The Pocket-lint Awards, sponsored by new EE, is our yearly celebration of the greatest products and devices in tech, across 21 different categories – from smartphones and smart home, to electric cars and TVs. And now, the winners are in…
From petite one-box offerings to multi-speaker Dolby Atmos-capable sound systems, our six-strong shortlist for Soundbar of the Year offer something for every home cinema set up. But which came out as the overall winner in 2023?
Soundbar of the Year: Samsung HW-Q990C
Samsung/Pocket-lint
The Samsung HW-Q990C is the company’s latest and greatest Dolby Atmos soundbar, offering flagship specs at a flagship price. That means 11.1.4 wireless sound that aims to fill your living room with sound, from ceiling to sofa, and offers up a features list that is packed with all the good stuff you’d expect.
One of these features is the inclusion of two surround sound speakers, as well as a subwoofer, to really help the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X tracks sound as immersive as you’d expect. One of the most cinematic soundbar packages you’ll hear, winning the judges over as the Soundbar of the Year.
Highly commended: Sony HT-A7000
The Sony HT-A7000 is a big, bold all-in-one soundbar solution that delivers a wide and tall soundstage that will elevate any TV’s audio output to the next level. Its ability to handle Dolby Atmos and DTS:X object-based formats puts a big tick in the box, as does the twin HDMI 2.1 inputs with 4K120/8K60/HDR passthrough. Not many soundbars offer such a great feature set.
As a straight-out-of-the-box solution, the A7000 is adept at delivering expansive and immersive sound quality from numerous sources. It’s a previous Soundbar of the Year award winner, and it continues to be a popular choice even two years on.
Best of the rest
Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar
Bose
The Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar is an elegant and accomplished soundbar that delivers a solid front soundstage and some excellent smart features. Its ADAPTiQ room calibration is useful, the Bose Music app is highly effective, and the overall performance is impressive, especially considering it is a single-unit soundbar.
That one-box footprint may suit you, but you can also build the system over time, if you fancy it (and have deep enough pockets, of course). Still, this supercharged soundbar certainly doesn’t leave you wanting, and more than lives up to its Ultra name and flagship soundbar status.
JBL Bar 1300
Pocket-lint
JBL’s new flagship soundbar has a fair bit to shout about. Not only does the Bar 1300 (known as the Bar 1300X in some regions) manage to match a huge 11.1.4 channels of sound, but it also claims an almost absurdly huge total power output of 1170W.
It’s also one of a rare soundbar breed that conveniently features battery-powered wireless rear speakers that you can actually attach to the ends of the package’s main bar when you don’t want them cluttering the back of your room – or you need to recharge them.
It sounds incredible in action, with a colossal amount of power used to deliver colossal dynamics and a large and exceptionally precise, detailed soundstage – as well as blow your socks off volume.
Polk MagniFi Mini AX
If you’re looking for a compact TV audio solution, you’ll be hard-pressed to find something more impressive than the Polk MagniFi Mini AX.
There are other compact options, but this comes with a subwoofer – not a given at its price – and if you’re sticking to TV and movie watching (and not so much music, which the Polk doesn’t excel at), we think the Polk could well be the best compact option we’ve heard.
It sounds like a much larger system, somehow crammed into a tiny, sleek and attractive chassis. If AV is your priority, then this miniature soundbar won’t disappoint.
Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus
The Sennheiser Ambeo Plus is a fantastic soundbar which delivers one of the most cinematic performances that we’ve heard from a soundbar this size. It delivers the very best of what you’re listening to with an almost dogged determination and from a relatively compact, all-in-one design.
It gives a particularly good showing with Atmos content, delivering the added height and immersion you’d expect, while the Ambeo setting can also add a pretty solid spatial experience to non-Atmos content. It comes at a price, but it’s an effortless performer.
How the EE Pocket-lint Awards judging works
The winner for the Soundbar of the Year was decided by the Pocket-lint team, along with a panel of expert judges from publications across the industry. Following a vigorous scoring process, the Soundbar of the Year was announced at an in-person event on 9 November 2023, along with the winners from the other 20 categories.
A Product of the Year winner was also be announced, chosen from the winners of the 21 categories. You can find out more about that, and all the other winners in our Awards round up feature.
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