Apple products may have swept away the awards in a popular electronics blog, but students say they aren’t necessarily buying in. More than 100,000 readers of Engadget, one of the largest online technology blogs, voted for what they believed should win the 2010 Engadget Awards. This year’s top three categories were Gadget of the Year, Smartphone of the Year and Laptop of the Year. Respectively, the blog awarded the Apple iPad, the Apple iPhone 4 and the Apple Macbook Air.
Nathan Sink, a junior in political science and economics, said he isn’t sold on the iPad’s win.
“I don’t see the iPad as the best gadget of the year but I do see it as the most popular and solely responsible for Kindle’s demise. It’s missing some key components to make it a really usable device, the largest of which is adaptability,” Sink said.
Sink said he believes these components would be a less limiting operating system and an accompanying keyboard.
Jessica Firestone, a freshman in communications, said she thinks the iPad was a good pick for Gadget of the Year.
“It seems that other gadgets, like Kindle, are trying to compete with it and are falling flat,” Firestone said. “I don’t have one but I have friends who do and they say it’s great to use.”
Amber Jones, a freshman majoring in international politics, thinks the iPad deserved the win.
“The iPad is limited in use because it doesn’t have all of the features of a laptop, but its large size doesn’t make it practical to replace an iPod,” Jones said. “It’s a good portable device to use on the go though.”
The iPad won with 37 percent of the vote. It also won Tablet PC of the Year and Best Portable Media Device.
The iPhone 4 won for best smartphone. James Hampson, a sophomore in human biology, said he has had a number of Blackberrys and Windows Mobile phones and thinks the iPhone 4 deserved the prize.
“I have yet to encounter a single problem with my iPhone,” Hampson said, “I had all kinds of problems with my Windows phones and Blackberrys.”
Hampson said he thinks the iPhone 4 is the most reliable cell phone with the best user interface.
“The iPhone is hands down the best phone,” Hampson said. “I am able to use it for everything from school to entertainment and there are so many apps that make the phone more than just a phone. I am also able to stay connected to the Internet 24/7, and get all my mail as soon as it’s in my inbox and I don’t have to worry about missing out on anything—I’m always connected.”
Firestone agrees with the voters that the iPhone 4 is 2010’s best cell phone.
“The iPhone 4 was the perfect choice for Smartphone of the Year,” Firestone said. “There is no other phone that can compete with it. It seems as if the Droid was supposed to be competition, but it’s too big and not nearly as easy to navigate as the iPhone 4.”
Sink said he does not understand why iPhone 4 won the award.
“Yes, [the iPhone 4] is nice, but I do not like the [operating system]. For me, Sprint’s EVO with Android 2.2 is much better. Plenty of apps, the swipe keyboard and just the overall feel is better to me,” Sink said. “I feel as though I have a lot more freedom with Android than Apple, especially as a power user.”
The iPhone 4 won with 47 percent of the vote, and MacBook Air earned 47 percent of the vote.
“The iPhone is a great phone,” Jones said. “And I really like the small size of the MacBook Air.”
Sink does not see the MacBook Air as a top-of-the-line laptop, and thinks it should belong with netbooks.
“It is an amazing piece of engineering but the limitations are almost too much for me,” Sink said. “The lack of peripheral ports is painful, so is the price for the specs. The processors are average, so is the memory—the solid-state storage is nice but way too small. It’s a nice web-browsing machine but most would outgrow it quickly.
Firestone believes the MacBook Pro should not have won Laptop of the Year.
“I disagree with the MacBook Air being Laptop of the Year. The computer is great quality, but there is no DVD drive, which would drive me crazy if I had the computer,” Firestone said. “I own a MacBook Pro and I love that I have a card-reader, DVD drive, Ethernet and multiple USB drives.”
Voting for the gadgets ended Feb. 29. The other winners included the Microsoft Kin for Worst Gadget of the Year, the Motorola Xoom for Most Anticipated Gadget, the Apple iMac for Desktop of the Year, and the Google Cr-48 for Netbook of the Year.
