HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2012: Editor's Choice - Part 2

Tech Awards 2012 - Celebrating Excellence and Having Fun at the Same Time

By now, you should have seen our results of the Reader's Choice polls, and the first installment of our Editor's Choice articles that focuses on the consumer electronics side of things. The second and concluding part of our Editor's Choice shifts to personal computing products; but before that, here's a highlight video and some pictures of the awards ceremony that was held on 24th February, at Mandarin Orchard Singapore.

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More Photos from the Awards Ceremony (I)

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More Photos from the Awards Ceremony (II)

Without further ado, click the link to the next page as we identified the remaining winners of our Editor's Choice categories.

Best Desktop CPU

The year 2011 could have been the year for PC chip manufacturers; however, the über-CPUs we were expecting from both Intel and AMD were not quite what we had expected. AMD’s new Bulldozer architecture did not translate into exceptional performance figures based on our benchmarks. Intel’s offerings of Sandy Bridge-E CPUs were indeed the fastest processors we've ever see, but such raw computational prowess came at a high cost of the platform. Nevertheless, we pit the best from both companies.

Nominees:

• AMD FX-8150
• Intel Core i7-3960X

And the Winner Is...

The Intel Core i7-3960X is a processor that is meant for power users and system builders who are setting up their workstations or servers. With such demanding performance requirements, it is no surprise that this new comer sports some serious new features like a quad-channel DDR3-1600MHz capable memory controller, an on-die 40-lane PCIe controller that can operate at PCIe 3.0 speeds, supports various flexible PEG slot arrangements, a huge 15MB L3 cache juggle all that data going in and out of various functions of the CPU, and new instruction sets to support SSE 4.2, AES and AVX instructions.

As our results showed, from system suites to video rendering and gaming, the Intel Core i7-3960X had the upper hand in terms of performance. Sporting the same Intel Turbo Boost technology as the Sandy Bridge processors, the Core i7-3960X had a clear advantage over the AMD FX-8150 even in terms of power consumption, be it when the system was idle or when it was put through the paces with SPECviewperf 10 or 3DMark Vantage in loop to stress test the system. The price advantage of AMD FX-8150 offered an intriguing alternative; however, based on that lone advantage, we felt that the deserving victor was Intel Core i7-3960X.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best Enthusiast Motherboard for Intel (Intel X79)

Built for the hardware purists is Intel’s X79 Express chipset. However, we were rather taken aback by its lack of new native features as it fails to differentiate itself from the performance mainstream Intel Z68 chipset. The lack of support for USB 3.0, PCIe 3.0 and SAS 6Gbps which may not sit well with hardware upgraders looking forward to the next platform leap. Fortunately, motherboard vendors lapped up this opportunity to whip out several of their own iterations by adding on third-party controllers, and implementing innovative hardware/software features.

With the prohibitive cost of the CPU for this platform, we surveyed the Intel X79 motherboard landscape and found that most mid-range models have what it takes to appeal to most enthusiasts. As such, our nominees are as follows:-

Nominees:

• ASRock X79 Extreme4
• ASUS P9X79 Pro
• ECS X79R-AX
• Gigabyte GA-X79-UD5
• Intel DX79SI
• MSI X79A-GD65 (8D)

And the Winner Is...

From the nominees, ASRock's X79 Extreme4 deserves a mention for implementing a cooling fan at its PCH chipset while MSI X79A-GD65 (8D) features from eight DIMM slots and on-board controls for changing the CPU Base Clock frequency on-the-fly to appeal to both power users and overclockers. On the other end of the scales, Intel stuck to the basics for its DX79SI, even eschewing the UEFI implementation of the board’s BIOS.

Despite some promising mentions above, the ASUS P9X79 Pro stood out as the winner due to its stellar performance ranking and excellent overclocking features. Its UEFI BIOS was well implemented and its ample motherboard manual documentation made it easy to tweak the different settings of the board. Although the cost of it may be prohibitive, it is worth paying for and gets our vote for the Best Enthusiast Intel motherboard. Here are select benchmark results from our shootout to better support our findings:-

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best Enthusiast Motherboard for AMD (AMD 990FX)

The boards featuring AMD 990FX chipset have been on the market before the launch of the AMD FX series of CPUs. Even then, there were a couple of vendors who unfortunately couldn't send their boards in time for our evaluation. Here then are four of the very best in the market:-

Nominees:

• ASRock 990FX Extreme4
• ASUS Crosshair V Formula
• ECS A990FXM-A
• MSI 990FXA-GD80

And the Winner Is...

In terms of features, ECS A990FXM-A has outstanding high-end ones like dual Gigabit on-board LAN and Bluetooth v2.1+ EDR technology. ECS has even implemented thermochromic coating on its PCH heatsink that will give visual cues on how hot the system is running.

ASRock 990FX Extreme4 is the cheapest of all the compared boards and didn't let us down much in the features department either. However, we had to penalize it on layout as one of its VRM heatsink was placed too close for comfort to the CPU socket which made removal of the CPU cooler an uphill task. We did not encounter this problem with the rest of the boards. On the other hand, the MSI 990FXA-GD80 had quality build components and plenty of LED indicators for troubleshooting purposes, but its performance was a let down as it consistently lagged behind the competing boards. Furthermore, it wasn't outstanding in our overclocking tests either.

This means the ASUS Crosshair V Formula is the clear winner as it excelled in almost all the areas we scrutinized the boards, including acing the performance tests such as the productivity oriented SYSmark 2007 benchmark. Although it was the most expensive board, we felt that the price disparity is warranted in terms of its strong lead over the rest as well as its well-implemented UEFI BIOS that will strike a chord with power users and overclockers.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best DDR3 Memory (DDR3-1600MHz Quad Channel)

Alas, we only managed to garner three nominees for this category; partly due to the scarcity of these new-fangled quad-channel memory kits and partly due to the late arrivals of some nominees. Whatever the outcome of the case, the show needs to go on. These quad channel memory kits are targeted at rig builders who demand the best for their system based on Intel X79 Express chipset.

Nominees:

• Kingston HyperX Series, 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM (Kit of 4) XMP, (KHX1600C9D3K4/8GX)
• Patriot G2 Series, DDR3-1600MHz Quad Kit (PGQ38G1600ELQK)
• G-Skill RipJawsZ, DDR3-1600MHz (2GB x 4) Kit (F3-12800CL9Q-8GBZL)

And the Winner Is...

In terms of features, the kits from Kingston and Patriot were pretty similar in terms of their cooling heatsinks. The quad channel memory kit from G-Skill RipJawsZ series looked stunning with its blood red aluminum heatsinks. True to the adage that real beauty is skin deep, we had to put these kits through their paces in order to ascertain their true strengths.

Our test benchmarks pegs them mostly on par; however, the Patriot G2 Series memory kit shone on its overclocking ability. We managed to push its operating frequency to a high of 1720MHz versus 1666.8MHz that was achieved by the Kingston HyperX memory kit. At such overclocked frequencies, the memory bandwidth of the Patriot G2 is approximately 3.6% higher at 40.52GB/s versus the recorded bandwidth of 39.10GB/s of the overclocked Kingston HyperX memory modules.

The G-Skill RipJawsZ memory kit failed to complete two of our gaming benchmarks, as a result, we were unable to ascertain its operating temperature under load. It showed impressive performance in terms of its memory bandwidth; however, due to its glaring failure, it was relegated to the back of the pack. Interestingly, we managed to get It overclocked to 1672MHz, which SiSoft Sandra bizarrely registered even higher memory bandwidth than the competition at 43.05GB/s. Nevertheless, we marked down its performance due to its inability to complete some of our more basic benchmarks. Our experience tells us this is either a board compatibility issue or memory modules that haven't been well qualified with a variety of boards. For your information, our test system used the Editor's Choice Intel X79 motherboard winner, which is the smooth running ASUS P9X79 Pro.

Here are a couple of relevant benchmarks from our test suite:

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end. 

Best Enthusiast Graphics Chip

Life begins at the top especially for a GPU chip. Both AMD and NVIDIA usually introduce their top-of-the-line GPUs for their graphics card line-up while the mid and lower-tier derivants follow-up shortly. However, for the graphics connoisseurs who love to game at the very best quality settings across multiple screens to immerse themselves the way the developers intended the game to be cherished, event the top single GPU solutions won't do. To cater to these elite gamers, dual-GPU solutions sit at the very top of the graphics card line-up and are usually offered at a later stage when more resources can be channeled into engineering these beasts. For 2011, the AMD Radeon HD 6990 and NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 590 represent this group.

Nominees:

• AMD Radeon HD 6990
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590

And the Winner Is...

Over the course of last year, we've tested these behemoths a number of times for various comparison purposes. The AMD Radeon HD 6990 has traditionally been stronger in terms of performance numbers for DirectX 10 gaming benchmarks while NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 590 performs better on our DirectX 11-based gaming benchmarks. With more support for DirectX 11 in newer game releases, it makes more sense to invest in a graphics card that is able to handle the hardware and software requirements of these games. Generally, the margin of difference isn't very massive, but in one of our gaming benchmarks, Batman: Arkham City, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 outclassed AMD Radeon HD 6990 by wide margins, even pulling ahead by 100% at the resolution of 2560 x 1600! This is no doubt NVIDIA working closely with the game developer to ensure games work better on their products. Mind you that this isn't about benchmarks favoring certain cards, but it's the other way around - GPU developers making the effort to work closely with game developers to unleash the potential of the graphics chip.

However, the performance of both graphics cards don't leapfrog the SLI setup of GeForce GTX 580 or the CrossFire setup of the Radeon HS 6970. Plus, these setups are actually more affordable than either the GeForce GTX 590 or the Radeon HD 6990. This is why we don't rank the value of these cards highly and it brought down the overall ratings by a good degree.

What about other areas apart from performance? All is not lost from the AMD Radeon camp. If you recall, there's an OC switch for easy overclocking of the AMD Radeon HD 6990 GPU; however, doing so will avoid the card’s warranty. The meager gain eked out by doing so is not worth the relinquishment of the hardware warranty. Further to that, AMD Radeon HD 6990 has native support for five simultaneous displays and up to six displays supported with DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport. To accommodate for multi-monitor setups, AMD has insisted all partners bundle the boards with a variety of DVI and HDMI adapters to make full use of the DisplayPorts connections. These plus points are unfortunately put off by the high operating temperatures and very noisy operation during gaming.

Over on the green camp, we found the GeForce GTX 590 to have relatively better temperature readings from our tests and it was certainly more tolerable to game with this card as it didn't create as much din as the Radeon HD 6990. With dual GPUs powering underneath, this is one of the very few cards from NVIDIA that does support more than dual displays natively and can support either three displays for surround 3D gaming or up to four screens for working on your desktop. It doesn't rival the multi-monitor support of the AMD card, but it caters adequately for most enthusiasts. Plus, who can forget it's NVIDIA 3D Vision ecosystem? Yes, AMD supports 3D gaming too via AMD HD3D, but it doesn't provide the all-important 3D middleware as it's leaving the marketplace to innovate compatible solutions. So setting up a 3D gaming rig with AMD isn't a walk in the park, while for NVIDIA, you just need to purchase their 3D Vision kit and you're set to go (assuming you've a 3D capable monitor).

All things said and done, the evident winner is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 due to its performance advantage on DX11 titles, the 3D ecosystem support and other functional matters pointed out above. Although, it is slightly more expensive than AMD Radeon HD 6990, the price disparity is negated by its advantages. To roundup this summary, we present a select few benchmark graphs of the two titans:

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best 2.5-inch Portable External HDD

With HD movie files (and even some image files - thank you 36-megapixel camera) now reaching extremely large file sizes, it can take hours to backup an entire hard drive's worth of content. While Solid State drives can get the job done speedier, if you need a huge storage space as well as decent speed, you'll need to look elsewhere. Fortunately, USB 3.0 drives are now readily available and affordable in 1TB size and larger. With transfer speeds ten times faster than USB 2. (up to 5Gbps theoretically), now is a great time to upgrade your external storage.

For this category, we looked at the best available external portable USB 3.0 HDDs with a capacity of 1TB. When we meant portable, it's referring to those featuring the smaller 2.5-inch internal hard disk drives. Here then are the contenders:-

Nominees:

• Buffalo MiniStation Extreme
• Imation Apollo Expert M250
• Seagate FreeAgent Go Flex Ultra Portable
• Toshiba Canvio 3.0 Plus
• Western Digital My Passport Essential SE

And the Winner Is...

In our benchmark tests both the MiniStation Extreme and Canvio 3.0 Plus stood out, with each leading in performance in different tests. The MiniStation Extreme was the overwhelming winner when working with large file sizes, while the Canvio 3.0 Plus was the best with small file sizes and was also the best for both sequential and random access times.

Buffalo’s MiniStation Extreme is our overall winner for its consistently excellent scores, and clear performance lead when working with large file sizes (which is probably what you want a 1 TB portable hard drive for anyway). We also liked its rugged construction with shock protection features (although that does come with the trade-off of being slightly bigger and heavier than average), convenient built-in USB cable and bundled extension cable, and hidden multi-LED indicator. The only downside was its hefty price at S$239 at the point of reviewing it. But as with all good things, it commands a justifiable premium should all its characteristics meet your needs. If you don't foresee needing its durability and it's all-encompassing characteristics, the Toshiba Canvio would be our next best recommendation and it's more affordable.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best Solid State Drive

SSDs picked up pace in the later half of 2011 with several SandForce enabled drives flooding the market. Even our SSD contenders list was mostly driven by the same SF2281 controller with only two opting to use Marvell’s solution. While it seemed difficult to tell them apart based on just pure hardware specifications, a winner eventually emerged from our rigorous testing. Our scope for the Best SSD drive this year were defined by the following traits:- consumer class SSD, MLC flash memory and a capacity of about 250GB. Without further ado, the following are our selected contenders that fit our criteria, including the timeline in which they were made available.

Nominees:

• Corsair Force GT 240GB
• Crucial M4 256GB
• Intel SSD 510 Series 250GB
• Kingston HyperX SSD 240GB
• OCZ Vertex 3 240GB
• Patriot Pyro SE 240GB

And the Winner Is...

While there were certain leaders in our various benchmark tests, the Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD raked in more constant results across our full test suite than other close contenders. Take note that it wasn't necessarily the leader in any one benchmark, but it was near the top of the pack in most of them, which is unlike the rest of the drives that tend to come out top in selective tests and trail off in others.

Performance aside, Kingston’s drive was one of the best designed of the lot that an enthusiast could proudly use it without any drive casing if he/she chooses to do so via a host system's eSATA connectivity. Other aspects such as a well packaged kit and excellent service/support to fall back upon doesn't hurt its standings at all. It may not be the cheapest, but looking at the overall proposition, it deserved to take home the best SSD title from our comparison. If it’s pure performance and price you’re after, the Corsair and OCZ drives won’t disappoint either and were the next closest contenders. 

Here are a few select benchmarks, but take note that many more results are taken into consideration for the final performance score:

*Note: Prices and ratings listed are accurate at the time of individual product evaluation.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best Full HD 23/24-inch LED-backlit Monitor

For those into digital photography, graphic design, video editing, and prepress work, their monitor of choice is usually one using in-plane switching (IPS) technology. An IPS panel offers better color resolution and wider viewing angles, compared to the much more common and inexpensive twisted nematic (TN) panel. And in the last couple of years, prices of IPS monitors have come down quite a bit. For example, a 23-inch IPS monitor can now be had for well under S$300. Besides IPS, multi-domain vertical alignment (MVA) displays are also known to offer a combination of quick response times, wide viewing angles, and good color reproduction.

Below are the results after testing eight of the best IPS and MVA-based monitors in 2011. These 23 and 24-inch monitors have a native resolution of at least 1920 x 1080, and sport LED backlighting. To restrict ourselves from stepping into the realm of high-end offerings, all of them are non-wide-gamut monitors priced no more than S$700.

Nominees:

• AOC 53-X i2353Ph
• ASUS VS239H-P
• Dell UltraSharp U2412M
• HP ZR2440w
• LG IPS235V
• Philips 237E3QPH
• Samsung SyncMaster S24A650D
• ViewSonic VP2365-LED

And the Winner Is...

There isn’t much to fault the U2412M. This 24-inch monitor has a a comprehensive list of I/Os that include DVI-D (with HDCP support, of course), DisplayPort, VGA, and even a four-port USB hub. It has no lack of ergonomic adjustments either. Besides having a height-adjustable stand (115mm), you can also tilt, swivel and rotate the panel to your liking. Coupled with its wide viewing angles, you're bound to get a great view from almost any position. From a performance standpoint, this 1920 x 1200-pixel, LED-backlit monitor comes with fairly accurate presets, though out of the box, we find that blues are a tad weak. At 670cd/m², contrast is good too for an IPS panel. The U2412M truly shines after calibration. In terms of color accuracy, we measured a class-leading delta-E of 1.1. To put it simply, even if you've perfect vision, it's unlikely that you'll be able to spot any color difference. If we were to pick one weakness of the U2412M, it'd be its pixel responsiveness in games and movies. The 8ms (gray-to-gray response time) panel isn't bad, just that when compared to some of the 5ms panels, it does exhibit slightly more signs of ghosting.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best 3D Gaming Notebook

Mobile GPUs are becoming more and more powerful, and with them, some gaming notebooks are starting to rival their desktop counterparts in performance and visuals. Throw in a full HD, 3D capable screen, improved audio and the ability to pack up your rig and take it with you and you can see why many gamers are foregoing the traditional gaming rig in favor of a gaming notebook. 

For this category of Best 3D Gaming Notebook, we assessed notebooks with a full HD 17-inch screen, 3D display, quad-core Intel Sandy Bridge Core i7 processor, and a performance oriented discrete GPU.

Nominees:

• ASUS ROG G74SX
• Dell Alienware M17X R3
• HP Envy 17 3D
• Toshiba Qosmio X770
• Samsung Series 7 700G7A

And the Winner Is...

While Dell's Alienware M17X R3 delivered the best benchmark scores, in terms of actual gaming experience, Samsung's Series 7 700G7A was more than up to the task. In our gaming tests, running at full HD resolution, with all settings maxed out, both machines easily hit the target 30 FPS average for the most demanding tests and showed only negligible differences in frame rates. When we turned 3D on, the M17X R3 slightly outperformed the 700G7A, but not by a large enough margin to justify the substantially higher price. We also liked the 700G7A’s sleeker design, superior audio, more comfortable 3D glasses, and lighter weight, all of which gave it a more complete package, and helped it triumph over the M17X R3 as our overall winner.

The following is our detailed score breakdown, but we would like to clarify some matters to better understand the ratings for the Toshiba Qosmio X770. Of all the compared notebooks here, Toshiba was the earliest last year to bring about a 3D gaming notebook with the latest Intel Core i7 Sandy Bridge mobile processor. At that point of time, its specs and capabilities were commendable.  However, most of its competitors only made their equivalent offerings available much later in the year. This discrepancy in the evaluation period meant that we had to re-look at Toshiba's offerings as they are in today's context when most of the other notebooks were evaluated in proper. That is why for the purpose of this category's shootout during the Tech Awards evaluation, we had to accord it more appropriate ratings to better match up with the competitors and their capabilities.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best Multimedia Notebook

Multimedia notebooks are a great compromise between power and mobility. They've got enough power for most multimedia tasks and even discrete graphics for some light to moderate gaming. Not to mention, they've got utility in the form of multiple ports, built-in optical disc drive, and they're reasonably sized to carry around with you. If you’re looking for a machine that will do most tasks and won’t break the bank, this is where you want to be. 

For evaluating the category of Best Multimedia Notebook, our criteria was for candidates with a 15-inch screen, Sandy Bridge Core i7 processor and a discrete graphics engine. They should also ideally be priced less than S$2000.

Nominees:

• Dell XPS 15z
• HP Pavilion dv6
• Lenovo IdeaPad Y570
• Samsung RF511
• Toshiba Satellite P755

And the Winner Is...

The overall winner is the very stylish HP Pavilion dv6. We loved its clean minimalist-modern finish, and extra touches like its aluminum wrist rest . Its above average audio quality, thanks to its quartet of built-in speakers by Beats, and on-board Blu-ray drive made it the best choice for entertainment, while its quad-core Intel Core i7 processor and ATI Radeon HD 6770 graphics module made it more than capable for any multimedia task, as well as tackling moderate gaming needs. Other nice additions like the glowing trackpad border and fingerprint scanner just add up to its appeal further.

Of the tested notebooks, only Dell's XPS 15z is priced well beyond the rest of the notebooks partly because it's the only notebook of this category to sport a full HD screen, which is a rarity and you really have to pay a premium for it. There are lower priced versions available at S$1799, but it comes with a more mainstream Core i5 processor. Clearly Dell is banking on its high resolution screen, styling and premium build, but it may not be enough for shoppers to choose it over other more practical considerations unless the work space available onscreen is top priority.

*Note: Prices and ratings listed are accurate at the time of individual product evaluation.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best Business Notebook

So you’re a high-flying executive ready to take on the world on your own terms. Of course to do that, you'll need a pretty capable companion and that's what this product category is about - the Best Business Notebook. For this, we've set certain criteria like a 13-inch screen size, thin and light notebooks under 2kg, outfitted with security features and must feature the latest breed of processors. Bearing these aspects in mind, the following are our contenders.

Nominees:

• Acer TravelMate 8481G
• Dell Latitude E6320
• Fujitsu Lifebook SH771
• HP Elitebook 2560p
• Lenovo Thinkpad X1
• Sony Vaio Z
• Toshiba Portege R830

And the Winner Is...

As far as business notebooks in this class go, their internal specifications are more or less the same. The higher the specs you choose, the more expensive they become, simple right? Except sometimes, more expensive machines don’t really mean they’re better. Like this year’s winner, the full-featured (with optical drive) 13-inch Toshiba Portege R830. This somewhat reasonably priced (Core i7, S$2599) machine admittedly has average performance, and doesn’t have the best benchmark scores. In fact, from the rating compilation below, you'll notice a couple more notebooks that have a higher overall rating, but were passed off in favor of the R830. Simply said, these notebooks deserve their respective ratings when evaluated individually, but when put into a comparison for a particular purpose, the ratings alone may not be able to tell the whole story.

To put things in perspective, imagine a scenario where you compare the R830, against one of its closest competitors. Assuming that the price and storage capacity were constant, the R830 will really stand out. That’s because it has got the most important feature by far when it comes to business productivity - superb battery life. This allows you to travel throughout most of the day without being shackled to a power brick or external peripherals, since it’s got the full suite of connectivity options built in. Add to that the R830’s very robust (aluminum-magnesium alloy) 1.4kg form factor, and you’ve got a tight little package that will meet your needs no matter which seat within the organization you occupy. It also comes with a slew of security features that are imperative when it comes to corporate machines. This means convincing your IT department you need one of these little productive machines will be easier than getting them to approve of your BlackBerry.

The one advantage that some other business machines have over the R830 is the solid-state-drive (SSD). To negate this advantage, you can simply swap the internal hard drive away for a performance enhancing SSD, or you can order as SSD packing R830 straight from Toshiba (S$3999 for 512GB). Once an SSD is on board, the Toshiba R830 will be an average executive’s dream combination.

*Note: Prices and ratings listed are accurate at the time of individual product evaluation.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best 802.11n Dual-band Wireless Router

Router manufacturers were engaged in heated race back in 2011, not the Nascar kind, but to be the first to deliver 450Mbps speeds on dual wireless bands. Some managed to deliver theoretical speeds of 450Mbps exclusively on the 5GHz spectrum like Belkin's N750DB, while others like Trendnet managed to gain an edge with 450Mbps ratings on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. ASUS didn't make it in time for our award qualifications this year, for their RT-N66U was released in March 2012 after our qualifying period was over. So before the next-generation 802.11ac routers rolls around, here are a selection of true dual-band 802.11n routers which made it to our Editor's Choice nomination round. 

Nominees:

• Belkin N750 DB
• Buffalo AirStation AG300H
• Cisco Linksys E4200
• Edimax BR-6475nD
• Trendnet TEW-692GR

And The Winner Is...

Trendnet's TEW-692GR is observably the dark horse in this race with credit to its 450Mbps ratings on both bands. This is also a marked improvement over its 691GR predecessor. Design wise, Trendnet has relocated its three external antennas to the top, probably to remove clutter on its back panel. The 692GR features Gigabit ports and a WPS button, but like the Edimax 6475nD, it does not offer any USB features. In other words, printer and data sharing via USB are a no-go. We don't see it as a major shortcoming however. There are no text labels for its 2.4GHz and 5GHz LEDs although they are highlighted in green and blue respectively.

It isn't easy to strike a perfect balance when it comes to a router's web interface, but Trendnet has managed to design a user-friendly and yet comprehensive UI to pander to both novices and enthusiasts. Apart from its web browser interface, the 692GR also comes with two wizards - Internet Connection Setup Wizard and Wireless Security Setup Wizard - which you may use at your own convenience. As for Internet connection types, the 692GR supports five modes: Static IP Address Connection, DHCP Connection (for Dynamic IP Addresses), PPPoE, L2TP and PPTP clients. Other perks of the 692GR includes an Application Level Gateway, Virtual Server (enables you to define a single public port for redirections), Access Control (prohibits specific clients from accessing certain web services), UPnp support, Port Triggering, and an Inbound Filter. Besides offering up to four discrete SSIDs, the 2.4GHz band also supports up to thirteen selectable channels while the 5GHz band supports four.

In terms of transfer speeds, this router is notably the fastest among the five contenders. On the 5GHz band, it only required 1 minute and 39 seconds (99 seconds) to push a 1GB file across a range of 2 meters. Its performance on the 2.4GHz band was equally impressive with a timing of 2 minutes and 26 seconds (146 seconds). Apart from its less desirable throughput at 25 meters, the 692GR was pretty deadly at close range. On the 5GHz band, it managed to clock an average downstream throughput of 109Mbps at 2 meters, and 82Mbps at 10 meters. Another asset of the 692GR is its lossless streaming performance at all test points. All things considered, we believe that S$179 is a reasonable price to pay for a reliable and efficient router. And it certainly deserves a top spot on our Tech Awards' list.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best AIO Color Inkjet Printer

It wasn’t so long ago that a typical office had separate machines for printing, copying, scanning, and faxing. Today, a single multifunctional device is all you need to handle all these tasks. And many of such all-in-one printers now come with built-in wireless support to rid you of yet another pesky cable, as well as memory card slots, so that you can print your photos easily. From our labs, we’ve shortlisted five such capable top-tier AIO color inkjet printers suitable for the home or a small office; read on to find out which is the one we deem the best.

Nominees:

• Brother MFC-J825DW
• Canon Pixma MX886
• Epson ME Office 960FWD
• HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus
• Lexmark Genesis S815

And the Winner Is...

The most expensive AIO in the group, the Officejet Pro 8600 Plus also has the most features, including a 250-sheet paper input capacity, a 50-sheet ADF, and a 25,000-page monthly duty cycle. It also sports 128MB of RAM, a 360MHz processor, and a 4.3-inch touchscreen. Besides the usual fare of USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi connectivity options, it also supports HP ePrint. This basically allows you to print from anywhere with an Internet connection by sending an email to your printer's very own email address. Performance-wise, it blows the rest out of the water in terms of print speeds. For black-and-white printing, it’s 30% fastest than the Epson ME Office 960FWD (20 vs. 15ppm), and almost 2x as fast as the Canon Pixma MX886 (20 vs. 10ppm). Even for color printing, it prints almost 2x as fast as everyone else. Due to the fast print engine, it copies the fastest too. Print-quality-wise, while the Pixma MX886 is the better photo printer of the two, for documents, both give laser-like text quality and nicely saturated colored graphics. All in all, the Officejet Pro 8600 Plus nicks this category as it hardly puts a wrong foot down.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best SOHO Color LED MFP

Proponents of the LED technology will tell you that it allows printers to be more compact, quieter (due to fewer moving parts) and more affordable, compared to their laser counterparts. In the past, the biggest complaint about LED printers was their low resolution, but that’s a weak argument these days. So if you’re shopping for a laser printer today, don’t forget to check out LED-based ones at the same time. Here, we've three LED/S-LED-based color multifunction printers priced below S$1000 and should suit your home and small business needs.

Nominees:

• Epson AcuLaser CX17NF
• Fuji Xerox DocuPrint CM205 fw
• Oki MC361dn

And the Winner Is...

The MC361dn is a blazingly fast printer. It prints about 25ppm in mono and 22ppm in color, compared to 15ppm and 12ppm for the same tasks on both the Epson AcuLaser CX17NF and the Fuji Xerox DocuPrint CM205 fw. The MC361dn also copies twice as fast in mono - about 24cpm vs. 12cpm, and more than 6x as fast in color - about 19cpm vs. 3cpm. It also has a much faster scanner. The speedy performance is due in large part to it having twice the amount of RAM (256MB vs. 128MB) and a faster processor (533MHz vs. 295MHz). But it loses out slightly in graphics quality due to a lower resolution, which at a typical viewing distance isn't perceptible. Besides the good print performance, it has no short of other amenities. Compared to the other two MFPs, it handles more paper (350 sheets vs. 160 sheets) and has a bigger ADF (50 sheets vs. 15 sheets). Furthermore, it’s the only printer that comes with a duplexing unit, and the options to increase RAM and add another paper tray. Considering these advantages, it’s worth paying the premium for the MC361dn. 

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

Best SOHO Mono Laser/LED MFP

There’s always been some confusion among consumers regarding the difference between a printer using laser technology and one that uses LED technology. In truth, both use the same underlying print technology, which is using static electricity to apply toner to paper. What differs however, is how light is being transmitted to form the image on the drum. So if you're looking for a printer that gives 'laser-like' print quality, there's no good reason to not check out LED printers at the same time. And why buy a standalone printer if you can have a single, multifunctional device that prints, scans, and copies? Here are four compact mono laser and LED multifunction printers that do just that. Best yet, with a price tag no more than S$350, none of them will burn a hole in your pocket.

Nominees:

• Brother MFC-7360
• Canon Imageclass MF4420w
• Epson AcuLaser MX14NF
• Fuji Xerox DocuPrint M205 fw

And the Winner Is...

The Epson AcuLaser MX14NF has almost identical specs as the Fuji Xerox DocuPrint M205 fw. Both have a 15-sheet ADF, 160-sheet paper input capacity, 128MB RAM and 300MHz CPU. Both also claim a high monthly duty cycle of 20,000 pages. Of the four MFPs, only the MF4420w and the M205 fw come with built-in Wi-Fi support. This gives you the ability to place the printer anywhere in the room and away from the wireless router/access point. The MF4420w however, doesn't do fax nor come with an ADF. If both features are important to you, Canon has an MF4450. But since that's USB only, it makes for a better personal printer than a shared one. Performance-wise, the MFC-7360, MX14NF, and M205 fw print at the same rate, about 25ppm. The MF4420w while fast is slightly behind at about 24ppm. Print-quality-wise, both the S-LED models (MX14NF and M205 fw) manage to edge in front of their laser counterparts, with their 1200 x 1200 resolution resulting in better definition in text and smoother gradients in graphics. At the end of the day, the M205 fw emerges victorious in this group due to a better overall performance (fast print speed, great print quality), and having a more encompassing feature-set (ADF, 33.6Kbps fax, faster processor, more RAM, Wi-Fi support). If you've S$350 to spare for a mono MFP for your small office/home office, you can't go wrong with the do-it-all Fuji Xerox M205 fw.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

References

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