As the year comes to a close, writers in the tech community are taking this opportunity to identify the best products that came out in 2012. Whether it's an innovative service, app or brand-new hardware, these rankings listed some of the best ideas coming out of Silicon Valley during the past months.

Unsurprisingly, given that 2012 has been a landmark year for the company, Apple products topped several of the lists of the best gadgets of the year.

Making it to number one on Farhad Manjoo's list for Slate, and sharing the top spot on Dan Rowinski's list for ReadWriteWeb was the iPhone 5. After a summer rife with posts from the Apple rumor mill, when the highly-anticipated new phone hit stores in October, it did not disappoint. Its light, sleek feeling has been praised as a marvel in industrial engineering.

But the iPhone 5 is not the only high-profile product that the company from Cupertino released this year. The tech community was thrilled with the release of the iPad mini - which is quickly eclipsing other seven inch tablets, and is one of the hottest gifts of the season. Both reviewers named this, and the full sized iPad among their best products of the year.

Other innovative ideas that made it onto Manjoo's list included the Workflowy app, which is a unique way of keeping track of to-do lists and ideas, as well as payments from Square.

Consumers will remember 2012 as the year that they gained access to more advanced versions of some of the best tech around. And don't forget that if you buy from PortableOne, you can make these almost perfect products even better. Speak to us about a customized laptop or tablet.