January 2018! A Busy Month for Tech and Auto Enthusiasts

Siddhartha Sharma
Posted on
A Busy Month for Tech and Auto Enthusiasts

January 2018 was a month that has started this year with a bang in the tech and automotive space. We saw some amazing smartphone launches and even an AI robot at CES 2018. In India the automotive space saw a couple of cars that are going to be big time revenue churners for both Audi as well as Maruti Suzuki. For people like me January was a busy month, so busy that Exhibit accepted this column at the last minute.

 

“ Every device has its use case scenarios and of course pros and cons. But the View 10 definitely sets the ball rolling for 2018, you should expect a lot of smartphones and devices this year that will boast of some basic or advanced AI functionalities. ”

 

The year 2018 is all set with a plan for Artificial Intelligence boom in our daily lives. There have been skeptics of AI but as most of the consumer tech makers are backing it up for now, we might soon have no option but to expect this new phenomenon in our lives. The entry level AI tool for 2018 is going to primarily be your smartphones. Apple gave us a taste of AI based iPhones in 2017, but in a country like India not everyone can get their hands on one. So the first phone that was based on AI and supported basic functionality that enabled machine learning and identifying user patterns to optimize the device at a affordable price was launched by Huawei’s sub-brand Honor.

Honor View 10 is a completely new series by Honor. We had the opportunity to see this device in London in December of 2017 and were expecting a price point of way over ₹ 34,999. Honor though had a surprise for us with a price point of ₹ 29,999. This not only made an AI smartphone affordable, but also contested many smartphone brands and their devices that are north of their price point. But having said that AI is not enough to make a device wholesome and complete. In fact there is no phone that’s perfect or the best. Every device has its use case scenarios and of course pros and cons. But the View 10 definitely sets the ball rolling for 2018, you should expect a lot of smartphones and devices this year that will boast of some basic or advanced AI functionalities.

For consumer tech, this year started with a lot of Red as well. OnePlus 5T came out with a Lava Red edition in January 2018. I must say that the Red colour on the 5T is one of the best red phones I have seen in terms of looks, and yes that also included the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus Red. OnePlus sure knows how to get exclusivity in their products. This they have proved time and again. We saw the SartWars edition which was a porous white finish, but they have outdone themselves with the Lava Red edition of the OnePlus 5T. If you are looking to buy a OnePlus 5T buy the Lava Red it’s just beautiful. The Lava Red edition has also grabbed a lot of attention among tech lovers as well as the industry. OnePlus 5T is a successful product and the Red edition will only make sure that this year plenty of manufacturers will try out different colour variants on their phone models. Personally, I would really like to see a bright orange or a yellow colour on a flagship smartphone this year, and yes that too done on a metal body.

So, what about the automotive segment? Well Audi was the first ones to come out with the new Audi Q5. This was an SUV that most of the luxury SUV buyers were waiting for. Also, the Q5 had been a stale product in the modern fleet that Audi has built in the last couple of years. The new Audi Q5 is like a baby Q7 and pretty much has most of the modern tech that one would demand from a luxury SUV. The feature that intrigued us the most was the Audi PhoneBox that comes with Qi wireless charging. The PhoneBox on the Q5 is also the right size and can accommodate phones that have even 6-inch displays. The Qi charging capability helps you wirelessly charge phones like the iPhone X and iPhone 8 and 8 Plus with ease on this SUV. It also has an antislip matte finish to it so, even if you off road with the Q5 the phone remains absolutely where you had kept it.

But the blockbuster that took our hearts by the end of January was the all new Maruti Suzuki Swift. This is a car that made almost everyone in India fall in love with hatchbacks. The new Swift was eagerly awaited by many and Maruti Suzuki finally are launching it in India at the Auto Expo in February. But a few lucky ones like us got a chance to drive the new ones on the ghats of Lonavala. The twisting roads were the right fit for the new HEARTECT platform on which the car is based. The new Swift also looks more aggressive and is agile around corners. The biggest hit would be probably the AGS (Automatic Transmission) that now finally comes on this car. The variant that I personally loved the most was the manual petrol version on the Swift. It was just a delight to drive and was safe as well. This can be the car that gets back the charm of hatchbacks in India, especially when everyone is looking to buy a compact SUV.

Overall, January 2018 was a power packed month for technology and automotive journalists and the industry did oblige by launching some of the best and flagship products for 2018. The start of this year has been a blockbuster one in the tech and automotive space, and we hope that this momentum would be carried forward till December 31, 2018.