50 years of Apple: the greatest products ever, ranked – here are numbers 30–21 in our countdown

We’re counting down 50 products from 50 years of Apple to celebrate the iconic company’s anniversary, with 10 products revealed each day. The top 10 will be revealed on the day of the anniversary itself: 1 April. Check out all our 50 years of Apple features so far.

In this article, we count from 30 to 21. And there are some cracking entries, including one of our favourite early Macs (directly below, in case you were wondering), a couple of top-notch iPhones, and two of the finest Mac laptops there have ever been.

Enjoy the countdown!

50–41 | 40–31 | 30–21 | 20–11 | 10–1

30. Macintosh Plus (1986)

Third time lucky for the Mac? Kinda. Learning from the original and 512K models, Apple set about meaningfully evolving its most important product. (At least if you ignored the Apple II line, which Apple seemed determined to do.) Although the screen remained tiny (but did the job for work and endless games of Shufflepuck Café when no one was looking), RAM was doubled, a SCSI port opened up a world of accessories, and the case was spruced up with a fancy new ‘Platinum’ hue. Apple even added RAM slots, meaning you could upgrade your Mac without needing to be blessed with tasty soldering skills.

29. iPhone 5 (2012)

At a glance, the iPhone 5 looks like a 4s with a bigger display. But going widescreen (or, er, ‘tallscreen’) wasn’t the only upgrade. The iPhone 5 was thinner and lighter, and it introduced Lightning – a reversible, space-saving connector that also just happened to be a nightmare for anyone who’d spent a fortune on 30-pin Dock connector accessories. The design lived on too, in the following year’s iPhone 5s but also 2016’s iPhone SE. Although by then, it was being aimed at fans of compact 4in ‘smaller’ phones – ironic, given that the 5 was all about giving everyone a bigger screen.

28. iPod – 3rd generation (2003)

The 2nd-gen iPod retired the click wheel in favour of a touch-sensitive successor, and the 3rd-gen shifted further from mechanical parts by swapping clicky buttons around the wheel for a row of capacitive ones below the screen. That layout didn’t last – and neither did the bundled wired remote – but other tweaks stuck around. FireWire made way for 30-pin Dock connectors and their decade-long residency. And this was the first iPod to support Windows out of the box, initially through the bundled MusicMatch Jukebox – but that was quickly replaced by iTunes. And, presumably, endless screaming from quite a few Windows users.

27. iPhone 4S (2011)

More than one Stuff team member called this ‘peak iPhone’. The design was a copy/paste from the iPhone 4 (antenna tweaks aside – no more dropped calls for ‘holding it wrong’), yet remained far ahead of rivals. Inside, the iPhone 4S was a bigger revamp, with radically faster graphics and an 8MP camera that let you shoot 1080p on an iPhone for the first time. But the real draw was the ‘s’, which Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed stood for Siri. The virtual assistant was hailed as a major reason to buy the 4s and a massive Apple success story. Little did we know…

26. iBook G4 (2003)

The iBook G3 wowed with its vibrant colours and fancy wireless tech. But plenty of people thought it looked like a toy. Or, worse, a toilet seat. Apple’s 2003 rethink replaced colourful curves with a stark, boxy design – more blocky iPod chic than first-gen iMac whimsy. Still, that made the laptop smaller and lighter, and it had a better display too. However, the G4 game makes this list, because it was cheaper, faster and packed a slot-loading optical drive instead of the G3’s fragile tray. A fitting last hurrah before the MacBook era muscled in.

25. Apple Watch – 1st generation (2015)

During its history, Apple has been criticised for making products that are as much status symbols as pieces of usable tech. The Apple Watch pushed further into that territory than ever before. Celebs lined up to flash Apple’s wearable during photoshoots, turning a wrist-mounted computer into a cultural moment. The ludicrously pricey gold Apple Watch Edition was thankfully short-lived. But today’s Apple Watches still walk the line between utility and style: simple bands for anyone wanting a health companion, or dressy straps and the Hermès range for those who prefer their step counter to look – and be – more expensive.

24. PowerBook G4 12in (2003)

There’s little love for PowerPC Macs in this list – less because of the Stuff team’s age than due to that era’s machines not being terribly memorable. Except for the 12in PowerBook G4. It was a gorgeous thing, making Windows laptops – and arguably some Macs of the day – appear clunky by comparison. Even the keyboard looked striking, matching the case rather than being a slab of black surrounded by a sea of metal. More importantly, this was Apple reviving the compact notebook concept without gutting performance or features. This Mac was small, stylish and powerful – a tiny aluminium triumph.

23. Mac Mini G4 (2005)

Why doesn’t Apple offer a stripped-down Mac that is more affordable? Those were the words on a gigantic screen behind Steve Jobs as he unveiled… a stripped-down Mac that was more affordable. Yet this was still an Apple product. The Mini’s sleek form made cheapo beige PCs look like garbage. And while the Mini used laptop parts to keep down costs, it was no slouch. Paltry RAM and storage prompted upgrades that made the price a tad less mini, but this Mac nonetheless wooed enough of the masses – and many who’d dipped a toe in the Apple ecosystem quickly found they wanted more.

22. Apple Silicon (2020)

Play

Apple’s first in-house system-on-a-chip – the A4 – debuted with the iPad and iPhone 4, but ‘Apple Silicon’ to most means Mac-first chips that began with the M1. Unveiled to widespread scepticism, the numbers soon obliterated doubts as reviewers reran benchmarks, convinced their eyes were playing tricks. But the M1 really did trounce supposedly superior Intel while barely sipping power. That meant M1 Macs didn’t sound like jet engines when you launched a web browser and had battery that could last for a literal calendar day of light work on the flagship MacBook Pro. Or 24 hours straight of cat videos.

21. iPod Mini – 1st generation (2004)

The original iPod may have revolutionised digital audio players, but the iPod Mini made them beautiful. Gone was the white plastic case, replaced by anodised aluminium in a range of hues. And while the smaller iPod wasn’t actually that mini – roughly two thirds the size and weight of its larger sibling – the curved sides made it feel sleeker in the hand and eminently more pocketable. The click whåeel was a marvel too, merging a touch-sensitive scroll wheel with playback buttons in a manner that made the third-gen iPod look like a relic. Unsurprisingly, the fourth-gen iPod quickly pilfered the Mini’s design.

50–41 | 40–31 | 30–21 | 20–11 | 10–1

• Check out all our 50 years of Apple features so far