5 surprisingly powerful little gadgets

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Some of the most useful things in your home are small but mighty. Think sewing needles, paper clips, fridge magnets and box cutters. They may not be as big or powerful as your dishwasher and TV, but they’re just as necessary to your daily routine.

However, when it comes to tech devices, compact gadgets aren’t always everyone’s first choice. After all, performance usually comes in bulky form factors (Figure A: Gaming Laptops). That’s why you might normally overlook small gadgets and opt for bigger ones, thinking that miniature pieces of tech can’t fit all the chips and sensors needed to accomplish anything useful.

But with today’s technology, devices can actually be small enough to fit in your pocket and still be able to perform an impressive range of tasks. Here are five little gadgets that prove it. These devices range from niche tools to practical everyday essentials.

Measuring 3.95 x 1.58 x 1.01 inches, the Flipper Zero is the ultimate multi-tool for DIY electronics enthusiasts. It’s an open source device that may not look like much from the outside, but it’s actually packed with all sorts of useful features.

For one, it has a sub-1GHz transceiver on the side that can operate within a range of 164 feet. This can be useful for opening garage doors, working with IoT doorbells, and even controlling smart light bulbs. You will also find an infrared transceiver on the Flipper Zero. Infrared is the technology used in remote controls for stereo speakers, televisions and air conditioners. This means you can use this small but powerful device as a universal remote control for most of your devices. Conveniently, the Flipper Zero can also read and write RFID and NFC cards and tags. It is built with separate 125 kHz RFID and NFC modules. With these you can then save the card/tag data and use the Flipper Zero to share and emulate the card IDs.

If you like tinkering with hardware, Flipper Zero also includes a set of GPIO pins on the top. You can use these pins with the Flipper Zero’s built-in buttons and the 1.4″ monochrome LCD screen. To get the most out of the Flipper Zero, you can connect some accessories to it, such as a Wi-Fi development board, a video game module, and a prototyping board. In terms of battery life, the Flipper Zero is powered by a 2,100 mAh battery, which can last up to 28 days.

While some streaming devices sit on top of your TV stand and eat up valuable space, others can be neatly hidden behind the TV. One of them is the Roku Streaming Stick Plus. It measures 3.7 x 0.80 x 0.45 inches, small enough to not block any of your TV ports but powerful enough to enhance your viewing experience.

This pocket-sized streaming stick supports media streaming in HD, 4K, and HDR. If you don’t like binge-watching Netflix, you can also upgrade to one of the 500+ TV channels available on Roku for free. There are channels broadcast 24/7, so you can surely find something to watch. The Roku Streaming Stick Plus normally uses your TV’s built-in or connected speakers for audio. But when you need to listen privately, it also lets you pair Bluetooth headphones.

You can control the Roku Streaming Stick Plus with the Roku Voice Remote included in the box or the Roku mobile app on your phone. Both support D-pad control and intuitive voice commands like “Show me action movies,” “Find the Princess Diaries movie,” and “Open Apple TV+.” Other voice commands you can use include playback control (e.g. pause, rewind), TV control (e.g. adjust volume, switch HDMI inputs), and regular questions about movies/shows and actors. If you already have a Google Home, Amazon Alexa, or Apple HomeKit system, you can also control the Roku Streaming Stick Plus with your smart speaker/display. Just call up Google Assistant, Alexa, or Siri and speak your command, which is actually quite similar to Roku commands.

Action cameras are already designed to be portable, but the Insta360 Go 3S takes its portability up a notch by being as small as a thumb. It measures just 1.4 ounces and 1 x 2.1 x 1 inches, so there’s no problem taking it anywhere.

Although it’s a small gadget, it’s just as powerful as its larger counterparts. It has two built-in microphones and can shoot at 4K at 30fps. It also supports a maximum video frame rate of 1080p at 50 fps and photo resolutions of 2880 by 2880, 3968 by 1472, 4000 by 2250, and 4000 by 3000. Best of all, you can use this little action camera for portrait and landscape recording. To change the orientation, simply rotate the camera before starting the video.

The best part about the Insta360 Go 3S is that there are multiple ways to use it. You can shoot with the camera either attached to your shirt via the magnetic pendant, mounted on a wall with the swivel bracket, or clipped to a hat or pet collar. Just press the button on the front to start recording quickly. If the camera is installed far away from you, it can be configured to operate with gestures or voice commands. If you prefer to hold the camera yourself, connect it to the Action Pad, which has a built-in flip-out touchscreen. This setup makes it easy to review photos when shooting vlogs and selfies. What iPhone users will like most about the Insta360 Go 3S is that it is compatible with Apple Find My. This means you can add it to your Find My app and locate it from there.

When using smart devices around the home, it’s also convenient to have a smart switch on hand. This is where the Cop Duo comes into play. Unlike most smart switches, this small remote measuring 2 x 1.14 x 0.31 inches is built with two buttons. This means you can easily configure each of them to two different functionalities. For example, you can use the top button to increase the temperature and the bottom button to lower it. If you pair the Flic Duo with a smart bulb, one button can be used to turn it on and the other to adjust the brightness.

And that’s only half of what this surprisingly powerful little gadget can do. When mounted on the wall, the Flic Duo functions like other smart switches. You can single tap, double tap, and hold to perform the desired task. However, when in your hand, Cop Duo allows you to use more than just these three actions. Using its accelerometer, it can detect gestures like turning your hand clockwise or counterclockwise and moving your hand up, down, left or right. You can assign each gesture to trigger specific tasks. For example, swiping left will skip Spotify to the previous track, and swiping right will skip to the next song.

Keep in mind, however, that the Flic Duo must be connected to the Flic Hub to unlock the Twist functionality. If you don’t have a hub, you can pair it directly with your phone but without access to the twist gesture. The Flic Duo also supports Amazon Alexa, Apple Home and Samsung SmartThings and can be integrated with devices like Chromecast, Philips Hue and Sonos, as well as apps like Spotify, Slack and even your phone’s camera app.

Anker Soundcore Work is an AI-powered voice recorder and transcriber that’s the size of a coin and weighs just 0.35 ounces. It does two things at once: record your conversations and transcribe them via the Soundcore app. Its operation is simple. You press the button on the recorder and it starts picking up voices up to 16.4 feet away. If you hear a vital detail, simply double-tap the front of the recorder to mark that moment. Once the conversation is over, you can then stop recording with the same On button and jump to the Soundcore app to transcribe the audio or generate a summary using AI.

Transcription is up to 97% accurate. Ideally, it can distinguish speakers and highlight essential parts you marked earlier to give you a more organized conversation. The summary already includes key takeaways and action items. This means you won’t need to rewatch the entire recording to manually select important points. It is important to note that AI transcription is not completely free. Soundcore Work comes with free audio transcription for 300 minutes every month. If necessary, you can subscribe to the Pro plan which offers 1,200 minutes or the Unlimited plan with unlimited transcription.

For privacy reasons, recorded audio is encrypted and stored on the device itself. With internal storage, you can record a maximum of 250 hours. However, you cannot export these files using a USB drive. Instead, it is necessary to launch the Soundcore app when Soundcore Work is nearby. Your phone will then automatically connect to the voice recorder and sync the files.

These little gadgets have all been selected based on their size and functionality. To make it into our short list of gadgets, the device must fit comfortably in the palm of your hand and slip easily into your pocket. They should also come with a range of useful features.

Besides size and functionality, we considered the overall reliability and popularity of each brand to make sure you get what you pay for.