These are the best tech products of 2022

Sony’s WH-1000XM4 headphones seemed to have no rival—until the company came up with its own competitor, that is. The Sony WH-1000XM5 doesn’t replace the XM4, but the plush new headphones are a brilliant upgrade in almost every way, offering improved sound, better noise canceling, and a sharp new look at a more premium price point. Add in the same great suite of features that made their predecessors our favorite headphones you can buy, and you’ve got an easy pick as the best headphones of the year. Read the full review.

Apple’s insanely popular AirPods Pro have been cruising for an update for a couple of years now, but once they finally arrived, the upgraded pair definitely lived up to the hype. While the design is almost identical, the latest AirPods Pro have improved features across the board, including next-gen noise canceling, better battery life, souped-up sound performance, and the excellent new Adaptive Transparency Mode. The upgrades put the aging AirPods back on top, offering best-in-class usability and all the fabulous features Apple fans have come to know and love, packed into the same lightweight buds that changed the wireless earbuds game. Read the full review.

Jabra's new Elite 7 lineup had a big task in outdueling the extremely popular Elite and Elite Active 75t (which the brand is phasing out. The new headphones come in two water-resistant varieties for your workout, both Pro and Active, but it's the Active buds that take things up a notch with a grippy exterior that helps them stay in place even when the sweat goes to 11. Both Elite 7 versions provide a deeper, more stable fit and better battery than their predecessors, as well as the majority of the best features that made the Elite Active 75t a hit, from active noise canceling to fully customizable controls. If you're looking for earbuds to help you push through the toughest workouts, Jabra's latest deliver. Read the full review.

Great noise canceling isn’t just for top-tier headphones anymore. Anker has made strides with more value-forward options, and that progress isn’t more apparent than with the Soundcore Space 40 earbuds. They handle low-end noise and vocal chatter better than many options above their price class. But their value doesn’t stop with their noise-canceling performance—the Space A40 sound good, too. With an 8-band equalizer to fine tune the sound, as well as HearID Sound which uses a quick hearing test to customize further, the Space A40 earbuds have set a new standard for what inexpensive headphones can do. Read the full review.

This 2-in-1 laptop from HP has a great balance of performance and versatility for the price. It’s configured with a 12th-gen Intel Core i7-1255U processor, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a bright and colorful display and included stylus for all the artists out there. It has a comfortable design for typing and using the trackpad, and it’s one of the few productivity laptops we’ve tested that actually has loud and balanced audio. The HP Spectre x360 14 is a jack-of-all-trades device with the best features from laptops and tablets that makes it easily stand out from other 2-in-1s. Read the full review.

For about $200 more than the older M1, Apple gives you a much faster processor and a few feature upgrades with its MacBook Air M2. The Air M2 is about 10-18% faster than the M1, and now has a 1080p webcam, brighter display, about 5.5 more hours of battery life, and a dedicated charging port. Notable improvements for a not-so-terrible increase in cost. You could feasibly trade in your MacBook Air M1 for a shiny new Air M2 and save hundreds of dollars, too! Read the full review.

While the Acer Swift X 14 is technically not a gaming laptop, it packs the necessary components to play most games at a smooth, 60 frames per second at 1080p. It also zips through basic productivity tasks thanks to its AMD Ryzen 7 5800U processor, and the battery lasts a decent nine and a half hours. Acer made a few concessions on this budget pic, but for a laptop well-under the $1,000 price tag, this one is a steal. The Swift X 14 is also a light laptop, weighing around 3.3 pounds, so the fact that it’s a powerful and portable productivity laptop is the cherry on top. Read the full review.

The majority of students need a simple, speedy, and reliable laptop for writing all high school or college-level papers. Not only is the Asus Zenbook 14 a great tool for the job, but it costs under $700, which is essential for students looking to get something on a budget—and it doesn’t skimp on processing speed. This laptop comes configured with a 12th-gen Intel Core i5-1240P processor, Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, 8GB of DDR5 RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a gorgeous OLED display, making it a great laptop that will last through all four years of high school or college. Read the full review.

We loved Asus’ first ROG Zephyrus G14, and we love the 2022 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 even more. It rivals Apple, Razer, and other popular gaming and productivity brands not just in performance, but also in form factor, battery life, and special features. It’s configured with a current-gen AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS processor, a discrete AMD Radeon RX 6800S graphics card, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and it only weighs 3.64 pounds, making this one of the most portable and powerful gaming laptops on the market—and all that performance doesn’t come with increased power demands, so the ROG Zephyrus G14’s battery lasts for nearly nine hours. Read the full review.

If you want to invest in the best picture quality money can buy, the Sony A95K is the TV for you. Not only is it the best-looking TV of the year, it's the best TV we've ever seen—period. The A95K blends the perfect black levels of an OLED TV with the color-boosting properties of quantum dots, creating a truly gobsmacking picture that ought to be seen to be believed. It's also stuffed with plenty of A/V- and gaming-related features, including Dolby Vision, Variable Refresh Rate, and support for 4K gaming at 120Hz. It doesn’t come cheap, but the Sony A95K quantum-dot OLED sets a new standard for picture quality. Read the full review.

It's been a competitive year for mid-range TVs, but the Hisense U8H rose to the top. It's the pick for people searching for a savvy deal without sacrificing performance or features. The U8H's mini-LED backlighting rivals that of higher-end mini-LED TVs, and the inclusion of quantum dots gives way to bold, vibrant colors. If next-gen gaming features are on your wishlist, the U8H has you covered, too; two of its HDMI ports support 4K gaming at 120Hz, and both Variable Refresh Rate and Auto Low Latency Mode are available right out of the box. All of these elements (plus a fast and flexible smart platform) add up to the most value-forward TV of 2022. Read the full review.

TCL has been at the front of the budget TV pack for a few years, and this year is no different. The new 55-inch TCL S555 5-Series Roku TV sports deep black levels, excellent out-of-the-box color accuracy thanks to quantum-dot technology, an image bright enough for rooms with ambient lighting, and support for Dolby Vision HDR. Gamers will appreciate four HDMI 2.1 ports (although limited to 60Hz), Auto Low Latency Mode, and Variable Refresh Rate—including AMD FreeSync support. It’s a whole lot of performance packed into a TV that’s under $500. Read the full review.

The best TV for gaming in 2022 is also one of the best TVs you can buy. The LG C2 delivers perfect black levels, showstopping HDR, and dazzling color. When it comes to gaming, just about every spec is accounted for, including four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 that support 4K gaming at 120Hz, Auto Low Latency, and Variable Refresh Rate—with both AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility. The cherry on top is LG’s Game Optimizer settings menu, which gives you quick access to the C2’s VRR options, relays frame rate information, and lets you tweak the picture based on the game type. If you're looking for the perfect blend of top-tier picture quality and next-gen gaming support, the C2 is tough to beat. Read the full review.

The latest Roku Ultra once again takes the reins as our favorite outboard streamer thanks to its mix of excellent features, intuitive and versatile smart software, and the best remote Roku has ever made. From private listening to all flavors of HDR, there’s not much this streaming box can’t do. Whether you need to smarten up your aging TV, or prefer to circumvent your TV’s built-in smart interface, the Roku Ultra has you covered with smooth usability that’s better than ever. Read the full review.

Samsung didn’t do a lot to improve its top Dolby Atmos device over its predecessor, but when you’ve got 22 speakers all working together for incredible detail and immersion, you can sit back a bit while everyone else catches up. The HW-Q990B has a trimmer look (and a much cooler subwoofer) along with some neat new tricks for owners of newer Samsung TVs like wireless Dolby Atmos, a first for the segment. Most importantly, this system serves up seamless surround sound for virtually any format and excellent musicality in an intuitive package, making it the ultimate soundbar centerpiece. Read the full review.

Don’t let the small size of the [Bose Smart Soundbar 600 fool you: this bar can fill up a space with sonic ear candy that rivals its more expensive and larger competitors. It’s also one of the few standalone Dolby Atmos soundbars under $500 that has up-firing speakers. Dialogue sounds clear and present, and the overall sound profile is a huge upgrade over anything a TV can do. Setup through the Bose Music app is easy, there’s a built-in speaker to use with Alexa, and additional surrounds or a sub can be added later to beef up the soundscape even more. It’s a small soundbar with big performance. Read the full review.

A great Bluetooth speaker should be simple, affordable, and most of all, a head-turning performer. The 6th-generation Flip checks each of those squares handily, while also offering a tough-and-ready, dust and water-resistant design. It’s easy to take this speaker on the go in just about any bag or suitcase, and the 12-hour battery life will give you plenty of time to rock your day away from the beach to the park. The speaker also sounds great, offering more bass than you’d expect, alongside clear treble and a punchy midrange. What more do you need? Read the full review.

The Apple iPad Air (5th gen) is our pick for best tablet due to how well Apple recreated the iPad Pro’s core experiences into a less expensive form factor. Configured with Apple’s M1 laptop processor, the 5th gen iPad Air is much faster than the previous-gen tablet, yet still manages to run for eight hours on battery life. Design-wise, the 5th gen looks almost identical to the 4th, but Apple swapped FaceID for TouchID and upgraded the front camera to a 12MP Ultra Wide camera with Apple's Center Stage support. Read the full review.

Apple’s Watch Series 8 doesn’t bring a ton of new features to the table, but when you’re built on the shoulders of smartwatch giants, it’s easy to be the best in the business. The latest watch adds on excellent features like a vibrant, always-on display, blood oxygen and ECG sensors, and fantastic fitness tracking with new crash detection and retrospective cycle tracking. The user-friendly design is better than ever thanks to watchOS 9, while integration with your iPhone has never been simpler or more intuitive. It all adds up to the perfect wearable companion that continues to set the bar for what a smartwatch should be. Read the full review.

The improvements Samsung made to its Galaxy Watch 5 are minor over its Watch 4, but it’s still the best smartwatch Android users can get. Samsung tweaked the design so it will fit more snuggly against your wrist, added improved accessibility features, and kept the vibrant display from last-gen’s model so you’ll never have an issue reading what’s on it in direct sunlight. There’s also a new skin temperature sensor and an upgraded sleep coach. Read the full review.

OLED gaming monitors have arrived, and the Alienware AW3423DW\ is a perfect example of what the technology can do–and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. The 34-inch, curved, ultra-wide gaming monitor does pretty much everything well, from great HDR to fantastic pixel response times to a rich contrast ratio thanks to the OLED panel’s ability to display true blacks. At $1,300, it isn’t even that expensive compared to the competition and Alienware is releasing an even cheaper version for $1,100 before the end of the year. The only issue stems from its 3440 x 1440 pixels resolution, but ultrawide monitor support will only continue to improve. It’s hands down the best gaming monitor you can buy right now. Read the full review.

A more compact version of SteelSeries’ already excellent Apex Pro gaming keyboard, the Apex Pro Mini Wireless further refines on one of the best gaming keyboards. Although its 60% footprint is a bit small for productivity tasks, the ability to assign easily accessible secondary and tertiary functions to each key and create custom macros more than makes up for it. You’re stuck with SteelSeries’ OmniPoint 2.0 Adjustable Switches, but that’s a good thing–you can adjust the actuation point of each individual key from OmniPoint 2.0 Adjustable Switches from 0.2mm to 3.8mm, and toggle between custom profiles. When combined with 2.4GHZ and Bluetooth connectivity and broad compatibility that spans PCs, MacOS, mobile, and gaming consoles, SteelSeries has a winning combination. Read the full review.

It’s a handheld console. It’s a gaming PC. It’s a retro game emulator. It’s a pc gamer’s ideal portable companion. Valve’s Steam Deck isn’t a single-use-case gaming device, but rather a hefty piece of portable technology that can do nearly everything a desktop computer can do. But just because it’s about the size of a brick, don’t underestimate its comfort-factor—especially if you have small hands. It’s lightweight, and the buttons and thumbsticks are positioned right next to each other so you’ll never feel like you have to stretch your thumbs across the device. There’s also four paddle buttons on the Steam Deck’s backside that, depending on the game, you can use to remap in-game controls. Read the full review.

While it might not be waterproof like Amazon’s most popular e-reader, the Kindle Paperwhite, the 11th-generation Kindle provides a reading experience that’s nearly as enjoyable for significantly less money. Its six-inch display is just as sharp and easy on the eyes as its more expensive sibling’s and it comes with up to 16GB of onboard storage—enough space for dozens of Audible audiobooks or thousands of ebooks. Its operating system is also one of the most user-friendly of any e-reader out there today, making it easy and fun to pick up and start reading right away. Read the full review.