Brad Bennett’s five favourite things of 2022

2022 was a whirlwind of gear, content and more, but if I have to pick five things that I liked over the year, it would be the following.

That said, a lot of my favourite things from 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 are still applicable, so check those out if you’re interested.

Fujifilm X-H2S

My friend David convinced me to go Fuji years ago, and while I’ve loved my cameras and the brand, it’s been hard to watch the competition from Canon and Sony outstrip Fuji with autofocus and other tech improvements.

However, that all changed with the launch of the flagship X-H2S this year. This camera is packed with innovation, and I was blown away by how much smarter it felt than my ageing X-T3 from 2018. While it may not have been the camera for me since I don’t need all the top-of-the-line perks, it restored my faith in the brand and got me excited to see what 2023 offers. Hopefully, we can even get an updated X100 camera.

Read or watch the full review here.

Teenage Engineering Computer-1

While I’ve worked mainly on a MacBook Pro 14 since I bought one last year, I still love the PC building space, and this case blew me away. Its retro design and small size made it perfect for me.

As someone who was always annoyed with how big computers were, the prospect of a tiny one was enough. I haven’t built a machine in my copy yet, but my partner Alex did, and she loves it. Typically a Mac girl, she fell in love with this case and hasn’t looked back.

You can read my full thoughts on the case or watch a video from Alex here. 

iOS 16

This year Apple finally took a big swing at iPhone customization, and it’s fantastic. The company’s latest update makes the iOS lock screen more personal, and with widgets, it can be more functional, too.

I haven’t been this happy with an iOS update in a long time, so this, combined with the new Camera continuity updates, has kept me believing that the Apple ecosystem still isn’t going to be beaten by Google or Samsung any time soon.

You can read or watch my full thoughts on the update here.

Huawei MateView

I’ve been on a quest to find a good square monitor to be my main workstation at home and the MateView is hard to beat. This monster has a 28-inch screen with a 3:2 aspect ratio giving me about an inch of extra usable space at the top and bottom of the screen.

It’s fantastic for working, and its 4K panel is bright and colourful. It’s technically been factory calibrated, but I found I needed to tweak it more to match the spectacular panel on my MacBook Pro 14.

It’s also got a non-removable stand that is somewhat of a downside but comes with some worthwhile tradeoffs. Plus, it has a small on-desk footprint, and the brushed metal looks nice. There are 90 watts of power passthrough via USB so I can charge my laptop, Apple Watch, phone and more just from the monitor stand. There’s also a built-in speaker, meaning you don’t need clunky speakers on your desk. They’re not perfect, but they’re more than enough, and I use them all the time when connected to my Windows PC. Overall it’s a pricey piece of kit, but side-by-side with things like Apple’s Studio Display, it paints a very appealing picture.

Making videos memories

The last thing I truly fell in love with during 2022 was making videos. From cruising through the Utah mountains in an EV to trying my best to document the chaos of WWDC, I had a blast creating tech videos.

Not only was it the creative outlet I never knew I needed, but it’s also taken me to some crazy places and taught me skills that I’ve always wanted to learn, from lighting and angles to edits and camera movement. I’ve become obsessed with it all, and I want to take this moment to thank anyone who watched and supported over the year. We have some big plans for video in 2023, so the channel will go dark for a while, but I have one last big blowout at CES to cover, so stay tuned for that. Again, thanks, and I hope everyone has a fantastic 2023.

Check out the YouTube channel below. Some of my favourites include the Cadillac Lyric, the DJI Mini 3 Pro and the OnePlus 10 Pro review.