TIME Magazine’s Gadget of the Year: Apple’s iPhone 5

For what its worth – after all, they also named Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet flop #7 – TIME Magazine has named Apple’s iPhone 5 as Tech Gadget of the Year.

“Apple may be responsible for more than its share of the tech industry’s great leaps forward, but it’s at least as good at fussing over the tiny little details other companies ignore,” Harry McCracken writes for TIME Magazine.

“The iPhone 5, which starts at $199 with a two-year contract, is one of the most artfully polished gadgets anyone’s ever built, with a taller screen than previous iPhones built into a thinner, lighter case,” McCracken writes. “The camera, with a particularly well-done panorama mode, is another highlight.”

McCracken writes, “There are lots of nifty smartphones out there, including the iPhone’s impressive archrival, Samsung’s Galaxy S III. But when it comes to melding hardware, software and services so tightly that the seams fade away, Apple still has no peer.”

Also making the list from Apple:

#6. Apple 15” MacBook Pro with Retina Display: There’s no mystery to Apple’s overarching approach to designing gadgets: It likes to make ‘em really thin and really light, and it likes to pack in as many pixels as possible. That’s what it did with this high-end laptop, which starts at $2199 and goes way, way up. Its 2800-by-1800 Retina display has nearly five times as many pixels as you’ll get on a more mundane 15” notebook, making for the most ink-on-paper-like images you’ve ever seen on a computer. And as long as you can live with Apple’s less-is-more philosophy — you don’t get an optical drive or Ethernet — this 4.6-lb. aluminum powerhouse is a joy to use. Those without unlimited funds should take a look at the 13” MacBook Pro with Retina Display, which brings similar features to a machine with a $1699 starting price.

Read more in the full article here.