The Very Best Gadgets of 2013

With the end of 2013 on the horizon, it’s been another year in which there have been a huge number of consumer electronics and gadget releases. But what have been the very best gadgets of this calendar year? Let’s separate the wheat from the chaff…

Sony Playstation 4

After a month or so of using the new Sony video games console, I continue to be blown away by how good it is. Although I’m an avid video games player, the previous generation of games left me a little cold, and I felt the technology was attempting to deliver functionality that it was ill-equipped to cope with. There can be no such criticisms made of the PS4. It runs like a dream and every game looks incredible. The potential of this machine in the coming year is simply massive.

Apple iPhone 5S

Apple‘s position as the unchallenged world number one in mobile devices has come under a strong challenge from Samsung, yet they keep producing new products which define the marketplace. The iPhone 5S doesn’t do anything truly unique, yet it is the slickest, most intuitive and coolest smartphone ever made, and when thousands are queuing round the block to get their hands on one on launch day, you know Apple are doing something right.

Apple iPad Air

I don’t want this to be an Apple love-in, but the iPad Air has set a new standard for tablets. This is an incredibly competitive marketplace, which every possible company under the sun releasing tablet computers, even Argos. It has taken something exceptional for Apple to stay ahead of the field, and the iPad Air certainly delivered it, being released to a universally excellent critical reception while also being more reasonably priced than the company’s desktop machines.

Sonos Playbar

The age of people having to accept unsightly wires cluttering up their living-room is coming to an end, and this soundbar system from Sonos is one of the niftiest solutions released yet. Delivering incredible sound quality in a very neat and elegant package, the Playbar delivers cinema quality audio to your front room at an affordable price.

Sony XBR 4K Ultra HD TV

I must confess that I haven’t picked one of these up yet, and ultra HD TV won’t become a viable mainstream consumer product for a few years. But Sony are clearly keen to get ahead of the crowd in the next generation of televisual content, with this incredible device which delivers four times the pixellation of 1080p. This will be an industry standard that is here to stay, not a fleeting gimmick like 3D TV.

Christopher Morris has wasted almost his entire life playing video games, right back to the original Space Invaders, and is a regular contributor to Yahoo on television, cinema, video games, technology and politics.

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The Very Best Gadgets of 2013