The Best of 2025

2025 was the year not of those who spoke the loudest, but of those who did their jobs correctly. Big promises, flashy presentations, and ambitious launches aged quickly. What remained were those who could establish context, those who progressed with patience, and those who did what they did without exaggeration. This list is not a "best-sellers" or "most-talked-about" compilation. It was prepared to note those with the potential to stand the test of time.

Marques Brownlee — The best technology storyteller of 2025

Understatement, consistency, and clarity in favor of the user. If Marques Brownlee is still being watched in 2025, this is the reason. He knows what he is praising and does not hide what he is criticizing. He is one of the rare names who loves technology but maintains his distance from it.

Jensen Huang — The best technology leader of 2025

While the role of CEO was being hollowed out, Jensen Huang refilled it with the seriousness of engineering. He became the name behind the decisions that transformed NVIDIA from a hardware company into the computing infrastructure of the era. In 2025, this was exactly what leadership was.

Perplexity — The best referenced search engine of 2025

For a long time, the search engine was a tool not for accessing information, but for selling attention. Perplexity quietly reversed this habit. It offered an approach that cites sources, proves its claims, and does not drown the user in a dump of links. What made the difference in 2025 was not speed, but referenced clarity.

Bitrig — The best tool for moving from idea to product in 2025

Software production was stuck for a long time in a race of "who writes better code." In 2025, the meaninglessness of this race became more visible. Bitrig centered not on the code, but on the speed of the idea. It positioned software not as an end, but as a temporary tool.

Retell AI — The best AI-powered communication solution of 2025

Call centers were symbols of inefficiency for years. Retell AI quietly redefined this field. The point was not to talk with AI, but to establish measurable communication in the right context and with the right tone.

Apple iPhone 17 Air — The best lightness-focused phone of 2025

The point of this phone is not power, but not being a burden. The iPhone 17 Air brought back the idea of a device that makes you forget its presence in your pocket. In 2025, it was not "more" that won, but the right experience with less.

Apple iPad Pro (M4) — The best computer-tablet hybrid of 2025

The tablet category became this clear for the first time. The iPad Pro M4 brought power, lightness, and screen quality together on the same line. It established a balance that made the computer vs. tablet debate meaningless.

Apple Mac mini M4 — The best desktop computer of 2025

The power of the Mac mini M4 is in its silence. A desktop that takes up no space, does not overheat, and works constantly. This is exactly where the desktop computer became logical again in 2025.

Havit — The best emerging technology company of 2025

Havit's success came not by shouting, but with stability. It became one of the rare brands that could truly establish a price-performance balance on the accessory side. Its products spoke, not the brand.

Anthropic — The best AI reverse engineering work of 2025

"Tracing Thoughts in Language Models" became one of the rare studies that attempted to dismantle and understand the inner workings of LLMs. The key to progress in artificial intelligence is to understand not the output, but the reason behind it.

Link: https://www.anthropic.com/research/tracing-thoughts-language-model

In this field, Apple's "The Illusion of Thinking" study also technically revealed why LLMs are not AGI.

Link: https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/illusion-of-thinking

Tesla Cybercab — The autonomous transportation vision that achieved reliability in 2025

It was launched in 2024. In 2025, it settled into a serious engineering track. It became not a demo, but a direction that should be followed.

Ford Motor Company F-150 — The most correctly evolved automobile of 2025

The F-150 was a habit. Ford transformed this habit without breaking it, without intimidating. Electrification and software integration were done while preserving the legend.

General Motors — The automotive company undergoing the most serious transformation of 2025

GM moved away from scattered experiments and entered a single engineering direction. We will see the real impact of this transformation made through Cadillac and Chevrolet in 2026.

ChatGPT — The best real assistant of 2025

In the 2000s, I had an assistant named Fatoş. Since that day, I have not worked with a helper who understands so much without being told. The issue is not speed or giving answers. It is its ability to grasp what I want to say, and often even why I want to say it.

The reason ChatGPT is on this list is not that it is artificial intelligence. It is its ability to approach the idea of a real assistant. Its ability to establish context without waiting for instructions. Instead of completing sentences, it completes thoughts. The technology that made a difference in 2025 was not the technology that speaks, but the technology that listens.

I hope that in the near future, I will also find someone to replace my driver at the time, Sezai. Then this story will truly be complete.

The best of 2025 is not a "winners list," but a cross-section showing what remained valuable. Amidst the noise, the haste, and the inflation of claims; those who took their work seriously, those who could establish context, and those who progressed quietly remained standing. It is more accurate to read this list not as a summary of a year, but as a small compass for the coming years. Because the real difference is not in those applauded today, but in those who will remain meaningful tomorrow.