Here are the 8 best gadgets of 2022

As every year, many tech products came and went in 2022. Not all of them managed to live up to the hype (look at you, Pixel Watch), but the ones that did really stood out. From the unprecedented cameras in the Google Pixel 7 Pro to the unrivaled versatility of Valve’s Steam Deck, 2022 has been a great year for gadgets that fit right into your lifestyle, whether you’re a WFH homebody or an active travel enthusiast.

Without further ado, here’s the best tech 2022 has to offer.

Best Newbie Gaming: Steam Deck

While there are countless entities making awesome video games, the world of video game hardware is much smaller and cutthroat. One poorly received console can be enough to shatter a company’s desire to ever try again. No other gaming company has managed to break up the Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft triumvirate that has dominated the console market for the last 20 years.

When PC gaming titan Valve decided to enter the handheld console market with the Steam Deck back in February, it did everyone Reason to believe it might not work. Valve’s earlier hardware efforts like the console-like Steam Machines and the odd Steam Controller found no footing. The $1,000 Valve Index VR headset has performed a bit better thanks largely to the hype Half-Life: Alyxbut VR is still a niche market.

It’s pretty bold to enter the hardware market with something that will draw direct comparisons to the hugely popular and beloved Nintendo Switch, but Valve pulled it off.

Powerful enough to play high-end PC games on the go, the Steam Deck feels comfortable in your hand and has a beautiful touch display. If that’s not enough, you can even install different operating systems on it and use it as a portable emulation engine for older consoles like the GameCube and the PlayStation 2. There is no other portable gaming system that comes close to offering the degrees of freedom that Steam Deck offers, and for that it deserves to be on any list of the best tech of 2022.

File this one under Least Surprising News of the Year, but Google has come up with another incredible smartphone camera.

The Pixel 7 Pro is, without exaggeration, the best phone camera I’ve ever used. Own Google Custom tensor chip has taken the Pixel 7 Pro’s software-based photo enhancements to incredible new heights in 2022. Sure, regular photos look amazing during the day or night (Google’s Night Sight is still the best), but the real turning point comes when you use the Pixel 7 Pro’s impressive 30x zoom lens.

Even if you zoom in really far on something miles away, the Pixel 7 Pro produces shots that make it look like you’re practically standing right next to the subject. The level of sharpness and clarity of these photos is unmatched in smartphone photography. In addition, you can use a new macro focus feature to examine the smallest details of tiny objects. Plus, it still has the same great Magic Eraser tool to remove unwanted distractions from photos and a new Unblur tool that cleans up blurry pictures, even if they were taken with a different phone.

Whether you’re right next to something or far away, the Pixel 7 Pro’s camera has your back.

For years, techies have wrestled their hands over the notch at the top of modern iPhone displays. It technically served to slim the frame around the display, but it was also distracting. With the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple took the bold step of not removing the notch but making it work to the She.

Now that awkward black blob at the top of the screen is called Dynamic Island, and it grows, shrinks, and animate everywhere to show notifications, music you’re listening to, and remind you of that timer you set for 20 minutes ago.

Apple cleverly turned what was once a hindrance into a feature that iPhone users can no longer do without.

In a year when we expected the new iPhones to be mostly iterative, Dynamic Island breathed new life into Apple’s premium phones. However, “Dynamic Island” won’t win any Best Feature Name awards this year.

Old look, new AirPods.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

Sometimes innovation is not absolutely necessary. While Apple brought some real firsts to its latest iPhones via Dynamic Island in 2022, the same philosophy hasn’t been applied to AirPods. And you know what? It’s good!

The latest AirPods Pro have the same physical design and $250 price tag as the original model. They don’t have any flashy new features, but they do make all the great bits of the original AirPods Pro better than before. Sound quality is still great, active noise cancellation blocks twice as much background noise as before, and battery life can last up to seven hours on a full charge.

When Apple launched the AirPods Pro in 2019, they were the best AirPods out there. Turns out not much needed changing when it came time to refresh them last year. What isn’t broken doesn’t need to be fixed.

The keyboard of dreams.
Credit: Molly Flores/Mashable

Rounding out the trio of Apple products on this list (Apple’s had a good year!) M2 MacBook Air. This is another product that mostly brought small upgrades to the table, but the end result is a laptop that absolutely is dreamy to use as an everyday work machine.

I should know; I’m using it right now.

Apple went with a new design that gives the laptop’s body a consistent thickness (earlier MacBook Airs were thinner on one end than the other), while remaining surprisingly light at just 2.7 pounds. Its 13.6-inch display looks fantastic, even if it loses points for being limited to just 60Hz. And while its two paltry USB-C ports aren’t quite enough, the M2 chip powering this bad boy makes it one of the smoothest and fastest laptops out there.

It doesn’t hurt that it has them either best Keyboard Apple made years ago either.

For the android lover in your life.
Credit: Kyle Cobian/Mashable

Android owners deserve great wireless earbuds too. Luckily, after years of iteration, Samsung has finally come up with something that works pretty well without many caveats: the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.

These awkwardly named earbuds have an adorable egg-shaped design with silicone eartips that offer incredible comfort for long listening sessions. You can even sleep with it on. The sound quality is excellent and the ANC is really impressive. If you use it with an Android device, you also get access to a number of nifty customization features, such as: B. the ability to play around with a sound equalizer, remap touch controls, and enable spatial audio for 3D listening.

Of course, iPhone owners are barred from all this sweet customization. But that’s what the AirPods Pro are for.

They may look generic, but they don’t sound like it.
Credit: Molly Flores/Mashable

Sometimes earplugs are not enough. If you’re sitting at home and really need to focus on a project and tune out the world around you with all your favorite jams, Sony’s $400 WH-1000XM5 headphones in 2022 offered the best tool to do it.

While they don’t have a catchy name or flashy look (you could easily confuse them with other black headphones), these bad boys offer some of the best sound quality in town. You’ll never wish volume could be just one a little higher than other headphones. Plus, top-notch noise cancellation makes them perfect for filtering out noisy kids, roommates, or co-workers in any situation.

Oh, and the battery lasts up to 30 hours on a full charge. You can’t get that out with any earplugs.

Best Portal to the Metaverse: Meta Quest Pro

Finally a headset you can use in public.
Credit: Elizabeth DeLuna

I know, I know. It hasn’t been a great year for Meta, between the company’s financial woes and its employees’ lack of confidence in Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the Metaverse. You may personally find the idea of ​​working in VR uncomfortable. However, if this is indeed the future we are heading towards and if you want to try it now, Meta Quest Pro is for you.

Although the $1,500 price tag seems steep compared to the $400 Quest 2, a look at the Quest Pro explains why Meta is charging so much for it. Everything from the build of the headset to its comfort features and controllers is of a much higher quality than the three-year-old Quest 2. It also offers full-color passthrough capabilities, making it more of a mixed reality headset than the pure VR offerings on Quest 2.

Maybe that’s not the future of work, but if it is, the Quest Pro is a good place to start on the journey there.