HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2015: Readers' Choice Results

Recognizing the best brands and products

This year marks the 6th edition of the annual HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards, the tech industry's premier event where we recognize the best brands, products, and services. 32 Editor’s Choice and 37 Readers’ Choice awards were handed out this year, in categories ranging from computers and consumer electronics to digital entertainment, communications and services. Included in the Editor's Choice segment are also 4 Innovation awards that aimed to recognize innovative products and cutting-edge technologies that have emerged during the eligibility period.

For the Editor's Choice awards, a total of 129 products spread across 32 categories introduced between January 2014 and December 2014 were shortlisted. After many months of evaluation by the HWM and HardwareZone.com editorial team, winners were chosen based on the performance, value, and quality of experience they brought to their users.

Voting for the 37 Readers’ Choice categories was opened to all readers of HWM and HardwareZone.com. With 186 brand nominations, it remains one of the most comprehensive brand recognition surveys in the industry.

Without further ado, in this first of three articles, let us first take a look at the detailed results of our Readers’ Choice polls where we garner readers' preferences as to which tech brand has outdone all others in their respective nominated categories.

Readers’ Choice Awards - Computing (Part 1)

Best CPU Brand - Intel

While it may be a different story for mobile chips used in smartphones, Intel is still dominant in the market for chips used in desktop and notebook PCs. 2014 saw the refresh of its 4th-gen Haswell processors and the arrival of the 5th-gen, 14nm-based Broadwell processors, which include the Core M series used by the latest thin and light notebooks, such as the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, the ASUS Transformer Book Chi T300 and Zenbook UX305, and the 12-inch Apple MacBook. With desktop Broadwell chips incoming and the expected arrival of Skylake later this year, it’s hard to see Intel relaxing its grip in this segment. That said, it won’t be an easy road for Chipzilla either, as PC sales continue to decline in 2015.

Best Gaming Graphics Processor Brand - NVIDIA

As was revealed in CES 2014 when the Tegra K1 debuted, all of NVIDIA’s new-generation GPU architectures will be designed to scale in performance and capabilities, from mobile all the way to workstations and servers needs. In early 2014, we saw the arrival of NVIDIA’s 1st-gen Maxwell graphics architecture, which focused on power efficiency and greater performance per watt than the previous Kepler architecture, and used in entry-level cards like the GeForce GTX 750 Ti. Then later in the same year, we saw the 2nd-gen Maxwell with its new GM204 GPU powering the high-end GeForce GTX 900 series, like the GTX 980. And if you’re looking for the meanest single-GPU graphics card today, the GeForce GTX Titan X has no peer. We posit it’s this constant stream of new products with improved performance and experience that makes NVIDIA our readers’ favorite GPU brand.

Best Graphics Card Brand - ASUS

With 44% of the votes, this is the sixth straight year ASUS has strolled away with our Readers’ Choice award for Best Graphics Card Brand. Once again, we think ASUS’ popularity boils down to its ability to churn out a wide range of graphics cards for both NVIDIA and AMD fans. For example, this GM200 Maxwell-based ASUS GeForce GTX Titan X and Radeon R9 295X2 for hardcore gamers, this Strix GeForce GTX 960 for mass market gamers, and this overclocked ROG Ares III with dual Radeon R9 290X.

Best Motherboard Brand - ASUS

From our understanding, what most of our readers like about ASUS’ graphics cards (variety, performance, reliability) also apply to the company’s motherboards. Case in point: there’s the B85-Pro Gamer for budget DIY enthusiasts all the way to the X99-Deluxe for owners of Intel’s Core i7 Haswell-E processors. And let’s not forget the Z97-based ROG Maximus VII family, which is synonymous with top-notch materials and components. And more recently, the company has implemented USB 3.1 functionality on several of its motherboards. As such, it’s no wonder ASUS has once again (for the sixth year running, by the way) walked away with our Best Motherboard Brand award, garnering an impressive 56% of the votes.

Best PC Memory Brand - Kingston

Another brand that has made an award its own is Kingston, who has won the Best PC Memory Brand award for the fifth consecutive year. In fact, its share of votes (42%) is twice that of second-place Corsair (21%). Just this past January, the company’s HyperX Predator DDR4 set a world record with an overclocked frequency of 4,351MHz on an Intel X99-based MSI motherboard. And just last month, a HyperX Fury DDR4 memory line, which offers automatic overclocking via plug-and-play functionality for high-end desktops featuring the Intel X99 chipset and Haswell-E processors, was announced.

Readers’ Choice Awards - Computing (Part 2)

Best Desktop PC Brand - Apple

A quick recap: Launched in mid-October last year, the iMac with 5K Retina display is one reason why Apple sold a record 5.5 million Macs in the December quarter. And this was the 34th time (out of the past 35 quarters) that Mac sales had outpaced PC sales. This time round, after tallying the votes, Apple remains your favorite desktop computer brand. Its 29% share of the votes is 10% more than second-place ASUS, which has 19%. HP (14%) and Dell (13%) aren't that far behind either. Can Windows 10, which is due to arrive sometime this summer, help other PC makers catch up to Apple in terms of sales and popularity? Let us check back next year.

Best Inkjet Printer Brand - Canon

With 41% of the votes, Canon is our readers' favorite inkjet printer brand. Earlier this year, the maker of EOS cameras introduced a new Maxify color inkjet line that caters to the needs of small or home office users who do high-volume color printing, and who require advanced security, network, and cloud connectivity features. We reviewed the flagship MB5370, and found it indeed to be a fast inkjet printer mixed a healthy dose of business features, like a single-pass duplex ADF and operation restrictions settings. The second and third place go to HP (20%) and Epson (18%) respectively.

Best Laser/LED Printer Brand - Fuji Xerox

While Fuji Xerox has been aggressive in bringing its award-winning S-LED print head technology to its printers, it also has several laser printers in its portfolio. For example, its latest four S-LED color printers came right after it has announced seven mono laser printers targeting individuals to small workgroups earlier in February. Because lets face it: as long as the print quality is good, whether it’s LED or laser is for the most part an implementation detail that only nerds would fuss over. With 26% of the votes, Fuji Xerox is the winner of our combined Best Laser/LED Printer Brand award this year. Canon is close behind with 22%.

Best Wireless Networking Brand - ASUS

In the last few years, ASUS has proven that it’s capable of making networking products that go up against the very best from D-Link, Linksys, and Netgear. The company’s RT-AC87U is a good pick for those looking for an AC2400 wireless router, so too is the RT-AC68U if you feel AC1900 is sufficient. And of course, there’s the RT-AC3200 if you’ve a lot of wireless devices and need as much bandwidth as possible. With 34% of the votes, this is the second straight year the Taiwanese company has won our networking award. Linksys (19%) and D-Link (18%) come in second and third respectively.

Readers' Choice Awards - Computing (Part 3)

Best SSD Brand - Samsung

While traditional spinning hard drives still hold the capacity per dollar advantage, there’s also no denying that when it comes to speed, solid-state drives totally mop the floor with HDDs. Better yet, prices are coming down too. Samsung, who was runner-up to SanDisk last year, is the winner of our Readers’ Choice award for Best SSD Brand this year, with 31% of the votes. We can only posit that the great performances of its 3D V-NAND-based SSD 850 Pro and SSD 850 Evo didn’t go unnoticed by our intelligent readers. For something more recent, know that the Korean company has in January started mass producing an extremely fast and low-powered PCIe SSD (SM951) for notebooks; and just earlier this month, it unveiled the 850 Evo M.2 and 850 Evo mSATA SSDs for use in ultra-thin PCs.

Best External HDD Brand - WD

When it comes to HDDs, there’s no bigger brand than Seagate and Western Digital. In recent years, they’ve grown even bigger, with Seagate acquiring Samsung’s HDD business in 2011, and Western Digital acquiring Hitachi Global Storage Technologies in 2012 (the company later sold to Toshiba the 3.5-inch business). As such, it didn’t come as a surprise to us that both companies grabbed the majority of the votes in this category. With 36% of the votes, WD manages to retain the trophy it took home last year; Seagate remains in second place with 28%. For those who haven’t been keeping track, WD (or rather, its HGST subsidiary) has said that all its 3.5-inch drives moving forward will be filled with helium. WD also claims that its Re+ hard drives offer the lowest power consumption of any high-capacity 3.5-inch hard drive today.

Best Removable Flash Storage Brand - SanDisk

Thanks to its lion’s share of the votes (60%, to be exact), flash memory storage specialist SanDisk has strolled home yet again with our Best Removable Flash Storage Brand award. While we’re happy to see SanDisk’s continued investment in its SSD business, we’re also glad to see that it hasn’t stopped innovating in the removable flash storage space. Case in point: this new 200GB microSD card that delivers up to 90MB/s transfer speeds, and this iXpand USB flash drive that allows users to quickly transfer files between their iOS devices and computers.

Best NAS Brand - Synology

Our NAS (network-attached storage) category has always been hotly contested, and this year sees more than 11 brands competing. With 20% of the votes, Synology is our readers’ favorite NAS brand this year, beating the likes of Seagate (18%), D-Link (17%), and WD (12%). In fact, this is a bit of a surprise to us, as Synology was only placed fourth last year. But one thing’s for certain: as its product page shows, the Taiwanese company has a wide range of storage solutions to meet the needs of different users, from large scale enterprises, small and medium businesses, to home users.

Best Monitor Brand - Samsung

With 31% of the votes, Samsung has done a 3-peat this year. Like its TVs, the Korean company continues to churn out new monitors on a frequent basis. For example, just this March, it launched the SE790C, a 34-inch monitor with a 21:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 pixels; as well as the SD590C, which stands at 27 inches and sports a full HD resolution. And we’re expecting a few more, such as the UE950 and UE850 that support FreeSync, AMD’s frame synchronization technology. And as we found out, the 28-inch UD590 of 2014 is pretty good if you’re looking for a 4K monitor. Dell, which launched the UltraSharp UP2715K 5K monitor, U3415W 34-inch curved monitor, and P2416D QHD monitor recently is second, with 18% of the votes.

Best Keyboard and Mouse Brand - Logitech

The contest for our new Best Keyboard and Mouse Brand award involves more than 15 brands, but the top three already garnered 70% of the votes. At the end of the day, the trophy goes to Logitech, who received 37% of all votes cast. Trailing behind are Razer and Microsoft, with 24% and 12% respectively. From these results, it’s pretty clear that Logitech has achieved considerable mindshare with its wide range of keyboard and mouse offerings. From everyday wireless keyboards and mice, to gaming-oriented keyboards and mice, to portable keyboards for iOS devices, the company seems to have something for everyone.

Best PC Components Retailer (Singapore) - Fuwell

Sim Lim Square has always been the go-to place for DIY enthusiasts building their own systems, as this is the mall that gathers numerous PC components retailers under the same roof. For the sixth consecutive year, you’ve voted Fuwell your favorite PC components retailer. Its 20% share is consistent with what it achieved last year. And its closest rivals this time are Best Bargain (13%), Bizgram (12%), and PC Themes (12%).

Readers' Choice Awards - Consumer Electronics (Part 1)

Best Business Notebook Brand - Lenovo

For the business notebook category, the trophy remains in the hands of Lenovo (26%), currently the world’s largest PC maker. As we said earlier this year, the 2015 ThinkPad X1 Carbon is proof that the Chinese company listens to customer feedback. Lenovo hasn’t neglected its Yoga series of convertible devices either, pushing out new products like the Intel Core M-based Yoga 3 Pro recently. That said, Lenovo's win is a very narrow one; Apple, with 25% of the votes, is within touching distance. Looks like many of you are using MacBook Pros and Airs at work too.

Best 2-in-1 Notebook Brand - ASUS

Some call it notebook-tablet hybrids, some call it 2-in-1 notebooks. Whichever the case, such new form factor is only possible due to the multifaceted nature of Windows 8/8.1; and soon, Windows 10. We’ve asked you which is your favorite 2-in-1 notebook brand, and you’ve responded. The inaugural winner of this award is ASUS (34%), maker of fine machines like the Transformer Book T300 Chi. Lenovo, maker of the multi-mode Yoga 3 Pro is second (23%); and Microsoft, purveyor of the Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3, is third (15%).

Best Gaming Notebook Brand - Dell/Alienware

For those unaware, Alienware is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dell, Inc., and it specializes in putting together high-performance desktops and notebooks for professional and gaming purposes using third-party components and custom enclosures. In 2014, we saw the Alienware 13, which is the company’s smallest gaming notebook yet (and this audacious Alienware Graphics Amplifier); and this year, we’ve new, thinner and lighter Alienware 15 and 17 that are powered by the latest Intel Haswell processors, and the latest NVIDIA and AMD graphics. Alienware’s 33% share of votes is more than enough for it to retain the top spot. ASUS comes in second with 16%, so too is local outfit Aftershock, which just refreshed its SM series notebooks.

Best Gaming Console Brand - Sony

Sony PlayStation 4 vs. Microsoft Xbox One. This is a battle that started before both consoles came to market, is still on-going at the moment, and is expected to continue for at least a couple more years. Well, you’ve voted, and as the results show, the trophy is going home with the Japanese company.

Best Tablet Brand - Apple

Apple’s iPad (which just turned five) remains our readers’ most beloved tablet with 57% of the votes. That’s actually quite a feat if you consider that Apple only has two new tablets in 2014, the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3. That said, it’s also no secret that iPad sales have been shrinking for the past four quarters, and that 2015 is widely forecasted to be a bleak year for the whole tablet industry (IDC recently predicted a low single digit year-over-year growth). Can Apple overcome this “speed bump”, perhaps with the help from the often rumored 12.9-inch iPad Pro? Only time will tell. Samsung, which shipped over 40 million tablets in 2014, takes second place with 17% of the votes.

Readers' Choice Awards - Consumer Electronics (Part 2)

Best Compact Camera Brand - Canon

According to the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA), digital camera shipments fell 31% in 2014 compared to 2013. Compact cameras were predictably the hardest hit, dropping 35% in shipment volume. But there’s a saving grace: the volume was still greater than the amount of interchangeable lens cameras shipped. Thus, like what we’ve been saying for many years now, this segment is unlikely to die just yet. Camera makers are trying their best too, putting new features like wireless connectivity, larger sensors, and brighter lenses onto their compacts. For this Readers’ Choice category, the winner is once again Canon, which amassed 42% of the votes. In 2014, we saw several excellent Canon compacts, like the PowerShot G1 X Mark II and G7 X; and earlier this year, we saw the launch of several more PowerShot and IXUS models, including the SX410 IS, a compact 20MP camera with a 40x zoom lens.

Best Interchangeable Lens Camera Brand - Canon

In short, interchangeable lens cameras refer to both DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. According to CIPA, while mirrorless cameras sales stabilized last year, DSLR shipments continued to drop. Interestingly, mirrorless cameras sales were down in Japan and Asia, but grew in Americas and Europe (a reason for their DSLR sales drop). As such, one shouldn’t be surprised that total lens shipments also fell in 2014. After tabulating the votes, Canon emerges as the winner of our Best Interchangeable Lens Camera Brand category. While the Japanese camera maker has only introduced the EOS 7D Mark II and 1200D DSLRs the whole of last year; it already has four this year, including the EOS 5DS/5DSR and 750D/760D. It has also recently updated its mirrorless EOS M series with the EOS M3.

Best Smartwatch Brand - Samsung

According to the Smartwatch Group, Samsung is the current market leader in this space, having sold 1.2 million units of its Gear lineup in 2014, which translates to a market share of just above 17%. Since the Korean company has already gone through a few generations of smartwatch products in the last 16 months (its latest, the Gear S, has a curved 2-inch Super AMOLED display and runs on the Tizen OS), we aren't too surprised that many of you (31%) voted the Korean company your favorite smartwatch brand. Pebble, which recently announced the Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel, is second with 19%. How will Apple fare next year, now that the Apple Watch is on its way? We shall see.

Best Consumer Electronics Chain Store (Singapore) - Challenger

With 36% of the votes, IT and CE chain store Challenger manages to hold on to the trophy it won last year. This is also the third straight win for Challenger. Harvey Norman (14%), Best Denki (13%), and Courts (12%) followed behind.

Readers' Choice Awards - Consumer Electronics (Part 3)

Best TV Brand - Samsung

As we mentioned in our CES 2014 and 2015 roundups, in the TV market, the last couple of years have been about 4K UHD, OLED, and curved TVs. One additional observation we’ve this year is that TV manufacturers are now turning to mobile OSes en masse. Samsung, the winner of our Best TV Brand award with 49% of the votes, and maker of fine 4K TVs last year like the HU9000 and HU8500, has announced that its smart TV platform will be based on Tizen OS moving forward. Its quantum dot-based SUHD TVs that we saw at CES are also expected to hit retail very soon. Second place LG (18%) has also begun selling its WebOS 2.0-based 4K TVs recently. Sony, which has opted for Google’s Android TV platform, completes the top three with 16% of the votes.

Best Pay TV Service (Singapore) - StarHub TV

Despite the strong competition from overseas streaming services, StarHub’s Pay TV revenue remained stable YoY for 4Q 2014. The pay TV service provider is still making moves to increase its channel offerings, like the launch of Singapore’s first Tamil subscription VOD (video on demand) channel and the Astro Warna Malay comedy channel in January this year, and the addition of three new HD channels (Disney Channel HD, Nickelodeon Asia HD, Asian Food Channel HD) last year, just to name a few. In fact, just yesterday, the cable TV operator has launched a new fiber broadband-based IPTV service called StarHub TV on Fiber. As such, it’s no wonder that you’ve once again voted StarHub TV your favorite pay TV service. Its 67% share of votes is consistent with what it achieved last year. SingTel’s Mio TV comes in second with 28%.

Best Business Projector Brand - Epson

Those into projectors would probably know that according to market research firm Futuresource Consulting, Epson has been the world’s number one selling projector brand for the last 14 years. And no wonder: be it high-powered projectors or interactive projectors, Epson, which just celebrated its 40th anniversary, seems to have every possible angle covered. This is also the second year in a row that Epson is taking home this award. Canon is second with 16%, and NEC third with 11%.

Best Home Theater Projector Brand - Sony

For home theater projectors, you’ve once again voted Sony (29%), maker of the excellent (but expensive) VPL-VW1100ES 4K projector and the amazing VPL-GTZ1 ultra-short-throw laser light source 4K projector, your favorite home theater projector brand. Epson (19%) comes in second, and Panasonic is a close third (16%).

Readers' Choice Awards - Consumer Electronics (Part 4)

Best Headphones Brand - Sennheiser

Featuring more than a dozen brands, the headphones category is another hotly contested Readers’ Choice category. After tallying the votes, German audio specialist Sennheiser has retained the award for the fourth time in a row with 19% of the votes. If you’re looking for some Sennheiser headphones, know that the company has launched the new Urbanite series late last year and refreshed the popular Momentum wired headphones just last month. Klipsch comes with second with 16%, and Bose (13%) completes the top three. Beats, which is now owned by Apple, has 12%.

Best In-Ear Earphones Brand - Klipsch

Last year, Klipsch pipped Sennheiser to win this category, and so we were eager to find out if Klipsch’s winning streak would continue this year, or if Sennheiser would make a comeback. Turns out, most of you (25%, to be precise) have voted Klipsch once again, and so the trophy will stay in the American company’s cabinet for yet another year. Sennheiser comes in second with 12% of the votes. Bose completes the top three with 10%.

Best Wireless Speakers Brand - Bose

The advent of mobile devices greatly contributes to the exploding growth of wireless speakers in recent years. Not only can you enjoy higher-quality sound than the device’s tiny built-in speaker, being able to not tether to another hardware means that you can keep hold of your device, move about, and still control music playback. While dedicated speaker docks or Hi-Fi systems tend to offer better sound quality (usually due to larger drivers and being mains-powered), the gap between between them and their wireless brethren is closing everyday, thanks to near-lossless technologies like aptX. For the third year running you’ve voted Bose, maker of the SoundLink III and SoundLink Color Bluetooth speakers, your favorite wireless speakers brand. The company has also just launched its SoundTouch Wi-Fi speakers in Singapore. Notice that Bose's 21% share of the votes is smaller than last year, as both Sonos (19%) and Creative (18%) are hot on its heels.

Best Home Theater System Brand - Bose

For the fifth straight year, you've voted Bose your favorite home theater system brand. Its 30% share of votes is more than second-place Sony (10%), third-place Yamaha (9%), and fourth-place Sonos (9%) combined.

Readers' Choice Awards - Communications

Best Mainstream Smartphone Brand - Samsung

According to Gartner, while Samsung lost its No. 1 position to Apple in the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter of last year, it still sold over 300 million units throughout 2014. In other words, while the Galaxy Note and S series remain its crown jewels to serve the high-end market, the Korea company still has enough variety to serve the mid and lower ends. Phones like the Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy A, Galaxy Ace 4, and Galaxy S5 Mini. For this Readers’ Choice award, Samsung manages to retain the trophy it has won in the past two years with 46% of the votes. Coming in second is actually Xiaomi, who has 14%. While Samsung’s lead seems wide at the moment, its battle with Xiaomi should be interesting to watch in the coming years. For those unaware, the young Chinese company, which recently launched the Redmi 2 and Redmi 2A, has sold 61 million smartphones last year, and is hoping to move 100 million units in 2015.

Best Premium Smartphone Brand - Apple

Apple’s strong showing late last year was no doubt due to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus; but last we heard, the Galaxy Note 4 and Note 4 Edge sold very well too. And last month at MWC in Barcelona, the Korean giant followed that up with the 5.1-inch Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, arguably the best phones the company has created to date. That said, for the second year running, most of you (53%) have voted Apple your favorite premium smartphone brand. Samsung, which won the award two years ago, is second with 21%. Sony, maker of the Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact, is third with 6%. The greatest challenge for Xiaomi in this segment is to shake off its budget image. The quite excellent Mi Note will go a long way towards achieving that.

Best Telco (Singapore) - Singtel

Despite the recent brouhaha, Singtel remains the one to beat in this category, garnering 51% of the votes cast. The rebranded telco is also very busy exploring future cellular technologies recently, having announced a joint 5G innovation program with Huawei late last year, a partnership with Ericsson to study 5G networks at the start of this year, and a partnership with Ericsson to test out LTE broadcast and voice over Wi-Fi calling just last month.

Best Fiber Broadband Service Provider (Singapore) - Singtel

Compared to fixed line and mobile telephone services, the fiber broadband market in Singapore is a lot more competitive due to the presence of more providers. Still, Singtel has retained the award that it won last year with 33% of the votes. In fact, as we speak, its S$50/month 1Gbps Unlimited Fiber promotion is still ongoing. That said, it’s worth noting that Singtel’s share this year is lower than last year’s 39%. The main reason is that both MyRepublic and StarHub have garnered quite a huge following this time, with each amassing 21%. Fourth place goes to M1, which has 14%. ViewQwest, which recently launched a 2Gbps plan, has 9%.

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