Sixty-three brand guides to the devices people carry, wear and type on — handhelds, e-readers, VR headsets, smart rings, AR glasses and keyboards.

Personal tech is where giants and start-ups meet on the same shelf. These guides set out who is behind each device and what kind of company it is.

Product lines, not companies

Several of these brands are product lines of much larger firms: the Steam Deck is Valve’s, the ROG Ally belongs to ASUS, the Legion Go to Lenovo, the Galaxy Ring to Samsung Electronics, Kindle to Amazon and Pico to ByteDance. Kobo, though Toronto-born, is owned by Rakuten.

Licences and challengers

In smart rings, the guides record how rivals relate to Oura: RingConn took a licence from Oura, and Circular licenses Oura’s IP. In glasses, RayNeo was incubated by TCL, while Vuzix is a listed Rochester waveguide maker whose enterprise AR glasses long predate the consumer wave.

Small makers with a point of view

Smaller makers compete on an idea rather than scale: Analogue plays original cartridges in FPGA hardware rather than emulation, Panic’s crank-driven Playdate competes on charm, and reMarkable’s paper tablet has no app store at all.

Keyboards

Mechanical keyboards have their own industry of component makers: Cherry made the MX switch that most others copy, Topre the electro-capacitive switch behind the Realforce and HHKB, GMK moulds doubleshot keycaps on Cherry’s original tooling, and Kinesis and Maltron build contoured ergonomic boards.

How to use these guides

Each guide covers who owns the name today, where the products are made — by the maker’s own account and, where it differs, by other sources — and the brand’s visual identity. A company’s description of itself is attributed to the company, and where a business has closed we say so plainly. The table at the end gathers the essentials.

Gaming handhelds

PC and retro gaming handhelds.

• Steam Deck — Valve’s SteamOS handheld that reignited the PC-handheld category and tied it to the dominant PC game store.
• ASUS ROG Ally — The Taiwanese PC giant’s Windows handheld, the open-platform challenger to the Steam Deck.
• Lenovo Legion Go — The globally-structured PC giant’s big-screen handheld with detachable, Switch-style controllers.
• Ayaneo — The crowdfunding-born Shenzhen boutique making premium, design-forward Windows and Android handhelds at a rapid clip.
• Anbernic — The prolific Shenzhen brand that made affordable retro and emulation handhelds a category of its own.
• Analogue — The design-led maker of premium FPGA hardware that plays retro cartridges accurately, not by software emulation.
• Playdate — Panic’s tiny yellow, crank-driven handheld: an indie design-object that competes on charm, not specs.

E-readers and e-paper

E-readers and e-paper tablets.

• Kindle — Amazon’s dominant e-reader line, built as a closed ecosystem tied to its own bookstore.
• Kobo — The Toronto-born, Rakuten-owned e-reader that answers Kindle with open EPUB and library borrowing.
• Onyx Boox — The Chinese maker whose Android e-paper devices run any app, from Kindle to Libby.
• reMarkable — The Norwegian paper tablet built to replace paper, with no app store and nothing to distract.
• PocketBook — The Ukrainian-founded, Swiss-headquartered reader that supports almost every format and reads books aloud.
• Supernote — Ratta’s writing-first, repairable e-paper notebook with a cult following.
• Daylight — The US benefit corporation whose DC-1 uses a paper-like LivePaper LCD and an amber, blue-light-free screen.

VR headsets

Virtual-reality headset makers.

• Pico — ByteDance’s Chinese VR division, whose Pico 4 competes in Europe and Asia but never fully entered the US market.
• Bigscreen — The US maker of the Beyond, a tiny micro-OLED PCVR headset custom-fitted to each buyer’s face scan.
• Varjo — The Finnish maker of human-eye-resolution headsets for enterprise, simulation and, increasingly, defense.
• HTC Vive — HTC’s Valve-partnered VR line, built on Lighthouse tracking, that pioneered room-scale and pivoted toward enterprise.
• Pimax — The Shanghai maker chasing the widest field of view and highest resolution, whose ambitions sometimes outrun its shipping.
• Somnium — The metaverse-platform company that built a high-end modular PCVR headset, the VR1, on the edge of the crypto world.
• Lynx — The small French maker of open, privacy-first mixed-reality headsets that run without Google services, from the R-1 to the R-2.

Smart rings

Smart-ring brands and the Oura challengers.

• Ultrahuman — The Indian, Bengaluru-built smart-ring challenger to Oura, focused on metabolic health and no mandatory subscription.
• RingConn — The Shenzhen, crowdfunding-born smart ring known for long battery life and no subscription, that took a license from Oura.
• Circular — The Paris company whose titanium smart ring adds single-lead ECG and an AI coach, and licenses Oura’s IP.
• Movano — The Evie Ring, a women’s-health smart ring whose maker reverse-merged into an unrelated AI company in 2026.
• Amazfit — The Helio Ring by US-listed Zepp Health (ex-Huami), an athlete-focused, no-subscription ring no longer tied to Xiaomi.
• Samsung Galaxy Ring — Not a startup but a product line of Samsung Electronics, tied to Samsung Health and Galaxy AI, with no subscription.
• Noise — The Indian value-wearables brand (Nexxbase) whose Luna Ring is a premium halo, backed by a Bose minority investment.

AR and AI glasses

Smart glasses, from media viewers to AI glasses.

• Viture — The well-funded, US-registered but China-linked maker of birdbath-optics XR glasses for media and gaming, not everyday AI.
• Rokid — The Chinese AR company that plays both lanes: birdbath media viewers and everyday AI glasses, on its own YodaOS.
• RayNeo — The TCL-incubated Chinese AR brand whose X-series waveguide glasses and Air media viewers lead by shipments.
• Even Realities — The Chinese-owned unicorn whose camera-less, minimalist everyday glasses show a monochrome green HUD.
• Brilliant Labs — The small, angel-backed maker of fully open-source AI glasses built to be hacked, from Monocle to Frame to Halo.
• Vuzix — The US-listed veteran of the category, a Rochester waveguide maker whose enterprise AR glasses long predate the consumer wave.
• Halliday — The young AI-glasses startup whose tiny in-lens DigiWindow projector shows information without a full waveguide or camera.

Keyboard switches and keycaps

Topre, Cherry, GMK, HHKB, Gateron, Signature Plastics and Ducky.

• Topre — The Japanese maker of the electro-capacitive switch and the Realforce keyboard.
• Cherry — The maker of the Cherry MX switch, the industry-standard cross-stem that everything else copies.
• GMK — The Bavarian maker of doubleshot Cherry-profile keycaps, moulded on Cherry’s original tooling.
• HHKB — PFU’s compact, minimalist Happy Hacking Keyboard on Topre switches, co-designed by Eiiti Wada.
• Gateron — The Chinese switch maker of MX-compatible, Ink, Oil King and Hall-effect switches.
• Signature Plastics — The US keycap molder behind the SA and DSA profiles, made in Custer, Washington.
• Ducky — The Taiwanese maker of enthusiast keyboards with PBT doubleshot keycaps and Cherry MX switches.

Enthusiast keyboards

Glorious, Wooting, Lofree, Royal Kludge, Epomaker, Mode Designs and NuPhy.

• Glorious — The Austin gaming brand of the GMMK hot-swap keyboard and the Model O ultralight mouse.
• Wooting — The Rotterdam brand that brought analog Hall-effect switches and Rapid Trigger to gaming.
• Lofree — The design-led keyboard brand of the low-profile Flow and the retro round-keycap look.
• Royal Kludge — The Chinese brand that made affordable wireless mechanical keyboards, led by the RK61.
• Epomaker — The Shenzhen maker of affordable, sound-tuned prebuilt enthusiast keyboards.
• Mode Designs — The Los Angeles house of premium CNC-aluminium enthusiast keyboard kits.
• NuPhy — The design-forward studio of the low-profile Air series mechanical keyboard.

Keyboard components

Tai-Hao, Kailh, TTC, Outemu, NovelKeys, Akko and Durock.

• Tai-Hao — The Taiwanese keycap maker with sixty years of plastics heritage, from pipes to doubleshot caps.
• Kailh — Kaihua Electronics, the veteran switch maker behind Box, Speed and the Choc low-profile switch.
• TTC — The Huizhou components maker of encoders and switches, trading since 1998.
• Outemu — Gaote Electronics, the Dongguan maker of the budget switches inside countless keyboards.
• NovelKeys — The West Virginia enthusiast vendor behind the cult, fully-POM Cream switch.
• Akko — The Dongguan maker of colourful themed keycap sets and its own in-house switches.
• Durock — The enthusiast switch and stabilizer brand made by JWK, an OEM behind much of the hobby.

Ergonomic keyboards

Maltron, Kinesis, Keyboardio, ZSA, Ultimate Hacking Keyboard, Dygma and MoErgo.

• Maltron — The UK maker of the original 3D contoured ergonomic keyboard, hand-built since 1977.
• Kinesis — The Washington maker of the contoured Advantage ergonomic keyboard, since 1992.
• Keyboardio — The Berkeley maker of the wooden, open-source Model 100 split keyboard and the Atreus.
• ZSA — The maker of the ErgoDox EZ, Moonlander and Voyager split keyboards, made in Taiwan.
• Ultimate Hacking Keyboard — The Hungarian split, modular, programmable keyboard for power users, built in Hungary.
• Dygma — The Spanish maker of the Raise and Defy split ergonomic keyboards for gamers and power users.
• MoErgo — The maker of the Glove80, a low-profile contoured split ergonomic keyboard.

At a glance: who owns the name and where it is made

Taken from each guide’s fact panel, as of October 2026. Ownership and production change; follow the link for sources and detail.

Brand	Origin	Owner	Where made
Akko	See guide	See guide	China
Amazfit	See guide	Zepp Health	See guide
Analogue	See guide	See guide	See guide
Anbernic	See guide	See guide	See guide
ASUS ROG Ally	See guide	See guide	See guide
Ayaneo	See guide	See guide	See guide
Bigscreen	See guide	See guide	USA
Brilliant Labs	See guide	See guide	Singapore/HK
Cherry	See guide	See guide	Engineered DE
Circular	See guide	See guide	France
Daylight	See guide	See guide	See guide
Ducky	See guide	See guide	Taiwan-based
Durock	See guide	See guide	Reported: Vietnam
Dygma	See guide	See guide	Overseas partners
Epomaker	See guide	See guide	China
Even Realities	China	See guide	See guide
Gateron	See guide	See guide	China
Glorious	See guide	See guide	US-designed
GMK	See guide	See guide	Germany
Halliday	See guide	See guide	China/USA
HHKB	See guide	See guide	Japan
HTC Vive	See guide	See guide	See guide
Kailh	See guide	See guide	China
Keyboardio	See guide	See guide	US-designed
Kindle	See guide	See guide	See guide
Kinesis	See guide	See guide	Designed USA
Kobo	See guide	See guide	See guide
Lenovo Legion Go	See guide	See guide	See guide
Lofree	Design brand (founder Tim Chu)	See guide	China (widely described)
Lynx	See guide	See guide	France
Maltron	See guide	See guide	UK (hand-built)
Mode Designs	See guide	See guide	Undisclosed
MoErgo	See guide	See guide	China
Movano	See guide	Discontinued	USA
Noise	See guide	Nexxbase	See guide
NovelKeys	See guide	See guide	Offshore
NuPhy	Design studio (the Air series)	See guide	China (inferred)
Onyx Boox	See guide	See guide	See guide
Outemu	See guide	See guide	China
Pico	China	See guide	See guide
Pimax	See guide	See guide	China
Playdate	See guide	See guide	See guide
PocketBook	See guide	See guide	See guide
RayNeo	China	See guide	See guide
reMarkable	See guide	See guide	See guide
RingConn	See guide	See guide	China
Rokid	See guide	See guide	China
Royal Kludge	Chinese brand (the RK61)	See guide	China
Samsung Galaxy Ring	See guide	Samsung	See guide
Signature Plastics	See guide	See guide	USA (Custer, WA)
Somnium	See guide	See guide	Metaverse
Steam Deck	See guide	See guide	See guide
Supernote	See guide	See guide	See guide
Tai-Hao	See guide	See guide	Taiwan & China
Topre	See guide	See guide	Japan
TTC	See guide	See guide	China
Ultimate Hacking Keyboard	See guide	See guide	Hungary
Ultrahuman	See guide	See guide	India
Varjo	See guide	See guide	Finland
Viture	See guide	See guide	USA/China
Vuzix	See guide	See guide	USA
Wooting	See guide	See guide	Designed NL
ZSA	See guide	See guide	Taiwan

Frequently asked questions

Who makes the Pico VR headset?

Pico is ByteDance’s VR division, according to our guide.

Who owns Kobo?

Rakuten, according to our guide.

Part of our Technology & Electronics brand guidelines. See also all collections.