by Xavier Voigt-Hill

The Digixav Awards 2011

2012 is now here and Digixav’s first calendar year on the internet has come to an end. We decided that there was only one way to celebrate and that would be to give out some virtual awards to the techy things that have made this year great.

So, one day, Henry, Chris, Rowan and I convened in a darkened room, made a nomination for each category and subsequently had 15 punch-ups. Here is the outcome.

Please note that winners were decided by having more nominations than any other nominee. In the event of a tie, the editor’s ruling is final.

Worst Gadget

Nominees:

BlackBerry PlayBook
LG Optimus Pad

Winner:

LG Optimus Pad

This overpriced 8.9 inch slate couldn’t justify it’s horrendous price tag of over £700 and still hasn’t gone down to an acceptable price. The Honeycomb device had WiFi and 3G, 32GB of storage, 3D video recording that required red and blue glasses for viewing and a Tegra 2 chip. It was doomed from the start and LG may now claim their wooden spoon from the DX offices.

Worst Design

Nominees:

HTC Rezound (inc. extended battery cover)
Sony Tablet S

Winner:

Sony Tablet S

Kudos to Sony for trying to do something different in the monotonous world of Android tablets, but the Tablet S is ugly. What started out as a 9.4 inch slate was rolled over like a magazine which gave the device unnecessary bulk and it became quite awkward to hold. A cheap grey plastic filling added to the problems and secured this award for Sony, adding to their year of woe.

Worst Name

Nominees:

Dell Peju
Droid Xyboard by Motorola
HTC Vivid

Winner:

Droid Xyboard by Motorola

Any other year, a Dell tablet codenamed the ‘Ejaculate’ or ‘Sperm’ depending on which Indonesian translation you believe or an HTC phone that had a name which resulted in a cease and desist letter from a porn company would run away with this award, but then Verizon rebranded the Xoom 2 as the Droid Xyboard. As if the original name wasn’t bad enough, the horrific name was accompanied by atrocious packaging which led to some, um, interesting comparisons.

Biggest Flop

Nominees:

RIM

Winner:

RIM

PlayBook. Lawsuits. Service outages. Plummeting shares. Too many CEO’s. Delays. Need I say more?

Biggest Surprise

Nominees:

Nokia Lumia 800
Windows 8

Winner:

Windows 8

Windows 8 will combine the design elements of Windows Phone 7 with a functional, supported desktop operating system. What’s not to like?

Best App

Nominees:

Angry Birds (Everything)
Final Fantasy (iOS)
Flipboard (iOS)
Rainbow Rapture (WP7)

Winner:

Rainbow Rapture

It pains me to deny Flipboard the crown, but Rainbow Rapture is a deserved winner of the ‘coveted’ award. Based on a fantastically simple idea best known as Tiny Wings, Kindling Games turn it into the most trippy, colourful, entertaining and damn hilarious app ever. Such is it’s appeal that it is a good enough reason to switch to Windows Phone. We love it and that is why it defeats such behemoths as Angry Birds to take the title of Best App of 2011. Our video review and Henry’s thoughts on it are here.

Best Browser

Nominees:

Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox

Winner:

Google Chrome

Quite simply Chrome is the best browser out there. The simple interface paired with the fantastic extensions and the omnibox mean that anyone can love it. Death to Internet Explorer!

Best Design

Nominees:

Motorola RAZR
Nokia Lumia 800

Winner:

Nokia Lumia 800

Look at it and think of Kevin Shields. Then question our judgement.

Best Game

Nominees:

FIFA 12
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Winner:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim is truly epic. The graphics are amazing, the game world is massive, the campaign is enthralling and it is the reason we hardly ever post on here. Go and buy it now!

Best Innovation

Nominees:

AMD FX-8150
Lytro Camera
Motorola Atrix

Winner:

Lytro Camera

The Lytro Camera, launching next year, uses light-field photography which means that images can be focused even after capture using the company’s own software. While the device is not ready for market yet, the technology sounds amazing and we can look forward to seeing it in the new year.

Best OS

Nominees:

Linux
Windows 7
Windows Phone 7

Winner:

Windows Phone 7

Henry said it all in his review. Windows Phone 7 is amazing, and it is the home of our favourite app and software of our favourite gadget as well. Next year Chris and I plan to switch across from Bada and Android/iOS respectively as the Metro UI has won our hearts. Congratulations Microsoft. You have made something awesome.

Best PC

Nominees:

Acer Aspire Timeline X
Apple MacBook Air
HP Folio

Winner:

HP Folio

We love HP laptops here at Digixav. Henry, Chris and I all carry them around wherever we go, but we have always been cynical about Ultrabooks. Then HP came out with the Folio. It combined high-end specs and a beautiful design in an affordable package. We can’t wait for them to hit the UK this year.

Best Phone

Nominees:

Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Galaxy S II
Samsung Wave 3

Winner:

Nokia Lumia 800

The design is second to none. The screen, although lacking in pixel density compared to some devices, is beautiful. The software is the best there is. The Nokia Lumia 800 is the best phone of the year by a mile. What else do Microkia have in the works?

Best Tablet

Nominees:

Apple iPad 2
Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime

Winner:

Apple iPad 2

Despite the hundreds of devices that have tried to topple it, the iPad remains king and shall do at least until Windows 8 comes out. Companies have copied its design, slagged it off and even stolen its name, but Apple’s market-creating slate has stayed on top by a mile.

Now for this evening’s final award…

Best Gadget

Nominees:

Intel Core (2nd Generation)
Kymera Magic Wand
Nokia Lumia 800

Winner:

Nokia Lumia 800

Nokia are back in town with the best gadget of 2011. The industrial polycarbonate shell looks AWESOME, the ClearBlack AMOLED display needs to be seen to be believed, the software is exceptional and pictures just cannot do it justice. Go forth and look at one in the flesh. It is impossible not to love it.

With that, we conclude the 2011 awards. Think we’re wrong? Let us know in the comments.

Happy new year to all!

25 Comments

  2. I think you’re spot on, especially about the Lumia 800. That’s the most beautiful phone/OS combo I’ve ever seen. Windows 8 is also very exciting. I can’t wait to see what 2012 holds for consumers.

  3. Right on! Nokia Lumia rocks thanks to Nokia’s industrial design savvy and years of leadership in the mobile space. Mango (Windows Phone 7.5) is aboslutely a delight to use, all the noise from competing platform loyalists (aka “fanboys”) notwithstanding. If only the experts, analysts and myriad bloggers lift the veil of “free open source mobile OS” will they be able to see the beauty of this fresh and innovative new platform.

  4. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no iPhone fanboy – quite the contrary, I’m an Android user, long-time Nokia loyalist and a WP7 lover.
    However, I’m confused about why iPhone, an otherwise universally acclaimed phone, got little and representation across the categories, especially best phone and OS.
    It would perhaps be helpful if some sort of explanation wasprovided before fanboys disregard the post as “paid s**t from Microsoft”.

    1. Don’t get me wrong. I love the iPhone and iOS. When we decided to do these awards, we decided each to give one nomination per category to choose our favourite devices. For best phone, I can’t speak for my colleagues but the 4S was a close second for my vote but WP7 has won me over and the design of the Lumia is magnificent. The iPad 2 won best tablet and there was never any question of that losing, and with best OS I again felt that the Metro UI of WP7 gave it the edge over iOS, despite the vast improvements in iOS 5.

      Just to confirm, these awards have and always will be solely our personal opinions and we have not been paid by ANYONE for anything published on this site.

    2. My apologies for my ridiculously biased colleagues,I attempted to not give every prize to Microsoft but to know avail. Sadly, we were not paid.

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