Google’s Nexus 7 by ASUS was honored as the ‘Gadget Of The Year’ and also named the ‘Tablet Of The Year’ at the T3 Gadget Awards 2012. Taiwanese multinational tech giant, ASUS, was the big winner of the night at London's Old Billingsgate, scooping no fewer than five accolades. The awards recognise and honour the gadgets, software and personalities which have intrigued, inspired and wowed the world over the past 12 months.

Despite being nominated in nine and 10 categories respectively, Apple and Samsung were triumphant in only one category each, while Samsung were victorious in the most hotly-contested category of the evening, ‘Phone Of The Year’, with their Galaxy S3 beating the iPhone 4S, Sky News reports.

However, the 4S won Apple's sole award of the evening for ‘Work Gadget Of The Year’.

Alongside Google and ASUS, the only other multiple winners on the evening were Amazon - for Retailer Of The Year and Commuter Gadget Of The Year, for the Kindle 4, the report said.

“The awards were another astounding success. This year saw more closely contested categories than ever, with our judges deliberating in great depth to decide the eventual winners,” T3 Editor Luke Peters said.

“The tech industry has never been more exciting and the multitude of winning brands demonstrate how much quality buying choice there is now,” he added.