In its 11th edition this year, the HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards honoured outstanding tech brands and revolutionary products across 59 award categories.
The awards consists of two segments. Readers' Choice determines the best brands from the votes of readers of HWM, or HardwareZone Magazine, HardwareZone.com and GameAxis, while Editor's Choice identifies the best tech products launched last year as tested by the HardwareZone.com team.
In all, 19 Editor's Choice and 40 Readers' Choice prizes were given out this year, in categories ranging from computers and consumer electronics to digital entertainment and communications.
Voting was opened to all readers of HWM, HardwareZone.com and GameAxis.com in December last year. With a total of 245 brand nominations, the HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards is one of the most comprehensive brand recognition surveys in the industry.
New award segments this year include best smart speaker brand, best mobile network virtual operator, service provider, best mobile data roaming service provider and best shopping rebate service.
The HardwareZone.com team shortlisted 77 products that were introduced last year and put them through their paces.
Winners were chosen based on the performance, features, value and quality of experience they brought to their users. Here are the highlights from the Editor's Choice segment.
• For a full list of the winners in the Readers and Editor's Choice segments, go to str.sg/JNwi
BEST TV: LG C9 (4K), SAMSUNG Q900R (8K)
While this year's award segment was to find the Best TV, the HardwareZone.com team found that different screen sizes and their corresponding prices played out an interesting twist: 4K models were better suited up to certain screen sizes, while 8K models were a much better fit for larger screen sizes even from a value perspective.
For 4K TVs, the LG C9 gets the nod because it offers terrific performance - perfect blacks, infinite contrast, great viewing angles and near-instant response times at a very reasonable price. Compared with other TVs, its value in the 65-inch class is unmatched.
If you need a very big screen and 8K resolution, the Samsung Q900R QLED 8K TV is the one to get.
The Q900R's greatest strength is its extremely high brightness, which means the picture will look good whether you are using the set in a bright family room or in a dark man cave. If you watch a lot of HDR content, this increased brightness can help enhance realism.
The Q900R does offer good value for money - especially for the 75-inch and above segment. At $17,000, the 75-inch 8K Q900R costs about the same as the 77-inch LG C9, which is a 4K TV.
BEST WI-FI 6 ROUTER: ASUS ROG GT-AX11000
The ASUS ROG GT-AX11000 is the winner of this category for its blend of performance, features and price. What is most impressive about it is its suite of features.
Gamers can look forward to features such as Game Radar and data prioritisation, whereas other features like dynamic frequency selection, real-time traffic monitor and remote management via the ASUS Router app make it easy for users to manage and optimise their connection.
Parents will also be happy to know that the router has robust parental control settings.
BEST TRUE WIRELESS EARBUDS: SONY WF-1000XM3
The HardwareZone.com team rounded up no fewer than 10 nominees and the Sony WF-1000XM3 is easily the best true wireless headphones for most people.
The active noise-cancellation is so good that the set puts some full-size active noise-cancelling headphones to shame.
The earbuds also sound great: Their clarity and resolution are impressive for a wireless audio device and their sound is impactful and full-bodied, despite their size.
They are comfortably one of the best-, if not the best-, sounding true wireless earbuds in the market now.
BEST GAMING NOTEBOOK: AFTERSHOCK VAPOR 15 PRO
At $2,799, the Aftershock Vapor 15 Pro makes hardly any sacrifices and is fully capable of competing toe-to-toe with laptops that cost nearly a thousand dollars more.
In a nutshell, the Vapor 15 Pro is light, has a long-lasting 94Wh battery and is affordable. It will take any modern game you throw at it without producing a ton of heat and noise.
As a result, it handily beats the rest of the competition and is quite simply the best gaming notebook you can get today.
