TV of the Year: Skyworth SUC9300
Skyworth has been offering affordable innovating televisions with Android TV for a while, and has reached a new level with the SUC9300 series. It comes in 3 variants: a 50” screen for R8,000, 55” for R10,000, and 65” for R13,000. That is remarkable value in its own right. The TVs come with Google Assistant and Android TV, allowing voice control and access to the Google Play Store. One can hook up any Bluetooth-enabled gaming controller, like the PlayStation Dual Shock or Xbox controller, and play Android games directly off the TV. The units also support advanced technologies like digital theatre sound (DTS) audio and HDR+, so the viewing experience is excellent at this price point.
Click below to read on about the best gaming console, games, audio device, wearables, hearable and personal technology of the year.
Gaming console of the year: PlayStation 5
It’s been tough deciding between the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5, but the sales figures speak for themselves: the PlayStation 5 is the console consumers are demanding, and can’t get due to sold-out signs the world over. At R12,000 for the disc version, which can also play PS4 disc games, and R10,000 for the digital, disc-less version, the consoles are some of the hottest gadgets on the market right now. Good luck to those getting a PS5 on the next shipment and may the odds ever be in your favour.
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Games of the Year
Action game of the year: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales / Assassins Creed: Odyssey
To pair perfectly with the PS5, Spider-Man: Miles Morales provides some of the best graphics and gameplay available. The PlayStation-exclusive title offers all the web-shooting, crime-fighting action you’d expect with a great storyline.
On all other platforms, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey makes for a great holiday season adventure. Starting 2,400 years before the Peloponnesian war, players start in the battle between Athens and Sparta. With over 60 hours of sailing, horse-riding, and slicing through your enemies, this is one of the best titles from the Assassin’s Creed series.
Sorry Cyberpunk 2077, we all thought you were going to win this one.
Sports game of the year: NBA 2K20
NBA 2K20 is one of the best looking, most intuitive, and most stable sports games available. With one of the fastest revamps for next-generation consoles, the game developers at 2K have shown their passion for putting effort into a visual stunning game that makes it difficult to tell real NBA basketball apart from a simulation.
Best of the Indie Games: Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
If you’re looking for a heartwarming story with a stunning art style, Alba: A Wildlife Adventure is a feel-good story about the importance of nature conservation. Players take the role of Alba Singh, a child who is passionate about wildlife and wants to get a wildlife conservancy in Spain cleaned up so that wildlife can return. The game is available on PC and on all Apple devices via Apple Arcade. It will launch on Nintendo Switch next year.
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Audio device of the year: Sonos One, Sonos Beam
The audio technology Sonos delivered this year was dazzling to the ear, with amazing audio quality for various situations. The Sonos One Gen2 (R3,690 from Audico) speaker provides rich audio quality, with a few nifty extras like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa for voice control, and Apple AirPlay 2. The audio experience has become far smarter than before.
The Sonos Beam soundbar (R7,990 from Audico) also features Amazon Alexa, to transform a living room sound bar – typically used with a large-screen TV – into a smart speaker. The smart soundbar makes a great addition to entertainment for those who have yet to add additional sound to their home theatre experience.
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Video device of the year: Insta360 One R
Action cameras all tend to look cool, but take a little physical exercise before they are truly ready for action. They then remain stuck in one configuration until one runs out of juice — which can happen pretty fast. The Insta360 ONE R comes to the rescue with a modular design that allows one to swap out lenses on the fly, so to speak.
Its three lens mods means it can quickly transform from a 360 camera to a wide-angle shooter, with Dual-Lens 360 Mod, 4K Wide-Angle Mod and 1-Inch Wide Angle Mod. The 360 degree camera also allows one to shoot first and then pick an angle later, during editing.
The lenses are co-engineered with Leica, offering stabilised action cam shots at 4K 60fps, with the 1-Inch Mod claiming 5.3K resolution, for “the best image quality ever in an action camera”. Sheer hype? Time Magazine didn’t think so, naming it as one of the Best Inventions of 2020 in the consumer electronics category.
We particularly liked the special effects available in the accompanying app’s Shot Lab, and the voice control to start/stop recording. Ranging from R8,000 to R16,000 depending on the version, it compares well with the top-of-the-range GoPro, but with more versatility.
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Wearables of the Year: Fitbit Sense, Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro
The competition between Fitbit and Huawei heated up this year. Fitbit’s latest premium smartwatch, the Sense (R8,000), raised eyebrows in the tech community for including a large array of sensors geared towards health. One of the biggest innovations is a stress tracker, via the first electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor in a mainstream wearable. With stress becoming an increasingly important part of health tracking, the EDA sensor offers great value to users.
The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro (R7,000) is the exercise king: with over 100 workout modes, from skiing to golfing, the smartwatch provides proactive insights and coaching during activity. Uniquely, it also detects barometric pressure, allowing runners to find shelter before they’re caught in a thundershower.
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Hearable of the Year: Samsung Galaxy Buds Live
Comfort finally meets form factor with the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live (R3,000), the bean-shaped wireless earphones that feature 7.5 hours of battery life (28 hours including the case), or 6 hours with active noise cancellation (22 hours including the case). In a pinch, 5 minutes of charge time will provide an extra hour of playback time. The most comfortable wireless ear buds we have yet tried.
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Personal Technology of the Year: Philips Sonicare DiamondClean toothbrush
The Philips Sonicare DiamondClean electric toothbrush comes with numerous promises, but the most significant is probably that its brush strokes drive fluid deep between the teeth and along the gum line for a better clean than a manual toothbrush can manage in a month. That’s just for starters.
The DiamondClean offers five modes, namely Clean, Polish, White, Sensitive and Gum Care, giving one the clean that suits one best. The claim of a “whiter smile in one week” remains questionable, but the promise of “improved gum health in just 2 weeks” was borne out by our experience.
It comes with a curious charger glass which doubles as a glass for storing the brush. Placed on a charging base overnight, it gives around two weeks of regular use from a single charge.
A USB travel case also doubles up as a portable charger.
At more than R3,000, it’s not cheap, but is probably the main reason we didn’t need a dentist once during nine months of lockdown.
- Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee. Bryan Turner is senior writer on Gadget.co.za. Follow him on @BryanTurnerZA