And the Winner Is…

The Chromebook is a great idea. We applaud Google’s moxie in pushing forward a device with lower hardware standards and an OS that all but forces you online. It’s a great way to tie people to Google’s services, yes, but recent developments have made Chrome OS more flexible and viable as a standalone device. It’s won the most categories in this subjective test, but does it win overall? No.

Neither does the tablet bag the crown because, after all this time, there’s only really one good brand of tablet to buy; and while we’ve avoided talking about PC tablets, we’d lump most of them in the same slightly wobbly category as Android tablets. Nobody’s quite got it right after all this time, and PC tablets are generally just laptops in disguise anyway. The smartphone is our winner. You need a phone. You have a phone. That phone fits in your pocket, connects you to the sum of the world’s knowledge, and keeps you entertained hour after hour, wherever you may be. As much as they try, the other two categories can’t replicate that killer feature.