2022 is finally well behind us. The year aside hardware was not, however, the most striking in the world, since the pandemic has it still a bit paralyzed. Production accelerated again late in the cycle, as consumers started to rise up again to demand new things. In this context, we can therefore hope that 2023 will be a year full of announcementsin innovative products or that it will mark the implementation of promises made in previous years.
Finally, is it still possible at least? For some people, the hardware is in a slump. The big trends have already borne fruit, when the promises kept have finally not lived up to expectations. We can think of 5G, which ultimately has not had a great impact on our daily lives, or virtual reality which has remained niche despite the stars in the eyes of its fervent defenders. Some are even unraveling a few court cases that are likely to continue into 2023.
Rather than being defeatist, let’s be optimistic: here are the three hardware trends that you absolutely have to follow This year.
Free consoles take on gaming
There was a before and after Switch. Nintendo’s latest console has proven the general public’s interest in a powerful mobile video game devicewhich has the main advantage of being placed at the center of uses. Mobile ? Check. Tabletop? Check. TV? Check. This demonstration left no one indifferent, as proven by the commercial success of the product, and since 2017 has influenced the creation of extensive competition.
And if there is an unforgettable high-tech product on the tech market in 2022, it is the Steam Deck. Valve’s first portable console was able to delight its players of course, but above all to convince observers that this “portable PC in console format” market did exist beyond the Shenzhen workshops. Because, yes, historically, we cannot say that Valve was the first manufacturer to think of creating this product format. On Kickstarter and other Indiegogo, Chinese creators like GPD have been struggling for many years to create the perfect gaming laptop.
2023 should be the year when the Steam Deck will meet its rivals. In a more global, broader way, with names better known to the general public. Without going against the efforts of an Ayaneo who tried, with his Air, to respond to some problems encountered on the Steam Deck, he does not quite have the reputation and the structure to fight against Valve. What are we really waiting for? That manufacturers like Alienware, which had already thought about similar concepts, and Asus ROG are also entering the arena.
However, this will require some changes. On the one hand, we can hope that Valve is making its SteamOS 3.0 available this year, so as to let manufacturers take advantage of its software universe. On the other hand, perhaps Windows 11 should also adapt to this new emerging ecosystem, perhaps by readjusting the Xbox interface for its PCs. At any rate, AMD SoCs under RDNA 3 will have everything needed to grow this market. All that’s missing are players wanting to rub shoulders with Valve and its gas plant, even if others prefer to bet on a platform that is already well established…
5 years agothe general public discovered ray tracing through the first Nvidia RTX cards. 3 years agomore consumers have opened their eyes to this technology by enjoying it on the latest video game consoles, the PS5 and Xbox Series X. And in 2023?
This year, it will be mobile’s turn to take advantage of this new technology. Qualcomm has already announced its plan by presenting the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which will be equipped with a new GPU capable of hardware acceleration for ray tracing tasks. Its more accessible rival, MediaTek, has also made the same promise by presenting his latest Dimensity 9200which will benefit from ARM Immortalis G715 GPU.
Proof of this is that video games are always more serious for mobile, which continues to welcome more and more beautiful and engaging titles, such as Genshin Impact, Fortnite, brawlhalla or Tower of Destiny, whose the philosophy is to be cross-platform. Absolutely cross-platform. The usual mobile OSes such as iOS and Android are supported as much as PlayStation / Xbox consoles or PCs. The barriers between platforms have definitely fallen between Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony in 2022, and this movement benefits smartphones and tablets. This without counting on the cloud gaming which gave birth to players without borders.
It has also been observed on the hardware. Like Valve and its Steam DeckRazer has arrived in a mobile market previously dominated by lowly Chinese gaming platform players. crowdfunding to legitimize a new product category: Android consoles. Its Razer Edge, which will be available in the United States in the first quarter of 2023, is betting on merging mobile gaming, gaming in remote play and cloud gaming on one and the same product. A bet already made on a smaller scale by actors like Retroid, AYN or GPD, and who paid to create a niche sector. 2023 could be the year when the general public will massively discover these new consoles.
Meta versus Apple, the real advent of VR?
At the end of 2021, Facebook Inc became Meta. Mark Zuckerberg has clearly endorsed his vision of the future of the Net, the main principles of which would be fully integrated into virtual reality, and his ambition to be its big boss. But in 2022, after an avatar of the creator of Facebook of questionable quality and a soft presentation of his Horizon Worlds, we must admit that the confidence is no longer there. The company is losing money that it does not earn in the least on this project, and the confidence that Oculus had managed to acquire among its niche users tends to dwindle.
But 2023 is a new year. And it is undeniable that today, the VR product that has captivated the general public the most is none other than the Oculus Quest 2. The Meta Quest 3 should point the tip of its nose at the end of the year, leaving time for Meta to truly develop its vision before convincing by example and use. We already know that the next helmet will naturally be more powerful, but the main curiosity will be to see if the manufacturer will deploy its gloves for VR.
In the professional sector, it is true that here again, Meta must convince. The release of its Meta Quest Pro headset didn’t really shake up the market, but it can also be seen as a test product to convince entrepreneurs to create deeper experiences on its platform. However, this place could be stolen by a player with an often more significant impact on hardware…
Because yes, a priori, we are there. After days, months, and even rather years of rumors surrounding Apple’s mixed reality headset, it looks like 2023 is finally the year we’ll actually enjoy it. The latest leaks surrounding it are indeed substantial, pledges of a positive evolution of research and development surrounding the product. Because that’s the problem: we have had many rumors over the years around this product, but the image they painted was rather that of a product lost in its ambitions.
This would no longer be the case. We are talking this year rather about a mixed reality headset, which would highlight Apple’s know-how as well as its propensity for weirdness. For example, he would be able to automatically adjust the distance of its lenses to optimize the comfort of the user, but would also force him to connect to a battery that should be clipped to your belt. Apple which makes Apple, therefore.
2023 is a good year for the release of a VR / AR headset from the Cupertino company. It has after all amassed tons of augmented reality experiences through the integration of its LIDAR on iPad Pros and iPhones, since the 12 Pro and Pro Max. It is also without counting on the fact that the VR/AR market now needs a technological duel to evolve. Meta needs a competitor as strong as him. And Apple only enters a market when it is technically maturewhich is now the case.
Energy consumption before power
Consumer expectations hardware have evolved somewhat during the year 2022, and this trend should be more strongly expressed in 2023. Which ? That of favoring reduced energy consumption in the face of a phenomenal power boost.
It must be said that the time when the laptop was at the center of uses is behind us: the smartphone is king, and naturally highlighted the ARM chips and their ability to carry high the colors of the performance/Watt ratio. This was not without effort, since Qualcomm and its Snapdragons have struggled for a long time to prove the value of low-power chips, even for Windows computers. Unfortunately, as too often, Apple had to get into the race with the M1 and M2 for the general public to become aware of the trend.
Today, the debate has arisen on all categories of device. The most recent example was seen during the announcement of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: while its capabilities delighted the audience, it is undeniable that its power consumption of up to 450 W raised many eyebrows .
But the most striking was the response of its competitor AMD, which hastened to slip into this marketing segment to present its Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT. One of its biggest arguments has indeed been its consumption, which has remained at a maximum of 355 W and optimized for medium tasks. CES 2023 barely launched, Nvidia unveiled its GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, previously known as the GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB, whose message has also evolved: it now emphasizes the fact of finding performance equal to an RTX 3090 Ti for less consumption.
After the recycling of components, the green and ecological movement of 2023 in tech seems to be interested in reducing the consumption of devices. Which is far from being a bad thing considering those times of sobriety. But more than being imposed, it seems here wanted by a good fringe of consumers who claim to want to find an ethically acceptable balance between power and consumption. We can therefore bet that in 2023, manufacturers will respond very quickly with new products highlighting this philosophy.
