As we eagerly anticipate the new and innovate WordPress Themes of 2013, one of the most noticeable trends for the upcoming year is Responsive WordPress Themes. While it’s a term you may not be familiar with now, throughout this article you will not only learn what Responsive WordPress Themes are, we’ll show you some of the best Responsive WordPress designs for 2013 (and there’s a great little video tutorial we put together as well).

What Are Responsive WordPress Themes?

Simply put, a responsive WordPress Theme is one that “responds” to the browser on which it is being viewed. While in the past this functionality was accomplished by utilizing a WordPress Plugins such as WPTouch, responsive themes are now being built to support the myriad of different screen sizes from smart phones to tablets to computers (to be completely honest, WPTouch would show a mobile-friendly version of your site – it wasn’t causing the design to “respond” to the browser width).

At the end of the day, as a website owner, you want your site to look the best it possibly can no matter the browser. Before responsive themes, this involved utilizing a third party application like WPTouch for mobile-optimized viewing or paying your web developer a pretty penny to hard code the functionality into your site.

“Responsive” technology not only removes the need for mobile versions of your site, it provides a clean framework from which to future-proof your site since many of the most popular Responsive WordPress Themes of 2013 will be HTML5 compliant. If you are looking for the best of the best in Responsive WP Themes, here are our favorites.

Avada

Avada Theme Review | Demo | Download

Avada is a popular responsive multi purpose Premium WordPress Theme with excellent content handling capabilities you can maximize to engage your audience effectively. This clean and well-made theme features a beautiful slider (the parallax layer slider or the popular flexslider 2 with Woo plugin), portfolio pages to showcase your work, a choice of blog layouts to publish articles, inside stories and news updates, and several page templates such as an about us page, contact page, FAQ, etc., to create any type of website for you or your client. An all-around WordPress theme for all types of website needs

The Retailer

Avada Theme Review | Demo | Download

The Retailer is an elegantly designed responsive premium WordPress theme with powerful e-commerce capabilities to help you create that high-end online store of your dreams that will definitely impress any seasoned online shopper. Although this WooCommerce 2.0. ready responsive theme’s ecommerce functionality is its strongest feature, it has everything you need to create an impressive corporate website as well.

Jarida

Jarida Theme Review | Demo | Download

Jarida Premium WordPress Theme is a fully responsive (with option to disable) theme that’s designed for online magazine publications. This premium theme’s layout is easily customizable using the Drag and Drop HomePage Builder so you can configure it any way you want. It also includes a built in Schema SEO Rich Snippet Review Microdata feature which you can use to manage your SEO efforts.

Soufle

Soufle Theme Review | Demo | Download

Souffle Premium WordPress Theme is a responsive theme inspired by the Holo Interface found on devices running Android 4.0+. This theme utilizes a liquid responsive design allowing your site to size itself proportionally according to your device’s display size. The theme is also Retina-ready capable of rendering sharp retina graphics. Souffle is SEO optimized and it also supports WooCommerce and Visual Composer plugins.

Nevia

Soufle Theme Review | Demo | Download

Nevia Premium WordPress Theme is a clean and professional looking responsive multipurpose theme that will appeal to businesses and companies that need to create an impressive business portfolio online. This responsive premium theme is ideal for corporate websites. It also comes with capabilities and features needed to set up an ecommerce site.

Elogix WordPress Theme

Elogix Theme Review | Demo | Download

Elogix is a different type of Responsive WordPress Theme. While the design is fully responsive and chalked full of all the bells and whistles you should expect from a high-end Premium Theme in 2012, one of the features we love best about the Elogix Theme is the support provided by the developer. With frequent updates and bug fixes, you will be pleasantly surprised at not only the quality of this Theme but the quality of the service behind it as well.

Gleam WordPress Theme

Gleam Theme Review | Demo | Download

Gleam is the 75th reason you NEED a membership at Elegant Themes (it’s the 75th Premium Theme in their club that only costs $39). Aside from being one of the most creative Portfolio WordPress Themes of all time, we could not recommend a company more than Elegant Themes. Their commitment to excellence both in high end designs and wonderful support make $39 an insanely low price for over 70+ Premium WordPress Themes.

SmartStart WordPress Theme

SmartStart Theme Review | Demo | Download

SmartStart has all the makings of a TOP Responsive Theme for 2012. With a clean presentation and appearance, SmartStart is a template that can be used for just about any type of website, and we absolutely love the functionality.

Evolution WordPress Theme

Evolution Theme Review | Demo | Download

Evolution is the first fully responsive WordPress Theme from the folks over at Elegant Themes. This simple and clean design is not only one of our favorite responsive WordPress Themes, it is the absolute cheapest when you look at the per theme cost for the Elegant Themes Club (about 54¢ per theme).

Notes WordPress Theme

Notes Theme Review | Demo | Download

Inspired by the iPhone App by the same name, Notes is a truly creative (and responsive) Premium WordPress Theme. With so many designers focusing on “all-purpose” Themes, it’s nice to see a eye-catching design aimed created solely for the blogger. Encompassing the latest and greatest that WordPress has to offer bloggers, Notes is a Responsive Theme that you should definitely check out if the Theme you are looking for is going to be for a blog only.

WhiteLight WordPress Theme

Whitelight Theme Review | Demo | Download

This responsive ecommerce WordPress Theme is great if you sell something online (or plan to in the future). Created by the one and only WooThemes, WhiteLight has a modular homepage allowing you to specify which content to show, how you want to show it, and most importantly — where you want to show it. WhiteLight is compatible with WooCommerce.

PhotoNote WordPress Theme

PhotoNote Theme Review | Demo | Download

There are many things we love about this responsive photography Theme from WPZoom, but some of the highlights are: integrated Facebook comments (if you want to use this feature), all admin options being controlled by the awesome WPZoom Panel, custom menu management, complete localization, and more. If you are looking for a dark fully responsive Photography Theme for WordPress, PhotoNote is a great choice.

Responsive Portfolio Theme

Responsive Portfolio Theme Review | Demo | Download

Responsive Portfolio is a Premium WordPress Theme from Templatic that is great for showcasing artistic, photography, or any type of creative work. This dynamic theme helps you create a responsive portfolio site that displays beautifully on all devices, be it a smartphone or a tablet or monitors with different resolutions.

WP-Clear Video WordPress Theme

WP-Clear Video Theme Review | Demo | Download

Video is here to stay, so if you are looking for a great responsive video WordPress Theme, you’ll definitely want to preview the WP-Clear Video Theme from SoloStream. This fully responsive video theme is great for showcasing video and multimedia related content and was created by one of the best premium theme developers out there.

Reaction WordPress Theme

Reaction Theme Review | Demo | Download

Reaction is a Responsive WP Theme from Epicera over at ThemeForest. This beautifully crafted WordPress Themes is fully responsive and is great if you are looking for Magazine WordPress Themes (or any blog theme for that matter). BONUS: Touch gestures even work on the slider! How cool is that?

PixelPower WordPress Theme

PixelPower Theme Review | Demo | Download

PixelPower is a clean and minimal Tumblog style theme from Cudazi at ThemeForest. Incorporating the custom post types (Aside, Gallery, Link, Image, Quote, Status, Video, Audio, Chat posts), this beautiful theme is fully responsive while providing visitors with a clean and uncluttered look in which to view your site. PixelPower is an especially good Responsive WP Theme choice if you are going to use it on a more blog oriented site.

Buro WordPress Theme

Buro Theme Review | Demo | Download

Buro was the first of what is sure to be many Responsive WordPress Themes from the folks over at WooThemes. This dynamic, coffee flavored theme is beautiful in form and built by one of the most respected design teams in WordPress.

XO WordPress Theme

Demo & Download XO Responsive WordPress Theme

XO is a beautiful responsive theme for WordPress built on the 960 Grid System with semantic, clean (and valid) HTML5 & CSS3. This stunning responsive WordPress Theme is search engine optimized and includes features such as unlimited color schemes, an extensive unbranded theme options panel (great for client work), a filterable portfolio, 5 widget areas, and more.

Super Skeleton WordPress Theme

SuperSkeleton Theme Review | Demo | Download

Super Skeleton is the Responsive WordPress Theme used in the example graphic at the top of the page and is another design by Epicera. Similar in function to the Reaction Theme, SS is fully responsive and a beauty to behold.

Olya WordPress Theme

Olya Theme Review | Demo | Download

Olya is another beautiful responsive theme from WooThemes. With Olya your homepage can house a wealth of information all stored as modules that can be enabled/disabled including a slider, portfolio, mini-features,blog and widgetized regions.

Rising WordPress Theme

Rising Theme Review | Demo | Download

The Rising responsive WordPress Theme features a solid foundation in addition to well written & optimal JavaScript code. The WordPress framework is rock-solid and has been tested in thousands of websites, with various server configurations. You can be definitely sure you’re getting a professionally, responsive designed theme in Rising.

Thanks for browsing some of the Best Responsive WordPress Themes of 2012. Don’t forget to browse our homepage for the latest in new WordPress Themes.

For more information on WordPress Responsive Themes, watch this short video we put together.