Welcome to a particularly interesting edition of the Australian PC Awards. Unlike most years in tech which are clean, tidy periods where everything runs smoothly and we all buy loads of nice new things, 2022 turned that upside down with one drama after another, all in a market where actual products you could buy were scarce, expensive, or delayed.
This is not to say the actual products were duds – au contraire – the tail end of 2022 in particular saw a spectacular period of new GPUs and CPUs, along with exciting new motherboard platforms. DDR5 got its act together and became good while affordable laptops leapt into new realms of low power and high performance. We even saw some standout new techs that blew us away, like QD-OLED monitors.
The editorial teams at TechRadar, APC, PC Gamer and PC PowerPlay thoroughly enjoyed compiling these finalists, and then selecting the winners. It was a fascinating year with tech highs and lows. The highs certainly weren’t in short supply... it’s just that the lows exceeded the expected quota by an alarming amount.
But we've selected our winners and they are clear to us as the best of the best. Read on and see what got the big gongs. Maybe you agree, maybe you have differing opinions. In either case that’s all good; 2022 was a confusing year, but thanks to these 2023 Australian PC Awards the cream has been separated and all the good stuff properly rewarded.
Words by Ben Mansill, Joel Burgess and Chris Szewczyk.
We were really spoiled for choice when it came to motherboards in 2022. Both AMD and Intel released new platforms meaning we had a huge variety of boards to choose from.
In September, AMD released its AM5 platform, which added support for DDR5 memory. High end X670E boards were joined by X670, B650E and B650 boards. Four chipsets? Actually, they all use the same chip. It's just that the X series uses two of them, while the B series uses one. AMD says it intends to support AM5 for several years to come. If it has a long life like AM4 did, then you can expect to be able to upgrade to a Zen 5 or Zen 6 processor with just a BIOS flash.
Just a month later, Intel released its 13th Generation CPU range accompanied by Z790 motherboards. Z790 is more or less an evolution over Z690 with a better I/O thanks to the inclusion of more PCIe 4.0 lanes. This means Z790 boards typically have improved support for high bandwidth devices and controllers, including things like more PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots or things like USB 4 or Thunderbolt 4 controllers.
Sadly, motherboards were not immune from the all too well-known effects of inflation and wider tech industry woes. That meant high quality motherboards were expensive. They still are. It wasn't long ago that an AU$500 motherboard was regarded as ultra-premium. Now, AU$500 is considered mid-range.
But if you are prepared to pay, at least you can expect a high-quality product. Things like the power delivery, cooling, USB port count and speeds and support for faster M.2 drives mean you'll have a motherboard that will happily power a system for many years to come, no matter what you use a PC for.
Best Motherboard Maker
Highly Commended
All Finalists
- Asus (opens in new tab)
- Asrock (opens in new tab)
- MSI (opens in new tab)
- Gigabyte Aorus (opens in new tab)
Best Value Motherboard
Highly Commended
- Asus Prime B660M-A Wi-Fi DDR4 (opens in new tab)
- Gigabyte B650M Aorus Elite AX (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- MSI MAG B660 Tomahawk WIFI DDR4 (opens in new tab)
- Asus TUF Gaming B660 Plus Wi-Fi D4 (opens in new tab)
- Asrock B660 Pro RS (opens in new tab)
- Gigabyte B660I Aorus Pro DDR4 (opens in new tab)
- Asrock B650E PG Riptide Wi-Fi DDR5 (opens in new tab)
- Gigabyte B650M Aorus Elite AX (opens in new tab)
- MSI MAG B660M Mortar Max Wifi DDR4 (opens in new tab)
- Asus Prime B660M-A Wi-Fi DDR4 (opens in new tab)
Best Premium Motherboard
Highly Commended
- Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Strix Z790-i Gaming Wi-Fi (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- MSI MEG X670E Ace (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero (opens in new tab)
- Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite AX (opens in new tab)
- Asrock X670E Taichi (opens in new tab)
- MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk DDR4 (opens in new tab)
- Asrock Z790 Steel Legend (opens in new tab)
- Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Strix Z790-I Gaming Wi-Fi (opens in new tab)
When it comes to graphics cards, 2022 was very much a tale of two halves. The first part of the year was dominated by the influence of crypto mining, COVID fallout and ongoing geopolitical concerns. That meant GPU pricing was simply ridiculous.
Once Ethereum shifted away from GPU mining, things slowly returned to normal. Stocks consistently appeared on shelves, prices dropped and PC gaming came back from its perilous position.
With mining in the rear view mirror, the latter part of 2022 was genuinely exciting thanks to the release of Nvidia's RTX 40 series and later on, AMD's RX 7900 series. Intel's long gestating Arc cards also made their debut, though they didn't have the impact Intel would have hoped for.
The RTX 4090 was unveiled in September. It retained peak mining era pricing, but if you were prepared to pay, you were rewarded with the highest performing GPU ever made. The RTX 4080 followed, and though it's an excellent GPU, its popularity suffered as a result of its high price.
The end of the year saw the release of AMD's RX 7900 series. While the 7900 XTX couldn't knock the 4090 off of its perch, RX 7900s are still competitive options with both introducing chiplet technology to consumer GPUs for the first time.
If 2022 was the year of high prices and high end cards, 2023 is looking better, with both companies (and perhaps Intel too) set to release compelling mainstream options.
Best Graphics Card Maker
Highly Commended
All Finalists
- Asus (opens in new tab)
- MSI (opens in new tab)
- Gigabyte Aorus (opens in new tab)
- Asrock (opens in new tab)
- Sapphire (opens in new tab)
- Zotac (opens in new tab)
- PowerColor (opens in new tab)
Best Value Graphics Card
Highly Commended
- XFX Speedster MERC 308 RX 6650 XT (opens in new tab)
- Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8GB (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- MSI GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming X (opens in new tab)
- Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6400 (opens in new tab)
- MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT Gaming X 8G (opens in new tab)
- Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8GB (opens in new tab)
- XFX Speedster MERC 308 RX 6650 XT (opens in new tab)
- Gigabyte Radeon RX 6500 XT Eagle (opens in new tab)
Best Premium Graphics Card
Highly Commended
- Sapphire Nitro+ RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X 24GB (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090TI (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Strix RTX 4090 OC Edition (opens in new tab)
- MSI GeForce RTX 4080 16GB Suprim X (opens in new tab)
- Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition (opens in new tab)
- Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X 24GB (opens in new tab)
2022 was a huge year for CPU releases. The start of the year was dominated by the release of Intel's mainstream 12th Generation range including the excellent Core i5 12400. AMD also fleshed out its Zen 3 range, with more affordable Ryzen 5000 series CPUs. All of these CPUs were welcome at a time when value for money was becoming a difficult thing to find.
One of the highlights of the year, if not the last decade, was the release of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Its stacked cache is very much cutting-edge technology. This CPU with its 96MB of L3 cache offered gamers in particular a very compelling upgrade option. Chip stacking is a big part of AMD and Intel's future plans.
These were impressive and highly recommended CPUs, but the big headlines were reserved for the September launch of AMD's Ryzen 7000 series CPUs, and just a month later, Intel's 13th Generation CPUs.
Both can be considered an evolution over their predecessors, delivering generally better performance and/or power efficiency. Intel increased core counts across the range, negating the advantage AMD held for many years.
It wasn't all cheers and high fives though. Both companies generally increased their power consumption levels at each product tier which means there's a need for very good cooling to tame the faster chips from both AMD and Intel.
Best Value CPU
Highly Commended
- AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- Intel Core i5 12400F (opens in new tab)
- AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (opens in new tab)
- AMD Ryzen 5 5600 (opens in new tab)
- Intel Core i3 12100 (opens in new tab)
Best Mid-range CPU
Highly Commended
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- Intel Core i5 13600K (opens in new tab)
- Intel Core i7 12700 (opens in new tab)
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (opens in new tab)
Best Premium CPU
Highly Commended
- Intel Core i9 13900K (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- Intel Core i9 13900K (opens in new tab)
- AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (opens in new tab)
- AMD Ryzen 7 7700X (opens in new tab)
- AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (opens in new tab)
If 2022 was a big year for PC component releases, the storage industry wasn't so exciting. That's not to say PC storage isn’t faster and more affordable at each capacity, it's just that there wasn't a product or release that didn’t feel like an evolution of something that came before. The best drives in 2022 weren't necessarily the fastest ones, but rather the ones that offered a good balance of speed, capacity and value for money.
PCIe 4.0 drives saturated the market and more or less hit their performance ceiling, at least in terms of sequential transfer speeds. With lots of competing brands, a high speed M.2 drive became more affordable than ever – a win for consumers.
PCIe 3.0 M.2 drives became relegated to budget status. As they approached price parity with SATA drives, they became very good options for things like bulk media storage or for storing space hogging game libraries.
Speaking of SATA, the humble hard drive isn’t going away any time soon. Large mechanical drives are still much cheaper per gigabyte than flash solutions and they remain highly relevant.
We expected PCIe 5.0 SSDs to launch in 2022, but sadly they were nowhere to be found.
Best Internal Storage Maker
Highly Commended
- Samsung (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- WD (opens in new tab)
- Samsung (opens in new tab)
- Silicon Power (opens in new tab)
- MSI (opens in new tab)
- Kingston (opens in new tab)
- PNY (opens in new tab)
- Seagate (opens in new tab)
- XPG (opens in new tab)
Best External Storage Maker
Highly Commended
- TeamGroup (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- Team Group (opens in new tab)
- WD (opens in new tab)
- Seagate (opens in new tab)
- Samsung (opens in new tab)
- Adata (opens in new tab)
- SanDisk (opens in new tab)
- PNY (opens in new tab)
- LaCie (opens in new tab)
2022 was the year of systems defying size expectations and breaking norms. Whether it was Apple releasing a MacBook Air that’s more expensive than a number of MacBook Pro devices, or Razer’s Blade 15 with a 3080 Ti that’s thinner and lighter than a LG Gram 16 2-in-1 and MacBook Pro 16, today’s engineering is shrinking powerful components into unbelievably compact packages.
The fourth generation of NVMe PCIe SSDs ushered in practical read speeds over 7,000MB/s and write speeds of more than 5,000MB/s. Rates that almost seem more like RAM transfer speeds than something that you’d use to retrieve Word and OS files.
We saw a handful of OLED screens on approachably priced Ultrabooks and many of the players at the top end are introducing novel features like integrated glass trackpads, displays on the outside of laptops, laptop screens that hinge like drawing tables, and others that have a whole second screen emerging from the keyboard.
We reviewed laptops you have to assemble yourself from the ground up, and others that you have to tear down to the most granular level to work out how they function.
Professional gamers can now expect their portable rig to offer 360Hz displays, while recreational gamers can indulge in HDR games at high refresh rates on 1440P or even 4K screens if they don’t mind paying for it.
GPUs were a bit of a minefield again this year, with TDP wattage and thermal dissipation capabilities impacting performance significantly more than the label on the tin. Even then wattage didn’t translate perfectly into performance either, so it’s more critical than ever to read a review of the laptop you want to buy to understand its performance.
Intel’s 12th Gen laptop processors shifted to a high core count dual-performance-and-efficiency core array structure that dramatically improved performance across the board, Apple tweaked its original processor with new memory bandwidth and AI capabilities in the M2 and Nvidia introduced Optimus to greatly improve the experience of trying to optimise battery life and performance on gaming laptops.
Best Value Laptop or 2-in-1
Highly Commended
- Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook (opens in new tab)
- Framework Laptop (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- Acer Enduro Urban N3 (opens in new tab)
- Dynabook Tecra A40-K (opens in new tab)
- Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 (opens in new tab)
- Framework Laptop (opens in new tab)
- MSI Prestige 14Evo A12M (opens in new tab)
- Dynabook E10-S (opens in new tab)
- Microsoft Surface Go 3 (opens in new tab)
- Acer Aspire 5 (opens in new tab)
- Dell Inspiron 15 (opens in new tab)
- Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (opens in new tab)
- Asus Vivobook 15 (opens in new tab)
- Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook (opens in new tab)
Best Premium Laptop or 2-in-1
Highly Commended
- Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio (opens in new tab)
- Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED (opens in new tab)
- Asus Zenbook 14X Space Edition (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- MSI G76 Stealth (opens in new tab)
- Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio (opens in new tab)
- Asus Zephyrus M16 (opens in new tab)
- Dell XPS 13 Plus (opens in new tab)
- Apple MacBook Air M2 (opens in new tab)
- Dell XPS 15 (9520) (opens in new tab)
- LG Gram 2-in-1 16” (opens in new tab)
- Asus Zenbook 14X Space Edition (opens in new tab)
- Fujitsu Lifebook U9312 (opens in new tab)
- Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X (opens in new tab)
- Asus Zephyrus Duo 16 (opens in new tab)
- HP Envy x360 13.3-inch 2-in-1 (opens in new tab)
- Microsoft Surface Pro 9 (opens in new tab)
- Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (opens in new tab)
- Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED (opens in new tab)
Best Gaming Laptop
Highly Commended
- Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 SE (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- MSI GE76 Raider (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 (opens in new tab)
- Razer Blade 17 (2022) (opens in new tab)
- Alienware x14 (opens in new tab)
- Razer Blade 15 (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 SE (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (opens in new tab)
- Aorus 17 (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Zephyrus m16 (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Flow Z13 (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (opens in new tab)
- Lenovo Legion 5i Pro Gen 7 (opens in new tab)
- Dell G15 (opens in new tab)
- Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7620 (opens in new tab)
Best Desktop PC Maker
Highly Commended
- Apple (opens in new tab)
- Aftershock PC (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- Apple (opens in new tab)
- MSI (opens in new tab)
- HP (opens in new tab)
- Dell (opens in new tab)
- Mwave (opens in new tab)
- Leader (opens in new tab)
- PC Case Gear (opens in new tab)
- Intel (opens in new tab)
- Alienware (opens in new tab)
- Nzxt (opens in new tab)
- Lenovo (opens in new tab)
- Acer (opens in new tab)
- Aftershock PC (opens in new tab)
Through 2022 the transition from DDR4 to DDR5 as the new standard for most new motherboards took place, and initial scarcity and high pricing has given way to better value, lower timings and wide availability.
Air CPU coolers continue to hold strong in the face of the ongoing AIO assault, and our Labs were dominated by one company that we always thought of as just being all about value, but the quality was a very happy surprise and shows you don’t need to spend over $100 to cool a premium CPU.
Wi-Fi 6 routers really matured in 2022 and a few incredible models transformed the market. Top of the pile was Synology’s RT6600ax router. The normally NAS-known company pushed hard with its flagship Wi-Fi 6 router and we quickly saw why.
The big news in monitors is QD OLED. As distinct from the non-QD OLEDs that first appeared, adding the Quantum Dot layer defeated OLED’s big weakness, being a lack of brightness.
Keyboards, mice and headphones saw no huge evolutions in the last year, still, there are occasionally some interesting designs though style drives this segment more than others.
Best Memory Maker
Highly Commended
- Team Group (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- PNY (opens in new tab)
- G.Skill (opens in new tab)
- Team Group (opens in new tab)
- Corsair (opens in new tab)
- Kingston (opens in new tab)
- Adata (opens in new tab)
- Geil (opens in new tab)
Best Cooling Product
Highly Commended
- DeepCool LS720 (360mm) AIO (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- Deep Cool CK560 (opens in new tab)
- Deep Cool AK400 (opens in new tab)
- DeepCool LS720 (360mm) AIO (opens in new tab)
- DeepCool LE500 CPU Cooler (opens in new tab)
- Be Quiet Pure Loop 2 FX (opens in new tab)
- Be Quiet Pure Rock 2 FX (opens in new tab)
- Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE (opens in new tab)
Best Monitor
Highly Commended
- Benq Zowie 360Hz XL2566K (opens in new tab)
- Samsung M8 Smart Monitor (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- MSI Optix MAG281URF (opens in new tab)
- BenQ Mobiuz EX3210R (opens in new tab)
- Apple Studio Display (opens in new tab)
- Benq GW2785TC (opens in new tab)
- Alienware AW3423DW QD-OLED (opens in new tab)
- Samsung M8 Smart Monitor (opens in new tab)
- Acer Predator XB323QK (opens in new tab)
- Prism+ C315 Max (opens in new tab)
- Dell 32 4K UHD G3223Q (opens in new tab)
- Prism+ PG270 Ultra (opens in new tab)
- Samsung 55” Odyssey Ark (opens in new tab)
- LG UltraGear 48GQ900 OLED UHD 140Hz (opens in new tab)
- Benq Zowie 360Hz XL2566K (opens in new tab)
- LG 27GP950-B (opens in new tab)
Best Keyboard
Highly Commended
- Corsair K70 RGB Pro (opens in new tab)
- DeepCool KB500 (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- DeepCool KB500 (opens in new tab)
- Corsair K70 RGB Pro (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Strix Scope RX TKL Wireless Deluxe (opens in new tab)
- Corsair K70 Pro Mini Wireless (opens in new tab)
- SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini (opens in new tab)
- Alienware AW510K (opens in new tab)
Best Mouse
Highly Commended
- Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- Logitech Lift Vertical Mouse (opens in new tab)
- Razer Huntsman Mini Analog (opens in new tab)
- Nzxt Lift (opens in new tab)
- Logitech MX Master 3S Wireless Mouse (opens in new tab)
- Corsair Katar Elite Wireless (opens in new tab)
- Microsoft Modern Mobile Mouse (opens in new tab)
- Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Chakram X (opens in new tab)
Best Gaming Headset
Highly Commended
- JBL Quantum 610 Wireless headset (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- SteelSeries Arctis 7+ (opens in new tab)
- JBL Quantum 610 Wireless (opens in new tab)
- Asus ROG Delta S Wireless (opens in new tab)
- Alienware Tri-Mode AW920H (opens in new tab)
- JBL Quantum 810 (opens in new tab)
- SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro (opens in new tab)
- HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless (opens in new tab)
Best PC Case
Highly Commended
- Nzxt H7 Flow (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- Corsair iCUE 5000T RGB (opens in new tab)
- Be Quiet Pure Base 500 FX case (opens in new tab)
- Nzxt H7 Flow (opens in new tab)
- Cooler Master Cosmos C700M (opens in new tab)
- Corsair 1000D (opens in new tab)
- Fractal Design North (opens in new tab)
Best Router
Highly Commended
- TP-Link Deco XE75 AXE5400 (opens in new tab)
- Synology Router WRX560 (opens in new tab)
- Draytek Vigor2927ax (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- Asus ROG GT-AX6000 (opens in new tab)
- TP Link Deco X73-DSL (opens in new tab)
- Synology RT6600ax (opens in new tab)
- Fritz!Box 4060 (opens in new tab)
- Mercusys AX1800 Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System (opens in new tab)
- TP Link WiFi 6E Deco XE75 (opens in new tab)
- Asus Zenwifi XT12 Pro (opens in new tab)
- Draytek Vigor2927ax (opens in new tab)
- Synology Router WRX560 (opens in new tab)
- Draytek Vigor2865ax (opens in new tab)
During the year of the Great Graphics Card Drought, Australian resellers did it tough. The struggle to get stock was one issue, while keeping customers with orders placed informed of an often heavily delayed delivery process was another thing they had to face – all while doing their best to get new customers in an era of stock scarcity and pricing inflation.
It wasn’t just graphics cards, but that situation typified the challenges resellers faced in 2022. And, we were so impressed with how most of them handled it. Communication and transparency was great to see, with many resellers having daily updated reports on stock and expected delays.
Through all of that they also had to keep at it with the regular business of building, selling and supporting new PCs and other gear. It was a tough year, but by and large they shone, and our hats off to the people at the front line doing their best to keep customers happy.
Best Reseller
Highly Commended
Other Finalists
- Aftershock PC (opens in new tab)
- Allied Gaming PC (opens in new tab)
- Austin (opens in new tab)
- BPCtech (opens in new tab)
- Centre Com (opens in new tab)
- Computer Alliance (opens in new tab)
- CPL Online (opens in new tab)
- IJK (opens in new tab)
- J (opens in new tab)W (opens in new tab)
- Mwave (opens in new tab)
- PC Case Gear (opens in new tab)
- PLE (opens in new tab)
- Scorptec (opens in new tab)
- TI Computers (opens in new tab)
- Umart (opens in new tab)
- MSY (opens in new tab)
Despite all the supply chain issues and economic chaos, tech companies were actually able to deliver a wide range of seriously-impressive and often novel technologies in 2022. The APCA Excellence award is for the person, product or technology that progressed the PC the most in 2022 and whether it’s AMD’s vertically stacked CPU V-Cache or RDNA 3 chiplet GPU architecture; Nvidia’s advances to powerful GPUs and next generation DLSS; or Apple’s continuation of it’s RISC processor range with the M1 Ultra, which outperformed all but one consumer CPU on the market at launch; there’s no doubting that 2022 was huge for PC developments.
There were even more developments in updated Wi-Fi 6E networking technologies, the living room PC got perhaps its biggest flood of novel large-format monitors, and new game streaming technologies all contributed to help people expand where and how they can use their computers. But while all these technologies were significant, there was one technology that made a bigger difference to the overall PC landscape than any other.
Excellence Award
For the person, product or technology that advanced the PC more than any other in 2022.
Highly Commended
- Microsoft PC Game Pass (opens in new tab)
- QD OLED monitors (opens in new tab)
- AMD Ryzen 5800X3D / V-Cache (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- AMD Ryzen 5800X3D / V-Cache (opens in new tab)
- Nvidia RTX 4090 (opens in new tab)
- Nvidia DLSS 3 (opens in new tab)
- QD OLED monitors (opens in new tab)
- Apple M2 CPU (opens in new tab)
- Wi-Fi 6E (opens in new tab)
- 10GbE LAN (opens in new tab)
- Intel 12th-Gen mobile CPUs (opens in new tab)
- Microsoft PC Game Pass (opens in new tab)
- Chiplet GPU (opens in new tab)
- Apple M1 Ultra CPU (opens in new tab)
The challenges 2022 imposed on a company delivering good consumer tech in 2022 were big ones. On one hand, we had all the excitement of new-gen products being launched that will shape PC performance for the next couple of years, but on the other, supply chain disruptions affected factory output, and the cost of making stuff and getting it shipped around the world.
Meanwhile, these companies had to continue the pace of innovation and deliver value. All a tough situation, no doubt.
As we reviewed the potential winners and discussed what did well, it became crystal clear that there was one company that succeeded more than any other. It’s the same company that has won this award in the past, and it’s Asus.
Gold Award
The company that impressed us the most, overall, in 2022.
All Finalists
- Acer (opens in new tab)
- Adata (opens in new tab)
- Aftershock (opens in new tab)
- Alienware (opens in new tab)
- Allied Gaming PC (opens in new tab)
- AMD (opens in new tab)
- Apple (opens in new tab)
- Asrock (opens in new tab)
- Asus (opens in new tab)
- Austin (opens in new tab)
- Be Quiet (opens in new tab)
- BenQ (opens in new tab)
- BPCt (opens in new tab)ech
- Centre Com (opens in new tab)
- Computer Alliance (opens in new tab)
- Corsair (opens in new tab)
- CPL Online (opens in new tab)
- DeepCool (opens in new tab)
- Dell (opens in new tab)
- Draytek (opens in new tab)
- Dynabook (opens in new tab)
- Framework (opens in new tab)
- Fractal Design (opens in new tab)
- Fujitsu (opens in new tab)
- Gigabyte Aorus (opens in new tab)
- G.Skill (opens in new tab)
- Geil (opens in new tab)
- HP (opens in new tab)
- IJK (opens in new tab)
- Intel (opens in new tab)
- JW (opens in new tab)
- Kingston (opens in new tab)
- LaCie (opens in new tab)
- Leader (opens in new tab)
- Lenovo (opens in new tab)
- Logitech (opens in new tab)
- LG (opens in new tab)
- Microsoft (opens in new tab)
- MSI (opens in new tab)
- MSY (opens in new tab)
- Mwave (opens in new tab)
- Nvidia (opens in new tab)
- Nzxt (opens in new tab)
- PC Case Gear (opens in new tab)
- PLE (opens in new tab)
- PNY (opens in new tab)
- Powercolour (opens in new tab)
- Prism+ (opens in new tab)
- Razer (opens in new tab)
- Samsung (opens in new tab)
- SanDisk (opens in new tab)
- Sapphire Technology (opens in new tab)
- Scorptec (opens in new tab)
- Seagate (opens in new tab)
- SteelSeries (opens in new tab)
- Synology (opens in new tab)
- Team Group (opens in new tab)
- Thermalright (opens in new tab)
- TI Computers (opens in new tab)
- TP-Link (opens in new tab)
- Umart (opens in new tab)
- WD (opens in new tab)
- XFX (opens in new tab)
- XPG (opens in new tab)
- Zotac (opens in new tab)
What a banner year 2022 was for things that flopped. It’s hard to recall a year richer in failure than 2022. So much so, that we have introduced the Epic Fail Award for the very first time. Our shortlist is a mind-boggling collection of promises made and not delivered upon. It includes terribly unfair things that happened to Australians. It is a finalist list that has comedy, and tragedy.
For some of these, we could all see the writing on the wall, and it was just a matter of time before the implosion. NFTs and the Metaverse count among those. In Australia we got two huge data hacks with Optus and Medibank, but we didn’t get the Steam Deck… we couldn’t get a graphics card without paying stupid money, and we briefly got an RTX 4080 12GB card before it was swiftly ‘unlaunched’ in a comically poor bit of marketing from Nvidia.
Taking the Highly Commended is Mr Elon Musk. 2022 was one cluster of muck after another for Musk. His badly botched Twitter takeover is the main reason he’s taking a prize today, but we can’t help stare in awe at how he also alienated his customer and fan base through the year by embracing internet trolldom and fuelling the fires of online idiocy, thus burning all the fame and goodwill he accumulated over the last decade in one spectacular fall from grace over just a few short months.
Epic Fail
2022's biggest loser.
Highly Commended
- Elon Musk (opens in new tab)
All Finalists
- NFTs (opens in new tab)
- The Metaverse (opens in new tab)
- GPU pricing and availability (opens in new tab)
- Optus + Medibank hacks (opens in new tab)
- Elon Musk (opens in new tab)
- No Steam Deck in Australia yet (opens in new tab)
- Google Stadia (opens in new tab)
- Crypto currency (opens in new tab)
- Nvidia RTX 4080 12GB Unlaunching (opens in new tab)