We review a lot of gear around here and we’ve awarded several devices Editor’s Choice and Top Pick awards, but we’ve never chosen the very best of in a single year. The Techaeris Best of 2023 is our way of showcasing a very short list of products we think deserve to be the top of the heap in 2023.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
The Best of 2023 is an elite award that recognizes a few devices that we think deserve to be in your hands. These devices impressed us enough to make this very short but illustrious list. We could probably have a dozen or more picks but we wanted to limit this one to five. Without further delay, these are the devices that made our Techaeris Best of 2023 list.
Table of contents
Techaeris The Best of 2023
TCL QM8
TCL has come a long way in a variety of arenas, and the home theater space is one of them. It wasn’t that long ago that I’d walk right past a TCL TV, not even giving it a second look. But this is no longer the case.
The TCL QM8 is worthy of the praise it has gotten over the past few weeks, and worthy of your hard-earned dollars. It offers mini-LED technology, fantastic blacks, vibrant color, high brightness, and a premium build quality for a reasonable price.
What’s more remarkable is that you can find the TCL QM8 priced for lower than the MSRP at Best Buy and Amazon. So you’re getting a TV that is well worth its $1,700 price tag for much lower (prices vary from day to day).
Given the price of the TCL QM8 and the feature set and performance it offers, I highly recommend this TV if you want excellent performance at an attainable price point.
57″ Samsung Odyssey Neo G9
When I reviewed the 49″ Odyssey OLED, I kept this section short. That is not changing here, as this is an elementary quick take. But one thing that should be said right off the bat is this, you will need to have the hardware to support some of these features. Don’t expect to plug in your 8-year-old gaming laptop and get all the goodies here. Mac users should also know that you can use this with your Mac, but older Macs are out, and newer Macs are not going to get you the full resolution, or refresh rate.
The denser Mini LED display is spectacular and delivers great brightness, insane resolution, a wicked refresh rate, and fantastic response time. The 1000R curvature is actually welcome. The OLED version I reviewed has a 1800R curve and I thought that was just fine. But now, having used a similar monitor with the 1000R curve, I am convinced that the 1000R curve is superior.
Overall, the colors are vibrant, brightness is excellent, blacks are deep (though not as deep as the OLED G9), performance was spot on. One thing missing here, which isn’t a massive deal, is the Gaming Hub. Some users may want that, but it’s not a considerable deal to us. I highly recommend the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 G95NC if you have the hardware to support it or are going to buy the hardware that supports it.
XGIMI HORIZON Ultra
The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra has a lot going for it, but also a few minor annoyances that may or may not matter to some. Firstly, the image quality is fantastic! The brightness is really remarkable as well. The company says it Laser-LED Hybrid Dual lighting technology is what allows for the brighter picture and ultra-high color gamut.
I absolutely love the near effortlessness of setting the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra up in a room. The Auto Keystone Correction and Autofocus are fantastic. If you’re not using an ALR screen like we did, it’s practically hands free. We used our 100″ ALR screen and had to make some minor adjustments to fit the display into the ALR screen area, not a big deal at all.
Playback, image quality, and brightness are really remarkable and for a long-throw projector to nearly match some of the UST’s I’ve been testing, is impressive to me.
My only major gripes are, limited ports and Android TV. I wish there were more HDMI ports to connect other devices. Three would have been nice to see, four would have been better. Android TV is not my favorite operating system. I wish XGIMI had gone with Google TV. But these are minor gripes, you can connect an Apple TV, Roku, or Fire TV to bypass Android TV. The ports’ situation, you could use a switcher or just plug and unplug as you go. Neither is enough for me not to recommend the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra, these are just things to be aware of.
Overall, the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra is a fantastic long-throw 4K Dolby Vision projector that sits at a reasonable price. If long-throw is what you’re looking for, this thing fits the bill, and it’s small and looks really nice.
Logitech G PRO Racing Wheel and Pedals
The Logitech G PRO Racing Wheel and Pedals definitely target the serious racing game fanatic… but they are well worth it for the realistic racing sim experience they offer, depending on the game you play as they do have limited full-feature support depending on the game. Sure, they’re pricey, but if you have the setup and love racing games, you owe it to yourself to find the budget to add these to your setup.
Even though it’s pricey and has a pretty niche market, the performance, and feedback are well worth it if you’re into racing games and, as a result, it easily earns a Top Pick Award here at Techaeris.
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro
Turtle Beach made some bold claims when they announced the Stealth Pro. In this industry, there are plenty of solid wireless gaming headphones to be self-proclaiming as the “New King” of a specific category.
After being able to spend some time with the Stealth Pro Xbox wireless gaming headset, however, this latest entrant into the market definitely checks off all the boxes and checks them off well. Not only does it offer fantastic sound quality on PC and Xbox, but it also has dual connectivity allowing you to listen to two sources at the same time, solid battery life with swappable rechargeable batteries, fantastic microphone quality, and both a desktop and mobile app to configure and adjust settings.
Of course, it’s not perfect, but the issues with it are minor, and it is pricey. But there’s a price to be paid for quality, and in the case of the Stealth Pro, it’s well worth it if you can afford it. Now sit back and dig in as there’s a lot to digest in this unusually lengthy review for a gaming headset.
The real question here is, how long will it remain the “New King of Wireless?” For now, it’s replaced both the headset I use on my PC and the one I use on my Xbox for gaming.
Wrap Up
These devices are the Techaeris Best of 2023, be sure to check out our full reviews and purchase links, as you cannot go wrong with any of these devices. There are many other devices that are outstanding too, so be sure to check out our full Editor’s Choice and Top Pick section for everything!
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Last Updated on March 13, 2024.
