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Gadgets of the Year for 2018
Huawei and Samsung lead ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK’s choices for gadgets of the year.
Wearable of the Year
The world of fitness bands and smartwatches became dramatically bigger this year, with numerous advances in technology and quality. Here we have a three-way tie. The Apple Watch Series 4 is first up, thanks to a highly effective ECG monitor, which doesn’t replace a visit to the doctor, but could well alert someone that they may need that visit. It’s high price – upward of R8000 – prevents it from taking solo honours.
Apple Watch Series 4
The Xiaomi Amazfit Bip smartwatch has a ridiculous 45-day battery life, aside from low cost (around R1000 from Makro), along with surprising elements on a low-cost smartwatch, like GPS, heart-rate sensor, and barometer.
Xiaomi Amazfit Bip
A top wearables list is never complete without a Fitbit, and this year the Charge 3 keeps up the company’s wearables charge with advanced sleep tracking features, the best heart rate monitoring consistency on the market, and GPS, 7-days battery life, and water resistance to 50m. Its biggest innovation, however, is female health tracking. It starts off logging cycles and other health information, but then becomes an analytical and predictive tool for fertility.
Fitbit Charge 3
Hearable of the Year
Earphones and headphones come in an astonishing range of sizes, configurations and prices, and there should probably be a dozen joint winners of this category. The stand-out at the Gadget office was the Jabra Elite 65t, which brings new levels of comfort to wireless earbuds. Most devices in this category are harsh and heavy on the ears, but Jabra has tackled this problem aggressively, reducing the weight of the device by doing away with built-in storage and heart rate sensors of its Elite Sport sibling. Decent battery life (5 hours, plus another 5 in the charging case, great sound and consistent connectivity round out a great option for sporty users, at around R3000.
- Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee
