Hi there,

Some years, the home gadgets category is all incremental upgrades: a slightly better lock, a slightly quieter fan. This was not one of those years.

Exhibit A: the Kohler Dekoda. It clamps onto your toilet bowl and uses optical sensors to track hydration, gut health, and—I’ll just say it—what’s in your stool, sending the results straight to an app.

Lighting had its moment too, and Govee earned it. The brand walked away from CES with multiple awards this year, and its Uplighter Floor Lamp is basically three lamps in one: mood lighting, a reading light, and a customizable glow that syncs to music if you’re the type. Its Outdoor Solar String Lights round it out—281 trillion color combinations, which I have to assume no one actually needs, and yet it feels exactly as necessary as good personalized tech should.

Digital frames are nothing new or spectacular… but this one is. The Homture AI Magic Frame doesn’t just display your photos; it animates them. A wave becomes a wave again, a sunset actually sets, old black-and-whites get colorized. Hint, hint for anyone getting an early start on holiday shopping—this is the gift I’ll be recommending for parents or grandparents this year.

On the more practical side: the Midea Cube rethought what a dehumidifier can be, with a tank big enough that you can forget it’s running for days.

And lastly, two names earned their keep for the long haul: Bemis, 125 years in and still the toilet seat we trust, and Kwikset, 80 years deep and still the lock we count on.

Some of these gadgets are things we obsess over. Some we’d never think to upgrade until we did. (Yes, I’m talking about the Kohler Dekoda again.) Either way, they’re the stuff daily life is actually made of—so it’s worth checking the full roundup here.

Thanks for reading,

Leigh Harrington

Executive Editor, Reviewed