Reg Hardware Reader Awards 2010 Winners
And the Rusty Dodo Award goes to...
Reg Hardware Reader Awards 2010 The votes are in and counted, and so, without further ado, are the results of the 2010 Reg Hardware Awards.
The Awards were split into two groups: Editors' Awards for the best Computer, Lifestyle, Photo, Mobile and Games products of 2010, and ten gongs selected by you, Reg Hardware's readers.
We'll cover your winners first.
Home Product of the Year
Gold Award Winner: BBC iPlayer
Silver Award Runner-up: Microsoft Xbox Kinect
Work Product of the Year
Gold Award Winner: Apple iPhone 4
Silver Award Runner-up: Lenovo ThinkPad T510
Commuter Product of the Year
Gold Award Winner: HTC Desire
Silver Award Runner-up: Apple iPad 3G+Wi-Fi
Mobile App of the Year
Gold Award Winner: Dropbox
Silver Award Runner-up: Nokia Ovi Maps
Mobile Game of the Year
Gold Award Winner: Angry Birds
Silver Award Runner-up: Plants vs Zombies
PC Game of the Year
Gold Award Winner: Medal of Honour
Silver Award Runner-up: Starcraft 2
Console Game of the Year
Gold Award Winner: Call of Duty: Black Ops
Silver Award Runner-up: Red Dead Redemption
Best Tech Retailer
Gold Award Winner: Amazon.co.uk
Silver Award Runner-up: eBuyer
Best Service Provider
Gold Award Winner: O2
Silver Award Runner-up: Virgin Media
Rusty Dodo Duff Product of the Year
Winner: 3D TV
Runner-up: Symbian Phones
Congratulations to the winners. And to those companies behind the Rusty Dodo products, it's time to come up with something good, guys.
And now for the Editors' Awards:
Computer Product of the Year
Gold Award Winner: Apple MacBook Air 11.6in
Silver Award Runner-up: Dell Alienware M11x
Apple's MacBook Air might seem pricey and under-specced, but everyone we know who has used one for any length of time - and almost all of them are recent PC converts - rave about its netbook-beating portability, power and battery life. We agree.
Portability was where it was at in 2010, with small form-factor systems showing the most innovation. Case in point: the M11x from Dell's Alienware offshoot. Suddenly, gaming laptops no longer needed to be vast machines designed to be easily luggable from one LAN party to the next. The M11x showed you could play on the move too.
Lifestyle Product of the Year
Gold Award Winner: Amazon Kindle 3
Silver Award Runner-up: Samsung UE55C9000
Amazon's latest Kindle, more compact than its predecessors, easier to read and - crucially - cheaper took the e-book reader out of the geek's bag and into the hands of ordinary folk. You see them on trains and buses everywhere. A truly popular hit.
OK, so it comes at a bonkers 'Downturn? What downturn?' price, but Samsung's C9000 HD TV really showed what LCD can do delivered a stunning picture quality - not only HD but upscaled SD and - of course - 3D. Chuck in great IPTV support, stacks of ports and a funky touchscreen remote control and you have a TV to desire.
Photo Product of the Year
Gold Award Winner: Sony NEX-5
Silver Award Runner-up: Nikon D3s
Sony's NEX-5 turned out to be more than just a design novelty. Inside its seemingly inconsequential body is a 14.2Mp APS-C sensor and up front Sony offers a decent range of glass. Simple in concept, the NEX-5 is all about image quality and consequently it has many fans.
When it comes to low light photography, Nikon's D3s set a new benchmark. Designed for professionals, this 12.1Mp, full-frame sharp shooter delivers exceptional low noise images making it ideal for long lenses and challenging lighting conditions. The D3s is a rugged beast too, with an amazing battery life – what's not to like?
Mobile Product of the Year
Gold Award Winner: Apple iPad
Silver Award Runner-up: Windows Phone 7
Apple's iPad may not have lived up to the hype - "magical", indeed - but it undoubtedly and almost immediately established the tablet as a third way in mobile computing. It inspired the entire IT industry to emulate it, and it's a darn fine gadget to boot.
A good mobile OS from Microsoft - surely not? But WinPho 7 showed that the company can bring some fresh thinking to the smartphone. Once people spent some time with it, they found it to be an impressive offering with a lot of potential.
Games Product of the Year
Gold Award Winner: Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect
Silver Award Runner-up: Simple Gaming
Controller-less Kinect quickly proved a hit in the Reg Hardware office as a genuinely novel approach to motion gaming. It has its flaws - there aren't enough good games yet, for instance - but it shows far more potential than Sony's Wii emulator, Move.
The category Simple Gaming gets the Silver because, of all the games we played in 2010, the more basic ones - Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, Super Meat Boy, Donkey Kong Country Returns, to name but four - were the ones we always returned to, time and time again. ®
COMMENTS
d0 nOT f33D Th3 tR0II$
it appears there was a lot of apple fanbois voting enmass here,,,
glad to see the htc desire getting a gold !!
If you have not already seen it I suggest......
..........you take a look at this article from Reg Hardware:
http://www.reghardware.com/2011/01/28/autistic_boy_did_cheat_on_xbox/
MS can actually prove their case on this occasion. Always a mistake to react when one has not heard both sides of the story.
When was the last time you used a proper phone....?
Like I said, using one now.
A sim free Nokia, in my case the E65 is very, very hard to beat.
The contacts, call list, sms's are integrated as one, sms's and emails can be written in multiple languages, each with predictive text, and can be changed mid' sms [for example, from English to German to French] and without having to start new a new sms each time.....
Support / stores multiple sms'c,s sms's, contacts, emails, etc can all be stored to the micro sd card....
I have Opera as a web browser which is astonishingly fast, even on 2.5G and there are no reception issues....
Like I said, it will be a L O N G time before Apple makes anything as good as a Workhorse Nokia.
All hail the Finns..........
Eh? O_o
iPhone 4 for the work product of the year? Seriously? That hunk of junk that every respectable consumer reporting publication has warned people against since it came out? Good grief, how many rabid fanbois did THAT have to take? And why the hell am I risking their ire by pointing it out?
Windows Phone 7 for a silver in mobile product of the year? I'm fairly sure it was here on El Reg that I read that it was doomed to flop (and I've yet to actually see anyone with one). It hasn't exactly made a big (or noticable really) splash in the phone OS market. At least not in my area.
Suprisingly though those are the only two things that left me scratching my head. I rather think the PC game of the year winner and runner up got accidently reversed, but I've always prefered RTS to FPS.
As as the Mac Air in the computer category is concerned I.......
.......entirely concur, bit pricey but all the same a _very_ fine piece kit. However, I'm sorry you guys just slay me, iPhone under the WORK product category! Pardon? Its the way you tell 'em.
