Tech Next: A formidable year-end with a heap of innovations

Flagship alert: Huawei likes to call this the ‘King of smartphones’. The brand’s new flagship — the Mate 20 Pro, walks the talk with a heap of innovations. These are my favourite four: Triple rear cam: the rear camera set-up seeks inspiration from Porsche design and combines a 40MP primary lens, a 20MP ultra-wide angle lens and an 8MP telephoto lens. There’s also a 24MP selfie cam. It’s a stellar package, co-engineered with Leica. This unique set-up allows you to shoot up to 5X with lossless zoom and snap ultra-wide angle images – great for urban landscapes.

Design language: it doesn’t feel bulky despite a large 6.39-inch curved OLED display (3120 x 1440 pixels) with gorgeous colours. Both the colour variants – Emerald green and Twilight, shimmer in the day and night. Reverse charging: Picture this – your friend asks you for a power bank; you power that phone with your Mate 20 Pro instead. That too without wires. The device doubles up as a wireless charger and can charge compatible smartphones; all you have to do is place the phone on the back. The 4200 mAh battery is robust and comes with a handy ‘Super Charge’ function – 70% in 30 minutes flat.

The next wave NM card: There’s 128GB of on-board memory and support for an NM card. This all-new storage device is a nano-sim size memory card that slips into a standard Nano-SIM slot. Huawei announced that these cards will soon be available in India. The Mate 20 Pro’s other headline specs include the next-gen HiSilicon Kirin 980 processor and 6GB of RAM. (Costs Rs 69,900)

Deep dive verdict: After four weeks with the Apple Watch Series 4, I can safely say that this is the smartwatch to beat in 2018. The fourth generation Apple wearable is the biggest leap - a mix of hardware and UI highlights. Apple ditches the 38mm and 42mm sizes for 40mm and 44mm and also knocks the bezels off. In effect you get more screen real estate in this year’s smaller – 40mm, size than last year’s larger 42mm variant. The displays are also more vibrant (326 Pixels per inch) than its predecessor.

It’s lighter, thinner and sits more at ease on your wrist. The Apple Watch Series 4, is propelled by the S4 chip (64-bit, dual-core processor). It’s twice as fast as last year’s S3 chip. The new crown with haptic feedback is one of the design highlights - you can hear each click as you scroll down menus. I tried the 4G LTE version (Wi-Fi Plus cellular) on Airtel (also available on Jio). It’s super convenient, allowing you to make calls, texts and even stream music during a run even if you’ve left the phone behind at home. The re-designed and more powerful speaker and microphone make calls hassle-free. Battery life hasn’t suffered despite a larger display or a more powerful chip – I clocked almost 2 days on a single charge. (Cost: Rs 40,900 onwards).