TechRadar's annual Phone Awards kick off tonight at a special location in London where we'll finally reveal the winners of the six most important categories in portable tech.
The categories include Best Phone, Best Tablet, Best Value Phone, Best Value Tablet, Best Innovation and Best Smartwatch. Our nine carefully selected judges sat together at our local and wracked their brains on the latest and greatest tech releases of the last year.
After narrowing it down to the six shortlisted in each category they then had to decide who the overall winner and second place runner-up should be.
We chose some of the top names in the tech journo world to select them – here's a little about each of the judges and why we think they're the best for the job.
Gareth Beavis - TechRadar, T3
Gareth is Phones and Tablets Editor for Future's Technology section, covering everything from the latest iPhone rumours to reviews of obscure Chinese smartphones. He's been with TechRadar since the start, testing everything from the BlackBerry Storm to the Palm Pre and the old Symbian-based Samsungs - although he still loves the Nokia 3310 above all others.
John McCann – TechRadar, T3
If there's a phone, tablet or smartwatch that hasn't passed through John's hands then it's probably not worth talking about. John is Phones and Tablets Deputy Editor for Future's Tech division and his passion for all things mobile still burns brightly. He's never seen dead without numerous items of tech on his person.
Rhiannon Williams – Daily Telegraph
Rhiannon Williams covered news for the Press Association and The Scotsman in Edinburgh before joining the Daily Telegraph as Technology Reporter in 2013. When not spelling her name out to PRs over the phone, she covers all things Apple, new phones and the technology shaping the way we live.
Basil Kronfli - Btekt
Basil has been reviewing smartphones for the best part of a decade. After launching YouTube channels for other sites he decided to go it alone and launch Btekt - his vision of what a mobile tech channel should be.
Matt Hill – Digital Spy
Matt is Deputy Editor of Digital Spy, the UK's biggest entertainment and technology website. He was previously Editor of both T3 Magazine and Gizmodo UK, so has spent many years reporting on, testing and outright breaking smartphones in the line of duty – sometimes even intentionally.
Paul Lamkin - Wareable
Paul kicked off his tech career covering the news for Pocket-lint. He then edited a laptop magazine where the pace was a little bit slower (as were some of the readers). When he wasn't writing about RAM or SSD options Paul penned more interesting reviews for TechRadar and T3. More recently he was the senior editor of MSN Tech.
Luke Edwards – Pocket Lint
Luke has been touching up tech, and writing, for seven years across FHM, Stuff, T3 and Shortlist to name a few. With an MA and NCTJs in journalism and an unquenchable love of gadgets, no tech escapes his digits. If you notice comic book and film references in his copy, don't fret, he's obsessed with those too.
David Phelan – Sunday Times, Independent, T3
David Phelan is a freelance tech journalist, writing for T3, the Sunday Times, the Independent, the Daily Mail, Monocle Magazine, TechRadar and elsewhere. He also works as an actor, with parts ranging from the first Mission Impossible film to seasons at the National, the RSC and Shakespeare's Globe.
Dan Jones – The Sun
Dan is Consumer Editor at The Sun, a role which gives him superb access to all the latest technology, where he uses his first-rate newshound skills to find the technology his readers will love every week.
- This article is part of Phone Week, celebrating the best bits about brilliant smartphones and tablets as part of the lead up to the TechRadar Phone Awards. To find out what the iPhone 7 could look like, how a phone could survive in space or how to buy the perfect smartphone for you, bookmark TechRadar's Phone Week hub and check out all the great new features coming throughout the week!
