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Technology

Mat Gallagher

T3 Awards 2024: Headline award winners announced

T3 Apple Bose Norton Christopher Ward (Person) Decathlon Samsung United Kingdom Acer Future

The headline awards represent the peak of the T3 Awards 2024 in association with Norton. These nine awards, along with the Design Awards in association with Wallpaper* were revealed at a live event in London on 5th June 2024, attended by the biggest names in tech.

Overall there are a total of 85 categories in this year's awards, with the winners of our home, active and technology sections announced earlier this week. This final selection includes awards for tech innovation, sustainability, best UK and US retailers and our overall brand and product of the year selections.

In collaboration with our sister title ShortList, we have selected our best streaming service of the year. We also bring you the best design awards across tech, home, active and automotive in collaboration with Wallpaper*.

For the second year running, there is also a Readers' Choice award that has been voted for exclusively by T3 readers. This is an important addition for T3 and the manufacturers as it shows how you feel about the products we cover.

Picking just one winner for any of our categories is a tough job but especially so for these headline awards. It's testament to the number of great products that are currently on the market – whether they are newly released or still dominating the market. Congratulations to all of the shortlists entries and to this year's winners.

Our sponsor this year is Norton. Though best known for its anti-virus protection, its Norton 360 product offers a lot more, including password management, cloud backup and VPN. All things you shouldn’t be without, whether you’re on a PC or Mac these days.

Norton Antivirus Plus can help you protect yourself from threats that are decades old and those emerging every day. For just £19.99 for your first year, real-time threat protection helps guard your device against known and new threats and makes sure your device’s defences are kept up to date against the pernicious threats out there. The included cloud backup allows you to store your precious files as a preventive measure against data loss due to hard drive failures or ransomware.

And if you upgrade to the Norton 360 Advanced plan for just £34.99 for your first year, Credit Alert will alert you to any major changes to your credit report, while the brand new Financial Monitoring feature will provide you with an overview of your subscriptions and transactions, and alert you to suspicious transactions on your bank accounts and credit cards.

Product Of The Year

Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra Headphones

It’s not often that a design team is able to run through the entire list of product bugbears and cross each of them out, but Bose’s cabal of level 20 device wizards has done it. The QuietComfort Ultra Headphones succeed in every department, raising the bar in one of tech’s most competitive arenas.

A considered, calm and – most importantly – supremely comfortable design is the first winning move. These might be only two grams lighter than the Bose 700s, but an adjusted, extra-padded headband makes them feel much lighter without sacrificing any passive around-the-ear coddling. They fold flat and come with a compact carrying case, neatly ticking the box for travellers, and they’re so low-fatigue that you’ll have no problem wearing them all the way across the Atlantic.

Bose’s app might be the best on the market, offering pinpoint control of EQ as well as the cans’ more advanced functions. And what a selection: absolutely top-class ANC, a three-dimensional Immersive Audio function that teaches Apple a few things about spatial processing, amplified passthrough and an enormous soundstage with big dollops of that signature Bose low-end combine for a serious experience.

The QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are a real achievement for Bose, even priced, as they are, close to the top of the market. In the street, on a plane or just at home, they manage to edge out every other option.
£450, bose.co.uk

Product Of The Year shortlist

Gozney Arc, Saucony Endorphin Speed 4, Insta360 Ace Pro, OnePlus Open, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max, Sage Barista Touch Impress, Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro, Apple MacBook Air M3, Meta Quest 3.

Brand Of The Year

Christopher Ward

Christopher Ward doesn’t miss. The British/Swiss watchmaker, one of the first built around online sales, has spent the past year dropping intriguing variants on its top watches. It has introduced new price points to bring them to more wrists. It’s even innovated on bracelet design. But it’s the new products that have really made CW stand out.

The mix of sporty and dressy in the supremely affordable The Twelve and the incredible C1 Moonphase, able to accurately track our astral neighbour for 128 years, have proven that Christopher Ward is still ready to innovate. And we see nothing but fine execution in its future, with the skeleton-dialed Twelve X appearing to be a promising new flagship. christopherward.com

Brand Of The Year shortlist

Insta360, Dyson, OnePlus, Hoka, Ninja, OnRunning, Nvidia

Retailer Of The Year (UK)

Decathlon

If you’ve walked into a Decathlon store lately, then you’ll know all about the vast range of sporting, fitness and outdoors products on offer, as well as the competitive price points they’re available at – but it takes more than that to land the retailer of the year award. We’ve been impressed with the way Decathlon is busy modernising all aspects of its business, wanting to improve the experience for customers both in-store and online, and how it aims to “move people through the wonders of sport”. Most of all, we’re big fans of the drive towards sustainability happening at Decathlon at the moment, which involves everything from offering a buy-back scheme to give new life to worn-out gear, to introducing recyclable materials in sports clothing.
decathlon.co.uk

Retailer Of The Year (UK) shortlist

Amazon, Currys, John Lewis, Argos, Very, AO.com, Samsung

Retailer Of The Year (USA)

Apple

Apple's retail stores have always done things a little differently. From the banks of products that you can try to the sales assistants that will check you out where you stand, rather than having to take you to a till, the experience feels more personal and special. With its latest product, the Vision Pro headset, dedicated spaces were set up in Apple Stores for customers to try them out and get fitted for the custom light-tight seal.

Of course, it's not just brick-and-mortar stores that Apple does brilliantly. Its online experience is always seamless, making browsing, comparing and buying a painless process. Though many other brands have tried to replicate it, none quite compare.

Retailer Of The Year shortlist

Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Home Depot, Abt Electronics, Adorama, B&H Photo, Target, REI, Backcountry

Sustainability Award

Simba

The stats don’t lie. Very often we see companies content to tick a few boxes, grab an eco-friendly headline, and carry on. Not Simba. Its attitude to responsible sourcing and design, its transparent supply chain, its not-for-profit recycling work and its target of hitting net zero by 2030 have seen it sail past the marker for B Corp certification – the first UK sleep brand to do it.

Beyond this, Simba’s noble community aspirations really shine through. The company already works with a number of charities to provide mattresses and support, and it is soon to launch Dream Space, offering vulnerable children in bed poverty a top-to-bottom bundle to give them their own safe space to sleep.

Sustainability Award shortlist

Nemo Endless Promise, Apple Carbon Neutral Collection, Finisterre Foundation, Acer, Samsung, House of Marley

Tech Innovation Award

Apple Vision Pro

While it's not yet available in the UK, there's no doubt that Apple's Vision Pro was the most stand-out product reveal in the past year. Following years of anticipation, it wasn't a surprise launch, per se, but Apple managed to elevate its launch to levels way beyond its virtual reality/augmented reality (AR/XR) competition.

Indeed, the Cupertino tech giant has arguably created a whole new tech product category – and that's the kind of innovation we're always hungry for here at T3. It'll be interesting to watch Vision Pro evolve and improve, too, as more apps and features will only continue to build upon this landmark product release and make it even better in the future.

Tech Innovation Award shortlist:

Rabbit AI, LG Signature OLED T, Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, Solos Smart Glasses, Acer SpatialLabs, Adobe Firefly, Meta Quest 3

Readers' Choice Award

Apple MacBook Air M3

The readers of T3 know their tech, which is obvious when you see a smart decision like the new MacBook Air M3 picking up the Readers’ Choice award. This is a laptop that ticks every box you need ticking and then some: aesthetics, performance, battery life, on-board software, fanless operation, reliability and plenty more.

The 13-inch and 15-inch screen sizes offer plenty of choice in terms of configuration options, and there are a lot more choices when it comes time to order the laptop – you can get it fitted with up to 24GB of RAM and up to 2TB of SSD storage space. The MacBook Air continues to be the best laptop in the world, offering a better deal for most users than even the Pro.

Readers' Choice Award shortlist

Saucony Endorphin Speed 4, Garmin Forerunner 965, Asus ROG Ally, Oura Ring gen 3, DJI Mini 4 Pro, Sony PlayStation 5 Slim, Sony PlayStation Portal, Steam Deck OLED, Meta Quest 3, Gozney Arc, OnePlus Open, Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max, Sage Barista Touch Impress, Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro

Best Video Streaming Service (in association with ShortList)

Amazon Prime Video

Everyone's going to have their preference when it comes to the best streaming service – and many will choose to sign up to a number of them – but in 2024 there's been one that's stood out for the sheer quality of its original content.

Fresh off the back of The Boys storming our screens (and imminently returning this June for its fourth season), the show that's really stolen the limelight in 2024 is Fallout. It's a must-watch whether you're a fan of the games or not.

Add in the other perks of an Amazon Prime subscription – such as free delivery on purchased goods – and a whole host of top-tier movies available to stream, and Prime Video is a standout winner this year.

Best Video Streaming Service shortlist:

Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney+, Paramount+, Now, Shudder, BBC iPlayer, Arrow, Mubi

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