10 top electronics products

Our editors and engineers chose 10 electronics products that deliver a combination of strong performance on our lab tests and features and functionality that point the way to the future in their respective categories. Read on to see our picks and why we made them.

If any phone deserves to be dubbed an iPhone 5 killer, the Samsung Galaxy S III is it. Flaunting an excellent screen that's bigger (at 4.8 inches) than the iPhone 5's, this Android model offers some features you can't get on Apple's phone. You can watch a video while doing other tasks on the desktop, for example, and the screen is smart enough not to time out when you're looking at it. Ingenious gesture- and sensor-based tools are great for social networking.

The Amazon Kindle Fire HD, the company's top-of-the-line 7-inch tablet, is one of the best for the price (though the new Barnes & Noble Nook tablets that just came out promise stiff competition, as does the recently announced iPad mini). Videos look great on the HD display, and the screen is readable even in bright light. An 8.9-inch Fire HD, from $310 with charger, was set to launch on Nov. 20.

Other Android tablets and the iPad offer more apps, but the Fire is a great choice for Amazon fans—especially for subscribers to Amazon Prime ($80 a year), which offers access to free Kindle Book loans and streaming movies and TV shows.

OK, it costs a bundle, but the 55-inch Panasonic Viera TC-P55VT50 plasma is one of the best TVs we've ever tested. Deep, rich blacks and spot-on colors contribute to superb picture quality, and it has an unlimited viewing angle, plus very good 3D performance and sound. It's loaded with state-of-the-art features, including a full Web browser, built-in Wi-Fi, and an extra touchpad remote, which make it easier to surf the Web and stream online video.

The 10-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 adds capabilities that no other tablet, not even the Apple iPad, currently offers. It has a laptop-like ability to open more than one window at a time—say, your e-mail inbox and a video—and its stylus feature recognizes handwriting and lets you edit photos with finesse. An excellent performer overall, it almost matches the superb battery life of the iPad and adds a memory-card slot that its rival lacks.

This 16-megapixel, Wi-Fi-enabled point-and-shoot Nikon Coolpix S800c is the first we've seen that runs Google's Android operating system and the apps that go with it. That opens up a whole new world for cameras: We used an app to edit an image, then quickly and easily posted it on Facebook. We also created a slideshow with music. Our tests weren't completed by press time, but the S800c looks promising overall.

The  7.1-channel Samsung HT-E6730W marries old-school vacuum tubes with digital amps to produce excellent sound, which is rare in our tests of home-theater-in-a-box systems. It comes with a 3D-capable Blu-ray player, wireless amplifiers for the rear surround speakers, Wi-Fi, an iPod dock, and Samsung's Smart TV platform. That includes a full Web browser, apps market, and Blockbuster, Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Pandora apps.

The compact Sonos Play:3 stereo speaker system is a great, easy way to enjoy music throughout the house. Pair it with the Sonos Bridge adapter and you can wirelessly access streaming Internet radio stations and music from a computer that's on your Wi-Fi network.

With one speaker, you'll get very good sound quality. Set up two Play:3s in one room as a two-speaker pair to get excellent sound that rivals what we've heard from any home-theater system. You can add Play:3s in other rooms and have each receive the same music source or varying ones.

Cinephiles finally have a TV that displays movies in all their wide-screen splendor. The 58-inch Vizio CinemaWide XVT3D580CM LCD set is the first we've tested with an ultrawide, 21:9 display that mimics the shape of a movie-theater screen.

Most wide-format movies fill its screen without the black bars you see on a typical HDTV, though you will still get bars on lots of content, including high-def TV programs and movies formatted for a 16:9 screen. Other sets scored better for 3D, but this Vizio has an excellent HD picture, very good sound, a Bluetooth remote with a keyboard, and more.

You don't have to lug around a big, heavy camera to get great photos. The 20-megapixel Sony Cyber-shot RX100 point-and-shoot weighs about 9 ounces—half as much as many models of this type—but doesn't cut corners. With a large sensor and high-quality lens, it took exceptional photos in our initial tests and packs features normally found only on bulkier, pricier rivals. It deftly combines a nice selection of buttons and dials with a sophisticated menu system that won't overwhelm you.

The Apple iPhone 5 builds on its predecessors' strengths and adds new features, putting it head and shoulders above previous iPhones. It has a bigger screen with excellent sharpness, a thinner profile, 4G access, and an expanded role for Siri, the super voice assistant. The already-best-in-class camera hits new heights, taking excellent photos and very good video. It's the best phone camera we've seen.