Digital Life Awards 2015: Battle of the tech titans (and the best smartphones)

Digital Life Awards 2015: Battle of the tech titans (and the best smartphones)

It was a close battle between two traditional rivals this year, but in the end, both Samsung and Sony emerged the biggest winners in this year's Digital Life Awards.

They walked away with seven wins each in our annual mini-Oscars, which recognise the best gadgets and games of the year.

While Samsung dominated in the mobile devices arena, Sony spread its wins across the tablet, audio and camera awards.

Apple came a close third with six wins, again in its smartphone and tablet categories.

Between them, Samsung and Apple bagged 13 of the 16 awards for smartphones and tablets, a clear acknowledgement that these two giants are the dominant forces in the mobile devices space.

Microsoft has not won a hardware award for some time but its ultralight Surface Pro 3 bagged both awards for the Best Windows Tablet segment this year.

Panasonic has been rather quiet in the camera scene for a while, but this year, it returned with a bang.

Panasonic's DMC-LX100 knocked Sony off its throne and ran away with the Best Prosumer Compact Camera award that Sony's slim-but- powerful RX100 series had held for two years.

In gaming, it was a close fight between Destiny and Dragon Age: Inquisition. The role-playing game Dragon Age seemed an obvious choice with its magnificent graphics and epic adventure.

The shooter, Destiny, which had received mixed reviews, was more controversial. Still, Destiny seems destined to be a household name and may yet become as addictive as World Of Warcraft.

To all the winners and finalists of the Digital Life Awards 2015, congratulations!

Best overall smartphone, android smartphone & phablet

Editor's choice:
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 4G+

Among those in the Digital Life team, we have personal preferences for smartphone features across the brands, even when it comes to devices running on the same platform.

Some may prefer the build and light software touches of one brand over another's, or the unique features in one device that are not found in others.

But this year, the team was unanimous. We all agreed that Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 phablet had taken the best bits of the Android platform, combined them with the top features available on smartphones, and produced just about the most desirable device available.

Samsung's Note 4 is not the first phone with a quad high-definition display, but the company has given it a brilliant 5.7-inch screen.

The 16-megapixel camera is not just a jump in numbers, as the new software maximises hardware performance to produce some of the best images ever snapped on a smartphone.

Add to these features, the S-Pen stylus, upgrades in handwriting recognition and digital-to-analogue text conversion, and the end result is a phone that easily won over a divided Digital Life team that has never easily agreed on what makes for a good smartphone.

Reader's Choice:

Best overall smartphone
Apple iPhone 6 Plus 77.5 per cent of total votes

Best Android smartphone
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 4G+ 52.0 per cent of total votes

Best phablet
Apple iPhone 6 Plus 45.4 per cent of total votes

 

Best overall smartphone finalists:
HTC One (M8)
LG G3
Sony Xperia Z3

Best Android smartphone finalists:
HTC One (M8)
LG G3
Samsung Galaxy
Note Edge 4G+
Sony Xperia Z3

Best phablet finalists:
LG G3
Oppo N3
Xiaomi Redmi Note

Best phone camera 

Editor's choice:
Apple iPhone 6 Plus

The Sony Xperia Z3's ruggedness means never having to worry about rain or sand when taking photos. But the Z3's results look way too saturated for our liking.

If you adore selfies, HTC's Desire Eye, with its 13-megapixel front-facing camera, is the one to use.

LG's G3 produced better selfies, with the right skin tones and great sharpness. Unfortunately, it lost out to both the Apple iPhone 6 Plus and Samsung Note 4 4G+ in terms of overall camera performance.

In fact, it was a close fight between the idiot-proof people's camera of the iPhone 6 Plus and the much-improved camera of the Galaxy Note 4. Both are easy to use and produced excellent pictures with crisp details.

But while Galaxy's higher megapixel count meant more details, it did not do so well in low-lighting conditions. The iPhone 6 Plus produced better natural-looking images with or without flash.

As a more solid all-rounder, the iPhone 6 Plus' camera is the winner, just edging out the Galaxy Note 4.

Reader's choice:
Apple iPhone 6 Plus
74.6 per cent of total votes

Other finalists:
HTC Desire Eye
LG G3
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 4G+
Sony Xperia Z3

 


This article was first published on Jan 28, 2015.
Get a copy of Digital Life, The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.