Yahoo News The best new tech and gadgets of 2017
For your consideration: the most exciting things we played with over the past year – whether you're logging them as Christmas presents or ones to watch in the New Year sales.
The games console: Nintendo Switch
£279, Buy Now
Boy, do we like this bundle of fun. You can attribute some of the Switch's year-long to its namesake trick – you can carry it around and play anywhere, or detach the controllers and play it on a big TV. But for us, it comes down to the speedy loads, lack of updates and familiar names in the game library – which, thankfully, developers didn't carelessly exploit.
The latest Zelda, Mario and Sonic (Mania, not Forces) are all fantastic experiences that just happen to have huge nostalgia appeal. With FIFA 18 and Doom making it over safely, too, it all combines into a device so fun that it could push anyone claiming to have outgrown video games to reverse his or her stance immediately.
The smartphone: Samsung Galaxy Note 8
£785, Buy Now
OK, so it's massive – are people still using the term 'phablet'? – and those of a strictly Apple persuasion will probably want the iPhone 8 Plus or iPhone X. But it's only when you use the stylus pen that's tucked into the bottom right of the Note 8 that you realise how clunky and imprecise your damn fingers are.
This is the smartphone for precision photo edits and sending animated drawings instead of texts or Animojis. The most useful, though? Pop out the stylus and the phone will automatically open to a note-taking app. Smart, phone.
The desktop computer: Samsung DeX
£75.50, Buy Now
Smartphones are more powerful than most of us need them to be and, this year especially, can cost more than a laptop. So it makes sense that Samsung would create this dock that turns a Samsung S8 or Note 8, keyboard, mouse and TV or monitor into a fully fledged computer in which apps like Outlook, Google Docs and YouTube fill the screen.
Video editors and other power users need not apply, for sure, but even for them, the DeX points to a near future when we can use our overkill phones beyond the confines of taps and swipes.
The tablet: iPad Pro 10.5"
£619, Buy Now
We, too, chortled at the £99 Apple Pencil when it came out two years ago. But then the Notes app and others like GoodNotes got better. Now, you can handwrite your ideas, then, when you want to search for a specific word, the iPad will find it among your scribbles. Neat.
And that's just one of the ways that Apple has usefully regressed the iPad with new software, bringing the tablet into its own. Two others: the mid-2000s-style app dock, and the ability to drag and drop files between apps. Finally, a tablet that you can actually use like a laptop if you want, but just like a tablet when you need.
The headphones: Beats Studio3
£299.95, Buy Now
Looking like what Dr Dre would've worn while producing Straight Outta Compton (the 1988 record, not the movie), these stylish cans also boast Bluetooth and noise cancellation that adapts as you go from the Caffé Neros to cold, cold streets.
While Beats products are often dismissed as marketing compensating for a bad sound-quality-per-pound ratio, the Studio3s really have changed our minds. The only gripe: if the battery's dead, the wired connection doesn't work at all.
The speaker: Master & Dynamic MA770
£1,600, Buy Now
To answer your first question: 35 pounds. Your second one: No, the concrete body isn't just a novelty. Created with iconic British designer Sir David Adjaye, the material dampens sound like wood, and the resulting sound is of the quality you'd expect for this price. It streams via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi but also has auxiliary and optical outlets for record players and home cinema systems.
The smartwatch: Apple Watch Series 3
From £329, Buy Now
Being able to take phone calls and texts right from your wrist? The smartwatch finally starts to feel like the future. And with Apple Pay, you don't have to carry around a wallet in your back pocket and sit awkwardly all day, either.
As phones get bigger and bigger, the need for something digitally connected on your wrist is gaining pace, and Apple still makes the best mainstream example.
The keyboard: Logitech Craft Wireless
£147, Buy Now
Twist that knob on the upper left to go between Chrome browser tabs, push it down to play or pause Spotify – it can do whatever you want it to do within the range of compatible apps. Or do like we do and just use it to turn down your music when a colleague or significant other needs your ears.
Besides that super-cool bonus button and having the most satisfying keys this side of a mechanical keyboard, the Craft will also make you remember why the volume knob always beats a touch-screen slider.
The entertainment service: Plex
£3.99 a month or £31.99 a year, Buy Now
If you've got a load of (legal) videos and film files on a big external hard drive, the Plex app finds said files and then lets you watch them on your iPad Pro, PS4 or device that plays nice (which is a lot). It's like a personal Netflix, curated by you. The videos work reliably on multiple devices and you can download files too, which means when you travel, you have a much bigger selection of movies than you first think.
The innovation: ReMarkable
£579 with stylus, Buy Now
In theory, it's a simple combination of two existing technologies: the e-ink display you'd find on an Amazon Kindle plus the Note 8's stylus. Boom! Futuristic note-taking you can read in sunlight.
Yet getting e-ink to respond quickly enough to follow a pen is difficult – if you've ever turned a page on a Kindle, you'll have seeb the screen flash as it rearranges the little black and white capsules into new text. Any latency makes writing feel unnatural – but ReMarkable figured it out and it won't tell us how – at least not until the patents are finalised.
However they did it, the reMarkable is the closest gadget to digital, Daily Prophet-esque paper yet.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.
You Might Also Like
