Hi-Power: 12 Best Tech EDC Essentials

It’s no secret that technology has fundamentally changed what we carry every day. Twenty years ago, EDC meant nothing but analogue gear — we’re talking wallets, pens, knives, etc. And while we still love that analogue gear (perhaps even more so today), a lot has changed in the past few decades.

Now we’re carrying literal computers in our pockets, backing up terabytes to drives the size of credit cards, and wearing cameras on our faces without thinking twice about it.

And today we want to hone in a bit more on this tech-powered everyday carry gear, a guide full of gadgets that are worth a second look. As always, this isn’t a prescribed kit. Just a quick-hitting collection of EDC gadgets we’ve actually used and think you might appreciate too.

So without further ado, let’s dive into some of the tech EDC  on the market.

GRAMS28 173 Vertical Sling

This week’s sponsor GRAMS28 approaches carry gear like an engineer designing a modular system, and their 173 Vertical Sling puts this philosophy on full display. And, it was designed specifically for hauling your tech EDC.

Today, we got hands-on with Version 2.0, which is GRAMS28 once again listening to user feedback to help perfect their packs. The sling got a nice little size bump and a redesigned interior with better pocket organization. 

At 5.2″ wide by 7.8″ tall by 3.3″ deep, it’s dimensioned specifically for modern carry — your iPhone 16 Pro Max slides into the front buckle-secured pocket, while the dual-zip main compartment was designed for other tech accesses like a digital camera, portable chargers, and of course additional items like your wallet, passport, and other daily essentials. The interior layout includes slip pockets of varying depths, a small mesh pouch, and a drop pocket that’s sized perfectly for an AirTag.

The leather comes from Gruppo Mastrotto’s tannery in Adria, Italy, which is a carbon-neutral operation that’s consistently gold-rated by the Leather Working Group. We’ve always appreciated the brands use of this Italian pebbled bovine hide, as it breaks in beautifully without losing its structure, and the natural grain variations patina nicely over time. 

The Cobra-inspired buckle out front features a brass quick-release mechanism that allows easy access to the front pocket while also serving as a solid design signature.

The included 38mm strap adjusts from 105cm to 165cm with a smooth-sliding buckle system, and the 360-degree swivel hooks are helpful for preventing tangling when you’re constantly moving. 

If you want to take the modularity further, GRAMS28 offers the 38mm Basic Strap Plus with an additional D-ring for chest-level accessories, and their Strap Attachment Kit Plus adds camera anchor links, keychains, and phone strap plates that turn the whole system into a customizable carry hub.

Each sling is backed by a lifetime warranty, and is available in either black pebbled leather, navy blue, or dark green.

Plaud Note Pro

While many of us use AI software for recording virtual meetings, AI voice recording is still trying to find its footing in hardware form — and Plaud’s Note Pro makes a compelling case for why this category deserves to exist. The San Francisco-based company took its credit card-sized voice recorder concept and added the one thing the original Note was missing: a screen.

The Note Pro measures 3.37″ x 2.13″ x 0.12″ and weighs just 1.06oz, sliding into any wallet slot or attaching magnetically to your phone’s back. The 0.95-inch AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass protection gives you recording confirmation, battery status at 600 nits brightness, and playback controls without ever having to pull out your phone. A feature that we were a bit skeptical about, but found to be quite convenient in practice.

The hardware centers on four MEMS mics plus a VPU that delivers smart dual-mode recording. Enhance mode captures voices from 16.4 feet away for 30 hours straight. Endurance mode scales back to 9.8 feet but pushes runtime to 50 hours on the 500mAh battery. The Plaud Note Pro can also automatically distinguish between in-person conversations and phone calls, switching seamlessly when magnetically attached to your device.

Where this separates from your phone’s voice memo app is on the backend. Plaud Intelligence runs on GPT-5, Claude Sonnet 4, and Gemini 2.5 Pro to generate transcriptions with speaker tagging, summaries, mind maps, and AutoFlow workflows that handle transcription, summarization, and delivery in 27+ formats automatically. And, the “Ask Plaud” feature turns recordings into searchable databases.

One thing worth noting is that it does run on a freemium model, so your first 300 minutes are free, but you’ll have to explore subscriptions options after that. 

G-SHOCK DW-H5600-1

Casio’s G-SHOCK has spent four decades proving you can’t kill a square case with resin armor, and you can count us amongst the cohort of square enthusiasts for this very reason. The DW-H5600 is what happens when the brand finally drags the beloved 5600 series into the fitness tracking era. This is G-SHOCK Move — a “smart” watch made possible thanks to their partnership with Polar, bringing heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and workout metrics to the indestructible form factor so many know and love.

Right off the bat, you’ll notice the dial is super crisp and legible in really any condition, including direct sunlight. And that comes courtesy of the Memory in Pixel (MIP) LCD display, which replaces the traditional LCD with a screen. It also features an auto-illuminating LED backlight that, like many other G-SHOCKS, can be extended to five seconds. The case measures 44.5mm across with a 51.1mm lug-to-lug and 17.4mm thickness at 59g, and can be seen here on our wearer’s 6.75” wrist. It’s built from bio-based resin with Carbon Core Guard structure, and of course it’s both shock resistant, and 200m water resistant.

The sensor array tracks wrist-based heart rate (30-220 bpm with zone indicators), sleep recovery across six stages, blood oxygen levels, and step count via 3-axis accelerometer. Multi-sport modes cover running, walking, gym workouts, and interval training with auto-lap and auto-pause. The activity log stores up to 100 runs with 200 laps each. And on the recovery end, sleep measurement breaks down recovery stages and assigns sleep scores from 1 to 100.

Power comes from a solar-assisted rechargeable battery that uses a funky, proprietary clip charger that feels almost like a mini jumper cable. With continuous heart rate monitoring enabled, you can expect about five to seven days between charges. The Bluetooth smartphone link handles auto time adjustment, notifications, moon data, and world time across 38 cities.

Nothing Ear 3 earbuds

It’s no secret we’re big fans of London-based Nothing, and their recently released Ear 3 pushes their flagship buds into more refined territory. The signature see-through aesthetic we all know and love remains intact, but the case now uses 100% recycled aluminum for the base layer. And while it does add some more heft to the package, they do feel a bit more premium. 

The standout addition is the Super Mic, which is essentially a dual-microphone system built into the charging case that activates via a dedicated Talk button. And as we’ve discussed in previous videos, the call quality rivals using your phone’s built-in mic, and Nothing claims it isolates your voice in environments up to 95dB. Each earbud also packs three directional MEMS mics plus a bone-conduction VPU that detects jaw vibrations for voice pickup. 

Sound comes from upgraded 12mm dynamic drivers with a patterned diaphragm delivering 20% larger radiating area, which translates to a 4-6dB boost in bass with treble up to 4dB. The tuning skews V-shaped and punchy out of the box, but the Nothing X app offers an 8-band Advanced Equalizer with frequency value selection and Q factor control. Adaptive ANC caps at 45dB and adjusts every 600 milliseconds, though as we’ve previously mentioned, it’s not quite Sony WF-1000XM5 territory.

Connectivity runs Bluetooth 5.4 plus Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair. Battery life is solid, hitting 10 hours per charge with ANC off (38 hours total with case), dropping to 5.5 hours with ANC on. And to ensure this can take some real world abuse, the buds and case are both IP54-rated.

Ridge Magnetic Power Bank

At this point, everyone in the EDC space knows Ridge. The brand made its name with minimalist wallets, but over the last few years, they’ve started expanding more aggressively into new categories.

The Magnetic Power Bank brings that same minimalist approach to portable charging. It’s a 10,000mAh battery that basically tries to handle everything — MagSafe wireless on the front, built-in USB-C and Lightning cables, an Apple Watch charging pad, and a kickstand that props your phone up while it charges.

The case measures 4.13″ × 2.69″ × 0.64″ at 7.37oz with a matte finish. MagSafe delivers up to 15W wireless (though it does feel closer to 10W in practice), while the built-in cables push 20W via USB-C and 12W through Lightning. There’s a USB-C port on the bottom for recharging the bank, plus an LED display showing battery percentage.

It works well if your devices line up with what Ridge designed for — that lightning cable is a bit of wasted real estate if you’ve already moved to USB-C everything. The magnetic grip holds strong, the kickstand angle is solid for watching videos, and having cables built in means you’re not digging through your bag. You’ll get about two full phone charges from the 10,000mAh capacity, maybe three if you stretch it.

Nomad Goods ChargeKey V2

Nomad Goods has quite the eye for well-designed tech gear, and the ChargeKey V2 is their answer to the eternal problem of never having a cable when you need one. It’s a USB-C to USB-C cable that’s been shrunk down to fit on your keyring — essentially 4.72″ of usable cable length with a total height of 3″ when closed.

The construction uses braided nylon for the cable itself with electroplated zinc housings on both ends. Those zinc tips have integrated magnets so they snap together when you’re not using it, keeping the cable from flopping around on your keys. The finish is satin smooth, and the whole thing weighs almost nothing.

The ChargeKey V2 supports USB 3.1 data transfer at 10Gbps and charging up to 240W. That means you can actually use this for serious work – shooting ProRes video on an iPhone and editing directly from an external SSD, or moving high-res photo libraries without waiting around. It’ll also fast charge your phone just fine, but it’s built to handle more than just emergency top-ups.

Analogue Pocket

We’ve long admired Analogue’s approach to gaming, putting modern, minimalist design at the forefront while still providing that nostalgic experience we love about playing all of our favorite childhood games.

The brand has been reverse-engineering classic gaming hardware since 2011, and the Pocket is their answer to portable retro gaming. And this isn’t emulation running on generic chips — it’s actually built around two FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) that recreate original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance hardware at the silicon level. Straight out of the box, it plays the entire 2,780+ cartridge library from those systems, plus it works with adapters for Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, TurboGrafx-16, and Atari Lynx.

The centerpiece is that beautiful 3.5-inch LCD with 1600×1440 resolution at 615 ppi — it’s 10x the resolution of an original Game Boy. Gorilla Glass protects it, and the display modes can simulate original hardware quirks like backlight LCD effects, pixel grids, and subpixel patterns if you want that authentic look. For GB and GBC games, the clarity is unmatched. GBA games get letterboxed due to the screen’s aspect ratio, which bothers some people, but the form factor prioritizes the square Game Boy format.

The hardware feels premium in hand, the minimalist design available in black or white with a mint green power button accent that doubles as a coffee table accessory when you’re done playing. It also features USB-C charging, 3.5mm headphone jack, stereo speakers, and an original-style Game Boy link port for trading Pokémon the way we did in the ’90s. Battery hits 6-10 hours depending on usage, and the sleep mode lets you pause mid-game without hunting for save points.

It is worth mentioning that no Bluetooth means you’re stuck with wired headphones or buying Analogue’s $120 Dock for wireless controllers and TV output. The Pocket also includes Nanoloop, a built-in digital audio workstation for music creation, which is a bonus if you’re into that scene.

At $220, the Analogue Pocket is the most premium way to play original cartridges. And while it’s perpetually sold out, it’s legitimately beautiful hardware, and for us, it’s the best retro handheld out there.

Rolling Square AirCard Pro

Bluetooth trackers solved the problem of losing stuff, but Apple’s AirTag created a new one — it’s round. Rolling Square’s AirCard Pro fixes that by making a tracker that’s actually shaped like the thing you’re trying to put it in: your wallet. It measures 2.13″ x 3.37″ x 0.09″ – basically credit card dimensions but about twice as thick, and it weighs 0.71oz.

The black version works with Apple’s Find My network (there’s a white version for Android’s Find Hub), so it pings nearby devices to show you its last known location. Unlike an AirTag, there’s no Precision Finding to guide you within inches, but the integrated speaker is noticeably louder, making it easier to track down in crowded places. The Find My app triggers the tone, and from there it’s just following the sound.

Construction uses CNC machined aluminum frame with G10 epoxy fiberglass resin. The see-through design shows off the internals, and there’s a 220mAh battery inside that charges wirelessly on any Qi pad. Rolling Square claims 12 months of battery life per charge, and early testing backs that up. Drop it on a MagSafe charger once and you’re set for the year.

The QR code on the exterior links to a Sherr.it digital ID where you can store contact info — essentially turning it into a business card that also tracks your wallet. The NFC tag underneath does the same thing, though it’s inconsistent and often requires multiple taps to register. The QR code works every time. And, it also includes RFID blocking, which is handy if you’re worried about card skimming.

SAMSUNG T9 2TB

Samsung’s T7 has been the workhorse portable SSD for content creators (ourselves included) for years, and the T9 takes everything that made it great and pushes it further. The two big upgrades are both protection and sustained speed under load.

At a quick glance, you’ll notice the T9 adds a rugged, rubberized frame with a textured wave pattern that’s drop-rated to 9.8ft. We’ve experienced first-hand the T7’s slick metal housing sliding out of your hand and smacking onto the nearest surface with nothing to cushion it. And this new coating adds grip and real protection here. It is slightly bigger though, measuring in at 3.5″ x 2.4″ x 0.6″ and 4.3oz, but we think the tradeoff is worth the durability.

The speed ceiling doubled to 2,000MB/s read and 1,950MB/s write over USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, though most laptops don’t support that standard yet. What matters more is how it handles heat during long transfers. The T7 would drop to 400-500MB/s once it warmed up. The T9 uses Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage temps and holds speeds above 900MB/s even on a MacBook Pro over Thunderbolt 3 – which is well above what the T7 could sustain.

It ships with USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to USB-A cables, works across Windows, Mac, and Android out of the box, and includes Samsung Magician software for drive health monitoring. AES 256-bit hardware encryption is built in with a five-year warranty.

It’s also available in your choice of 1TB ($140), 2TB ($240), and 4TB ($440) options.

Leica Sofort 2

Look, we all know Leica’s the real deal — used by legends from Cartier-Bresson to Walker Evans.  So we definitely understand how recommending what enthusiasts call a reskinned Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo at the double price can feel a bit strange at first. But here’s the thing: the Sofort 2 is a lot of fun, and if you’re a Leica enthusiast, it’s hard to argue the value proposition. Because at the end of the day, you’re still buying the Red Dot.

This is a hybrid shooter — it captures 4.9MP digital files while giving you the option to print on Leica instant film or Fujifilm Instax Mini packs. The Sofort 2 measures 3.43″ × 4.84″ × 1.73″ at 11.29oz, built from polycarbonate with a 3-inch LCD and a Leica Summar f/2 lens at 2.4mm (28mm equivalent). The 1/5-inch CMOS sensor works in ISO 100-1600 range with shutter speeds from 1/4 to 1/8000 second, focusing down to 10cm. Internal storage holds 45 images, which is also expandable via microSD.

Using the camera is dead simple; you shoot the photo, review it on the LCD, then pull the manual lever to print. It takes about 16 seconds for the image to eject and two minutes to develop. You get 10 film styles and 10 lens styles (vignette, fisheye, double exposure) that bake into the final image. The Leica FOTOS app connects via Bluetooth for remote control or sending images from your phone to print.

Battery life hits around 100 prints per charge with USB-C recharging. The image quality definitely won’t compete with your iPhone — soft edges, noise in low light — but that’s also not really the point. One to note is that the prints do look better than the digital files.

At $400, it’s certainly on the premium end of the spectrum for this sort of camera, and Leica’s instant film will set you back another $30 for 20 sheets. But, if you can come to terms that it’s essentially an expensive toy (and it’s still a Leica), then it’s definitely money well spent.

Moft Snap Phone Tripod Stand Wallet MOVAS

Moft’s been making origami-inspired phone and laptop stands for nearly a decade, and the Snap Phone Tripod Stand Wallet took home a Red Dot Design Award last year for packing wallet, stand, and tripod functionality into a compact 0.37″ of MOVAS vegan leather. 

Unpacking that functionality here, the tripod mode unfolds into a stable platform for video calls, vlogging, or even hands-free shooting. Floating mode works great for watching content, stand mode handles FaceTime calls, and vlogging mode gives you that elevated perspective for filming. We found the hinge is solid enough to hold position on hard surfaces, though uneven ground does create a bit of wobble.

The wallet still holds two cards with tap-to-pay support through the cover. It is worth noting that getting cards in and out is a bit tight — by design — and based on our experience with other Moft products over the years, we’re hopeful the pocket won’t stretch out much over time. MagSafe attachment is strong enough to keep the phone secure during angle adjustments, and Moft even includes a metal ring with 3M adhesive for non-MagSafe phones or cases.

Weighing in at 3.32oz, it is heavier than the standard wallet version but adds real tripod capability with 8 inches of elevation and 0° to 85° angle adjustment – which is great for filming on the go. Unfortunately ,as with other Moft MagSafe wallets, wireless charging doesn’t work with it attached – there’s simply too much material between your phone and the pad.

At $50, it’s $20 more than the standard Moft wallet but justified if you’re shooting content regularly. It competes more directly with Peak Design’s MagSafe tripod, which offers more stability and height but less everyday portability.

Meta Ray-Ban Wayfarer Gen-2 Sunglasses

Smart glasses have been a punchline since Google Glass, but Meta’s Ray-Ban Wayfarer Gen 2 is trying to make the case for cameras and AI on your face. These look like the regular Wayfarers we all know and love — matte black frames with gradient graphite polarized lenses — but pack a 12MP ultra-wide camera, discreet open-ear speakers, a 5-mic array, and 32GB of storage into 51 grams.

The big upgrade from Gen 1 is battery life. Meta doubled it to 8 hours of mixed use, with the charging case adding 48 more hours. The camera shoots 3K Ultra HD video at 30fps plus 1080p at 60fps, with stabilization. Photos hit 3024×4032 pixels, which isn’t going to rival your iPhone quality, but still a cool feature nonetheless. A small LED light also shows when you’re recording.

As you may have guessed, Meta AI runs voice commands — you can ask about landmarks, get live translation between six languages, identify objects, or get whispered directions. The 5-mic array blocks 90% of background noise on calls, and the open-ear speakers are loud without bleeding much audio when you’re wearing these in public. And, touch controls on the right arm handle playback.

The glasses work with the Meta AI app for managing settings and importing photos. App integration is currently limited to Apple Music, Spotify, Meta’s apps, and a few others — there’s no broader phone access yet. We found the AI to be pretty inconsistent; it’ll correctly identify one thing then completely guess wrong on the next. The frames are also prescription ready as well.

At $409 for matte black with polarized gradient graphite lenses, these are $80 more than Gen 1 but it feels justified by the battery upgrade. You are putting Meta on your face though, which comes with all the data privacy concerns that might entail.

On-The-Fly: 12 Best EDC Travel Gadgets

Planning your upcoming vacations? Check out our latest hands-on guide to some of our favorite EDC travel gadgets to take with you.