Like every year, 2013 has been a whirlwind of a year for consumer electronics. As for laptops Haswell has become the norm, 1080p is almost a requirement for high-end laptops (we're looking at you Macbook Air), and they have gotten even thinner than ever. As for tablets, quad-core processors have improved and 1080p or greater screens have almost become the standard. Great 1080p displays, good cameras, and excellent quad-core processors can be found on most high-end smartphones today. Another improvement in 2013 was that inexpensive smartphones have become surprisingly decent. It is not very hard to find great handsets at low unlocked prices anymore. With all the great and newly improved products that were released this year, there were a few that stood out above the crowd. Some of these devices make other devices easier to use, and others make people even more productive. Here are Tech & Co.'s favorite products of 2013
January: Pebble Smartwatch
2013 was the year of the wearable. Glass came even closer to being a consumer product, people started noticing smart watches, and even Samsung decided to release a smartwatch. Our favorite of all the wearables that came out this year was the Pebble smartwatch. Sony and Samsung's smartwatches are nicer looking and have more features, but we feel that the Pebble does a better job of being a smartwatch. The e-ink screen might have a lower resolution, but it has great battery life and can stay on all the time. The Galaxy Gear and Sony Smartwatch 2 also can't handle notifications as well. The Pebble will vibrate if you get a notification, and it can even let you read a small bit of it. The Gear and Smartwatch 2 can basically only tell you to look at your phone. The Pebble also has great battery life, so you do not have to charge it every single day like your phone. At $150, it is considerable less expensive than the $300 Galaxy Gear and $200 Smartwatch 2. The Qualcomm Toq has a color Mirasol e-ink like always-on display, great notifications, and great battery life, but it is more than twice as expensive as the Pebble at $350. If you are the super nerd with a lot of money you might fit into the niches where the Toq, Gear, and Smartwatch 2 would be a better buy, but most people aren't in those places. If you are looking to buy a smartwatch for you or someone else, your best bet would be the Pebble.
February: Chromebook Pixel
In the past, the few people that knew about Chrome OS and Chromebooks considered these products as low-end to mid-range products. Chrome OS was a very limited internet-based operating system, but its limitations allowed it to run well on lower-specced products. This allowed Chromebooks to be a cheaper alternative to other Windows computers and MacBooks. While this might sound as a great idea at first, these cheap Chromebooks make people consider Chromebooks and Chrome OS as cheap and low-end products. There can't possibly be a Chromebook that's high-end and truly competitive to MacBooks or flagship Windows PCs. Google proved these people wrong when they unveiled the Chromebook Pixel in February of this year. With a beautiful 2,560 x 1,700 touchscreen display, dual-core 1.8GHZ Core i5 Ivy Bridge processor, amazing trackpad and keyboard, and gorgeous aluminum construction, the Pixel resembles any high-end computer. Performance is great on the pixel, and the LTE version makes it a great high-end internet road machine. At $1,299, the Chromebook Pixel is a little pricey for a secondary computer. It's slightly bad battery life also makes it a pricey road machine. You might want to spend that $1,299 on a MacBook Air or high-end Windows Ultrabook like an ASUS Zenbook. If you happen to have $1,299 burning a whole in your pocket and need a secondary internet only computer, you might want to consider the Pixel.
March: HTC One
Last year, we put the HTC One X as the best mobile device of the year. It was an almost completely perfect Android device with its beautiful build, jaw dropping 720p Super LCD 2 display, great performance, great camera, and good software. This year's HTC One is the successor is just as great of a cell phone. It's 1080p Super LCD 3 display is one of the best, if not the best, smartphone display on the market, it's Sense 5 software is light enough to let the 1.7GHZ quad-core Snapdragon 600 run at a blazing speed, and it's aluminum and polycarbonate injected construction is one of the best builds we have seen on any smartphone. People have been looking for a truly beautiful Android phone to compare to the iPhone, and they found it with the HTC One. HTC tried to burst the megapixel myth with their 4 megapixel "UltraPixel" sensor on the One. Instead of having a whole bunch of normal sized pixels, the One has bigger point-and-shoot camera sized pixels and amazing optics. This allows you to take amazing low-light pictures, since the camera can grasp so much light. The story is very different in daylight. The daylight pictures turn out over exposed, blown out, and slightly pixelated because of the low pixel count. This, however, is pretty much the only problem with the one. It has great battery life, the display is amazing, it is blazingly fast, and the HTC One is an absolute joy to use. HTC managed to get it on Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint in the US. This means you can get a great Android phone on all of the major carriers in the US. We ranked the One over the Samsung Galaxy S4 because of the One's superior design, better software, slightly better performance, and noticeably better screen. The HTC One is one of our top three favorite mobile devices of this year.
April: HTC First
Remember the first Facebook phone, the HTC Status? No. Then you're one of the lucky people. After HTC's and Facebook's failed attempt at making a Facebook phone with the Status, HTC and Facebook went back to the drawing board and came up with the HTC First. HTC One. HTC First. *rimshot* The HTC First has the a similar 720p Super LCD 2 display as last year's One X, but it is at a more comfortable 4.3 inch size. The First runs Facebook's Home skin over Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2. Home makes your lockscreen an endless scroll of your Facebook News Feed, and it makes social interactions the first priority. SMS and Facebook Messenger apps are front and center, and you can even link Instagram to your home lock screen. Everything, everything shows up from your news feed in your lock screen, and some people might find that annoying. Luckily, HTC and Facebook included a setting that let's you switch off the Facebook Home to reveal pure unadulterated stock Android. Yes in a time before LTE on a Nexus you could get a good stock Android phone with AT&T LTE. The dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor was no performance beast, but it could handle most every day tasks. The camera is pretty bad on the First, but that is really the only negative part of the phone. At free on contract, the HTC First is the best smartphone on AT&T for such a low price. If you are on AT&T, on an extremely low budget, and can only afford a free smartphone, then the HTC First is your best phone.
May: Nokia Lumia 928
Nokia's Lumia 920 was Nokia's first Windows 8 handset. It was particularly interesting because of its great low-light PureView camera, and the fact that it weighed approximately 3,000 pounds. Some people remember it as the tank, and most people were pretty satisfied with it. Running Windows Phone 8 and having a 1.5GHZ dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor made it blazingly fast, AT&T LTE was great, the PureView camera took great night shots, and battery life was some of the best on the market. The biggest problem with the 920 was that like many other Nokia handsets, it was an AT&T exclusive. It took months for Nokia and Verizon to find a workaround to make this, the Nokia Lumia 928. The 928 is pretty much a Verizon version of the 920, but it has a few new features. The only notable new feature that the 928 brought was an amazing Xenon flash. The Xenon flash is the same flash used on most point-and-shoot cameras, and it is actually one of the best flashes put on cameras. The Xenon flash on the Lumia 928 allows for even better low light pictures, and more accurate daylight shots. The 928 still has the same issues with smudgy and slightly over saturated daylight pictures, but this is easy to overlook for most people. The fact that the 928 needs to use the flash to focus in almost every situation is a little annoying, and sometimes it is obnoxious if you are in a public place. You can purchase the 928 for free on contract, which is pretty good for a flagship Windows Phone 8 device. Yes there are good Android phones on Verizon for free, but if you are willing to bear with Windows Phone's limitations, then the Lumia 928 is a great pick.
June: 2013 MacBook Air
Like we said in our introduction, Haswell has greatly changed and improved laptops. Haswell lets super thin computers have great performance, and great battery life. This year's MacBook Air takes great advantage of it. It still has the same super thin aluminum body, best keyboard on the market, best trackpad on the market, and the fact that it just works. With Haswell, the Air has great parents and absolutely amazing battery life. All...day...battery life. You can easily get more than 12 hours out of the MacBook Air without having to skimp on doing anything. This is a life-changing thing for any "road warrior" that relies on their computer for everything. You can take this computer on some of the longest flights and not worry about it dying on you. If you work in tech and have to liveblog at trade shows, you might not have to carry the gigantic brick of a portable laptop battery charger. Yes the Air still has a non-1080p 1,400 x 900 display, but it is crisp enough and the battery life is just so amazing. The 2013 Air is less expensive than previous models at $999 for the base 11 inch model and $1,099 for the base 13 inch model. If you want to buy a computer for most anyone, the Air is the perfect choice if you have the money.
July: 2013 Google Nexus 7
Last year's Google Nexus 7 was a game changing tablet. The 2012 Nexus 7 proved that you could get a great tablet at a great price. For $200 you could get a tablet with a 720p screen, quad-core processor, and guaranteed updates from Google. The updates have made the old Nexus 7 noticeably slower, and that's a real shame. Google updated their 2012 Nexus 7 with the new and improved 2013 Nexus 7. This year's Nexus 7 has a much better 1,920 x 1,200 1080p display, faster 1.5GHZ quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, Android 4.4 KitKat, and a new design. This year's matte silky plastic is a great improvement over last year's stipple rubbery golf-ball pattern. Last year's Nexus 7 felt somewhat disposable, while this year's feels like a truly high-end and premium product. The new 1080p display is bright, crisp, color accurate, and one of the best tablet displays on the market today. The 2013 model is slightly more expensive at $229, but the extra $29 are worth it. The Nexus 7 manages to be extremely competitive to the Retina iPad Mini, while still being $170 cheaper. If you don't mind the lack of tablet apps on the Play Store, then the Nexus 7 is the best portable 7 inch tablet you can buy.
August: Moto X
Motorola pushed the envelope to the extreme with the Moto X. Most people think you have to have the absolute best specs on a phone for it to be enjoyable. A way too large super high-res screen, blazingly fast umpteenth core processor with a whole bunch of gigahertz, million megapixel camera, and only good enough battery life. The Moto X did not have any of these, but it managed to be an incredibly enjoyable phone. A 4.7 inch 720p Super AMOLED screen, 10 megapixel camera, and a dual-core 1.7GHZ Snapdragon S4 Pro processor are mid-range specs, yet Motorola wants the Moto X to compare to flagship smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, and iPhone 5s. Almost completely stock Android, a great quick camera app, and an ergonomic design make the Moto X easy to use. Having no skin and pushing fewer pixels at 720p resolution allow the Moto X to be speedy and almost as quick as flagship smartphones. The small bezels, curved back, and curved corners allow the Moto X to feel at home in your hand and feel much smaller than its 4.7 inch screen size. The camera is not particularly great, but it is fast and quick to where you should get a decent shot most of the time. Motorola also allows you to pick any combination of colors for your Moto X. You can choose between black and white for the face color, a whole bunch of colors for the back, and a few different colors for the accent buttons and camera lens circle. As of this writing, you can even get a bamboo back for an extra cost. Sales for the Moto X pop up all the time, and you can usually get the Moto X for $50 or $100 on contract. If you are looking for the perfect Android phone for "normal" people, then the Moto X is your best choice. Custom colors, great design, and good performance. What's not to like?
September: Apple iPhone 5c
Most of you are probably surprised at our September selection. Shouldn't the iPhone 5s be here? Why would the cheap iPhone be here instead of the fancy Touch ID 5s? Well we have a few reasons why the 5c is more of an exciting product than the 5s. The 5c is not a cheap iPhone. It is a cheaper iPhone. If you haven't heard, the 5c is an iPhone 5 repackaged into a bright and colorful polycarbonate case. Yes it is plastic, but this is a different kind of plastic. It's, how you say, unapologetically plastic. Apple uses a steel reinforced glossy plastic polycarbonate shell on the 5c. This makes the 5c plastic without feeling like cheap plastic. The 5c feels closer to ceramic than cheap plastic. The heft of the reinforced shell makes it feel like your favorite coffee mug; durable, premium, and familiar. The specs did not need to be updated much, since the iPhone 5 was already fast enough. The iPhone 5s does feel faster only if you have either used an iPhone 5 before or are comparing the 5c and 5s side by side. iOS 7 also fits well with the colored backs of the 5c, and it is a great experience on the handset. At $100 on contract, the 5c is not too much less than the 5s. Sometimes you can find sales on the 5c that make it free or $50 on contract, which makes it an absolute steal. A phone that will always work in every situation is a great buy at $50 or less. The 5s does have better specs, but it is not as exciting or fresh as the 5c. If you are a super-nerd or power user, the 5s's better camera, specs, and processors the 5s would probably suit you better. If you aren't, then the 5c is a great, bright, and fun smartphone.
October: Acer C720 Chromebook
Chromebooks are usually the cheap, slow computers that you buy for your kid. The 2012 Samsung Chromebook showed that there can be a great to use cheap chromebook, but it is a little slow. The Chromebook Pixel that we talked about before was a great computer, but the $1,299 price is way too much for an internet based machine. The C720 is the compromise between the high-performance and inexpensive Chromebook. It's Haswell based Intel Celeron processor is speedy enough for any internet tasks you can throw at it, and the trackpad and keyboard are good enough to use. The plastic build and 1,366 x 768 display were the major compromises Google and Acer made to keep the price at $250, but the build and display are decent enough to not be too much of a bother. For variety, Acer and Google also released a $200 version with less RAM and a $300 touchscreen version. You do not really need a touchscreen for Chrome OS and you should pay the extra $50 for more RAM, but it is nice to have the variety. The Chromebook 11 is too slow, the Chromebook 14 is very big and heavy, and the Pixel is too expensive. The C720's great battery life, fast performance, usable trackpad and keyboard, and decent display make it the best compromise between all the Chromebooks and the one to buy.
November: Nexus 5
Like last year's Nexus 4, the Nexus 5 has made it to be one of our favorite products of 2013. It is an expected improvement over the Nexus 4 with its better 1080p display, faster Snapdragon 800 processor, and slightly better eight megapixel camera. The matte silky plastic design is similar to the Nexus 7's, and it has a nice premium feel. The display is bright and beautiful, and good enough to stand up with the HTC One and iPhone 5s. Performance is blazingly fast with the powerful 2.26GHZ quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and the improvements brought with Android 4.4 KitKat. The only major problem with the Nexus 5, like all the other Nexuses, is the camera. Yes it is better than last year's Nexus 4, but that is not saying much. The recent Android 4.4.2 update has allowed you to be able to take decent pictures most of the time. Decent is good, but this is Google's flagship. Google's showcase phone should not just be good or decent. It needs to be competitive in every aspect. It is competitive on price at $350 and with all the high-end specs, but the camera is the only let down. The sensor itself is great, it's just the photo processing software that messes up each shot. It is a real shame that the cameras on the Nexus phones are not too good. Google just needs to work on its camera software, and they can make a great Nexus phone with a great camera. Google is one step closer to making the perfect Android smartphone with the Nexus 5, and it will only get there when they can finally fix their cameras.
December: Moto G
This is one of the first times that we have seen Motorola appear twice on our list of best devices of 2013. Motorola made the Moto G as a Moto X geared towards emerging markets. It is a cheaper handset with slightly less premium specs, but it has good specs where it counts. Motorola somewhat carried the customizability to the Moto G by allowing you to replace the back cover with other colorful options. It retains the same 720p display, but the Moto G's 4.5 inch LCD 720p display is actually a little better than the one on the Moto X. The quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor allows for a brisk and quick experience, but Motorola cut a few corners by not having LTE on it. The 2,070mAH battery allows for fantastic all day battery life. The Motorola is the best phone you can buy at $179 and $199 unlocked for the 8GB and 16GB versions. If you need a spare emergency phone, are on a prepaid carrier, or live in one of the emerging markets, you should definitely buy the Moto G. Sure the camera is not too good and it has no LTE, but at this price they don't stop the Moto G from being a great handset.
All pictures above courtesy of The Verge
So those are our favorite devices from 2013. Most of these devices are high-res quad-core flagship smartphones, Haswell equipped laptops, or devices that manage to be super compelling at a great price. What we expect in 2014? We expect prepaid and inexpensive phones to get even better, and for phones to start to offer 4K video recording. Laptops might, just maybe, get rediculously hgh-res 4K displays and better graphics in ultrabook type machines. The 4K TV might reach consumer level, and wearables will probably become completely ubiquitous. All we can say is that 2013 has been a great year for electronics, and 2014 will be even better.
Have a great New Years everyone. Share the love.
-Tyler Sepulveda: Editor of Tech & Co.
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