Richard Lai

Richard joined Engadget in October 2009 and has somehow become the longest-serving writer on the site. Over the years, he delivered breaking tech news and in-depth reviews, many of which saw the rise of brands from the Far East, namely Xiaomi and OnePlus since their infancy, as well as ASUS, HTC, Oppo, Vivo, Huawei, ZTE, DJI and Insta360 in their relatively early days. Once in a while, Richard would enjoy his moment of fame thanks to some leaked devices before launch. Highlights include the original Dell Streak, Sony's Xperia Play aka "PlayStation Phone" and Google's Pixel 3 XL, as well as the two occasions when he came across authentic parts for the iPhone 4 and the 2012 iPad. Going the other way round, Richard had first access to the unearthed "Nintendo PlayStation" prototype -- one that eventually led to the formation of Sony's PlayStation division. Richard's other notable video features include the Meizu factory tour, gadget market tours in Taipei, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, PC overclocking attempts at Computex, exclusive hands-on with the Puma Fi self-lacing sneakers, Dyson HQ tour, Vertu HQ tour, early access to Mario Kart VR in Tokyo, and the annual games with OMRON's table tennis robot (before it seemingly retired during COVID-19). Richard regularly attends CES, MWC, Computex, Tokyo Game Show, RISE, TechCrunch events, Yahoo Finance events and other tech conferences -- mostly to cover news while occasionally hosting on stage as well. He is a judge for GSMA's Global Mobile Awards and Asia Mobile Awards, James Dyson Award and Computex d&i Awards. Additionally, he has been an assessor for Hong Kong’s ICT Awards since 2022.