If there’s a single constant in our lives, it’s that technology keeps on improving. It’s going to keep on doing it at an even faster pace if Taiwan Excellence has anything to say about it.
Take the telephone. We went from being tied down by landlines to mobile devices that give us almost the entirety of Man’s knowledge in the palm of our hand. Or if you’re a gamer, consider how we went from low resolution 2D sprites to photorealistic 3D models with ray tracing in just a few decades.
Tech like that doesn’t just magically appear out of thin air though; it takes a huge amount of time and money to drive research forward. Japan used to be the pioneer, but in recent years, it’s been Taiwan that’s been setting the pace, mainly due to the introduction of the Taiwan Excellence Awards.
A joint initiative between Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the awards are only given to the best of the best in Taiwan. Getting recognized in this way will make any brand a household name for sure. It also means that if you see products sporting the Taiwan Excellence logo, you can rest easy knowing that they are great quality.
That’s why TAITRA brought in some of their biggest guns in the arsenal to show them off at Asia Tech x Singapore 2023.
Gigabyte. Transcend. AIFA.
Chances are you’d have heard of at least one of these companies. All of them are undoubtedly big guns in their respective fields. Their products dominate the tech landscape and are renowned for their quality. That’s why all of them are also recipients of the Taiwan Excellence Awards.
A prime example comes in the form of Gigabyte’s AERO 16 XE5.
We’ve reviewed an entry in the AERO series previously (which impressed me a ton) and it just keeps getting better. The new machine packs a 12th generation Intel Core i9 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series GPU and a 4k+ HDR ultra-wide view display. I’m practically drooling as I’m writing this.
Then there’s Transcend.
Their products might not be as flashy as Gigabyte’s but are just as essential. After all, data needs to be saved somewhere, and Transcend’s ESD380C Portable SSD offers a blazing USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 connection for fast transfer speeds even if you have a ton of data to move. It also meets the US Army’s MIL-STD-810G standard for drops, meaning that this bad boy can be dropped (a reasonable) distance and still function like nothing happened.
Perhaps the best showcase of Taiwanese ingenuity comes from AIFA and their i-Ctrl Pro, a device that can talk to all your ‘dumb’ devices at home and give you full access to them on your smartphone.
No more lamenting the fact that you bought devices with no WiFi connectivity! If your device has a remote, i-Ctrl Pro can probably interface with it and give you access to it!
You’d have thought that weeding out the crap and showcasing the best Taiwan has to offer would be enough, but TAITRA is just getting started. The organization’s now on the hunt for collaboration opportunities, between Singapore and other countries in the region. That means that we can look forward to hearing about more incredible tech and companies to take note of in the future.
Win-win for everybody!
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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