The augmented reality industry made great strides in 2017, but its apex is not even in sight. In terms of software, augmented reality is approaching meaningful mainstream awareness, thanks mostly to Apple and ARKit. Meanwhile, on the hardware side, AR is very much in its infancy, with headsets mostly limited to enterprise customers or developer kits and the majority of smartphones lacking the sensors necessary to achieve much more than parlor tricks. We now have enough specimens of AR software and hardware to compile a roster of the best efforts of the industry. Rest assured, we expect every item listed herein to be surpassed in 2018 either by their next iterations or new entries.

Best AR Smartphone: iPhone X While Apple pushed augmented reality further up the adoption curve with ARKit on the software side, the iPhone X presented one of the chief advancements in smartphone hardware for AR. The TrueDepth camera enables the FaceID and Portrait Mode features of the iPhone X, but it also makes possible Animojis, the face-tracking animations that have captured the imaginations of users. Moreover, creative developers have found ways to apply the camera's capabilities to a myriad of interesting experiments. Many expected more out of the anniversary edition device in terms of actual AR features, but the iPhone X still stands above all smartphones in terms of both hardware and software capabilities. And let's face it, people were going to lineup for the devices regardless of price or underwhelming features. Image by Apple/YouTube Runner-up: The Pixel 2 from Google is in an elite group of Android devices that officially support the ARCore platform. Moreover, it's the only device (along with the original Pixel smartphone, so far) that officially supports AR Stickers, Google's version of Snapchat World Lens and, for all intents and purposes, the answer to the Animojis on the iPhone X. Based on the promotional videos demonstrating the feature, it's a rather impressive implementation as well. SUBSCRIBE: The Next Reality Weekly Newsletter, Insider AR News, Developer Updates, Jobs & More!

Best Budget Headset: ZapBox There are a number of devices competing to be the "Google Cardboard of AR," and Zappar's ZapBox, which sold out within two hours of being available to the public, stands above them all at the moment. WonderHowTo Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Welsh explains why: One of the most interesting things I saw this year was the reveal of the Zapbox by Zappar at AWE in June, during one of the most entertaining sessions I went to. This affordable, cardboard-inspired mixed reality system works with their ZapWorks content creation platform, which lets you build experiences called Zaps in minutes. It lets you have mixed reality experiences through a $30 headset, instead of spending $3,000 on a HoloLens. Image by Zappar/YouTube Runner-up: The Lenovo Mirage should win this category, as it is technically the first mainstream consumer AR headset from a household name. The device is better known as the headworn device that projects the holograms in the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges game. Alas, its claim to fame is also its main weakness, as the Mirage is limited in content to its assigned Star Wars game at the moment. My daydream is that some enterprising individual will figure out how to hack the device and unlock its full potential.

Best AR Display: Lampix With the appearance of a futuristic desk lamp, Lampix can turn any surface into AR display. The device is able to track hand gestures and interact with objects. For example, it can be used to extract data from a printed page or manipulate a projected pivot table with physical blocks. Or, how about some tower defense action? Image by Jennifer Welsh/Next Reality Runner-up: Among the options for glasses-free holographic displays, HoloPlayer One from Looking Glass Factory is the most affordable. The device projects light from an LCD display, filters it through a lenticular sheet, and bounces it off a retroreflective screen to create a stereoscopic lightfield in free space. Users interact with the holograms by way of an Intel RealSense camera that sits atop the unit. Unfortunately, it is also limited in availability; the Christmas rush option has expired, and the next batch of displays will not ship until April 2018. Image by Looking Glass Factory/Vimeo

Best AR Platform: ARKit There's little debate here. ARKit didn't just change the landscape of mobile AR apps, it created a whole new ecosystem for developers to work in and businesses to capitalize on. It's the reason some of the best apps of the year are powered with ARKit. And yet, it's a software shortcut that's essentially making up for the lack of rear-facing depth sensors in iPhones and iPads. That could change in the next few years, but in the meantime, it gives developers a sandbox where they can build an army of AR-capable apps. Runner-up: ARCore showed up late to the party, but Google's version of a smartphone AR platform appears to already surpassed Apple's offering in terms of capability. Google might be playing from behind, but it has the installed base to catch up with Apple in 2018. Honorable Mentions: Unity and Vuforia still rank among the top software tools for creating AR experiences, and both offerings made advancements in 2017 that enabled developers to create more interactive and realistic content. Meanwhile, Amazon Sumerian will be the platform to watch for 2018. It could become the PowerPoint of AR, something that anyone can use (for better or worse).

Best Mobile AR Game: PuzzlAR While it doesn't look like the most exciting game, PuzzlAR was successful in taking familiar gaze-based inputs for augmented reality headsets and adapting them to a smartphone, with the iPhone's spatial location and touchscreen inputs replacing head movements and hand gestures. Compared to other ARKit apps (or ARKit updates to existing apps), PuzzlAR truly feels like it's meant to be played in AR on a smartphone. Images by Tommy Palladino/Next Reality Runners-up: One of the more impressive games delivered in 2017 via ARKit was The Machines, an expansive tabletop "tower defense" game that takes advantage of 3D space and was the darling of the ARKit portion of Apple's iPhone launch in September. Image by Tommy Palladino/Next Reality

Best Mobile AR Tool: Vuforia Chalk Vuforia Chalk takes AR remote support features previously available only to large enterprises and gives it to you, the people. So instead of trying to dictate Wi-Fi router troubleshooting instructions to your parents over the phone, you can annotate the camera view of their iPhones. Image by Vuforia/YouTube Runner-up: One of the glaring shortcomings of ARKit is its inability to identify vertical surfaces, something that devices with depth sensors, like the Occipital Bridge, can handle just fine. So it's fitting that Occipital is also one of the app developers able to approximate room mapping in its TapMeasure app. The app not only allows users to measure the dimensions of a room, but also has the ability to export the results in a CAD file. Images via Occipital

Best Marketing AR App: IKEA Place Apps that show you products before you buy them will soon be ubiquitous across the retail industry. Companies from Houzz to Pottery Barn are already offering ARKit apps with such features. IKEA Place, a featured company in the ARKit launch presentation at WWDC, offers the best implementation to date. Image by IKEA/YouTube Runner up: The NBA AR app proves that you can make an app that's focused on fun while also selling stuff to customers. The main attraction is an AR basketball court that players can shoot virtual basketballs at Pokémon Go-style. It also pushes users to buy tickets or TV packages for their favorite teams.

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