Windows Central Best of 2020 Awards: And the winners are...

The XPS 13 continues to set the bar for the ideal Windows 10 13-inch Ultrabook. Featuring one of the best displays around, the Sharp IGZO has a near-borderless 16:10 design on all four sides and a fantastic anti-reflective coating. The keyboard, speakers, and trackpad are excellent, as is battery life and performance (more so now that it ships with 11th Gen Intel and Xe graphics). It is also one of the best-looking PCs around. Just make sure to get it on sale.

Packing AMD's Ryzen 4000 mobile processors, up to 16GB of RAM, a 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD, and a 13.3-inch touch FHD display with inking capabilities, the HP ENVY x360 13 might seem at first glance like any other convertible on the market. However, taking into account the strong AMD performance, comfortable keyboard and touchpad, colorful, bright display, all-day battery life, and the unbelievable price really pushes the ENVY x360 over the top to become our favorite convertible.

Featuring the latest chips from Intel, a beautiful 13.4-inch exo-display up to 4K with touch, and some of the thinnest bezels ever seen on a laptop, the XPS 13 is our top pick for best Ultrabook this year. It's beautifully crafted, powerful, with great battery life. Dell really knocked it out of the park!

The best 2-in-1 tablet market for Windows is increasingly small, which is why ARM-based Surface Pro X is a no-brainer. It has the best design with a fantastic display, thin bezels, excellent audio, and a keyboard with a pen built into it. Toss in 4G LTE and better battery life than Surface Pro 7. It is hard not to like. Plus, it got a refresh this year with new color options and a tiny processor bump. This month, we are supposed to get our first glimpse of x64 emulation.

The Razer Blade 15 is once again the best gaming laptop you can buy simply because it made the best even better. Instead of trying to change what already works, Razer upped the ante inside with even more power, ludicrous 300Hz displays, and even a creator-focused edition with an insane Quadro RTX GPU. The Blade 15 still sets the bar very high.

HP released what is easily the best, most powerful all-in-one PC on the market. We're talking a giant 32-inch 4K display that makes on-screen content look incredible, ridiculously good audio, and actual NVIDIA RTX graphics. With the HP ENVY 32, you can game on it, work hard at home on it, and enjoy all your favorite media on it. There are even wireless Qi charging and a pop-out Windows Hello webcam. It truly is the best all-in-one you can buy right now.

Don't fancy building your own PC? Go with a pre-built system that's ready to go upon delivery. You can configure the HP Omen 30L with up to an Intel Core i9 processor, 64GB of RAM, and an RTX 3090 GPU. It's a monster of a gaming PC, but you don't need to spend too much to get a decent configuration. HP priced this pre-built PC aggressively, starting at just over $1,000 with an AMD Ryzen 5 processor and RX 5700 XT GPU.

We love minimalism at Windows Central, and Microsoft's new Designer Compact Keyboard is the epitome of minimalism. It's an 80 key low-profile keyboard available in White or Black, and it looks magnificent. It feels great to type on, too, if you prefer a chiclet-style keyboard over mechanical.

The Razer DeathAdder is one of the most iconic mice ever made, and the newest, wireless version takes the crown of 2020's best. Besides being a killer gaming mouse, it's ergonomic, lightweight, and extremely comfortable to use for a full day in the office, has incredible tracking, and, considering it's a gaming mouse, pretty decent battery life.

The Razer Raptor 27 is our pick for the best monitor because not only does it look the coolest, but it balances between high-performance gaming and media creation. The Raptor 27 offers a smooth 144Hz refresh rate, HDR, NVIDIA G-Sync, and AMD FreeSync, all with an anti-reflective display for gaming. You get color accuracy with 96 percent DCI-P3, 90 percent AdobeRGB, and 100 percent sRGB, making it ideal for video or photo editing for media pros. Plus, it has Chroma RGB, hello!

Ultrawide displays are getting more popular these days, and LG's latest 38WN95C-W QHD+ (3840 x 1600) Nano IPS display checks all the right boxes. Anti-reflective display, 100 percent sRGB, and 95 percent DCI-P3 for color accuracy with plenty of brightness. You also get DisplayHDR 600, 1ms response at 144Hz refresh, NVIDIA G-Sync, and AMD FreeSync making this a serious gaming display for your PC rig. Did we mention the Thunderbolt 3 connectivity with a 94W power delivery, letting you run two inputs into the display and split them down that 38-inch screen? It's simply fantastic.

Microsoft returned to premium audio with its Surface Headphones 2 in 2020, still the king in comfort, with those on-ear volume and noise-cancellation dials forever satisfying to use. They launched at a lower $250 starting price while upping battery life to 20 hours, with new Bluetooth 5 and aptX support. And we're still loving that new matte black colorway this time around.

Microsoft launched its first pair of wireless Surface Earbuds this year, and we think they're excellent. Featuring aptX sound, touch controls on either earbud, great battery life, and the most comfortable fit for a pair of wireless earbuds we've tried, the Surface Earbuds are our pick for best earbuds in 2020.

The Wave 3 is actually Elgato's foray into condenser microphones, and since this space is already fairly well-established and competitive, the company needed to get the launch right. Luckily, the Elgato Wave 3 is an excellent microphone for gamers and streamers, thanks to the array of tools at one's fingertips. Even if you need to position the mic itself a little close to your mouth, the audio quality is outstanding.

The Logitech StreamCam is a webcam built for content creators, but its suite of features makes it an excellent all-around webcam, too. The StreamCam delivers a crisp 1080p image at 60 fps, so everything looks fresh and lifelike. When combined with Logitech's software, it gets even better, letting you easily add different filters, adjust exposure and framerate, and even use an auto-tracking mode that always keeps you in the center of the frame. Add in the option to mount it to your monitor or a tripod, and Logitech has knocked this one out of the park.

Samsung delivered everything you'd want from a portable SSD, with the T7 lineup among the best in performance, encased with a premium aluminum shell. Its credit card-sized design proves handy in portability, with an elegant yet professional =finish. That's coupled with robust technology inside, with peak speeds up to 1,050MB/s, in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations. The family also welcomed the handy T7 Touch, with an integrated fingerprint scanner for security. This all starts at a relatively affordable price, with the entry-level model below $100.

Resin printing is becoming more mainstream, but no single resin 3D printer stands out quite like the Prusa Mini. Prusa has long been known for making reliable printers that ooze quality, but that quality has always come at a cost. However, with the introduction of the Prusa Mini, Prusa delivered a printer for a great price that doesn't compromise on build or print quality. Even with the title of Mini, this latest printer from Prusa is still large enough to create amazing things and will keep hobbyists happy for years to come.

It was a big year for PC gamers, with NVIDIA and AMD launching next-gen GPUs, but the NVIDIA RTX 3080 stands out among the rest. It's a big step up from RTX 20-series cards in terms of raw performance, allowing it to deliver a strong 4K gaming experience without breaking the bank like the enormous RTX 3090. Ray tracing and DLSS in compatible games will make everything look so much better without much sacrifice to performance, and the supporting software is as solid as ever. If you've been waiting for an upgrade that allows for 4K PC gaming, you no doubt want to get your hands on the RTX 3080.

AMD has been on a roll the past few years, and 2002 doesn't show any signs of the company slowing down. The launch of the Ryzen 5000 series processors were yet another big jolt to Intel and the CPU industry. Specifically, the Ryzen 9 5900X, which is the new sweet spot for consumer-grade AMD processors. It's set to be a major player in the PC gaming market and is the best CPU launch of the year by a mile.

It's difficult to give a motherboard a "best" award since most of them do roughly the same thing at the same level. Most AMD X570 motherboards will perform similarly, and the same goes for Intel Z490 motherboards. Still, there's always one that comes to blow everyone else away and this year was NZXT's turn with the Z490 N7. It's a refresh of the older Z390 N7, but further improves on the excellent design, making it one of the best-looking motherboards around. The performance has also seen a slight boost with ASRock brought in to handle the manufacturing and BIOS.

The Razer Huntsman Mini is the company's first attempt at a 60% keyboard and to make it shrunk down the already amazing Huntsman. It's well made, has a choice of optical switches, Razer's iconic Chroma RGB system, and a competitive price tag. Sometimes the best things really do come in small packages.

The Razer Basilisk V2 is quite large, ergonomic, and very much a mouse for keen gamers. The signature clutch trigger on the thumb returns, helping fans of FPS games get that "Razer unfair advantage" by slowing their DPS on the fly, while inside, it's packed with all the latest and greatest Razer mouse tech for supreme performance.

What's better than the HyperX Cloud II gaming headset? The Cloud II Wireless allows you to forgo the braided cable and go full 2.4GHz connection. The headset is as comfortable as you expect from the Cloud lineup, and it's built extremely well to ensure it lasts well into the future. Perhaps most importantly, audio is still excellent despite the wireless connection. The microphone is clear and filters out plosive sounds, plus it can be removed if you're looking to use the headset for audio-only. There were some other great headsets launched in 2020, but this one takes the award for its well-rounded feature set and excellent sound quality.

The LucidSound LS50X is the one new headset in 2020 that really defined premium for Xbox. Luxurious comfort, with thick and airy, coolant-gel infused earcups. Robust build quality, with metal-reinforced headbands and hinges. Versatility, with Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth separate signals. And most importantly of all, a well-balanced sound that delivers for both media and gaming in a big way. The LS50X climbs to the top of the pile to become our favorite headset of 2020 for Xbox.

Xbox Series X pushes the bleeding-edge HDMI 2.1 standard in its infancy, enabling support for 4K resolution at 120Hz, variable refresh rate (VRR), and auto low latency mode (ALLM) at launch. It leaves only a few 4K TVs that stand up to the challenge, with the LG CX the only option that fully meets next-generation demands. LG has bolstered its striking OLED technology, famed for deep blacks and rich colors, with various gaming-focused features. The result is the absolute best 4K TV for Xbox gamers in 2020.

Microsoft revised its signature controller alongside the launch of Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. While a dedicated sharing button was the primary addition, it also touted improved ergonomics, textured triggers, and a new hybrid d-pad design. The new Xbox Wireless Controller packs everything you need for Xbox gaming, with onboard Bluetooth support also extending the fun to PC and mobile. While mostly familiar, Microsoft learned from past successes like the Elite Series 2, further refining an already standout gamepad.

Fenice saw a major rewrite in 2020, bringing it version 5. The popular Twitter client is new from the ground up, which brings new features and improved performance. You can now detach its columns into separate windows or switch to single column mode. Fenice for Twitter is an excellent Twitter client that's smooth, attractive, and easy to customize. My favorite new feature is Compact Overlay support, which allows you to keep Fenice over all of your apps.

2020 has been quite the year when it comes to news. Whether you want to read up on health coverage, political news, or catch up on the latest tech, Microsoft News is a solid choice. Microsoft News allows you to customize your newsfeed, including picking your news sources and the topics you want to follow. It also has a clean interface that works well on phones, tablets, laptops, or at your desk.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a game that had a bit of a rough landing when it launched, but not long after, the diligent artists at Moon Studios polished up what is now quite easily one of the best Xbox console exclusive games of all time. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a work of art, quite literally, with hand-painted visuals that really push the boundaries of what should be possible in a 2D sidescroller, with a truly stunning and dynamic musical score to match. Ori and the Will of the Wisps quite easily nabs the crown for our top Xbox game of 2020, and we can't wait to see what Moon Studios does next.

Microsoft Flight Simulator took to the skies as an ambitious cloud showcase the company, leveraging satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to portray unparalleled accuracy and fidelity across its locales. The result is a 1:1 digital recreation of planet Earth down to individual buildings and trees. That's not even touching on unmatched weather models and aerodynamics systems, all backing one of the market's deepest simulation experiences. Microsoft Flight Simulator delivered innovation at a mind-blowing scale, highlighting the full potential of the cloud.