TechRadar has published its Product of the Year awards for 2026, with its writers and editors picking winners across nearly 100 categories. The list runs separately from the outlet's earlier Readers' Choice Awards, and the editors say their picks don't always line up with what readers voted for.
The iPhone 18 Pro takes the top phone honor. TechRadar's editors call it the strongest all-around flagship of the year, pointing to its variable aperture camera, pro-level video tools and display quality, even though they note it doesn't have the biggest sensor or longest battery life on the market.
Honor's run across categories
Honor shows up repeatedly on the list. The Magic 8 Pro is singled out as a strong flagship, the Magic V6 as one of the best foldables available, and the Honor 600 series as a value pick in the mid-range segment. The Honor MagicPad 4 is named ahead of Apple's iPad Air on price while matching it on display and speaker quality, according to the outlet's testing.
The most unusual pick is Honor's Robot Phone, which wins Phones Innovation of the Year for its motorized mechanical gimbal arm. TechRadar's editors note the device is currently a China-only product and say they doubt it reaches Western markets, but they credit Honor for building something that doesn't resemble anything else on sale.
Foldables, flips and a camera-first flagship
Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 is named Best Folding Phone, with the outlet saying it initially doubted the phone's shorter, wider form factor before coming around to it over a month of use. In the flip category, the Motorola Razr Ultra 2026, sold as the Razr 70 Ultra in some regions, edges out the Galaxy Z Flip 8 on battery size, charging speed and camera quality, even though TechRadar's editors say the Flip 8 has newer software and a newer chipset at a lower price.
The Oppo Find X9 Ultra takes the camera phone award for a rear setup that includes a 200MP main lens, a 50MP ultrawide, a 200MP 3x telephoto and a 50MP 10x telephoto. TechRadar's testing put it ahead of the Galaxy S26 Ultra and said it held its own against dedicated cameras like the Lumix TZ300 and Nikon Z8, despite its size, weight and price.
Other winners include the RedMagic 11 Pro for gaming phones, the Pixel 11 Pro as the outlet's pick for best AI phone thanks to Google's Gemini-powered features, the DJI Osmo Mobile 8P for phone accessories, and the Amazon Kindle Scribe (2025) for ereader and notebook hybrids.
TechRadar's editors frame 2026 broadly as a strong year for hardware undercut by price increases and supply shortages. The iPhone 17, which just made the awards' eligibility window at over a year old, still earns a mention as the editors' general recommendation for most buyers, name-checked alongside the newer flagships despite not getting a successor in September.
GDFiled by The Gadgets Desk
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