Hardware Awards 2023: Best Innovative Hardware –

We’ve written it before and we’ll write it again, but the terms “innovative” and “innovation” are often misused in our beloved tech industry. Product after product arrives on the shelves that may be rock solid, make no mistake, but there is no real innovation, no rethinking, no restructuring of the entire usage scenario.

So every year we embark on a mission, a mission to celebrate, to honor the products that have landed in the Gamereactor office that really impress by innovating. They don’t have to be the best products of any given year, innovation usually comes at a pretty pivotal cost, but innovation, yes, they delivered.

This year we haven’t had nearly as much time to keep up with as many hardware reviews as we had hoped, but there have still been several times when we’ve had a real jaw-dropping experience and had to adjust what our expectations for the market should be in the future. These are the kinds of experiences you collect as a reviewer, and we honor them once again here.

Winner: OnePlus Open

Yes, another foldable phone, we know. But so much is still happening in this particular segment that it’s relatively obvious that this kind of technical innovation should be honored here. Not only is the OnePlus Open the first real competitor to Samsung’s somewhat stagnant Fold series, it arrived with splendor, with a clean Android skin, solid cameras and a simplicity that Samsung just can’t really offer through their OneUI software

OnePlus Open is a slam dunk in so many different areas, from the beautiful do not disturb slider on the side to the now pretty effective collaboration with Swedish Hasselblad. Gorgeous displays both inside and out. Spicy software thanks to powerful internals, fast charging via a charger you get in the box. It’s pretty much all there, and at a slightly lower price than the Fold 5.

The only thing we really miss here is wireless charging, but we’re sure Open is a keeper and there’s plenty to look forward to in future iterations as well. Well done, OnePlus. Well done, OnePlus.

Winner: Sage Barista Touch

Can a coffee machine win for being innovative? Yes, it can. As we wrote in our original review, this particular variant from Sage’s rather impressive fleet is pretty special because it tries to use technology to walk the line between hard-boiled espresso snobbery and accessibility. The display on the machine calmly guides you through the process every time, a temperature gauge automatically steams milk into the pan for the perfect cappuccino, and thanks to in-depth settings, there’s a wealth of customization options.

Making a good cup of coffee is both a very personal and relatively tactile affair, where you want to be directly involved in the process and master a rather intimidating tool. Sage doesn’t take all that away from you, but offers little details here and there that make you more aware as you learn.

We at the editors agree that this deserves to be honored, so that’s why Barista Touch is on this year’s list.

Winner: Pixel Tablet

There are no doubt many of you who have some Google Nest, and there may even be some who have invested in a Nest Hub, which acts both as a home for Google Assistant, but also as a digital picture frame for Google Photos, as well as a number of other smart features.
Google did the rather ingenious thing earlier this year of combining this Hub with a tablet, and that product is called the Pixel Tablet. The tablet itself is not impressive on its own, but in the box you get a magnetic speaker stand that, when it connects, charges your tablet, while switching modes software-wise to become a giant Nest Hub.
It sounds simple, but the fact that the same product can become two really different, distinct devices is so clever that we have to mention it here.

Winner: Pedestal Straight Rollin’

The Pedestal Straight Rollin’, and their other products for that matter, are not innovative in themselves, but the design offers positional versatility that can do innovative wonders for your home, which is why they definitely deserve a place on this year’s list.
By that we mean that it’s really “just” a stand on wheels, but suddenly being able to control where and how your TV is placed, as well as collecting your console, AppleTV, soundbar, cables – the whole shebang, all on one frame, is so ingenious that it’s amazing no one thought of it before.
But Danish Pedestal did, and while there is room for improvement here and there, we were so pleasantly surprised by the end result that we gave it a 10/10. We stand by that.