As 2025 comes to a close, Macworld is proud to present the Apple Awards, a look back at the best and worst things released over the past 12 months. It was Busy year for Applewith new products across the product range including iPhone, iPad, AirPods, Mac and even the Vision Pro. Join us as we discover the products that made the biggest impact in 2025:
iPhone/iOS
Emma Rowley / Foundry
iPhone of the Year: iPhone 17
iPhone 17 It's not just the best iPhone of 2025; This is the best iPhone in the last five years. Apple has finally stopped holding back on features that should be a selling point for an $800 phone. You get twice the storage, 120Hz ProMotion, 50 percent higher peak brightness, an always-on display, better cameras, and speed and battery life that beat last year's Pro model. And all this without increasing the price. There's never been a better year No go to Pro. — Jason Cross
Apple
iOS Feature of the Year: Anti-Spam
Checking calls will silently answer unknown numbers and ask them to tell you why they are calling, and you will see it all on the screen. This is a great way to eliminate spam calls without missing legitimate calls from numbers that aren't in your contacts. Add to that new spam filtering in Messages, as well as the Phone app and FaceTime, and Apple is finally doing something about one of the biggest problems with smartphone use. We still have a long way to go, but since updating to iOS 26 and enabling these features, I've noticed that the number of times per day I pick up my phone only to immediately hang up when I hear an offer message has dropped significantly. — Jason Cross
Britta O'Boyle
Color of the Year: Cosmic Orange
For a company that ostracized beige as the default color in computers when it released the iMac Bondi Blue in 1998, Apple has been fairly low-key in terms of its recent color choices. Space orange iPhone 17 Pro So it's a refreshing shock to the system and a vigorous return to form. Orange is no longer limited to traffic cones and dodgy seventies furniture. The Apple Store should give out sunglasses to those who pick up the bright new iPhone and ignore the dark blue one. There are even Growing range of orange accessories available for new phone. — Simon Geri
Apple
Oddity of the year: iPhone pocket
Readers of a certain age who still fondly remembered When Apple released a pair of socks for its iPod in 2004, it was again shocked by the unexpected (and even unsolicited) iPhone pocket, which the company described as “an exceptional 3D design that completely encloses the iPhone and expands to accommodate your everyday items.” Designed in collaboration with design studio Issey Miyake, famous for Steve Jobs' turtleneck, the iPhone Pocket comes in eight crazy colors, including peacock, sapphire and cinnamon. We all laughed until it was sold out in minutes. — Simon Geri
Foundry
Flop of the year: “Liquid Glass”
Liquid Glass is Apple's bold new, all-encompassing design language that radically changes the look and feel of Apple software across all OS 26 software updates. Alan Dye, Apple's vice president of user experience design, tried to channel his inner Jony Ive, describing how it makes “even the simplest interactions more engaging and magical.” We didn't understand this. Instead, liquid glass is worst example of how brightness is more important than functionalitythe opposite of Quince's philosophy. — Simon Geri
Mac/macOS
Foundry
Mac of the Year: M3 Ultra Mac Studio
Overall, 2025 was a quiet year for Mac hardware, but one Mac made a significant impact on Apple's lineup. Mac Studio came as a bit of a surprise because it M3 Ultra chip was released outside of Apple's usual rhythm. However, in Mac Studio it is the fastest Mac available, leaving the M2 Ultra Mac Pro far behind. Priced thousands less, the Mac Pro essentially makes the Mac Pro unnecessary for anyone who doesn't actually need an expansion card. With incredible CPU speed, powerful GPU performance, and massive expandability, Mac Studio is the king of Macs in 2025. — Roman Loyola
Apple
Feature of the Year: M5
To say “Apple is on the rise” is to negate the momentum the company has with its chips. Apple silicon is killing it, and the M5 chip illustrates why. Debuting in MacBook ProThe M5 delivers the perfect and unprecedented combination of processing speed, graphics power and power efficiency in a consumer-grade chip. The M5 is so good that Apple figured it could wait until next year to release the M5 Pro and Max variants. — Roman Loyola
Foundry
Disappointment of the Year: Mac Pro
While every other Mac has some version of the M4, and the 14-inch MacBook Pro has the M5, Apple's most expensive Mac still has the same M2 Ultra chip it received in June 2023. Meanwhile, the Mac Studio with the excellent M3 Ultra costs a couple of thousand dollars less, and I have to wonder how Apple charges over $10,000 for a Mac with a chip older than two generations? There were plenty of opportunities to upgrade the Mac Pro in 2025, but instead Apple let it languish for another year with the same outdated processor. — Roman Loyola
iPad/iPadOS
Foundry
iPad of the Year: iPad Pro M5
Apple has updated three of its four iPads in 2025 (sorry, iPad mini), but the iPad Pro M5 is really the only one that can be considered with such a distinction. All three updates were essentially chip upgrades (A14 to A16 (iPad); M2 to M3 (iPad Air); M4 to M5 (iPad Pro), but only the iPad Pro provided noticeable impulse over his predecessor. Add 50 percent more entry-level RAM, faster Wi-Fi and faster charging, and you've got an upgrade worthy of a pro. — Michael Symon
Apple
Update of the year: iPadOS 26
This year's WWDC keynote was packed with features, from Liquid Glass to Live Translation to redesigned apps. But the star of the show was iPadOS 26which introduced a new interface that included many of the visual and productivity elements users have wanted for years, with resizable windows, macOS-style multitasking and new life. — Michael Symon
Apple Watch
David Price / Foundry
Watch of the Year: Apple Watch SE 3
Strictly speaking, Episode 11 was the best Apple Watch released this year (I find the Ultra models too bulky for everyday wear), but SE 3 without a doubt this is one I would recommend to a friend. It's almost as good and much better. As part of the 2025 refresh, the SE gains an always-on display, a larger and longer-lasting battery, improved scratch resistance, new health features and gestures, on-device Siri, and 5G capability. And all this for $249! Forget episode 11; it has everything you need in a smartwatch at a great price. — David Price
Services
Apple
Apple TV Show of the Year: Pluribus
There's something nerve-wracking about recommending a TV show mid-run, especially one as unpredictable as For many. Who knows where this will go next? But we're only six episodes into the debut season of this often funny, sometimes heartbreaking sci-fi drama, and even against strong competition from the series' second season. Severance payI feel (fairly) confident that I'll name this the Apple TV show of the year. As you'd expect from a Vince Gilligan production, For many switches seamlessly between slow-burn beauty and sudden shock, between heartbreak, humor and mystery. And Rhea Seehorn is great as the world's last unfortunate woman. Things may go downhill at some point, but let's enjoy the ride while it lasts. — David Price
Foundry
Service of the Year: News +
Apple TV and Music may get all the attention, but Apple News+ comes into its own in 2025. Apple's daily puzzles have long revolved around rather boring offerings like crosswords and Sudoku, but a completely original concept, the Emoji Game, has quickly become a unique and highly entertaining option for users looking for original concepts. And for those of us tired of the nonsense and intrusive ads we encounter when searching for recipes on Google, Apple News+ has added a new search feature that lets you find recipes and view ingredients and instructions in a simple interface. Neat, right? It gets better. You can directly set timers based on the specified duration and add the listed ingredients to the Reminders app. — Mahmoud Itani
