Looking back: The most innovative devices of 2020

In India, we see thousands of new devices launched across categories every year. Most of these devices follow the ongoing trends, but it's only a handful that innovates and offers ground-breaking technology or feature. Here is a quick roundup of some of the most innovative devices of the year.

LG Wing – Foldable phones have been around since 2018, with Samsung's Fold 2 getting rave reviews this year. However, in terms of innovation in design, its LG that stood out with its Wing smartphone. The Wing might look like a standard device at first, but when you switch to the swivel mode, that's when it immediately shows its innovation. You push the display up, and it swivels up into horizontal view with a second mini touchscreen becoming accessible for usage. LG has also worked on a revamped user interface to go with this unique design, which adds to the phone's overall experience

Apple iPhone 12 Pro – The iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max come with not one but two innovations. The first one is that it brings a LiDar scanner – the scanner uses laser to detect depth allowing the phone to create a depth map of the surrounding area. This means that with this scanner, the iPhone gets a massive jump in Augmented reality and photography. The second innovation is the new MagSafe charger that snaps onto place using magnets. This could pave the iPhone's future, getting rid of the ports on the device and moving to magnetic charging.

Apple Macbook with M1 SoC -  Apple has moved away from Intel chipsets and introduced its own processor for Macbook this year with the M series of SoC. The M1 SoC is now available on Macbook Pro, Macbook Air and Mac Mini. The new processor offers twice the performance and provides a significant improvement in battery life on the notebooks. In addition, it also enables iOS apps to run on the Macs now, which means you have a more extensive catalogue of apps available that can be used with a keyboard, trackpad/mouse.

DJI Osmo Pocket 2 – DJI Osmo Pocket was a revolutionary product when it launched in 2018. IN 2020, DJI launched the successor to it with the Pocket 2, and it is a gamechanger for content creators. The compact device offers 4k HDR video recording with 4x lossless zoom. Moreover, this one uses four microphones for audio, taking care of the previous generation's issue. It also has a modular design – the handle can be replaced with a tripod base, speaker, or WiFI/Bluetooth module.

Sony PlayStation 5 - The Playstation 5 is Sony's next-generation gaming console, and it is set to change the console gaming experience with its features. You get a custom CPU and an ultra-high-speed SSD storage that enables games to load faster and deliver a smooth gaming experience. Moreover, its GPU has support for output in 8k, offers up to 120 fps with 120hz output and even supports HDR. The dual sense wireless controller has also been updated with adaptive triggers and haptic feedback.

Samsung Sero - The Sero from Samsung is the first of its kind Lifestyle TV with a QLED panel. What makes it stand out is its ability to switch between horizontal and vertical orientation when required. This opens up multiple usage avenues for the TV – not only can you use it for normal TV viewing, but with its vertical orientation, you can use the TV for social media, mirror mobile content as its recorded as well as view useful information on the screen when it's not being used to watch content.

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold - The X1 Fold from Lenovo brings foldable screens to the laptop. It is the first foldable PC to be available for consumers and offers a 13.3-inch foldable OLED display. You can opt to use the entire display as a large touchscreen or fold it like a laptop and bring on an on-screen keyboard on the bottom half and use it for typing. With this unique foldable design, you carry a compact device running Windows 10 that offers a battery life of up to 11 hours. You can even choose to use a stand to prop-up the laptop and then use the entire display with a wireless keyboard just like a desktop.