Singapore, 23 February 2016 – Apple was the biggest winner at The Straits Times Digital Awards 2016 today, bagging seven awards across the smartphone, tablet and smartwatch categories. Apple was clearly the favourite among the readers of ST Digital, winning the Readers’ Choice in all five awards which it was shortlisted as a finalist – Best Overall Smartphone, Best Phablet, Best Smartphone Camera, Best Tablet and Best Smartwatch. The tech giant also got the nod of approval from the ST Digital editorial team who chose the Apple iPad Pro for the Best Tablet and the Apple Watch for the Best Smartwatch.
Apple’s dominance in the mobile devices category was blunted by Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 4G+ which won the Editor’s Choice awards for Best Overall Smartphone and Best Smartphone Camera, and by the Google Nexus 6P which took the Editor’s Choice award for the Best Phablet.
Into its fifth year, the annual tech awards aim to celebrate and recognise the best gadgets, games and tech innovations of the year. This year, the awards has been renamed as The Straits Times Digital Awards as the weekly tech supplement had shed its old name Digital Life last year to reflect its integration into the main broadsheet section of The Straits Times.
As in previous years, the awards are divided into Editor’s Choice awards, picked by The Straits Times Digital editorial team, and the Readers’ Choice, selected by ST readers in an online poll in January. They stood a chance to win lucky draw prizes worth over $25,000.
This year saw the introduction of two new categories – Best Smartwatch and Best Fitness Tracker – to capture new segments that are tugging strongly at consumers’ heartstrings and wallets.
Altogether, there were 21 award categories with a total of 105 products and games nominated. About 4700 ST readers voted in the January poll.
Canon emerged as the second biggest overall winner, clinching all four Readers’ Choice awards in the camera categories.
Lenovo was the biggest winner in the laptops category, getting three wins followed by Asus with two.
The editorial team picked The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for the Best Overall Game while the readers voted for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.
With the haze dominating headlines last year, ST Engineering’s Innosparks duly won the Most Innovative award with its unique Air+ Smart Mask that built an air filter into the mask for easy breathing in the smog.
Ms Irene Tham, Tech Editor of The Straits Times said: “We would like to congratulate all winners. It was a tough call for many of the judging decisions as there were several equally-deserving finalists.
“I would also like to thank StarHub for coming in as our new presenting sponsor this year. Previously, StarHub was only a category sponsor and I am heartened by StarHub’s show of confidence to raise its involvement and support for our awards.”
Ms Jeannie Ong, Chief Strategic Partnership Officer of StarHub said: “I have always marvelled at The Straits Times team for putting together the Digital Life Awards successfully for the past four years, despite limited resources. They have done an excellent job for readers like myself, as they have proven themselves to be the ‘authoritative voice’ on what were the hottest gadgets and best innovations for our industry each year.”
Ms Ong added: “StarHub is honoured to be the presenter of the renamed The Straits Times Digital Awards, and we will continue to work closely with the device manufacturers to bring better improvements to the lives of Singaporean consumers, by enhancing the way they live, work and play.”
The full results of the winners are available online at www.straitstimes.com/tech and will also be published in The Straits Times Digital section tomorrow (Feb 24, 2016).
See PDF version on the list of winners
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