My Product of the Year 2025 Isn’t Apple (And Here’s Why)

After a year full of new Apple hardware, you’d think it would be easy to pick a favorite. But this year Apple is in second place for me.

My Product of the Year Isn’t Apple (And Here’s Why)

At the end of the year we always look back at the (Apple) devices that have been released. We usually choose from the various products that the Cupertino company has released.

Only this year it was (very) much of the same at Apple. And while I have to admit that the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the AirPods Pro 3 are quite fun, a non-Apple product has brought me much more joy this year.

And the product of the year 2025 for me is the Nintendo Switch 2. Perhaps it is not entirely fair to compare a portable game console with an iPhone, iPad or earphones. But Apple is also releasing more and more major game titles for the Mac, iPad and iPhone. Apple also seems to be appealing to that market more and more.

In addition, year-over-year releases of iPhones and other Apple devices are increasingly only marginal upgrades. There is no real innovation anymore when you release a new, similar device every year. That’s why this year I decided to take a look at other gadgets and devices that were released in 2025.

Nintendo Switch 2: my product of the year 2025

When I do, the Nintendo Switch 2 is my favorite. Not because this console has the best specs, but because it has brought me the most fun this year. And no smartphone, laptop or smart vacuum cleaner robot can compete with that.

The console can be connected to the television and used portable. This means that you can basically play a game of Mario Kart or one of the other titles anywhere. If you regularly take the train or want to play games at home on the couch, this is the perfect console.

Nintendo’s games are also extremely popular and you will only find them on their own console. Fans had been waiting for years for a new Mario Kart and the fact that this game became a launch title for the Switch 2 only added to its success.

Then there are the third party games where Nintendo often lagged behind with the first Switch. Consider, for example, the football game FIFA (or FC nowadays). With the Switch 1 you got a kind of slimmed down ‘legacy’ version of the popular game. While the major consoles such as the Xbox and PlayStation did have the full experience.

With the Switch 2, that is now a thing of the past. And let’s be honest: FC 25 on Nintendo’s consoles still doesn’t quite match the graphic violence of the PS 5 or a big gaming PC. But with the Switch 2 version of FC 25 you now get the full game, with all the features and a look that is virtually the same.

You now see this happening more and more with other titles. Popular games like Hogwarts Legacy, Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Cyberpunk are all available on Nintendo’s console. And the result is impressive. Hogwarts has received an update so that the game no longer feels like a downgrade. And the fact that Cyberpunk now runs on a portable console is really impressive.

In addition to the games, the hardware has also become a lot better. You can now play certain games in 4K resolution and 120 fps is also available. The controllers are sturdier than ever and then there are the changes to the screen.

With the Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo has finally realized what everyone has wanted from the Switch 1 for years, namely ‘bigger and more beautiful’. And they have also succeeded with the Switch 2. Although the screen is not OLED, the new display makes the colors of the screen pop as if you were looking through a kaleidoscope.

Room for improvements

Of course, not everything is perfect with the Nintendo Switch 2, even though it became the product of the year 2025. The battery life is still quite good. When you play a demanding Switch 2 game, you have to hobble towards the socket again after 2 to 2.5 hours.

In addition, the storage space is quite limited at 256 GB. You especially notice this with recent games that easily take up around 40-50 gigabytes. You can buy a memory card separately for more storage space, but Nintendo has opted for the microSD Express format. And those memory cards have become quite expensive.

In addition, I would still like to see a real four-point push button on the Switch 2. Or at least that you can buy a separate joycon (from Nintendo itself) that has this option. Who knows, maybe in a few years with the Switch 2 Lite…