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    Announcing the 2026 TechRadar Australian PC Awards finalists

    TechAiVerseBy No Comments9 Mins Read2 Views
    Announcing the 2026 TechRadar Australian PC Awards finalists

    Announcing the 2026 TechRadar Australian PC Awards finalists

    (Image credit: Future)

    Now more than ever, Australians need expert guidance to help navigate the world of technology. Choosing tech you can trust is critical in this fast-moving world, where products and pricing are evolving rapidly. For anyone that uses a PC – be it a desktop, laptop or tablet, and whether that’s for gaming, creating or productivity – any investment in new gear today needs to be well informed.

    To meet that need, the team has expanded the annual TechRadar Australian PC Awards to include more major tech products than ever before. Now covering 40 categories, the experts that actually test the gear have rated the products and services from the past year and singled out the very best of the best.

    From PCs and all the essential components that go inside them, to everything that connects to a PC including monitors, keyboards, mice and headphones, through to exciting new tech like handheld gaming PCs and essential services like the best NBN for every type of user – we’ve highlighted the devices and services we reckon Australians should consider above the rest.

    What’s new this year?

    To cover every base that matters to you, we’ve added 13 new categories to the TechRadar Australian PC Awards!

    Among these are all-new Internet awards, covering the best NBN provider for Budget, High-speed and Gaming, as well as the best NBN provider overall. The Australian TechRadar team has enormous experience in testing and rating the best NBN deals on offer, and the winners they’ve picked will bring you the performance and value you expect.

    We’ve also gone deep into adding more monitor categories, as this is one of the most popular PC products on TechRadar and the pace of change in display tech is incredible. Now, we have awards for the best in Everyday monitor, alongside Gaming and screens for Creators and Professionals.

    We’ve added more components to the Awards too, and refined a few existing awards to be more relevant today.

    Antivirus and complete Security Suites is another new addition. Once again, the TechRadar team knows its stuff and covers PC, Mac and mobile security year-round.

    Our mission is to help you choose the best gear and services for your life, whether for business or pleasure, and we reckon we have more experience and expertise than anyone else to do just that! These Awards leverage the combined knowledge of the Future Publishing network, which brings together the experts in every area that of technology that matters.

    Here they are – The TechRadar 2026 Australian PC Awards finalists!

    Where possible, we’ve linked to the most relevant online coverage from across the Future network for each finalist, to help you find out more about why we like them so much.

    (Image credit: Future)

    Finalists: Best motherboard maker

    Finalists: Best AMD motherboard

    Finalists: Best Intel motherboard

    (Image credit: Future)

    Finalists: Best graphics card maker

    Finalists: Best budget graphics card

    Finalists: Best premium graphics card

    (Image credit: Future)

    Finalists: Best budget CPU

    • AMD Ryzen 200 series
    • AMD Ryzen 5 9600
    • AMD Ryzen 5 9500F
    • AMD Ryzen 7 7500X3D
    • AMD Ryzen 5 5600F
    • Intel Core Ultra 5 Processor 245
    • Intel Core Ultra 5 Processor 235
    • Intel Core Ultra 5 Processor 225
    • Intel Core Ultra 5 Processor 225F
    • Intel Core Ultra 5 Processor 235U

    Finalists: Best mid-range CPU

    • AMD Ryzen 7 9700F
    • AMD Ryzen Al 7 350
    • Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 265
    • Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 265H
    • AMD Ryzen Al Max 385

    Finalists: Best premium CPU

    • AMD Ryzen Al Max+ 395
    • AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
    • AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9995WX
    • AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D
    • Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 285
    • Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 285HX

    (Image credit: Future)

    Finalist: Best internal storage maker

    Finalists: Best external storage maker

    Finalists: Best NAS

    (Image credit: Future)

    Finalists: Best budget laptop or 2-in-1

    Finalists: Best premium laptop or 2-in-1

    Finalists: Best gaming laptop

    (Image credit: Future)

    Finalists: Best desktop PC

    Finalists: Best handheld

    Finalists: Best tablet

    Finalists: Best retailer for PC enthusiasts

    (Image credit: Future)

    Finalists: Best memory maker

    Finalists: Best air cooling product

    Finalists: Best AIO cooling product

    (Image credit: Future)

    Finalists: Best monitor maker

    Finalists: Best productivity monitor

    Finalists: Best gaming monitor

    Finalists: Best creator/pro monitor

    (Image credit: Future)

    Finalists: Best keyboard

    Finalists: Best mouse

    Finalists: Best gaming headset

    Finalists: Best case

    Finalists: Best router

    (Image credit: Future)

    Finalists: Best NBN Provider: Overall

    Finalists: Best NBN Provider: Budget

    Finalists: Best NBN Provider: High-speed

    Finalists: Best NBN Provider: Gaming

    Finalists: Best Security Suite

    (Image credit: Future)

    For the person, product or technology that advanced the PC more than any other in 2025.

    Finalists: Excellence

    • Gabe Newell: Not selling out
    • AI everywhere: For better or worse…
    • Intel Arc B-series (Battlemage): An actually competitive GPU alternative to Nvidia and AMD
    • AMD Radeon RX 9000 series: Made mid-range GPUs interesting again
    • Valve: Steam OS is advancing Linux gaming in huge strides. Microsoft is worried
    • AMD Strix Halo: One of the best mobile chips in years
    • MSI: Project Zero made cable-hiding stealth boards a success
    • Nvidia: Never gave up on CUDA, now it drives most AI
    • ARM: Slowly but surely taking on every kind of processing
    • QD OLED: High refresh rate, high PPI, falling cost

    (Image credit: Future)

    The company that impressed us the most, overall, over the past year

    Finalists: Gold

    Every company that has a product or service that was selected as a finalist in this year’s Awards is automatically in the running for the prestigious Gold Award.

    In addition, the editorial team may give the Gold Award to a company that is not a finalist here, but that we feel deserves the big prize. The Gold winner – along with all other TechRadar 2026 Australian PC Awards winners – will be announced on March 15th!

    (Image credit: Future)

    Finalists: Epic fail

    • Apple: Apple Intelligence is the gift that keeps on not giving
    • AI: Overpromising and under-delivering for the consumer, causing the RAM apocalypse. AI slop. Grok deepfakes. And more…
    • Borderlands 4: Game runs poorly but Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said it’s “pretty damn optimised”, “Use DLSS. It’s great”.
    • Cloudflare outage: Wiped many websites and services offline. Too much of the internet is dependant on it!
    • Intel: Still hasn’t properly dealt with Raptor Lake issues
    • Memory shortage and price surge: AI driven insanity
    • Meta AI stage fail: Zuck’s glasses failed to work live on stage
    • Micron/Crucial: Abandoning consumers at their time of need
    • Microsoft: Multiple windows update fails, Agentic AI integration, efforts to kill Windows 10, including updates that brick your SSD!
    • Nvidia: RTX 5000 series launch, melty connectors 2.0, crappy drivers, outrageous pricing
    • Optus 000 outages: People died, nuff said

    Ben Mansill is the Editor of APC, PC PowerPlay and Australian T3 at Future Publishing Australia. He is a consumer technology editor and writer with three decades of experience at the senior editorial level. Ben was the founding editor of the groundbreaking and wildly successful PC PowerPlay and Atomic magazines. Ben also spent five years as Editor of PC Authority magazine.

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    Jonathan is a tech enthusiast and the mind behind Tech AI Verse. With a passion for artificial intelligence, consumer tech, and emerging innovations, he deliver clear, insightful content to keep readers informed. From cutting-edge gadgets to AI advancements and cryptocurrency trends, Jonathan breaks down complex topics to make technology accessible to all.

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