CNET.co.uk Editors' Choice Awards 2007
It's that time of year again, when the badinage flows as smoothly as the champagne -- yes, it's the impossibly glamorous CNET.co.uk Editors' Choice Awards
At an extraordinarily swanky event in highfalutin' Mayfair last night, CNET.co.uk announced its enormously influential and throat-stampingly coveted Editors' Choice Awards 2007. The badinage flowed as smoothly as the champagne, as top industry figures weepingly collected the prizes, smugly avoiding evil stares from their defeated rivals.
The awards, which feted the best mobile phone, TV, hi-def product, camera, laptop, MP3 player and sat-nav, were decided by our crack team of technology reviewers. In a smoke-filled backroom of the local gentlemen's club, they argued long into the night over the various merits of the lucky contenders.
Finally, what emerged was a roll call of the best and brightest, the elite of the elite, the greatest products of the whole damn year. And mighty closely contested it was too. Click through for the nominees and winners in each category -- and you can click on the nominees for our definitive reviews.
What do you think of our choices? Make your views known in our forums thread here.
Best Mobile Phone
The nominees are:
LG KU990 Viewty
Nokia 6300
O2 Cocoon
And the winner is... the Nokia 6300!
The 6300 is a fantastically straightforward phone that looks good and does the basics extremely well. Above all, we think it's vital that a phone lets you make phone calls and send text messages with ease, and that's why we think the Nokia 6300 deserves to win this year's award.
Best Television
The nominees are:
Pioneer PDP-428XD
Samsung PS50P96
Toshiba 37X3030D
And the winner is... the Samsung PS50P96!
It wasn't too long ago that we were pacing around waiting for a 1080p plasma to show up. The good news is the waiting's over, as a raft of new 'Full HD' TVs have arrived.
The PS50P96 impressed us because the picture quality is awesome, and the price tag is reasonable. Samsung has also made every effort to improve the areas where it has had problems in the past, so the screen on this plasma is far less reflective than previous models and does a good job with Freeview.
Best High-Definition Product
The nominees are:
LG Super Multi Blue BH100
Sony PlayStation 3
Toshiba HD-XE1
And the winner is... the Toshiba HD-XE1!
We selected the XE1 because it represents everything we love about high definition. The picture quality is superb, sound is delightful and best of all, you can get one for about £450 now.
The XE1 also helps you to get the very best out of your DVD collection by providing excellent upscaling, so movie fans don't need to chuck away all their existing DVDs. We also love the amazing sound quality and superb range of audio outputs on the XE1, which all add to the movie experience.
Best Consumer Camera
The nominees are:
Canon EOS 400D
Fujifilm FinePix F40fd
Olympus E-410
And the winner is... the Olympus E-410!
The Olympus E-410 is a great combination of advanced features, such as sonic sensor-cleaning technology, with simple and user-friendly functions and controls. One of the first dSLRs to include live view, the E-410 combines the accessibility of compact cameras with the options found in higher-end cameras.
The strength of the E-410 is the way in which it makes snapping quick and easy, without compromising the flexibility and sophistication of its advanced functions. Live view, a sensor cleaning system and the flexibility of choice afforded by the Four Thirds lens standard, in a camera both sophisticated and simple to use, point to the future of digital photography.
Best Laptop
The nominees are:
Dell XPS M1330
Lenovo ThinkPad T61p
Sony TZ series
And the winner is... the
Lenovo ThinkPad T61p!
The ThinkPad T61 earns the spoils because of its pioneering use of ultrawideband and the new Wireless USB standard. It also has an outstanding high-definition display, and is one of the fastest laptops we've ever encountered. It's one of the fastest, most comfortable to use, and most thoughtfully designed laptops of the last year.
Best Music/Video Player
The nominees are:
Archos 605 WiFi
Cowon iAudio D2 DAB
Apple iPod nano
And the winner is... the Archos 605 WiFi!
The Archos 605 WiFi stood head and shoulders above its rivals this year. Packed with features such as full video support and a fully functioning Web browser -- plus the sharpest screen we've seen on a portable video player -- this is an absolute killer gadget and a media hoarder's dream.
Best Sat-Nav
The nominees are:
Garmin nuvi 660
Sony Nav-U NV-U92
TomTom One XL
And the winner is... the Garmin nuvi 660!
One of the easiest-to-use sat-navs we've ever come across, the Garmin nuvi 660 has all the features you'd expect, such as Bluetooth and European mapping, plus some you wouldn't, such as free traffic updates and the ability to add your own points of interest. Add in a fantastic-quality screen, and you've got one hell of a sat-nav.