Friday, February 25, 2011

The winners of the 2010 Engadget Awards -- Editors' Choice

The results are in, and well over 100,000 of you voted in the 2010 Engadget Awards. The Readers' Choice picks were just the tip of the iceberg, friends, That's right, the editors of Engadget have opinions, too, and here they are. Join us after the break for the year that was 2010 in gadgets.

Gadget of the Year

Apple iPad

The iPad won this one going away -- there's just no denying the influence Apple's tablet had on the industry this year. But we think the Evo 4G will be remembered as the first of an entirely new breed of smartphones, and that's pretty amazing too.

Runner-up: HTC Evo

Worst Gadget of the Year

Microsoft Kin

Though it might not be the single worst product we saw in 2010, the sheer magnitude of the Kin's failure -- measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars -- takes it to the top of our list.

Runner-up: Fusion Garage JooJoo

Most Anticipated Gadget

Sony NGP

iOS may be leading next phase of the mobile gaming revolution, but the NGP oozes raw power that's light years ahead of any other gaming handheld ever announced. We like power.

Runner-up: HP TouchPad

Phone of the Year

Apple iPhone 4

We went endlessly back and forth on this one, but in the end the iPhone 4 won out -- it's simply a more polished device than the Evo, and it set a dramatic new quality standard for mobile displays.

Runner-up: HTC Evo

Desktop of the Year

Custom

Let's face it: Desktops are on their way out. Primo parts are preponderant, but the best machine you can buy today is the one you build yourself. We'll continue to write about towers on Engadget, if innovative ones appear, but unless there's substantive change, we're retiring Desktop of the Year.

Laptop of the Year

HP Envy 14

Sure, HP unleashed its Envy line last year, but the Envy 14 corrected all of the original wrongs. Its aluminum chassis, Core i5 power, and Radiance display, truly make it the best PC on the market. That said, there's no denying the significance of the MacBook Air's new solid-state storage and speedy resume times.

Runner-up: Apple MacBook Air

Netbook of the Year

ASUS Eee PC 1215n

The ASUS Eee PC 1215N is the netbook evolved. Thanks to the 12.1-inch laptop's NVIDIA Ion graphics and dual-core Atom processor, it can handle gaming and full HD. Google's Cr-48 may stand in stark contrast to that, but it's got one beautifully minamilstic chassis and is the first laptop to come with Chrome OS.

Runner-up: Google Cr-48

Digital Camera of the Year

Canon EOS Rebel t2i

1080p video at both 24 and 30fps for well under $1,000. Need we say more? The T2i set a new bar for mass-market DSLR video performance, and 18.7 megapixel stills at ISO 6400 are nothing to sneeze at, either.

Runner-up: Sony NEX

E-reader of the Year

Amazon Kindle 3

The Kindle 3 isn't necessarily the most exciting e-reading product we saw last year, but its ubiquity and price point have legitimized the market in a way nobody else has. The fact that it's almost impossibly small and light doesn't hurt, either.

Runner-up: Nook Color

Display of the Year

Corning Gorilla Glass

Though it was invented decades ago, Corning's Gorilla Glass finally found its calling in 2010 with a plethora of manufacturer agreements for phones and tablets, and it's helped to take some of the worry out of throwing your gadget in a bag or pocket unprotected.

Runner-up: Apple Retina Display

Game Console of the Year

Xbox 360S

How many new game consoles came out this year? Not many, but the one that kept us playing longest was our shiny black Xbox. The Xbox 360 S made an already-great system more reliable, and the Kinect is poised to do amazing things. Honorable mention: OnLive, for making cloud-based gaming real.

Runner-up: OnLive Game System

Game Accessory of the Year

Microsoft Kinect

What's the best thing you can buy for your game console, other than another disc? We'd recommend a motion controller, like the Kinect or PlayStation Move. Unfortunately, neither shipped with a killer app, but we'd give Kinect the edge -- hacks demonstrate the potential for fabulous game experiences.

Runner-up: PlayStation Move

GPS Device of the Year

Garmin nuvi 3790T

Standalone GPS devices may be on their way out, but Garmin's still showing folks how it's done with its nuvi 3790t -- a sleek, feature-packed unit that almost makes us wish it were a phone. If you're not the standalone sort, however, the latest version of Google Maps for Android is tough to beat.

Runner-up: Google Maps v5

HDTV of the Year

Panasonic VT25

3D features may be the headliners for our winner and runner up, but amazing 2D image quality propelled Panasonic's VT25 to the top of the wanted lists and Sony's slick monolith style plus local dimming LEDs were a close second.

Runner-up: Sony Bravia HX909

Home Entertainment Device

Netflix

Netflix's Watch Instantly was unquestioned in its status as a must-have app for media devices this year (want to know why Boxee didn't win for 2010?) while the iPad found a surprisingly cozy place as remote control / second screen for your TV watching pleasure.

Runner-up: Apple iPad

Peripheral of the Year

Microsoft Kinect

Microsoft's Kinect 3D depth camera was originally designed for the Xbox 360, but it proved to be the year's most fantastic hackable toy when interfaced with a PC. Our runner-up: the first mass-market quadrocopter, the AR.Drone, a veritable flying platform for hacks of its own.

Runner-up: Parrot A.R. Drone

Portable Media Device

Apple iPod Touch

Now in its fourth generation, the iPod touch is more dominant than ever, and with good reason. It's caught up to the iPhone 4 in terms of most key specs, and the App Store remains a huge advantage over the rest of the non-phone competition. If storage and sound quality is key, though, the Cowon X7 is tops.

Runner-up: Cowon X7

Robot of the Year

NASA Robonaut 2

Shuttle delays pushed its trip to space into 2011, but Robonaut 2's been ready to go for months, and has offered us all a hope that humans and robots can work together in harmony. GRASP Labs' quadrocopters, on the other hand, are terrifying autonomous bots that can move in packs and fly through hoops.

Runner-up: GRASP Labs quadrocopters

Tablet PC of the Year

Apple iPad

Love it or hate it, it's hard to argue that the iPad didn't set off this year's tablet mania encompassing dozens of manufacturers and virtually every major mobile platform -- and its influence will likely be felt in the industry for years to come. Oh, and it's a pretty solid device in its own right, too.

Runner-up: Galaxy Tab

Wearable Device of the Year

Jawbone Icon

Jawbone has emerged as one of the premier Bluetooth headset manufacturers, thanks largely to its NoiseAssassin technology that it's been refining over the past several years. The Icon is no exception -- and its support for software updates is a nice bonus.

Runner-up: iPod Nano

Wireless Device or Tech

Verizon LTE

Though it was beaten to the US market by MetroPCS, Verizon's deployment of LTE marks the beginning of a sea change in the American wireless industry -- a change that'll bring us much faster data.

Runner-up: AirPlay