The best stories we wrote in 2022

I reviewed many smartphones over the year, but few felt as personal as the Galaxy Z Flip 4. My experiences with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 were fairly mixed, with the display on the foldable failing after around eight months of regular use. Safe to say, Samsung’s latest flip phone had a lot to prove to me specifically. I don’t know if the final product quite gets there, but I got a lot out of the process of thinking about what it would look like if it did.

The Apple Studio Display has its fair share of flaws, but the ridiculously sharp panel makes it wonderful to work on. This is one of those reviews where I found out I didn't know what I was missing out on. 

Thanks to its green glow and my own morbid curiosity, the Dyson sucked me in to a cleaning trance. All puns are intended.

Diablo Immortal was one of the most fascinating and frustrating games I reviewed this year. I liked it a lot more than most, but it really does push the tension between the joy and fun that comes with playing a game and the business aspects that underpin it. Immortal bites off more than it should and strains under the weight of expectations. That tension might not make for a slam dunk of a mobile game, but it certainly made it fun to write about.

The Spark MINI was the most meaningful product I reviewed this year. After a pandemic-length absence from playing guitar, this amp / Bluetooth speaker hybrid encouraged me to pick it back up again, and I now practice most days. 

It’s rare to find a set of headphones that stand out as much as these do. In a category where it’s increasingly difficult to tease out the differences among the best that Sony, Bose and Apple have to offer, leave it to Adidas to come out of the left field with something as distinct as the RPT-02 SOL. These headphones aren’t perfect. There’s definitely room for improvement. At the same time, there was a real joy that came with testing them and seeing the dream of portable audio free from wires in a new light.

Reviewing the Samsung Family Hub proved an interesting challenge. Despite the enjoyable day-to-day experience, integrating smart technology into everyday appliances poses big questions that can't be answered in the short term. Fridges are designed to last over a decade, while the vast majority of tech lasts less than half that. As much as I love putting tech where it doesn't belong, manufacturers need clearer support policies for devices like the Family Hub. 

I've been on just about every NBN acronym you think of (except for the Holy Grail of FTTP) and after moving to a house with the worst Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN) connection imaginable, I'd just about given up. But then, my conspiracy-shrouded Knight in Shining Armour came knocking: 5G Home Internet.

I've spent the entire year with 5G Home and honestly haven't been able to fault it. Outside of the expected latency issues, it's a rare occasion that I'll dip below 50Mbps but most of the time we're up in the 100s and to be honest, once we're there I usually stop checking. Even when my 5G Home reverts to 4G Home, the speeds and consistency are still unmatched in comparison to my lousy history with the National Broadband Network™.

This might seem like a cop out (and it probably is,) but the Australian Reviews.org team went through a lot of changes in 2022. At the beginning of the year, the inimitable Fergus Halliday joined the team, bringing with him a ridiculously large brain and a few months later our beloved Kate Reynolds took the PR reins. Along the way, we managed to borrow two of WhistleOut's brightest minds; Alex Choros and Anula Wiwatowska. All in all, the changes made for a much bigger team, which led to some fun team projects.

Fergus took the lead on coffee machines and laptops, Alex on headphones and wireless earbuds, and we all found time to recommend our favourite games of the year. 

However, none of this would have been possible without our shared Marvel Snap addiction; the deck-building card game that brought us all together (and made our list of the best mobile games available.)

Speaking of dramatic team changes. Early in 2022, Reviews.org's tremendously talented Georgia Dixon took off to launch Safewise in Australia. The Reviews.org article I've linked below is purely incidental; an announcement of our beloved Georgia's new role. But it marks a momentous occasion in 2022 where Reviews.org said sayonara to someone who built the site to what is today and paved the way for the data-supported product reviews we're known for. Georgia is also the face of our most popular YouTube video to date.

Thankfully, you can still find Georgia's incisive and judicious reviews over at Safewise Australia. Pop in and check it out, especially if you have a bug problem or need to tase someone.