Every trip around the sun, we prod, poke, and test hundreds of products here at WIRED. Most of them are just fine. Not boring—few things are truly boring these days—though also not really exciting. But every so often, we get a product in our hands and it sets off that spark of joy, that rush of excitement that makes us want to tell you about it, explain why we love it, argue about why it's important.
The products below are all the things that lit a fire in our imaginations during 2017. The list spans the width of our purview, from mobile phones and televisions to transportation, parenting, and the smart home. This is the best gear of the year.
Best Mobile Device: iPhone X
Apple
It's not that the iPhone X is the fastest phone (though it is) or the one with the niftiest features (also true). The thing that makes the iPhone X the best phone of 2017 is that it tried the hardest. While other companies kept integrating fingerprint readers, Apple threw that out and made facial recognition work. It also pushed augmented reality into unexplored places, and kept trying new camera tricks. All is not perfect in the world of iOS, and Apple has some work left to do on that whole “all-screen” thing, but the iPhone X still counts as the best phone anyone released this year. No other device or company is trying this hard to move the smartphone game forward.
Best Audio Device: UE Wonderboom
Ultimate Ears
This is the third year in a row that a UE speaker has won an audio award, and we honestly could have given the award to the Boom 2[1] again, or the new...