In a very particular order, here goes:

10. HTC Smart

Oh the irony of HTC’s naming schemes. HTC was attempting to be clever, to release what we described as “a poor man’s smartphone”, but it got everything wrong.

Wrong OS: Brew MP was designed not by a world-renowned software developer but by Qualcomm, a chipset maker, and boy it showed. Wrong price: £25 per month on a 24-month contract? Hello? Wrong sync options: jump through hoops and get nowhere. Thankfully, the HTC Wildfire came along and saved HTC’s cheap phone blushes.

9. Super Talent MasterDrive GL 16GB

This product was so appalling we never actually put the review up on the website: only readers of issue 188 could savour its one-star review. A low price of £71 inc VAT might mean “it’s tempting to give the MasterDrive a whirl,” we wrote. “If you do, you’ll regret it. It came last or second to last in eight of our ten tests.” When we used it as a boot drive, freezes “were a frequent, unpredictable occurrence”. One to avoid folks.

8. Norton Utilities

I’ll admit some bias: we’ve never been big fans of utility suites at PC Pro. If we had collective eyebrows, we’d raise them whenever a new one appeared on our desk. Although we have more than one desk and, between us, many eyebrows, so perhaps it’s best to leave that metaphor at this point.

There are some good ones (utility suites, that is, not metaphors). We were pleasantly surprised by TuneUp Utilities 2011 earlier this month, for instance. How disappointing, then, that Norton Utilities failed to deliver when we reviewed it at the tail-end of 2009; it went on sale “proper” in 2010, which is why it squeezes into this list.

A one-click “Optimize” button is probably the highlight, and it did knock off three seconds from our boot-up time – but in doing so dropped our available memory by 113MB. There are many better ways to spend £39.

7. iPad made simple

In June, Apress released a 704-page book called “iPad made simple”. Let me repeat that: a book containing 704 pages of advice on how to use a device that’s universally acknowledged as being ridiculously easy to use.

Even accounting for the fact that PC Pro readers aren’t its target audience, it beggars belief that anyone would resort to a book costing more than £16 rather than just experimenting with the darn thing or picking up a much cheaper, briefer guide.

6. BeBook Club

So it’s November 2010. Amazon has hit the headlines for all the right reasons by releasing a bargain Kindle for £109, complete with seamless integration with Amazon’s bookstore. What does BeBook do? It releases a more expensive eReader – £149 to be exact – that doesn’t beat the Kindle on any major features, doesn’t integrate with any eBook stores, and doesn’t even have Wi-Fi for direct downloads from the internet.

To add insult to injury, it uses inferior screen technology so text looks worse! We like many of BeBook’s products, but this one goes straight into the remainders bin.

5. Energy Sistem 7502

What makes the Energy Sistem 7502 so disappointing, apart from its appalling name, is that we had such high hopes for it. This media player promised so much that the iPod touch can’t deliver, with the highlight being Digital TV playback. Sadly, it was rubbish.

“The EPG… is woeful,” wrote our reviewer. “While you can select channels and see the next week’s programmes, there’s no way to access programme information or actually watch shows being broadcast from within the EPG. Instead, you need to exit the EPG, open up the TV section, navigate to the channel and tune back in.”

Add a sluggish interface and only 2GB of storage, and another great idea was consigned to the garbage heap of dashed hopes.

4. ATI Radeon HD 5830

ATI – strictly speaking, we should now say AMD, but we won’t because life’s confusing enough already – had more hits than misses in 2010, but the HD 5830 falls decisively into the latter category. It was ATI’s attempt to offer top-end performance for an affordable price, although by affordable we’re still talking £200. Why, we kept asking, would anyone pay that much when around £20 more could get them the faster HD 5850?

With wide gaps in performance in more demanding tasks, the answer was a great big no-one. All the HD 5830 did was create more confusion for potential buyers and eke a bit more life out of the ageing Cypress core that powered 2009’s ATI Radeon HD 5870 to A List success. We don’t know who’s more cynical, ATI or us.

3. Apple Mac mini

Grerrk. That sound? That’s me girding myself up for the mound of criticism about to come my way for daring to list an Apple product as one of the worst of 2010.

In many ways, I agree, it’s unfair. The new Mac mini looks beautiful in its minimalist magnesium casing and includes some stunning design moves to make it so small. There’s an HDMI port, Gigabit Ethernet, four USB 2 connectors, FireWire 800, 802.11n Wi-Fi: in port terms, it’s well hung.

Delve inside, though, and it disappoints. A Core 2 processor released in 2008, stingy 320GB hard disk and 2GB of RAM. What killed it for us, though, was the price. The base model was expensive at £650, but if you want to upgrade to a larger hard disk or faster processor Apple was charging double or sometimes triple the “real” price difference. Great design, but what a rip-off.

2. Dell Inspiron Duo

Oh Dell, you great big lovable ball of hardware goodness, how could you do this to us? We so wanted to love the Inspiron Duo, and at first glance it seems so fantastic, but in the end we were more let down than a student who voted Lib Dem.

The idea behind the Duo is great. A cheap netbook that converts, with one very sexy flip of the lid, into a tablet. We were so impressed we wrote, “the Duo’s transformation from notebook to tablet is almost balletic”. Meanwhile, the “rounded, rubberised edges practically beg to be touched, and the 1.36kg chassis oozes a solidity and class that belies the budget price [of £449]”.

The first sign of disappointment came from a battery life of less than four hours under light use. The kick in the teeth, though, became obvious once we’d used it in tablet mode for a while. Over to the review to explain why:

“Tap an icon and you’re unceremoniously shunted [from Dell’s finger-friendly DuoStage software] back to the Windows desktop as it labours into view. And while we’d have expected each application to form part of a slick unified user-interface, the reality is amateurish at best.

“The Internet icon simply launches Internet Explorer; the Games icon lazily shunts you back to the paltry selection of games included with Windows 7; and the Paint icon loads up CyberLink’s YouPaint software, which regularly moans that ‘The current screen resolution is not recommended for this application’.”

As we went on to say, “when a tablet leaves you longing to return to a keyboard and a touchpad, there’s clearly something wrong”.

1. Next 7in media tablet

Never mind worst product of the year, this is probably the worst product of the century. Normally when reviewing a product we can find something positive to say, but the highlight for the Next tablet was its eight-page Quick Start Guide.

Imagine, if you will, a product “designed” for surfing the web that makes the experience of web browsing so painfully slow you want to head butt a nearby wall.

Imagine an interface so unresponsive and poorly designed you have a better chance of reaching your intended destination by prodding randomly than trying to reason with it.

Imagine a portable device that won’t even last for two blinking hours away from the mains without collapsing in a sulky heap.

If you’ve imagined all that, then you’re very close to imagining the appalling Next 7in media tablet. If you got one for Christmas, don’t open it, just beg for the receipt. If that fails, head to your nearest Next, fall to your knees and beg for a pair of Argyll socks in exchange.

In the current issue of PC Pro you’ll find a full Christmas gadget guide, with 41 products tested and reviewed, from photo frames to cameras to USB guitars. But to help you beat the rush this year, we’ve plucked out ten of the best from the feature and from our A List.

Samsung NC10 – £300

Hands-down the best netbook on the market right now. It feels as sturdy as a proper laptop, offers a hefty seven-and-a-half hour battery life and features an almost full-width keyboard. Stylish, strong and hugely portable – and all this for less than £300.

Sony Reader PRS-505 – £190

If any device is going to sway the eBook doubters, the Sony PRS-505 is it. The silver case is a joy to behold, and the E Ink screen perfectly replicates the experience of words on paper. There’s space for 160 eBooks, and 100 classics bundled free.

Creative Zen X-Fi 16GB – £140

As well as 16GB of space and superb sound quality, the latest Zen connects to Wi-Fi networks to download music and podcasts and stream audio. The controls are a bit fiddly, but the excellent user interface, SD-card slot and FM radio make this one of the best mp3 players around.

Sony Cybershot DSC-T70 – £150

A gorgeous camera with a body that feels almost like it’s hewn out of a single chunk of aluminium, the Cyber-shot DSC-T70 is also a capable eight megapixel snapper. Highlights include fast autofocus, Super Steadyshot image stabilisation and quick shutter response times – and a competitive price.

Pure Evoke Flow - £150

This is best internet radio, bar none, that we’ve reviewed, and adds DAB, FM and media streaming to the mix too. It’s not cheap, but if you want a quality radio, with great looks, sound and usability, there’s nothing that comes close.

TomTom Go 730 – £208

Satnavs may be ten a penny these days, with GPS receivers in mobile phones, but it’s still worth paying a premium for a quality navigation product. TomTom has a track record here and has laid siege to our A List satnav entry for what seems like forever. This model is a brilliant device: stacked with features yet extremely easy to use and effective.

Sony DPF-V700 – £112

With typically stylish Sony design, excellent picture quality and an impressive range of on-board features – including auto touch-up, 512MB of memory and a card reader – the Sony makes a convincing argument as the best digital photo frame around. It may cost £129 but, if you’re looking for the best way to show off your snaps, it’s worth every penny.

Panasonic SDR-S7 – £134

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to operate the new generation of low cost flash memory camcorders. This one from Panasonic is the best of the new breed – it’s small, light and easy to use yet boasts some impressive features – including image stabilisation – and decent image quality. 

HYmini Personal Wind Turbine – £40

Attach the HYmini to a handlebar or wing mirror and even a light breeze will charge its internal lithium-ion battery – which can then be used to charge your mobile phone, mp3 player or PDA. It’ll prove incredibly useful as a portable battery pack and is an ideal gift for the eco-minded gadget fan.

Sony Alpha A200 – £260

Apart from a live-view mode, the A200 has every feature you could want – in-body image stabilisation, nine autofocus points, a 10-megapixel sensor and an 18-70mm lens. And with a steadily falling price, it’s an absolute bargain of a DSLR.

*****

Read the full feature of 41 Christmas gifts – cameras, MP3 players, internet radios, camcorders, photo frames, green gadgets, hi-tech watches and USB musical instruments – as well as an in-depth look at eBooks, in the current issue of PC Pro, on sale now.

Right click on an application’s icon – or swipe a finger upwards from it if you’re using the new touchscreen controls – and a “jumplist” opens. The jumplist provides a list of recent documents accessed in Word, for example, or recent sites visited in Internet Explorer, allowing you to open them with a single click. The jumplists can also be populated with commands, such as selecting a playlist from Windows Media Player. Microsoft has published a new API that will allow software makers to tailor the jumplists to their applications, and this has the potential to become a great timesaver.

The new Taskbar also comes into play when you plug a digital camera, MP3 player, or other peripheral into the PC. Instead of the old Autoplay prompt, a digital camera icon will show in the Taskbar. From here you can select options to import photos into editing software, for example, or kickstart a slideshow of your pictures.

As well as the thumbnail previews of tabs that were first introduced in Windows Vista, the new Taskbar provides full-screen previews when you hover over the thumbnail preview with the mouse. This feature could be pretty handy for a quick glance at an email, whilst you enter data into a web form for example, although it doesn’t really save much time compared to simply switching Windows if you’re proficient with keyboard shortcuts. More useful is the option to simply drag programs from the Start menu straight on to the Taskbar.

One clever new option is the ability to drag a window to the side of another open window, triggering them to automatically snap into place side-by-side with one another. This comes into its own when trying to compare two documents, taking full advantage of the horizontal space offered on widescreen displays.

Windows 7 includes other gesture-like controls. Drag a window to the top of the screen and it automatically blows the window into full-screen mode – a shortcut that we suspect will take a little getting used to. Hover the mouse to the far-right of the new Taskbar, meanwhile, and all of your windows become transparent, providing a clean view of the desktop.

Control freaks, meanwhile, will be delighted that Taskbar items can now be juggled into whichever order you wish, allowing you to always keep your email in the far-left tab, for example, even if it was opened after another application.

Gadgets and glass

The gadgets introduced in Windows Vista are retained in Windows 7, but they are no longer imprisoned on the far right of the screen, and can be dragged and dropped anywhere you fancy on the desktop. “We see the market moving heavily to laptops – that’s a lot of screen real estate to lose,” said Linda Averett, group program manager for core user experience of Windows, explaining the decision to let gadgets roam free.

Microsoft has also made the look and feel of the desktop much more customisable. Averett claimed that 30% of Windows Vista users went as far as changing the colour of the Aero glass, and so the company has decided to give interior designers their head, by allowing them to save different colour schemes for different seasons, for example. PC manufacturers will also be able to toy with the glass, so expect cobalt blue windows from Dell and shiny black edges from Sony in the future.

System Tray

“We have received volumes of feedback on the System Tray,” Averett claimed, and none of it good, we suspect. Consequently, Microsoft has decided to minimise the number of times the System Tray screams for attention with annoying pop-ups and flashing icons.

When an application adds itself to the System Tray, it automatically goes into a new overflow area, allowing you to decide if you want it to display permanently or not. There’s also a new Action Center that queues up all those infuriating Windows Update and other maintenance messages, meaning you’re not interrupted every two minutes with another meaningless reminder, and can review them in your own time.

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