25 Best Gadgets of 2017: Beebom’s Picks
Dec. 28, 2017While many smartphone manufacturers are moving away from the tablet scene, Apple certainly is embracing this opportunity to sell more products of the iPad. The new 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch variants of the iPad Pro come with the world’s most advanced display with a120Hz refresh rateand Apple’s own ProMotion technology. It houses the superfastA10X Fusion chipwith 64-bit architecture that is faster than most laptops and 30% faster than the previous gen iPad Pro.
2. Microsoft Surface Laptop
The Surface Laptop from Microsoft offers theperfect balance of portability and performance.Ideal for students, the laptop features a beautiful 13.5-inch PixelSense touchscreen along with a comfortable to use keyboard. Surface Laptop is thin, light, and powerful, with luxurious touches and comes with a battery life to see you through long days on campus in style. You get a choice between the i5/i7 processors and can get your storage bumped up to 512GB SSD.
Buy from Amazon:($799)
Buy from Amazon:($299)
While some would still recommend theiPhone 8 Plus over the iPhone X, one cannot deny the sheer beauty that is iPhone X. The iPhone X comes with Apple’s best hardware coupled with the best software. Thebezel-less display with a notch is a beauty to look at, and iOS 11 on the iPhone X is a pleasure to use. It also comes with Apple’s Face ID technology, which is waymore secure than the Face Unlockon the OnePlus 5T. TheA11 Bionic Chip is already Apple’s most powerful chipset, that competes directly with most desktop computers as well. Oh, and the 12-megapixel wide-angle and telephoto cameras are the best camera duo, that helps in capturing the best scenes with ease.
Buy from Amazon:($1,222, Fully Unlocked)
Imagine Amazon Alexa with a screen, and that’s the Echo Show for you. Yes, it might sound simple, but it comes with a ton of features. It comes withpowerful, room-filling speakerswith Dolby processing for crisp vocals and extended bass response. Oh, and with eight microphones, beam-forming technology, and noise cancellation, Echo Show hears you from any direction—even while music is playing. Thanks to the screen, you can ask Alexa toshow you the front door or watch lyricsto the music you’re playing.
Buy from Amazon:($149)
If you’re looking for a home theater solution for your television without destroying the entire look of your room, the Sonos Playbase is a great option for you.The Sonos Playbase is alow-slung sound base with impeccable design and impressive sound. Its bass is even better than the Playbar’s, so there’s no need for a sub. Sonos’ app and other speakers make it part of one of the best multiroom systems available.What’s more is that the speaker iscertified to work with Amazon Alexa, so you can control it with your voice as well.
Buy from Amazon:($699)
While SSDs are certainly faster than normal HDDs, they are hard to replace internally. While external SSDs have been available for a while, the Samsung T5 is the first SSD that truly matches the speed of a SSD while being connected via USB. With Samsung V-NAND flash memory and aUSB 3.1 Gen 2 interface, theT5 provides transfer speeds of up to 540 MB/s, that’s up to 4.9x faster than external HDDs. The T5 comes in two distinct aluminum finishes – an alluring blue for 250 GB and 500 GB models, and a deep black for 1 TB and 2 TB models.
Buy from Amazon:($99.99)
The MicrosoftXbox One X, or the ‘Project Scorpio’, is theworld’s most powerful gaming console, that gives the best gaming PCs a run for their money. The console looks beautiful and performs amazingly. It is a premium flagship gaming console, with premium hardware offering a premium experience through and through. The switch to 4K is inevitable, and the Xbox One X is definitely the beast that you want toplay your favorite games in native 4K with 60 frames per second and HDR.
Buy from Amazon:($499)
While RED’s products may not be everyone’s cup of tea, they definitely are the best. The RED WEAPON Monstro 8K VV is no different. Thecameraoffers Full Frame lens coverage,captures 8K full format motion at up to 60 fps, produces ultra-detailed 35.4-megapixel stills, and delivers incredibly fast data speeds of up to 300 MB/s. Like all of RED’s DSMC2 cameras,WEAPONMonstro 8K VVshoots simultaneousREDCODERAWand Apple ProResor Avid DNxHD/HR recording.
Buy from RED Store:($79,500)
Buy from Amazon:($498)
For its size, the affordable and durable UE Wonderboom is one of the fullest sounding mini Bluetooth speakers you can buy.The Wonderboom is compact and fully waterproof. It plays very loud for its size with a good amount of bass for its small size. It alsofloats in water, is shock resistant and has a decent battery life. What’s more is thatyou can pair two Wonderbooms together to augment the sound.
Buy from Amazon:($78.99)
The Apple Watch Series 3 is the best overall smartwatch you can buy, which is to be expected since it is Apple. Carrying the same overall size as the last year’s watch, the Apple Watch 3 offers a lot of new features, especially with theinclusion of the eSIM.Cellular connection works well for phone calls, email, Siri, and messages. There are noticeable improvements in fitness tracking and added watch faces. Apple has also added a barometer to GPS and thewatch itself is swimproof.
Buy from Amazon:($540)
If you’re looking for a basic entry-level drone camera that helps you grow as you learn, the DJI Spark is right up your alley.Sparkdelivers all of the camera drone features most people will ever needin an impossibly small package.The drone camera delivers a tiny, lightweight design with an excellent mechanically stabilized camera. It has USB charging and advanced features likegesture controls and obstacle detection. The drone also travels well and is great for aerial photos and video.
Buy from Amazon:($377)
Nice painting you got up on that wall. Oh no, wait, that’s the LG Wallpaper TV. The LG W7 series TV strips the usual television’s form to the bare minimum but still delivers the world-beating picture quality of OLED. The “picture-on-wall” OLED TVoffers dazzling picture quality with a unique and exquisite design. Almost every component of the TV is connected to an external control unit that also contains a 4.2 speaker system and Dolby Atmos decoding.
Buy from Amazon:($7,497)
Buy from Amazon:($795, Unlocked)
If network security and range are your primary concerns, the TP-Link Deco M5 is probably the best pick of the year for you.The M5 is reliable and packs more useful features than most Wi-Fi systems in its price range.The Deco M5 Whole-Home Wi-Fi System is easy to use anddelivers reliable Wi-Fi over a large area of up to 1,500 sq. feet. The system has more features than most other systems, including the ability to protect the entire network against online threats. What’s more is that the router systemworks seamlessly with Amazon Alexa as well as IFTTT.
Buy from Amazon:($99)
Chrome OShas lately been gaining a lot of traction, being adopted as the primary source for students and intermediate business users alike. While the Pixelbook isn’t as cheap as other Chromebooks in the market, it is definitely the most premium and powerful Chromebook out there. Featuring anIntel i7 processor with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD, the Pixelbook has overkilling specs and looks to die for. Also, coupled with the Pixelbook Pen ($99) and theonboard Google Assistant capabilities, the Pixelbook has an edge for multiple laptops in the same price segment as well.
Buy from Amazon:($899)
Following the success of Apple’s AirPods, Google decided to roll out their own wireless earphones – the PixelBuds. Apart from offering rich sound level, the PixelBuds have a few other tricks up its sleeve. Exclusive to the Pixel phone owners, the PixelBuds have areal-time translation featurethat translates whatever input it receives via the mic. The buds also havetouch controls that give you quick access to Google Assistant. If you’re someone who’s part of the Google ecosystem, the PixelBuds make a nice addition.
Buy from Google Store:($159)
Buy from Google Store:($249)
Buy from Amazon:($2,697)
Buy from Apple:($4,999)
Here’s another innovative yet highly useful product of the year – the Sony Xperia Touch Projector. Unlike traditional projectors, Xperia Touch does more than put on a show.It turns a flat wall, table or even your floor into an interactive screen. With short-throw projection, Wi-Fi connection, and state-of-the-art touch functionality, this portable projector adds a whole new dimension to your home. You canuse the projector for playing games, watching movies, surfing the web, and much more.Unlike other products that just look cool, it is one of those that actually live up to the expectations of being cool.
Buy from Amazon:($1,699)
The ZTE Axon M is one of those smartphones that actually brought about something practical to the table. While it may be heavy,the two displays add on a ton of productivity to one’s daily usage.The ZTE Axon M’s two displays lend more real estate for viewing videos and double as a kickstand. It has a convenient quick-launch key and a headphone jack, and its camera takes great daytime shots.The device, with its heavy and slightly awkward design, proves to begenuinely useful for gaming and multitasking.
Buy from BestBuy:($24.17/mo for 30months, via AT&T)
For years we’ve had OEMs exert their supremacy over us, dictating what should be the best for us as a consumer, but not anymore. With Eve-V, the consumers have the dictating power. Enter Eve-V, thefirst-ever crowd developed computer. It comes directly competing with Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4, with customizable features to suit consumers of all kinds. It’s a 2-in-1 laptop, where you get tochoose from an i7, i5, or m3 processor, and relative features.In most ways, it is one of the best laptops out there.
Buy from Eve:($959)
Buy from Amazon:($659, S8;$919, Note 8)
We cannot talk about the best gadgets of the year and leave out our favorite – theOnePlus 5T. The smartphone is the device that gets everything right, competes with the best flagships of the year, at literally half of their price. The device comes with the Snapdragon 835 processor coupled with 6GB/8GB of RAM along with 64GB/128GB of storage options. While that’s similar to the OnePlus 5, the 5T also features anall-new 6-inch 18:9 display, that looks absolutely stellar. The dual-lens camera on the back offers great picture quality, with enhanced night photography. All in all, the OnePlus 5T is the best smartphone out there, thatmanages to pair the terms flagship and value-for-money.
Buy from Amazon:($633)
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