Yanko Design

Ultrasonic cutters have been a genuine revelation for makers. Running at 40,000 vibrations per second, the blade doesn’t force its way through material; it glides, leaving clean, precise edges on foam, leather, plastic, and 3D-printed parts. The SonicMax Slice 10 takes that concept further by going completely cordless and, more importantly, addressing the one frustration that has followed every similar tool: heat. The appeal of cutting without cords is obvious.

The gat is one of the more distinctive objects in Korean material culture. Woven from horsehair and bamboo and worn by scholars and noblemen during the Joseon Dynasty, it communicates social standing through form alone. Its silhouette, a tall cylindrical crown on a flat, wide brim, is immediately recognizable. What that shape might become in a different time is a question the GAT lamp was designed to answer.

If you’ve ever stared down a bulky kettle grill and thought there has to be a better way, Nomad seems to have been listening. Their newest release, the Rodeo Grill & Smoker, looks less like something you’d find at a backyard cookout and more like something a very cool architect would carry through an airport. It’s a full-size charcoal grill and smoker folded into a suitcase footprint, and it’s hard not to be a little captivated by it. The design concept isn’t new for Nomad.

The Mekong Delta has always lived by the rhythms of water. Its rivers rise and fall with the seasons, and the people who call this region home have spent generations learning to move with it rather than against it. But what happens when the water stops being seasonal and starts being permanent? That question sits at the heart of one of the most quietly radical housing concepts to come out of Southeast Asia in recent years: the Floating Bamboo House by Hanoi-based H&P Architects.

PROS: Distinctive design with bold color options Large, sharp display with anti-reflective treatment Excellent main and telephoto cameras CONS: Performance is not class-leading Weak cross-platform file sharing No clear update policy RATINGS: SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY EDITOR'S QUOTE: The Pura 90s Pro Max feels less like a safe flagship and more like a characterful one, which makes it easier to admire than to recommend without hesitation.

The desk lamp has been, essentially, a solved problem since Edison. A light source, a shade to direct it, and a switch. Every design evolution since then has adjusted the aesthetics or added a dimmer; the functional premise, that a lamp sits passively until pointed and switched, has remained largely untouched for more than a century. Watti is an attempt to challenge that premise at every level, simultaneously and on purpose.

The smartphone got away from us. What started as a communication tool is now an alarm clock, a boarding pass, a camera, a bank, a navigation system, a social anxiety machine, and a reason to check the time without ever actually knowing what time it is. The problem is not the phone. The problem is that the phone agreed to do everything, and now it does nothing particularly well. The products on this list make a quieter argument.

PROS: Striking design with ambient light effect when docked 120-day battery life greatly simplifies portability Effective whitening process combined with brushing CONS: Handle might be too large for some hands Very limited color options RATINGS: SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY EDITOR'S QUOTE: By making the whitening happen in the background, the Bixdo Glossonic Brush Air (W30) electric toothbrush doesn't overhaul a bathroom routine so much as quietly upgrade it.

The iMac G3’s translucent Bondi Blue shell sold 800,000 units in its first five months, which was Apple’s way of proving that exposing a computer’s internal geometry could be its single most compelling feature. Nothing put a transparent back on a phone in 2022 and made every other Android’s solid slab look like it had something to hide. Skeleton mechanical watches have been charging a premium for visible gear trains for centuries.

The Emeco Navy Officer Swivel Chair walked into the present carrying about 75 years of history on its brushed aluminum frame. That kind of backstory could easily become a liability for a piece of furniture. Heavy with nostalgia, locked into a moment, impossible to separate from its origins. But in the hands of Jasper Morrison, that history became the entire point. The original Navy Officer Chair appeared in 1948, and the reason it exists is genuinely worth knowing.