The 13 Best Tech Products of 2013

The latest extension in Amazon’s tablet lineup promotes an array of facets from lightweight ergonomics to high-speed performance, making it the most elite, full-sized tablet not made by Apple. Powered by Qualcomm's monstrous 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 CPU, which is paired with a Krait 400 processor and Adreno 330 GPU, the Kindle Fire HDX breezes past book/web pages and UI navigation. An alluring 8.9-inch, 2,560x1,600-pixel resolution panel, the innovative Mayday customer service feature, and Amazon’s massive content library justify the slate’s mass appeal.

Criticize the Windows Phone 8 platform for not having the dynamic OS or app store catalogs found on all Apple or Google-powered handsets. But if you want to talk magnificent mobile hardware, let alone groundbreaking strides in smartphone camera technology, don't you dare front on Nokia's flagship device. Besides offering great benchmarks and solid build quality, the Lumia 1020 stands out as the greatest camera phone ever created with a 41MP shooter that benefits from a 6X digital zoom to capture marveling visuals from long distances.

Nest became a leader in the smart-home product spectrum after releasing its widely popular high-tech thermostat last year. Its latest smoke and carbon monoxide detector builds on the company's domestic ecosystem that when paired with your home network provides a series of features. Those including the abilities to shut off false alarms through arm motion commands instead of fan waving and sending alerts for different rooms to your iOS device. When the only gripe from reviewers is the $130 price tag, you know there's something special here.

Nobody, except for maybe Richard Branson and Yeezy, trying to drop $40,000 on a 4K Ultra HDTV. And that's cool. But if we all had the money to splurge on a multimedia centerpiece for the living room, best believe it would be spent instantly on Samsung's 85-inch beast. Massive in size and visual presentation, the display features an innovative floating-frame frame that rocks a 120-watt 2.2 speaker system surrounding the entire screen. Needless to say the end result is a euphoric viewing experience.

Ushering in the retro camera phenomenon with last year’s X100 model, Fujifilm released its successor, which kept intact the throwback look and improved on digital shooting capabilities thanks to a new 16.3-megapixel APS-C X-Trans CMOS II sensor. The X100S captures marveling, noise-free images at instant speeds and carries over Fuji's leading-edge Hybrid viewfinder that allows for more accurate and smoother focusing. There's no reason why expert photogs shouldn't make it their everyday camera.

Google showed us the future of video-streaming by introducing us to its set-top box killer. The HDMI dongle is optimized to screen TV shows, movies, music, and practically anything viewable on the Internet—mirroring content to an HDTV directly from the iPhone, iPad, or Chrome for Mac and Windows. But we found Chromecast’s low-key ability to automatically turn on a TV, switch HDMI inputs, and start programs with the touch of a button from any mobile device to be its paragon feature. Time to turn your Apple TV and Roku players into hand-me-downs.

Beautiful in design and sound, the P7 is an audio stunner that sits comfortably on your dome and delivers breathtaking sonics to your eardrums. B&W does an incredible job balancing the sound stage of its first ever over-ears, combining refined acoustics with powerful bass response and sharp highs that make for an incredible listening experience across all music genres.

Samsung earns props for creating the quintessential feature phone and making touch-less commands the new wave of mobile interaction. Marketed as the Galaxy S4’s biggest selling point, its propitious motion-gesture system put others like Google and Motorola on notice, as both companies adopted the same functionality for their recent flagship phones. But in reality, the GS4’s prominence lies in its ridiculously powerful spec sheet spearheaded by a dominant 1.9GHz Snapdragon quad-core, gorgeous 5-inch FHD Super AMOLED, and resolute 13MP camera. Don’t you forget that.

The next-gen gaming war has commenced and it’s become a winner-takes-all battle between Microsoft and Sony. When taking into account its avid live-TV integration, dynamic multitasking features, enhanced motion-sensor functionality, and killer launch lineup, the Xbox One proves to be the superior gaming console at the moment. Microsoft even made its Xbox Live system more robust with the inclusion of cloud storage, background updates, social sharing, and much more. Overall, it’s an ambitious piece of multimedia hardware that bears the necessary attributes to make it the ultimate all-in-one entertainment system heading into 2014 and beyond.

Apple practically made every convertible, laptop, and ultrabook irrelevant the moment it launched the latest MacBook Pro model—introducing a faster, slimmer, and more powerful machine backed by incredible performance benchmarks. The Pro’s Retina Display supports 2560 x 1600-pixel resolution and a brightness of 340 lux, strong enough specs to outperform any machine in its class on the visual end. Not to mention it sports a beefier CPU to achieve faster SSD speeds, longer battery life, and magnificent graphics output.

We knew HTC’s flagship device was a gem when it snagged every major "Best in Show" award earlier this year. What we didn’t foresee was the first major handset released in 2013, till this day, remaining the best-reviewed phone out. The One has lived up to its entitled moniker by bringing forth the premiums we sought in a smartphone from stunning aesthetics to sheer performance. HTC proved its design pedigree is still second to none, while serving as a platform to showcase the year’s latest mobile hardware advancements: including Qualcomm’s Snapdraon 1.7GHz quad-core and the company’s BoomSound dual front-facing speakers. The fact that it even holds weight in any “Best Smartphone” conversation right now warrants its place on this list.

Hi-tech wearables are the new thing and Google is playing trendsetter to the movement with its computing optics. The Android-powered smart glasses offer owners one of the most unique AR experiences by allowing them to perform actions such as answering emails, performing social media updates, and snapping photos—hands-free and with all info viewable on a micro-display. Google’s commitment to improving the platform with each developer edition released speaks for itself, which will continue to grow in user base once publicly launched.

All the talk going into Apple’s iPad Event this past October was targeted towards one specific device, which every iFan anticipated for months: the iPad Mini with Retina Display. The Cupertino Clan superseded all expectations by not only announcing the latest Mini version, but also a new model in the tablet line, that being the iPad Air. Apple’s super-slim slate became an instant favorite amongst consumers and industry experts, tackling a lighter and thinner form factor, along with a jaw-dropping 9.7-inch Retina Display and faster processors that enhance system performance. Simply put, no other device has garnered such demand or fanfare at this moment than the iPad Air, and nothing else will till at least mid-2014.