AI Devices: A Buyer's Guide for People Who Don't Want To Be First
The consumer AI hardware on the shelf at JB Hi-Fi right now: what is genuinely useful, what is creepy, and what your phone already does for free.
Until recently, AI meant software. You signed up for ChatGPT, you typed at it, you closed the tab. In 2026, AI is also a thing on the shelf. Note-takers in your pocket, transcription pendants on a lanyard, glasses that listen, translation earbuds, the AI button on a Logitech mouse, the Galaxy AI tier on a Samsung phone, the smart camera in your child's nursery. Most of you have touched at least one of these without realising it was AI.
This page is a curated buyer's guide. The list is not exhaustive. I have left out everything that is bleeding-edge, hard to find in Australia, or only a phone app pretending to be a device. Every entry comes with the same four lenses:
- Wow. What is genuinely interesting. The thing that makes you go "oh, that's clever."
- The old-fashioned way. What you can already do with the phone in your pocket, or with a much cheaper bit of kit. Often most of the way there.
- Time and cost reality. The actual saving the device gives you, in minutes per task and dollars per year, not the marketing version.
- Yes, but. Where it falls short, where it leaks data, where it is socially awkward, where the company has a bad track record.
Each entry ends with a price in Australian dollars (April 2026, rounded, expect drift) and a verdict. The verdicts are: skip, maybe, yes, with care, and yes. There are not many yeses.
Quick links: AI Glasses · Note-takers · Translation Earbuds · AI in Your Phone · Smart Cameras · Smart Home and Office · Famous Flops · Bottom line
AI Glasses
The glasses category is the one being marketed at you the hardest right now. Every airport billboard, every YouTube pre-roll. The pitch is: leave your phone in your pocket, ask the world a question with your face. The reality, as I see it, is more complicated. I find them creepy, not because of the technology but because of the social contract they break. A camera and a microphone aimed at the people in front of you, with a status light so small that the people in front of you cannot reliably tell when you are recording. Until that changes, I am staying clear. Your call may be different. Here is what is on the shelf.
Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarers (Gen 2)
Wayfarer-style sunglasses with hidden camera, microphones and Meta AI on board.
Wow. You look at a French menu and the glasses translate it without you reaching for a phone. You can ask the on-board AI what plant you are looking at. You can take a photo by tapping the frame. The audio is good enough that they double as headphones for a podcast on a walk.
The old-fashioned way. Your phone already does almost all of this. Google Translate's camera mode overlays the translation onto a menu in real time. Google Lens identifies plants. The camera takes photos. The thing the glasses save you is the act of pulling the phone out of your pocket. About two seconds.
Time and cost reality. If you take ten "I wonder what that is" lookups in a typical week, the glasses save you twenty seconds a week. Over a year, you have saved seventeen minutes. The Wayfarers cost about A$549. That is roughly A$32 per minute saved. The pitch only really clears the bar for use cases where pulling a phone out is genuinely impossible: riding a motorbike, hands full with a child, photographing wildlife.
Yes, but. Microphones and a camera, always near other people. The recording light is small and easy to miss. In Australia, recording another person's private conversation without consent is illegal in most states (Victoria's Surveillance Devices Act 1999, for example). Meta's privacy track record speaks for itself, and the AI features require sending audio and photos to Meta's servers. I find them creepy. If you wear them, please think about where and when.
Ray-Ban Meta Display
The Wayfarer-with-AI, plus a small in-lens display visible only to the wearer, controlled by a wristband sensor that reads finger gestures.
Wow. Walking directions floating in your peripheral vision. Subtitles for the person speaking to you, in your own language or translated. Reading messages without looking at your phone. The wristband is genuinely clever; pinching your fingers acts as a click without your hand looking like it is doing anything.
The old-fashioned way. A phone in your pocket on a long screen. A smartwatch on your wrist. Earphones whispering directions. None of these are as elegant as a HUD. None of them are as expensive either.
Time and cost reality. Marginally faster than a phone for navigation and notifications. The real time-saving comes if you are someone who needs hands-free reading constantly, like a tradesperson with notes between bolts. For everyone else, it is a luxury, not a productivity tool.
Yes, but. Same camera and microphone concerns as the standard Wayfarer, doubled. Plus battery life that drops sharply when the display is on. Plus the social weirdness of having a screen between you and the person you are talking to. Plus the price.
XReal Air 2 / Air 2 Ultra
Display-only smart glasses. No camera, no microphones aimed at the world. They project a virtual screen in front of you.
Wow. A 130-inch virtual cinema on a long-haul flight. A second monitor for your laptop on a hotel desk. They tether to a phone or a Mac and act as a wearable display.
The old-fashioned way. A laptop screen. An iPad. A real monitor at home. A book on the plane.
Time and cost reality. If you genuinely travel with a laptop and want a second screen on the plane or in a hotel, the glasses earn their keep. If you are at home most of the time, a real monitor is sharper, cheaper, and more comfortable.
Yes, but. Less creepy than the Meta line because there is no camera or world-facing microphone. Still odd to wear in public. Battery is your phone or laptop's, so you are tethered to a cable. Resolution is good but not as crisp as a real OLED screen.
Note-takers and Dictation
This is the category I find most genuinely useful. The pitch is simple: a small device records your meeting or your walking thoughts, sends the audio to a transcription service, and a few minutes later a clean transcript with action items lands in an app. There is no "wow plus skepticism" gap here, the wow is the saving. The skepticism is about consent (always tell other people they are being recorded), data handling, and whether the device adds enough over a phone app to justify itself.
Plaud Note (and NotePin)
A credit-card-thin voice recorder that magnetically attaches to the back of your phone, plus a clip-on pendant variant. Records audio and a paid app turns it into transcripts and AI summaries.
Wow. Tap the device to start a recording. Walk into a meeting. Tap to stop. Twenty minutes later, your phone has a clean transcript, a one-paragraph summary, and a list of action items, written in plain English. The hardware is dumb on purpose. The intelligence runs on Plaud's servers using OpenAI's models.
The old-fashioned way. Your phone already records audio. Otter.ai, Fireflies, Fathom and others transcribe and summarise. The free tier of Otter does most of what Plaud's paid tier does, using your phone's microphone.
Time and cost reality. The real saving is form factor, not capability. Pulling a phone out, finding the app, hitting record, putting the phone face-up on the table sends a clear "I am recording you" message. A small recorder on the back of your phone or on your jacket is faster, and people can ignore it once you have flagged it. If you take three meetings a week and dictate notes between them, the time saved on cleanup over a year is in the tens of hours. Worth it. The downsides: ongoing subscription (about A$30 per month for the Pro tier on top of the device) and a hard ceiling on monthly transcription minutes.
Yes, but. Two things. First, consent. In Australia you must inform the other parties on a private call or in a private meeting that you are recording. Recording someone without their consent is illegal in most states. Second, data. Plaud sends audio to its own servers and to OpenAI for processing. Do not record anything you would not be comfortable with a third party reading. No medical, legal, or HR conversations.
Limitless Pendant
A small wearable that listens to everything around you all day, on consent, and feeds the audio to an app that becomes a searchable record of your conversations and ideas.
Wow. "What did Mark say about the kitchen renovation?" returns the actual quote. "Summarise my Tuesday" gives you a one-paragraph diary. The pitch is a memory you do not have to maintain.
The old-fashioned way. A notebook. A daily five-minute voice memo on your phone. The Notes app. None of these capture as much, but they capture the things you actively decided to keep, which is most of the value.
Time and cost reality. If you genuinely cannot remember conversations and find yourself searching for them, the saving is real. If you mostly want better notes from meetings, a Plaud Note covers more of the value with less of the cost.
Yes, but. The big one. Always-on listening, even with consent toggles, is a different category of device from a meeting recorder. Everyone you speak to becomes a participant in your data collection. The legal terrain is unsettled. The social terrain is plain awkward. Apps fail. Subscriptions lapse. The product was bought by a larger company in 2025 and the future of the service is unclear.
Translation Earbuds and Devices
This is the category where the wow is most easily out-competed by the phone in your pocket. Every flagship phone in 2026 has live translation built in, both in-app and through earbuds. A dedicated translation device or a translation-focused earbud has to clear a high bar.
Timekettle X1
Two earbuds in a charging case. You give one to the person you are talking to, you keep the other, and each side hears the other in their own language with about a one-second delay.
Wow. Genuine bilingual conversation without a phone in the middle. The two-earbud "you keep one, they keep one" form factor solves the social awkwardness of having to pass a phone back and forth. Forty languages, mostly accurate.
The old-fashioned way. Google Translate's conversation mode on your phone, with the speaker turned up. Pixel Buds with Live Translate, if you have a Pixel. Apple Translate on iOS. All of these are free with hardware you already own.
Time and cost reality. If you travel internationally three times a year and want fluent restaurant, taxi, and shop conversations, the X1 is faster and more elegant than passing a phone back and forth. If you travel once a year, your phone does the job for free.
Yes, but. Asking a stranger to wear an earbud you have just taken out of your own ear is a moment. Some people will say yes. Some will not. Battery life is fine for the day but not heroic. The translation quality on less common languages drops noticeably.
Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 (with Live Translate)
Google's premium earbuds, with live translation built into the Pixel and supported on most modern Android phones.
Wow. The other person speaks, and you hear it in your own language through the earbuds. You speak, and your phone speaker plays a translation for them. No additional device required, no asking strangers to share an earbud.
The old-fashioned way. Google Translate on the phone screen, conversation mode. Free, no earbuds needed.
Time and cost reality. The earbuds are general-purpose audio. The translation feature is the bonus. If you were going to buy good earbuds anyway, the Live Translate is essentially free. If you are buying them only for translation, a phone-only workflow does most of the same thing.
Yes, but. Best results are on a Pixel, slightly less polished on other Android phones, not available on iPhone. Battery life on the earbuds is the usual six hours. Privacy: Google processes the audio in the cloud.
AI in Your Phone (You Already Own One)
Worth saying clearly: the most capable AI device you can buy in 2026 is a current-generation phone. Apple Intelligence on the iPhone, Galaxy AI on Samsung's flagships, Gemini on Pixel. All three do summaries, translation, photo cleanup, voice notes, and on-device assistance. None of them require a separate gadget. If you have replaced your phone in the last two years, you are mostly there.
Apple Intelligence (iPhone 17, iPad, M-series Macs)
Apple's on-device AI layer. Writing tools, smart summaries in Mail and Messages, Visual Intelligence (point the camera, ask a question), an upgraded Siri that hands off to ChatGPT for harder questions.
Wow. Most of the model runs on the phone. Photo cleanup that erases the photobomber from a holiday snap is a genuine click-of-a-button feature now. Visual Intelligence does the "what is this plant" job that the Meta glasses charge A$549 for, with the device you already own.
The old-fashioned way. A non-AI phone from three years ago. A pen and paper. Asking someone.
Time and cost reality. If you have an iPhone 16 or 17, you have most of this for free. The case for upgrading purely for Apple Intelligence is weak. The case for using it heavily once you have it is strong.
Yes, but. The ChatGPT handoff for harder questions sends data to OpenAI. Apple says it is private and unlinked, and it asks before each handoff. Read the prompt before you tap.
Galaxy AI (Samsung Galaxy S26 and Tab series)
Samsung's AI layer, deeply integrated with Google's Gemini. Live Translate on calls, Circle to Search, generative photo editing, AI-summarised browsing.
Wow. Translating a phone call as it happens, both sides, in real time. Drawing a circle around something on the screen and asking what it is. Object removal from photos that actually works.
The old-fashioned way. An older Samsung. Google Translate as an app. Photoshop. Asking the person on the call to slow down.
Time and cost reality. If you already have a Samsung flagship from 2024 onwards, most of this is included with software updates. New device cost is A$1500 plus, which is not a small ask just for AI features.
Yes, but. A few of the Galaxy AI features have moved to a paid Samsung subscription. Read which features are bundled and which are extra before you assume everything in the marketing video is included.
Smart Cameras and Creators
The camera category is where AI-on-the-device is most invisible and most useful. The features happen in the background. You point and shoot. The device picks the best frame, removes the duck that walked through your shot, stitches your hour of holiday footage into a watchable two-minute reel.
Insta360 X4 (and AI Highlights)
A pocket-sized 360-degree camera with AI-driven auto-edit. You record everything, the app picks the best moments and assembles a polished reel.
Wow. An hour of family ski-trip footage becomes a watchable two-minute clip with music, transitions, and the bits where someone fell over highlighted, in about three minutes of phone time. The device records in 360, so you can re-frame any shot after the fact.
The old-fashioned way. A regular phone or GoPro and an hour of editing in CapCut. The hour is the part the AI saves.
Time and cost reality. If you produce video content for fun or for work, the auto-edit is genuinely the difference between "I'll get to the holiday video next month" and "here's the holiday video, watch it now". Saves hours per trip. If you film about twice a year, your phone is fine.
Yes, but. The "auto" edit gets you 80% of the way. The last 20% you still do yourself if you care. The 360 file sizes are large; expect to think about storage.
Cubo Ai Plus baby monitor
A camera over the cot with on-device AI that watches for the baby's face being covered, the baby rolling onto its stomach before it should be able to, or the baby being out of the cot entirely.
Wow. A second pair of eyes that does not get tired. Real, specific alerts ("face is covered") rather than generic motion detection. Useful in those weeks when a new parent is making real decisions on three hours of sleep.
The old-fashioned way. A regular video monitor. A motion-detection generic camera. Standing up and walking down the hall. Australian paediatric guidance is that nothing replaces safe sleep practices, no AI camera included.
Time and cost reality. Reduces the number of times you walk down the hall in the night to check. Worth it for many parents in the early months. Less compelling once the baby is older and a regular video stream is enough.
Yes, but. Cloud storage for clips is a paid subscription. The "AI saves your baby" framing in the marketing is overcooked; treat it as a useful supplement, never a substitute for safe-sleep guidelines.
Smart Home and Office
This is the category where AI is most often a sticker on a box rather than a real change in capability. Most "AI fridges" and "AI televisions" are existing features with a marketing rebrand. A few real ones below.
Logitech MX Master 4 (with AI Prompt Builder button)
A premium computer mouse with a programmable button mapped to Logi AI Prompt Builder, a desktop panel that runs your highlighted text through a chosen AI model.
Wow. Highlight a paragraph in any app, click the button on the mouse, get a "rewrite this", "summarise this", "translate this" or "change the tone" panel. Saves a copy-paste into a chatbot tab.
The old-fashioned way. A keyboard shortcut. A free desktop AI launcher like Raycast or BoltAI. The browser tab you already have open.
Time and cost reality. Two seconds saved per AI lookup. Adds up if you use AI for writing constantly. Otherwise, this is a A$229 mouse with a software feature you can install for free.
Yes, but. The mouse itself is excellent. The AI button is a nice-to-have, not a reason to buy. Buy it because the MX Master is the best mouse on the market for desk work, and treat the AI part as bonus.
Boox Note Air 4 C (with on-device AI)
An e-reader that also runs Android apps and includes an AI summariser for documents you load onto it. Reads PDFs, EPUBs, Kindle books, takes handwritten notes.
Wow. Drop a 200-page report onto the device. Tap "summarise". Read the summary on the e-ink screen with no glare in bright sunlight. Take handwritten notes that the AI converts to typed text and indexes.
The old-fashioned way. Kindle plus your phone. NotebookLM in your browser. A real notebook.
Time and cost reality. Genuine value if you read a lot of long-form work documents and want them away from your computer screen. Niche but powerful for the right reader.
Yes, but. The colour e-ink is washed out compared to a real screen. The AI feature requires sending text to a cloud service. The Android-on-an-e-reader experience is occasionally janky.
Famous Flops and Cautionary Tales
The hype machine produces a lot of products that look like the future and end up in the bin. Three worth knowing about, because they are useful as a warning sign for the next round.
Humane AI Pin
A small wearable that pinned to your shirt, with a camera, microphone, laser projector and full-time cellular connection. Pitched as the "post-phone" device. Discontinued in 2025 after HP acquired the company and shut the service down.
Worth knowing about because the Humane AI Pin had everything: glowing reviews from tech journalists, a Bono cameo, a launch event with the Apple-launch energy. It also had a battery problem (it overheated), a software problem (slow, often wrong), and a reason-to-exist problem (your phone already did all of this, faster). Six months after launch, the company that paid US$700 for one had a bricked piece of jewellery. The lesson, when the next AI Pin launches: be the second buyer, not the first.
Rabbit R1
A bright orange handheld AI assistant launched in 2024 with a Teenage Engineering design and a "large action model" pitch. Still on sale. Still underwhelming.
The Rabbit R1 was supposed to be the device that booked your Uber, ordered your dinner, and managed your calendar through natural language. In practice, two years on, it does very little that your phone does not do better, and the "large action model" turned out to mostly be a thin wrapper around a few existing services. The hardware is genuinely lovely. The software has not caught up to the promise. The R1 is the canonical example of "great industrial design plus an AI sticker, sold at a premium". Buy a phone.
Moxie (Embodied)
A friendly desk-sized robot for children, designed to support social and emotional learning. Embodied, the company that made it, ceased operations in late 2024. The robots in homes stopped working when the cloud service shut down.
Hardest of the three to write about, because Moxie was a thoughtful product that helped real children, including some on the autism spectrum, with social skills. When the company collapsed and the cloud service was shut down, the robots in homes simply stopped responding. Children who had bonded with the robot lost it overnight. The lesson is uncomfortable but unavoidable: any device whose intelligence lives on a server is a device that can be turned off by the company that sold it. Read the terms. Ask what happens to your device if the service ends. Be especially careful giving cloud-tethered AI products to children.
Bottom line
If I had A$500 for AI hardware right now and was starting from scratch, the order would be: a current phone first (you mostly have one), then a Plaud Note if you take a lot of meetings, then a pair of Pixel Buds Pro 2 or AirPods Pro if you do not have decent earbuds, then a 360-camera if you make video. That is most of the consumer-AI device shelf at JB Hi-Fi covered, for less than a thousand dollars total, with most of the value in the device you already carry.
The category I would skip until something changes: glasses with cameras and microphones aimed at the people in front of you. The privacy and social problems are not solved by a brighter LED. When that changes, this page will too.
If you have an AI device on your desk that I have not covered, or you have used one of these and disagree with my take, let me know through the feedback link. The list is curated, not exhaustive, and the takes get sharper when readers correct them.