Seven Most Innovative Gadgets of 2024

It might have seen a flood of launches, but the tech innovation cupboard was pretty bare in 2024. The year was marked by seas of sameness rather than storms of innovation on the gadget front, with most phones, tablets, notebooks, and the accessories that accompany them sticking to broadly familiar designs, features, and even spec sets at similar price points.

But that does not mean there was no innovation at all in the year. Some brands did try to be different, a few in terms of offering totally new features and some others by bringing premium features to much more affordable price points. So, as the year comes to an end, here are seven gadgets that we think were the most innovative ones we used in 2024.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 – putting some solid functionality into the flip form factor

The flip side of foldable phones has basically been all about being stylish and compact. Well, Samsung added a solid functional side to the fashionable one of its Flip range (our review). Of course, it came with a sleek design, premium materials, and proper flagship specs.

But the reason it is in this list is because of the way in which it used the Live Translate feature, allowing users to use the external/cover display to communicate with others in a different language (the cover display would show the listener what you were saying in their own language), and also bringing in automatic zoom in and zoom out on the front-facing camera of the cover display for better shot framing. It was the kind of sorcery we had not seen on smartphones for a while!

JBL Live Beam 3 – putting a handy spin on predictable TWS

While truly wireless earbuds (TWS) are more popular than ever, their design and functionality have become largely predictable, with most brands sticking to a few broad templates. JBL, however, added a spin on TWS life with its Live Beam 3 TWS, which came with a proper 1.45-inch touchscreen display on their case, which was rather aptly named Smart Charging Case.

The case lets you carry out a number of functions, including switching tracks, changing volume, and even changing the equalizer without having to access the device the TWS were connected to. We had seen this feature on other TWS too, but none worked as smoothly as the Live Beam 3.

Of course, the buds themselves sounded very impressive with hi-fi sound and spatial audio, and it also packed in 48-hour battery life and very good ANC, but it was their case that beamed them into this list. Stay tuned for our detailed review, which will be coming soon.

Kobo Libra Colour – adding a dash of color to e-ink readers and some note-taking, too

With Amazon being relatively quiet on the e-book reader front in India in 2024, Kobo grabbed attention with its Libra Color e-book reader. The Libra Colour came with a classic glare-free, easy-to-read-in-sunlight e-ink display, but with one huge difference – it supported color, something Amazon Kindle readers in India did not have.

Its 7-inch display not only lets you read e-books in color, allowing one to see covers and illustrations in all their glory and also finally giving us the option of reading graphic novels on an e-ink display, but also lets us make notes, highlights, and annotations in color using a special stylus (sold separately, alas).

The Libra Colour also came with IPX8 water resistance (it can easily survive a fall in the water) and usual weeks of battery life, all packed into a frame made of recycled and ocean-bound plastic, but what made it special was the dash of color it brought to the lives of e-inky bookworms in India. We are going to be looking at this in a lot of detail in our forthcoming review.

CMF Phone 1: Bringing some innovation to the budget smartphone life

Nothing launched the first phone from its more affordable CMF sub-brand in 2024. While CMF Phone 1 (our review) did not come with the eye-catching LEDs that are a part of the Nothing Phone range, it definitely brought some innovation to the relatively staid Rs 15,000 phone category. The phone had a design that looked right out of an engineering manual, with visible screws and a large dial on its back.

And these were not just for decoration – you could remove both the dial and the back using a special screwdriver and replace them with new back plates, which not only changed the appearance of the phone but also added to its functionality, giving the phone a very modular feel. The other specs of the phone were respectable too – a 6.67-inch AMOLED FHD display, a Dimensity 7300 processor, and a 50-megapixel main sensor as well as a large-ish 5000 mAh battery – but it was that tweakable back that made the CMF Phone 1 special in 2024.

Sennheiser HD620S Headphones: Closed back with open sound? Possible!

Closed-back headphones that sound almost like open-back ones? Contradictory though that may sound, it is exactly what legendary audio brand Sennheiser pulled off with its HD620S headphones (our review). Designed for audiophiles and audio enthusiasts, these headphones delivered incredibly detailed sound over a wired connection (audiophiles do not do wireless) through very comfortable earcups.

But what really surprised the world of sound was just how “open” they sounded in terms of soundstage in spite of being totally closed. Closed-back headphones, by nature, tend to be better at handling lower frequencies (bass) and mids (generally vocals) and have a limited soundstage. The HD620S, however, came with a surprisingly wide soundstage, almost matching that of open-back headphones. Making this possible were Sennheiser’s 42 mm angled transducers, enabling audiophiles to have the best of both open-back and closed-back worlds, albeit at a stiff price (Rs 29,990).

Amkette EvoFox Deck Smartphone Gamepad: Smartphone to gaming console at a crazy price

Smartphone gaming continued to be a rage in 2024, and the markets were packed with accessories for phone gaming. And one of the best that we came across in terms of sheer value in 2024 was the rather elaborately named EvoFox Deck Smartphone Gamepad. Like gamepads we have seen, especially from Razer and Backbone, it converted your iPhone or Android smartphone into a portable gaming console of sorts with the phone’s landscape display in the middle, flanked by gaming control buttons on either side.

It connects to phones wirelessly. It allows you to play many high-end games without having to worry about on-screen game controls and RGB lighting, and it even lets you map buttons. All this was done in a rock solid, sleek, and flexible design that was rock solid enough to accommodate phones of different sizes and had a very decent battery life of about 5-6 hours per charge. And it did all this at a price of around Rs 3,000, almost half of what a multinational brand would charge!

Xiaomi Sound Outdoor Speaker: A small wonder of sound

“With great portability comes great feature compromises (unless you are ready to pay a premium)” is a line that seems to go with outdoor speakers. Xiaomi turned that on its head with its Xiaomi Sound Outdoor Speaker. At a mere Rs 3,499, it packed 30W of sound into an IP67 water-resistant frame about as large as a water bottle and weighed about as much (600 grams), making it easy to slip into a bag.

And while it comes with two spectacularly vibrating passive woofer radiators on either side, its sound quality was remarkably balanced and did not go as bass crazy as we had expected. It also came with very good call handling, letting you take phone calls using the very good microphones on it and even using them to invoke a virtual assistant. What’s more, it not only connected easily to any Bluetooth audio source but actually even connected to another Xiaomi Sound Outdoor Speaker seamlessly and slipped into a spectacular stereo mode.

The fact that even two such speakers would cost only a little more than something comparable to Ultimate Ears or JBL only made it even more special. What’s more, it looks svelte and sleek enough to win a Red Dot Design award. We have honestly not seen anything like this at this price (hint: more in our detailed review coming shortly).

And one more thing… AirPods Pro 2: Adding a new dimension to hearing

The AirPods Pro 2 have been around since 2022, but Apple breathed new life into them in 2024 when it added a hearing aid and hearing test to them through a software update. The test, which is about five minutes in duration, consists of the user responding to sound played at different frequencies on the AirPods, delivering an audio profile, and even letting you use the AirPods as a hearing aid in many cases. We have experienced the feature, although it has not yet been brought to India. We hope it does soon. The fact that it was added to an existing device at no extra cost to the user was one of the remarkable tech achievements of 2024.