2018 has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean the tech from 2018 has went anywhere. In this article, I’m gonna give you my favorite pieces of tech of last year. Let’s go ahead and do this.
This is just a continuation of my new mini series best of 2018. If you missed the first article, which was about camera gear, make sure to watch it at that card. If camera gear isn’t your thing, then this article is for you because it’s more of a generalized tech video, which I’m going to cover my favorite tablet, my favorite phone, my favorite gaming device, my favorite laptop, my favorite random piece of tech my favorite Smart Home device.
one is going to go to my favorite tablet of the year, which is a 12.9 inch iPad Pro. While there are times I wish I would have went with the 11 inch to 12.9 inch has really grown on me. And I appreciate the screen real estate, especially for photo editing, and even video editing. Which reminds me that 12.9 inch, and even the 11 inch are very powerful iPads. And you can accomplish resolution, raw photo editing, and even 4k video editing using something like Luma fusion, which is just awesome.
And they’ve done a really good job with making some cosmetic changes to the new iPads by shrinking down the bezels. And adding USB C ports and the magnetic connection for the Apple Pencil which charges it which is night and day better than the last option. Now even though Apple has done a great job at shrinking the bezels and overall form factor of the 12.9 inch iPad to make it a little bit more travel friendly and easier to use in your hands. Don’t get it confused. It’s still a really, really big iPad.
And it’s very powerful, just like Oprah consuming content on the new iPad pros is a wonderful experience. I mean, the displays are gorgeous, just like last iterations. And promotion is just awesome. And I really hope that promotion makes its way to the new iPhones, and the Macs, but we’ll have to see but Case 2018 iPad pros, definitely my favorite tablets of the year. Number two is going to go to my favorite phone of 2018. The Galaxy Note nine even though I do primarily use an iPhone my main device, it’s specifically to do with the ecosystem.
I heavily rely on FaceTime and iMessage, in order to communicate with my loved ones. Now before you blast me in the comment section, though, and go on Linus on your keyboard and say what’s app is so much better and that everyone in your country uses what’s app, understand that I’m here in the US. And in the US we primarily use three ways to communicate when it comes to texting, we have iMessage we have our first SMS and MMS stock system that comes with your phone. And then we have Facebook Messenger.
There are a few people that use WhatsApp and other applications. But they primarily use them to communicate with people outside of the US. So yeah, think about that before you go all Hateful Eight on me down there. In Case, the Galaxy Note nine just checks all the right boxes when it comes to the perfect phone. It is a little bit expensive, but it’s always going on sale, you can get it anywhere between like 650 to 850 the year. You just got to be patient when it goes on sale. But it checks all the right boxes for the perfect phone.
I mean, you have a large, beautiful Quad HD display best in the business, you have great speakers, you have an IP 68 rating, you have an S Pen, which that honeymoon period work for you. But if you’re a heavy S Pen user, you’re not going to be disappointed. You have a gaming mode, you have six gigabytes of RAM, you have an SD card slots, you have fast charging, you have fast wireless charging, I don’t know like a gorgeous design, no notch, literally checks all the right boxes, and easily my favorite phone of 2018 number three comes from the Smart Home category, which is kind of weird for me because I don’t do a whole lot of smart home stuff on the channel.
But that change this year. So go ahead and cast your vote at the poll in the card at the top. In Case, my favorite Smart Home device a 2018 is the Google Home hub. It’s really silly. I know and I don’t know how it compares to the Lenovo smart display. But coming from an echo show I got to say the home hub is just night and day better than my old echo show the display while being low resolution is gorgeous. The speakers sound great, not the best, but they’re definitely better than the echo show.
And having all the Google services and their apps built right into the home hub is impossible because I can access everything with my voice, which is just dope. Also, ever since I switched all of my smart home devices from the Amazon ecosystem to Google Home. I gotta say this phone is Better a lot faster than mobile responsive. And since I use a lot of nest products, the link between Google and nest because at the same company is excellent. Number four is my favorite gaming device of 2018.
And this one was a little bit tough because a I’m not a gaming channel, so I don’t cover a whole lot of gaming stuff. I do like gaming, but I don’t put a lot of time into it like these gaming guys do. And there wasn’t gaming consoles released in 2018, outside of some limited edition ones that were pretty much cosmetic changes to last consoles. So I did think about what I got this year that was released last year, or towards the end of last year that I really enjoy. And that was the Xbox 1x. Now ultimately, the Nintendo Switch is my most used console strictly because of portability and how easy it is to game on that thing.
But the Xbox 1x is just a frickin beast, especially with the 4k HDR 60 frames per second gaming with a TV that does support all that. It’s just a unique system. And now that Microsoft has stated they’re already working on the new generation of the Xbox codenamed Scarlet. And yeah, Microsoft’s doing a thing number four spot easily Xbox 1x number five, my favorite laptop and this one was really tough making me decide between these two laptops is like handing a cat lover a box of kittens and saying you can only have one.
I really had to think about the laptop that not only handled my workflow the best but was the most flexible since I do edit other people’s videos from time to time again, and the laptop that was very travel friendly. And that is the 20 1815 inch MacBook Pro. Now I don’t have the one with the Vega. But don’t even get me started because I think that is some bull. The fact Apple freshed a 15 inch lineup just a few months after releasing a freshed 15 inch lineup really was like a dagger to the kidney. With any case, it was between this computer and the Dell XPS 9570 I love that laptop.
I like the fingerprint sensor that’s built on it more than Touch ID. I like the keyboard like the overall form factor it is a little bit chunky. I like having regular USB ports and an SD card slots. But ultimately, the lack of Final Cut Pro on Windows is what did it for me because there’s a lot of projects that I work on require me to edit in final cuts. So I had to switch to the MacBook Pro 15 inch 2018.
And it’s been a really great experience to be honest, like it can handle my workflow I edit read raw, I edits canon raw lights, and I edit 10 bit pro res in final cuts. While the Adobe set of things could use a little work. I don’t think it’s that bad, I’m able to manage working in Premiere on his laptop just fine. And while the touch bar isn’t the most practical implementation on a laptop, it does have its uses just few and far then against my favorite laptop. It’s the 20 1815 inch MacBook Pro. So yeah, number six, which is my last minute piece of tech that I feel like deserves to be in this video. It’s the Boosted Board mini x, which is awesome.
I’ve been a longtime user of the Z board I do prefer the design of the Z board, I love the compact form factor of the boosted mini x and plus the pressure sensitive foot pedals on the Z board have almost killed me a few times. But the Boosted Board mini x is still really dangerous I mean this leaders that happened with the Boosted Board mini x because the torque on it is insane I had it in promo didn’t knows in Pro mode, when to turn by you know popping up the front wheels, I went that way like a capsule breaking off a rocket the booster for miniex is impossible.
It’s small compact, it does weigh quite a bit that throw you off because you’re gonna see this little thing you’re like, Oh, that’s awesome, super travel friendly. It has quite a bit of weight to it. But the overall usability of it the speed having a remote is just so much better. I really, really liked the Boosted Board miniex and honestly, it’s one of the best purchases that I made in 2018 even though I did get it a Christmas gift, and it’s making me sell my keyboard because this thing is just legit. That pretty much does it for this video.
If you enjoyed it, you know what to do to that like button if you have questions or you want me to cover some stuff mentioned in this video a greater detail, let me know down in the comment section. Don’t forget to check out the first video of this series, which is about camera gear, if that’s something you’re into, let me know down in the comments. What do you want to see I have like another two videos planned for this series. So if there’s a specific topic you want me to cover, let me know down below. I got some ideas, but I want to hear back from you all so just go ahead and do that down. You know, down there anyways.
