The year of tech is over, so what was the best tech of 2024? Find out with Pickr’s Best Picks for the year.
A new year is here, and with it expectations of new technology. New headphones and computers and speakers and watches aplenty will start to arrive, but before that, we need to work out what was best for 2024.
We’ve written about hundreds of gadgets over the past year, so what was best? Find out.
Best Headphones: Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra and Sonos Ace
We’ll start this best off with the categories we tend to review more than anything else: headphones.
There haven’t been tremendous amounts of new headphones this year, so we’re keeping one pair in our list from last year’s best picks, while adding one for this year.
Last year’s Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra Headphones are easily among the best you can find today still, providing great noise, cancellation, and head-tracked spatial for either platform, iOS or Android.
But there was another entrant this year offering the same sort of features as the Bose, as the Sonos Ace arrived.
A slightly more premium take on the idea and tech, the Sonos Ace deliver a more refined aesthetic alongside great audio prowess, plus some technology that allows the headphones to integrate with other Sonos speakers.
It’s little wonder why both the Bose QC Ultra Headphones and the Sonos Ace are our top picks for headphones in 2024.
Best earphones: Apple AirPods 4 ANC and Shokz OpenRun Pro 2
Next up is earphones and earbuds, and two newbies for the year.
On the one hand, the combination of a bone conduction speaker and a regular speaker made the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 one of the more formidable pairs of exercise-friendly earbuds we’ve ever seen. While the bass could be a little better, the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 are excellent.
They have no right to be as good as they are, and yet we will actively choose them not just when we’re going out for a heavy walk or run, but also when we need to walk up the road listening to a meeting or briefing while listening to the road. The OpenRun Pro 2 are that useful.
Our other choice for best earphones in 2024 is one we didn’t see coming. Frankly, if you had asked us if a pair of standard earbud-style AirPods would be on our bingo card for the best tech of the year, we’ve have told you to look at our record for AirPods and said a hearty Australian “he’s dreamin'”.
And yet that’s exactly where we are, because the AirPods 4 with ANC are fantastic.
Thanks to a new design that fits more ears, ours included, the AirPods 4 are more comfortable and better engineered, while also including a degree of active noise cancellation in a style of earbud not really known for working with ANC.
It’s not as if other companies haven’t tried, either. Huawei tried earbuds with ANC and failed, and Samsung tried this year in the Galaxy Buds, delivering a result that was difficult to recommend.
Apple’s AirPods 4 with ANC are different. They work: they’re comfortable and sound great, and make for an easy recommendation, plus a nod to being one of the best pieces of technology in 2024.
A special mention to Bose’s QC Ultra Earbuds, which are still the among the best ANC earbuds you can find.
Best value headphones: Bose QuietComfort Earbuds
Bose did squeak in with a nod this year in headphones, though, repackaging the Bose QC Buds from a few years ago in the new Bose QuietComfort Earbuds.
Not quite the “ultra” model we still love from last year, the “new” Bose QC Buds are water resistant, include wireless charging, deliver great sound and noise cancellation, and cost just under $300. What’s more, they include an app that works on both iOS and Android, making them platform agnostic.
That’s a bit of a theme for us this year, it seems.
Best speaker: Samsung Music Frame Speaker and Sonos Arc Ultra
Outside of the headphone world, we loved ourselves some speakers, and two stood out.
Samsung’s Music Frame added to our decorative life with a speaker that provided more than just sound, but also aesthetic value, while the Sonos Arc Ultra improved the already excellent Arc soundbar package with more speakers and a stunning amount of bass.
They’re both excellent speakers, but for different reasons, and worth checking out.
Best wireless speaker: Bose SoundLink Max
We’ve seen a few totally wireless speakers this year, and one clearly stands out amongst the rest.
Another nod for Bose, the SoundLink Max is a lot of sound in a nice water resistant design, complete with a handle, allowing you to take your sound to go easily.
There are plenty of Bluetooth speakers, some big and some small, but you can bet we’re reaching for the SoundLink Max for our next trip. It’s just that good.
Best tablet: Apple iPad Pro 13
The best tablet this year is one that packs in the best technology above everything else, and that includes a new processor capable of pretty much standing the test of time.
Not only bigger, but also thinner, the iPad Pro 13 is one of the most curious combinations of tablet technology. It has two screens stacked together for a tandem OLED, a new fast processor the likes of which saw release before Apple’s Mac computers, and a design that makes it beautiful.
The 13 inch M4 iPad Pro includes a high price, that’s true, but it’s one of the best tablets you can find today, hands down.
Best computer: Apple MacBook Pro 16, Apple Mac Mini, and Dell XPS 13 Snapdragon
Fast computers and slim computers no longer need to be two totally separate things, and 2024 showed that technology could improve for both easily. Not only that, but it could do it without necessarily being super expensive.
At the expensive end is the best tech: the 16 inch M4 MacBook Pro is just about the best portable workstation you can find to date, delivering a high-end machine in a beautifully slim style of laptop.
Meanwhile, if you’re after a Windows PC with plenty of battery life and performance to spare, Dell’s XPS 13 with Qualcomm Snapdragon inside is a brilliant combination, delivering that new Dell XPS design with an excellent battery life and a surprising amount of grunt. It’s just a lovely machine.
We couldn’t end 2024 without addressing an extra computer that definitely needs to win a best of the year pick: the reinvention of the Mac Mini.
You’ll still need to bring your own keyboard, mouse, and display, but the updated M4 Mac Mini is one of the most intriguing product launches of the year, packing in a high-speed processor in a computer design not much bigger than an Apple TV.
Tiny but mighty, the 2024 Mac Mini is a brilliant little box we’ve fallen in love with, and you will, too. It also happens to be the most affordable high-speed Mac around, something you probably won’t see coming.
Bear wearable: Withings ScanWatch Nova
You might also not see our favourite wearable coming. It’s not a Pixel, though there was one of those this year, and it’s not even an Apple Watch, either.
Rather, it was something from Withings, with the slightly updated take on the ScanWatch, coming in the Nova.
A little more refined from the standard ScanWatch, offering a temperature sensor alongside the ECG, SpO2 blood pulse oximeter, and heart rate tracking, the ScanWatch Nova delivers a great health experience in a classic looking smartwatch that also manages to have a battery life measured in weeks, not just days.
We found up to two days was possible from the Nova, and depending how often you check your watch, you might get more.
It’s just about the most dependable smartwatch we’ve found.
An aside: the Apple Watch Series 10 gets a nod for honourable mention, largely because it is still one of the better smartwatch models around, as does last year’s Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra. We also liked the Galaxy Ring, even though it had its share of issues. However, they’re all platform specific: an Apple Watch only for iPhone owners, and a Galaxy Watch and Ring only for Android owners, with some features specific to Samsung owners, too.
Maybe we’re just over the whole platform specificity issue and prefer an agnostic approach, which is what Withings offers in the Scanwatch 2 and Scanwatch Nova. You even get sapphire glass without paying extra, something Apple should really start doing, too.
Best home tech: Ring Video Doorbell Pro
At home, we have a gadget that seems super useful if only because it’s a handy way to protect your home.
Smart security systems have become something many Australians are looking at, but Ring’s Video Doorbell Pro is among the best we’ve seen.
The camera setup is easy, the video reliable, and it includes a 3D tracking system that allows you to get a bird’s eye view for where people go on your property, giving you an idea of what the person is doing. It even supports being wired in or just using a battery, provided you remember to recharge it from time to time.
Best eReader: Kobo Libra Colour
When your home is protected, you can get stuck into doing other things, like reading.
This year saw a few eBook readers launch, allowing us to add a category that matters for folks who love to read.
There are a few eBook reader on the market in Australia, and the iPad and your phone can do it, too, but one stood out for us: Rakuten’s Kobo Libra Colour.
Australia’s first colour eReader, it’ll let you read books you’ve purchased or borrowed from your local library in colour, while retaining all the useful features of a standard eBook reader, such as a long battery life and a thin design.
Best kids tech: Yoto Player
Also at home, we saw a few examples of kids tech this year, and there’s one that really stood out: the Yoto Player.
A combination of speaker, night light, and screen-free entertainment system, the Yoto Player may well be the best example of a way to keep the kids independent, letting them hear audiobooks, listen to music, and even program special mix-tape cards for them. It’s a seriously clever bit of kit.
Best power bank: Journey Glyde 4-in-1
We’re living in a wireless world, and if you’re an iPhone owner, there’s a good chance your wireless world is a little more realised than others.
You can charge pretty much any current iPhone with wireless charging, many of which support magnetic wireless charging, and the same is true with AirPods and AirPods Pro, as well as the Apple Watch. Chances are that if you live and breathe the iPhone, most parts of your personal phone and watch carry can be wirelessly charged.
Australia’s Journey actually has something for that in the Glyde, a 4-in-1 wireless charger than not only acts as a charger for all three gadgets — iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch — but packs in a 10,000mAh charger and an extra USB port to recharge another device.
We’ve seen a few great power banks this year, but the Journey Glyde is clearly the best of the bunch. It’s just so well thought out.
Best accessory: Anker Cube
Wireless chargers remain one of our favourite accessories, and Anker’s Cube is one of the more cleverly designed.
Quite literally a cube that opens up, it reveals a MagSafe charging pad, hiding a small wireless pad and an Apple Watch charging fob out the side.
The Anker Cube is so minimalist, we’re actually stumped no other peripheral maker has considered something like it. While most accessories like it are obvious stands with large panels, the Cube goes the opposite direction, making it ideal for the bedside. You could even probably pack it into luggage, though there are better collapsible options for that.
Best surprise: Valve Steam Deck
While not technically new in the world, the Steam Deck’s arrival in Australia makes it new where Pickr is, and a bit of a surprise, at that.
We definitely didn’t have it on our bingo cards that Valve would recognise Australia for an official release and bring its portable gaming computer to Australia, but it not only did, it managed to do it for a great price.
The Asus ROG Ally X is a great gaming handheld for sure, we won’t deny that, but at less than half the price, the Steam Deck LCD is the winner for most people, and the OLED option we reviewed isn’t much more expensive, either.
Armed with a great design, solid controls, and support for thousands of games on the Steam platform, not to mention a case included in the box, the Steam Deck is just the surprise we needed this year, and a great handheld for gamers keen to take their PC’s Steam library on the go. You might just finish some of those games you’ve promised yourself you would.
Best music service: Apple Music
Spotify may well deliver one of the cooler uses of data with its “Spotify Wrapped” service, but Apple Music has the edge on its music platform. Better categorisation, support for lossless audio across the paid plans, Dolby Atmos spatial applied to a variety of genres including live DJ sets, radio stations, and an app that’s improving for both Android and iOS, not to mention a variety of free radio stations whether you subscribe or not.
Apple Music wins this year’s nod for best music service because it’s easily one of the best Apple products in general. Unlike most Apple products, it works across everything — Android, iOS, TVs, and Sonos — and it delivers an exceptional service everywhere you subscribe.
While Spotify tries to work out how to integrate lossless audio several years after saying it would, Apple Music marches on delivering the best music experience for any platform, and for a great price for everyone, at that.
Best video service: Netflix
In a year where almost every video service not only raised prices but introduced ads, deciding what was the best service was complex.
So we went with what delivered some of the better value: Netflix.
Armed with one of the better video catalogues in the country, complete with games for iOS and Android including the likes of Civilisation, Monument Valley, and even a bit of GTA (what’s left of the series, anyway), a Netflix subscription is one of the better options you can find. And kids accounts on the ad-based plan reportedly don’t even have ads.
An aside: if ABC’s iView offered caching, we’d have probably given the nod to the ABC. Taking Bluey to go would have made it an instant win, especially since it’s ad-free, something every other provider seems to have largely forgotten about.
Best gaming service: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
While deciding on a movie service was difficult, working out the best gaming service was easier, largely because Australia doesn’t have many.
There’s the tiered PlayStation service, Humble Bundle’s monthly game assortment on Windows PC, and Xbox Game Pass, and only one of these lets you take your games to go on pretty much any device you own, at least in Australia.
That makes Xbox Game Pass Ultimate the choice to go for, handy because you don’t actually need to own an Xbox to play games with it.
Best AI service: Bolt.new
2024 saw a lot of AI services launch, basically being the year of artificial intelligence everywhere. AI images, AI music, AI for AI.
So we’ve added a category for our Best Tech of 2024, as the “Best AI Service” arrives.
And our first pick is one that grabbed us at the end of the year, effectively affording anyone the ability to build a web application and website seemingly from just a series of prompts.
Harnessing the power of Anthropic’s Claude AI and combining it with a clever development model, Stackblitz’s Bolt.new gets our nod for the Best AI Service of 2024, and definitely worth checking out.
