Stuff magazine recently hosted its annual Gadget and App Awards for 2016 where the HTV Vive and WeChat app were among the top winners.
The HTC Vive and WeChat app were among the top winners at Stuff magazine’s annual Gadget and App Awards for 2016, named last week.
The Vive won The Gadget of the Year award, and WeChat Wallet was named Financial App of the Year. WeChat also took home the award for overall App of the Year.
Readers of the South African edition of Stuff were asked to vote for their favourite gadgets and apps of the year via the Stuff website, and there, too, WeChat took top honours in the financial services category. Meanwhile, the Readers’ Choice Award for Gadget of the Year went to GoPro’s Hero Session action camera.
TV of the Year went to LG’s outstanding OLED65E6V display, while TV Gadget of the Year went to the DStv Explora. Watch of the Year was won by the Apple Watch Series 2, and Computer of the Year — always a hotly contested category — went to the Dell XPS 13, unseating Apple, which has dominated the category in recent years with its MacBook Pro and Air devices.
Other Gadget Award winners include the iPhone 7 Plus, which took home the Smartphone of the Year Award; Fujifilm, which secured both System Camera of the Year and Compact System of the Year honours for the X-T2 and X70 respectively; and Garmin’s Vivoactive HR, which won the award for Health & Fitness Gadget of the Year.
On the local app front, category winners included video-streaming service Showmax, which took home Entertainment App of the Year; Forgood, the winner of the Social Responsibility App of the Year award, which connects organisations and causes in need with people looking to help; and food-delivery service UberEats, which won Service App of the Year despite having only launched in the second half of 2016.
“Apps have become an integral part of consumer tech experience, so it’s only fitting we include them when recognising the best tech of the year,” says Stuff editor, Craig Wilson. “With so many developers doing such excellent work in the app space in South Africa, we expect to see twice as many categories — and nominees — this year.”
The full list of winners follows below:
Gadget Awards
Smartphone of the Year — iPhone 7 Plus
International App of the Year — Prisma
Audio Gadget of the Year — Ultimate Ears Boom 2
Action Cam of the Year — DJI Phantom 4
Headphones of the Year — AKG N60NC
Home Gadget of the Year — Samsung PT SmartCam
Health & Fitness Gadget of the Year — Garmin Vivoactive HR
Watch of the Year — Apple Watch Series 2
TV Show of the Year — Game of Thrones
TV Gadget of the Year — DStv Explora
TV of the Year — LG OLED65E6V
Streaming Service of the Year — Netflix
Computer of the Year — Dell XPS 13
Car of the Year — Tesla Model X
Design of the Year — Impossible Project I-1
Game of the Year — Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
Games Console of the Year — Sony PlayStation 4 Pro
Indie Game of the Year — Inside
Mobile Game of the Year — Pokémon Go
System Camera of the Year — Fujifilm X-T2
Compact Camera of the Year — Fujifilm X70
Readers’ Gadget of the Year — GoPro Hero Session
Gadget of the Year — HTC Vive
SA App Awards
Financial App of the Year — WeChat Wallet
Entertainment App of the Year — Showmax
Social Responsibility App of the Year — Forgood
Service App of the Year — UberEats