at 60 fps. We haven’t tried DJI’s 360 drone for ourselves, however we wish to. Whether we’ll get that likelihood is TBD because the U.S. authorities has successfully banned DJI merchandise from being offered, at the very least instantly from the corporate.

On the alternative finish of the MacBook Neo is the MacBook Pro with M5 Max chip. Available in 14- and 16-inch display sizes, the designs are unchanged from the final 4 generations of MacBook Pros since their M1 Pro/M1 Max redesign. But their magnificence lies inside: these are probably the most highly effective laptops that Apple has ever made, and totally specced out, they ship GPU efficiency that rivals a lot bulkier gaming laptops with discrete Nvidia GPUs. If you’re knee-deep on the earth of AI and agentic computing, the M5 Max MacBook Pros have all of the oomph you’ll want after which some. Just put together to pay via the nostril to tick off all of the configuration packing containers.

See M5 Max MacBook Pro at Amazon

Smart locks are a dime a dozen. If all you need is one which doesn’t look “smart” and appears premium and works effectively, the Level Lock Pro could be what you’re searching for. In his evaluation, Wes discovered the Lock Pro was responsive, works effectively with Apple Home Key, and was tremendous straightforward to put in. For extra bells and whistles, look elsewhere. But for simplicity, this one does the job.

See Level Lock Pro at Amazon

The Asus ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM Gen 3 (oof) is a huge, gamer-y gaming monitor geared in direction of avid gamers. That’s all I acquired. In all seriousness, this beefy 32-inch monitor guarantees superior black ranges in comparison with common OLED screens because of its “BlackShield” display movie. Our reporter Kyle Barr discovered its anti-reflective movie was efficient and the image high quality is tops, however you gotta settle for the gamer aesthetic as a result of this factor is heavy on the gamer glow, as evidenced by the projected ROG brand.

See ASUS ROG Swift 32” Monitor at Amazon

Unlike Google’s Pixel 10a, which felt fully phoned in (no pun supposed) for its egregious recycling of final 12 months’s Pixel 9a components, the iPhone 17e addresses almost each criticism concerning the iPhone 16e. For the identical $600, Apple doubled the bottom storage to 256GB, threw in an A19 chip that’s almost as highly effective because the one within the iPhone 17, sped up 5G with the C1X chip, and elevated scratch resistance to the display with Ceramic Shield 2. The greatest addition is, after all, MagSafe assist—for charging and equipment. Everyone complained concerning the lack of MagSafe on the iPhone 16e and it’s now crickets.

See iPhone 17e at Apple