Garmin T3 Gadget Awards Innovation of the Year: Sony XEL-1

Posted by Katherine Hannaford on Thu 9 Oct 2008

T3 chose Sony's OLED telly for this prestigious award

At tonight's 2nd Annual Garmin T3 Gadget Awards 2008, the Innovation of the Year was always going to be a tough one to call. In the end, it was Sony who took the title with their XEL-1 OLED TV, beating strong competition from Nintendo's Wii Fit and Amazon's Kindle eBook to win the reader-voted award - even though it's yet to touch down in the UK.

The XEL-1 is a cutting edge OLED TV, with a super sleek design to make gadget lovers go weak at the knees - at just 3mm thick, this ultrathin device delivers style as well as superb picture quality. Complete with HDTV tuner, the fact that Sony was first to market helped to take this telly to the top spot - and, while it's only been available in the US thus far, its worldwide acclaim made this stunning gadget a winner for T3 readers here in the UK.

And Sony triumphed against tough competition: Nintendo's Wii Fit was launched this year to much applause, promising to widen the Wii's already diverse target audience, and was also nominated in the Innovation of the Year category. The Amazon Kindle eBook was another contender, alongside the hugely popular Rock Band game and - perhaps surprisingly - the Dulux PaintPod. The PaintPod is a paint-roller gadget that helps users to decorate without the need for newspaper and roller trays, and demonstrates the breadth of innovation within the category.

'This was going to be a close call, due to the eclectic - and strong - contenders within the category,' said Michael Brook, Editor of T3 magazine. 'The technology industry has been extremely driven and creative over the past year, with manufacturers like Apple setting the bar high by combining quality technology with fantastic ideas and great design. Sony was the first to market in the US with this product, and it's a deserving winner of the Innovation of the Year award.'

Have a look in our image gallery on the right for some photos of the T3 Innovation of the Year, the Sony OLED XEL-1, otherwise our video here.

Garmin T3 Gadget Awards 2008