The best gadgets of 2017

iPhone X

Apple’s latest iPhone is a radical departure from the company’s tried-and-true smartphone formula, but you’d better get used to it. The home button is finally gone, and Apple’s new Face ID technology works better than we expected and gives app creators another canvas for new kinds of experiences and interactions. (Animoji, anyone?) And for those more concerned with speed and camera performance, the iPhone X delivers on those fronts, too.

What really impressed us about the iPhone X, though, is the way Apple rewrote its rules for what an iPhone should be and still managed to build a pleasantly familiar slice of tomorrow. This is the future of the iPhone, and we’re more than happy to never look back.

Galaxy S8/S8 Plus

Lumping two phones into a single entry may seem like a cop-out, but whatever — Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus were a remarkable return to form for a company mired in controversy. As usual, Samsung combined top-tier horsepower with some truly phenomenal cameras, and we give the company credit for taking risks with projects like the Bixby AI assistant, even it’s a long way off from reaching its potential.

Still, it’s Samsung’s prowess with screens and industrial design that really impressed us. We’d argue that the S8 and S8 Plus are the most beautiful machines Samsung has ever crafted, and there’s no phone maker in the world that does these big, bezel-less displays better. (No wonder Apple tapped Samsung to make the iPhone X’s screen.) For Android fans, Samsung’s hardware is second to none.

Surface Laptop