It was a great year to be a forward-looking consumer. We saw a number of products bust the ceiling with innovative designs, smarter software, and entirely new experiences.
Here you'll find the Gadget Lab staff's selection of 2014's best consumer electronics. The list is not comprehensive across every category—What, no tweeting toasters?—but that's because some of the best gadgets in the biggest categories came out in 2013, and they weren't usurped during the last 12 months. You won't find a better streaming box than the Roku 3, or a better sub-$200 wireless speaker than the UE Boom. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are still the top consoles. But 2014 was a good year for companies releasing big upgrades to marquee products and improving on previously winning designs. You'll see a few of those picks here alongside the entirely new stuff.
So here's a list of our absolute favorite new things we saw in 2014. And of course, you can consider all of these products no-brainer purchases. If you're in the market for something new, you can't lose with any of these picks. Well, except for maybe the TV that costs as much as a Hyundai.
