HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2013: Editor's Choice - Part 2

Tech Awards 2013 - Honoring the Best Tech Products

Hopefully by now, you've seen the results of our Readers' Choice polls, and part 1 of our Editor's Choice articles, which focuses on the best in consumer electronics products, like digital cameras, smartphones, tablets, TVs, and headphones. In this second and concluding part, let us shift our attention to the best in computing products.

But before that, here's a highlight video and some pictures of the awards ceremony that was held on February 27 at the Joyden Hall at Bugis+.

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More Photos from the Awards Ceremony (I)

More Photos from the Awards Ceremony (II)

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

Best Desktop CPU

Both Intel and AMD marked the year of 2012 with different approaches to their desktop CPU offerings. While Intel was marching to its 'Tick-Tock' rhythm by releasing the Ivy Bridge CPUs as the 'Tick' in its chip development model, and boasts of a new 22nm fabrication process with 3D Tri-gate transistors, AMD stuck to the tried and tested 32nm fabrication process, which saw its latest AMD FX-series of Piledriver processors being based off its Bulldozer CPU microarchitecture. For this category, we pitted the best top-end consumer offering from both companies against each other.

Nominees: 

• AMD FX-8350
• Intel Core i7-3770K

And the Winner Is...

Although the Intel CPU is older than its direct AMD competitor (it was launched earlier in April 2012), the Intel Core i7-3770K still triumphs over the AMD FX-8350. With four cores, a 3.5GHz base clock that can reach up to 3.9GHz in turbo mode, the processor also features an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 graphics core. And despite the nagging anemic performance of its graphics core, the processor is able to achieve high levels of performance when paired with a discrete graphics card.

The Intel Core i7-3770K had the upper hand in terms of its performance in daily productivity tasks, video rendering and gaming. Its new 3D Tri-gate transistors were touted to reduce power consumption, and the chip clearly showed its mettle as it had a distinctive edge over the AMD FX-8350, be it when the system was idle, or when it was put through the paces with SPECviewperf 10 or 3DMark Vantage in continuous loop. One of the main advantages of the AMD FX-8350 was its slightly lower price point; however, its meager cost savings did little to salvage the situation.

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 Z77)

Accompanying the launch of the Intel Ivy Bridge processors is the new Intel Z77 Express chipset architecture which has native support for PCIe Gen 3.0, courtesy of the new processors. The main improvement from adopting the new PCIe specification support is the theoretical doubling of maximum graphics bandwidth to 32GB/s (considering bidirectional transfers). Integration of a USB 3.0 controller into the chipset is yet another highlight of this top tier chipset for enthusiasts.

Since its launch, motherboard manufacturers launched various board iterations by incorporating more third-party controllers and other innovative hardware/software features to ensure their boards standout. We looked across the various models and rounded up the widest class of enthusiast Z77 boards available as there are a few really high-end niche models that are very much in their own class. Here then are our nominees:

Nominees: 

• ASRock Z77 Extreme6
• ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe
• Biostar TZ77XE4
• ECS Z77H2-AX
• Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB WiFi
• MSI Z77A-GD65

And the Winner Is...

The Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB WiFi is a feature-rich board that turned in high performance scores consistently during our testing. This is targeted at users who are looking out for a performance-class board but don't intend to empty their wallet. An interesting point to note is that Gigabyte has mounted some of the MOSFETs of the power regulation system at the bottom of the PCB, freeing up precious real estate on the front. The inclusion of an mSATA slot for the installation of a small-capacity mSATA SSD to take advantage of the Intel SRT is a nod to power users who want to speed up their systems, but not spending too much on a large primary SSD unit.

The board has implemented a user-friendly 3D UEFI BIOS utility to make configuring the board’s BIOS a pleasant affair. With its proprietary DualBIOS feature, it allows for users to switch between the BIOSes at their own convenience. To top off its package, there is a bundled PCIe expansion card that offers Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity, all for an attractive price of S$319. With its high performance levels, rich features, and good value, it is in our view the best overall motherboard for the Intel Z77 chipset. 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 A85X)

Despite the introduction of the AMD Trinity desktop APUs that require new motherboards that feature the AMD FM2 CPU socket, and the deluge of such new motherboard designs, availability of these boards are limited and can certainly improve. At our point of evaluation, there weren't many options from our local distributors in terms of securing high-end AMD A85X Socket FM2 boards; hence, we had to settle for a mix of mATX and normal ATX sized boards. Furthermore, there's not too much of a differentiation between both types of boards as there's a lot of integration taking place at the CPU and chipset level. Despite that, we took pains to ensure the features across the boards were competitive enough to be compared, while discounting the usual extra expansion options that one would naturally expect ATX sized boards to offer. Here then are the nominees for this category:

Nominees: 

• ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6
• ASUS F2A85-M
• Gigabyte GA-F2A85XM-D3H
• MSI FM2-A85XA-G65

And the Winner Is...

In terms of general computing performance, the boards all had rather similar performance levels according to the SYSmark 2012 benchmark. As we up the ante to more taxing benchmarks, it was the ATX boards that came out slightly ahead. For gaming pursuits, the differences between the boards were small, but MSI edged ahead most of the time. Only ASRock was tagging along slightly below expectations. The outcome was also the same in our power draw test and chipset temperature checks, where the MSI FM2-A85XA-G65 took the pole position overall.

However, the mATX boards also showed their prowess at the overclocking trails; in fact, the Gigabyte GA-F2A85XM-D3H came in second with our overclocked A10-5800K APU running at 4.68GHz, and it was just beaten by the MSI board which managed to operate our overclocked APU at 4.72GHz. The ASUS F2A85-M mATX board was also a consistent performer as it was always in the top three positions during our benchmarking test; however, we felt that it was a little on the pricey side for what it had to offer.

The other full ATX board was the ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6, and it turned in anemic performance. However, it stood out by having an outstanding feature set. From its proprietary XFast 555 technology to its support for three-way Multi-GPU configurations, it has the makings of an elite high-end board.

Ultimately, the winner for this category is the MSI FM2-A85XA-G65, a board that scored high in both performance and features. It took the top spot in almost all our tests, and its chipset also ran the coolest at 29.0 degrees Celsius under load. It also sports beefy passive VRM cooling. In addition, it sipped power at a low of 141W under load, beating the two mATX boards at their own game. Priced at S$199, this board has boasts of MSI's Military Class III construction for durability (more details of this feature in this article).

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 (DDR3-2133MHz)

With DDR3-1600MHz and DDR-1866MHz becoming the new norm as processors and platforms evolve, we looked ahead of the curve to evaluate the next sweet spot in enthusiast memory modules that can provide good day-to-day performance and room to overclock - all without breaking your bank. While there are many memory module brands in the market, only a handful fit our requirements of being launched during our assessment period and have competitive memory timings to lay claim of being the fastest DDR3-2133MHz memory modules. We narrowed down the nomination to the more popular dual-channel memory kits that are versatile enough for various platforms and have voltage rated no higher than the recommended 1.65V (or lower) for best compatibility with modern AMD and Intel processing platforms. The nominees are as follows:

Nominees: 

• Corsair Dominator Platinum - CMD8GX3M2B2133C9
• Crucial Ballistix Elite - BLE2KIT4G3D213ACE1TX0
• G.Skill RipjawsX - F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM
• Kingston HyperX Predator (T2) - KHX21C11T2K2/8X
• Patriot Viper 3 Intel Extreme Masters Memory, Limited Edition - PVI38G213C1K

And the Winner Is...

From the start of our testing, it was evident that the memory kits from Corsair, Crucial, and G.Skill with their lower latency timings had an advantage over the kits with higher latency timings; i.e., those from Kingston and Patriot Memory. During our temperature tests, the kits from Kingston and Corsair ran the coolest at 28 degrees Celsius, while the G.Skill RipjawsX series ones operated at the highest at 29.5 degrees Celsius.

With their stated latency timings left untouched, we carried out our overclocking trials. In terms of relative gains from their respective base non-overclocked bandwidth performance levels, the kits from Corsair, Kingston and Patriot Memory registered gains that ranged from 11 to 12%. Higher latency memory modules tend to provide more headroom for overclocking; however, the oddball in this mix is the Corsair Dominator Platinum that has a lower stock latency. Its excellent overclocking performance can be attributed to its quality build components as well as its elaborate heatspreader, which has proven to be great aid in keeping temperatures low. It also continued its proud lineage as an enthusiast’s memory module kit as it achieved the highest overclocked frequency of 2,354MHz, which translates to the highest measured bandwidth of 31.426GB/s in this shootout.

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 Graphics Chip 

2012 year was the year of the 28nm graphics chip wars with both AMD and NVIDIA releasing their GCN (Graphics Core Next) and Kepler architecture respectively. While AMD went for pure processing power with its flagship Tahiti XT chip, NVIDIA opted for clever technologies on its GK104 GPU flagship, such as GPU Boost, which dynamically adjusts core clock speeds according to available power levels.

Nominees: 

• AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680

And the Winner Is...

While NVIDIA held a fairly substantial performance lead over AMD when the GTX 680 was first released, driver updates, and the release of the updated AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHZ Edition card had both cards performing fairly evenly by the end of the 2012. However, while the HD 7970 GHz Edition was able to achieve similar scores as the GTX 680, it did so at much higher temperatures, and with much higher power consumption. Its fans were also very loud in operation. As such, we awarded the win to NVIDIA for its combination of high performance, cool and quiet operating temperature, and low power consumption. NVIDIA also gets credit for its innovative GPU Boost technology, which dynamically adjusts the GPU's clock speed according to the operating environment of the graphics card.

Since our original review of both graphics cards were nearly a year ago, as highlighted earlier, performance standings and price points have since changed a fair bit. As such, we've revised their ratings to better reflect its current state and NVIDIA's GTX 680 is still the victor.

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

Since its introduction in 2010, USB 3.0 has slowly but surely become commonplace. Now, it is unthinkable for a new desktop system or notebook PC to ship without USB 3.0 connectivity. Likewise for portable hard disks, 2012 saw a number of new USB 3.0 portable external hard drives hit the market.

To make the cut for this category, the drive must be in offered in a 1TB capacity option and must have USB 3.0 connectivity. As for selecting the winner, we paid close attention to the drives’ raw performance. But that’s not all. Ease of use, bundled software and additional features such as exchangeable interface adapters all play an important part in determining which is the best drive.

Nominees: 

• Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt
• G Technology G Drive Mobile USB
• Imation M300
• Seagate Backup Plus
• Verbatim Store ’n’ Go
• Western Digital My Passport

And the Winner Is...

Though little separated our nominees in terms of performance, the Seagate Backup Plus is our overall top pick because it combines its good performance with an excellent feature-set and great usability. A key to the Seagate’s victory in this highly competitive category is its unique Universal Storage Module (USM) interface. The USM allows users to change the interface of the drive. The drive, by default, comes with a USB 3.0 adapter, but additional adapters that support Thunderbolt and FireWire 800 interfaces can be purchased separately. Furthermore, PC-DIY users would also find its adapter-less form interesting as it can hook up to your system's SATA data and power connections directly, if such flexibility is ever needed.

Seagate’s triumph in this category was also helped by its new Dashboard 2.0 backup software. Not only is the new backup utility intuitive and extremely user-friendly, it also features integration with social media sites like Facebook and Flickr, so users can easily backup their photos. Seagate also promised integration with additional social media services in the near future.

Amongst its competitors, the Imation Apollo Expert M300 came closest to challenging the Seagate Backup Plus with its formidable combination of features and affordability. The Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt deserves special mention too as it combines both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt interfaces in a single enclosure. Here's a snapshot of the performance aspects:-

Take note that we have revised the ratings of some of the drives that were previously reviewed to better factor in the current playing field and new price points since the were first evaluated.

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

2012 was a bumper year for SSDs. Thanks to improved technology, reliability, and perhaps more importantly, reduced costs, SSDs are fast gaining popularity amongst consumers as their preferred choice of storage. And this year’s Tech Awards saw us comparing no less than 10 SSDs - compared to last year's six.

To make the cut, the SSD had to be from the company’s high-end range, be introduced in 2012, offered in either 256GB or 240GB capacities, and have a SATA 6Gbps interface.

Nominees: 

• ADATA SX900
• Corsair Neutron GTX
• Crucial M4
• Intel SSD 520 Series
• Kingston HyperX 3K
• OCZ Vector
• Plextor M5 Pro
• SanDisk Extreme
• Strontium Hawk
• Transcend SSD720

And the Winner Is...

After putting the drives through our grueling tests, one drive stood above the rest, and it was the Corsair Neutron GTX. In our testing, we found it to be the fastest, and one of the most consistent drives. This was mostly due to its unique controller. Unlike most SSDs today which have either a SandForce or Marvell controller, Corsair opted instead to go for the LM87800 controller from Link_A_Media Devices (LAMD).

LAMD is no newcomer to storage controllers, and it has been in the storage business for the past eight years. The LM87800 is not the company’s first SSD controller either, but most of their controllers have been for enterprise use.

However, the controller is only half the story, and although there’s no word if Corsair had a hand in developing the firmware for the drive, we do know that both Corsair and LAMD did collaborate on validation and bug-fixing. The final piece of the puzzle is the NAND memory chips and those found in the Neutron GTX are 24nm Toggle Mode NAND chips from Toshiba.

With the pieces of the puzzle together, the Corsair Neutron GTX was nothing less than a speed demon, blazing through our benchmarks like a hot knife through butter. In our tests, we found it to be consistently the top or amongst the top-performing drives. Performance aside, it offered decent accessories - like an HDD bay installation bracket - and was priced reasonably.

Looking at its competitors, the ones that came closest to challenging the Corsair for the top honor were the Intel SSD 520 Series, OCZ Vector, SanDisk Extreme, and Transcend SSD720. These drives were no slouch in the performance department, but they just weren't as quick as the Corsair. Furthermore, drives like the SanDisk Extreme, whilst fast, lacked basic accessories such as even an adapter. Additionally, the OCZ Vector, though quick, commanded a significant premium.

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-Inch LED-Backlit Monitor

There was a time not long ago when IPS LCD monitors were intended for professional use only. However, as the technology matures, prices have also come falling. And now, the benefits of great viewing angles and color reproduction offered by IPS panels can be enjoyed by all. For this category, we rounded up some of the best consumer monitors on the market. The name of the category handily sums up the criteria imposed as well. All contenders had to feature IPS panels with a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. Screen size was limited to 23 inches as this range had the widest variety of options, and LED backlighting was also made a mandatory requirement. We also fixed the price range for the products between S$250 and S$300, ideal for most consumers.

Nominees: 

• AOC i2367FH
• Dell S2340L
• LG Flatron IPS234V
• Philips Blade 2 C-Line 239C4QHSB
• ViewSonic VX2370Smh

And the Winner Is...

The Dell S2340L handily won the Best Full HD 23-inch LED-backlit Monitor category. With an almost borderless and bezel-less design, along with a glass front face, the monitor looks extremely modern and chic. The Dell S2340L features an AH-IPS panel, and has a decent response time of 7ms. It shone through our testing process as well posting the best white luminescence scores. Its handling of blacks were good too. On content such as the animated Corpse Bride, the monitor delivered deep blacks and excellent contrast. For its all-round dynamic display qualities and beautiful design, the Dell S2340L placed first in our list this year.

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 Ultrabook

When Ultrabooks came onto the scene in late 2011, they seemed to be perfect laptops. They're thin, sexy notebooks that are so portable that you’d think nothing of simply chucking them into your bag. The new Intel third generation 'Ivy Bridge' consumer ultra-low-voltage processors (compulsory in Ultrabooks) in the machines are also powerful enough to handle all the daily productivity and content creation tasks you can throw at it. 

These premium machines even have SSDs that supercharge the read and write speeds over the conventional hard drive, resulting in faster boot, resume, and file transfer times. So instead of waiting for business executives to bring their own Ultrabooks into the office, manufacturers decided to bring all the goodness of Ultrabooks, into the enterprise environment - hence this Business Ultrabook category. The average business Ultrabook looks and behaves like regular Ultrabooks, but they offer increased security functions necessary for the enterprise environment. 

Last year’s Best Enterprise Notebook award recipient, the Toshiba Portege R830, had one major quality that was essential for road warriors - superb battery life. However, because the 13-inch enterprise ready machines in this lineup are all Ultrabooks, just having a good battery life isn't enough anymore. The build quality, durability, portability, and other additional features also play important roles in determining the winner.

Nominees: 

• Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
• Toshiba Portege Z930
• HP Elitebook Folio 9470M
• Dell Latitude 6430u
• Fujitsu Lifebook U772

And the Winner Is...

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a solidly built, thin and light (1.36kg) machine. It’s so well built that if we didn’t factor in battery life, it would have won the category hands down. It’s got a much smaller 45.8Wh battery, which under the Powermark benchmark, lasted for 3 hours and 41 minutes. Luckily for the X1 Carbon, its patented charging technology (Lenovo Rapid Charge) lets you fill it up to 80% in around half an hour. The benefit of this technology might not be immediately obvious to users, but it will come in extremely handy when you need it, especially if you travel often.

And if you do travel often, another very impressive aspect of the X1 Carbon is its mostly carbon fiber chassis. Having that as the main build material makes the X1 Carbon not just light, but strong as well. And like all other ThinkPads, the X1 Carbon has a carbon fiber internal roll cage that protects the X1 Carbon’s key components from shocks.

Thankfully, that’s not where Lenovo stopped at for the X1 Carbon. Open up the machine and you will see the Accutype backlit keyboard. This keyboard is not as comfortable as the one on the Dell 6430u, but it’s not far off. Keys are not too shallow for an Ultrabook, and offer plenty of feedback. They are also slightly indented, which allows for a better feel, thus improving accuracy of typing. And unlike some of the other enterprise notebooks, the X1 Carbon also comes with a large clickable trackpad. All of these small design aspects add up to providing a good user experience.

If you compare it against consumer Ultrabooks with similar components, the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon might seem a bit pricey (S$2,349) and it's not a top performer across the board. However, if you pit it against other enterprise notebooks, its value comes through. Robust build, premium materials, security features, and a high-res (1600 x 900 pixels) display. All-in-all, every aspect of X1 Carbon suggests that it would cost much more, but Lenovo managed to suppress the price of the X1 to a level that’s more palatable. The only thing that the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon needs are more connectivity ports. It’s only got one DisplayPort and two USB ports, and which only one of them is a USB 3.0 port. Here are a few select benchmarks to pinpoint some of its performance aspects:-

*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 Windows 8 Ultrabook

There is no denying that the tablet form factor is taking over the personal computing landscape. With the tablet, comes an additional input option - touch - that has burst out of its 'novelty' shell and gone mainstream in the past few years. A pioneer in touch-based notebooks, Microsoft has not been at the forefront in this area in the past few years. But the company hopes to regain the lead with the help of its latest OS, Windows 8. In order to fully utilize Windows 8, manufacturers are now compelled to add touch input on their flagship Ultrabooks. However, for some manufacturers, simply adding a bit of Gorilla Glass and a touchscreen isn’t enough. Some have even gone out of their way to enable their Ultrabooks to transform into tablets. While we applaud the effort to differentiate their products, we wonder if it will make a difference to its prospective customers. For this category, we rounded up various multi-touch display-equipped, Windows 8-running Ultrabooks.

Nominees:

• Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga
• Acer Aspire S7
• Dell XPS 12
• Sony Vaio Duo 11
• Toshiba Satellite U920t
• Samsung Series 5 Ultra
• HP Envy Touchsmart 4 Ultra

And the Winner Is...

The Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13 is a winner in our eyes on many different levels. Firstly, it’s got a build quality that other notebooks can only dream about. Even many of Lenovo’s own IdeaPad creations could stand to benefit if they’d learn from the Yoga. Its rigid build and the fact that it’s covered in a gorgeous metallic-looking, scratch-proof coat isn’t even the main reason why the Yoga is the winner here. One strong reason, as its name suggests, is that this machine is able to bend its body in ways you’d never thought possible for a notebook.

Thanks to patented (and rigid) hinges, the Yoga’s screen is able to tilt and fold 360 degrees backwards. This gives the Yoga increased functionality over the other Ultrabooks here. On top of its regular laptop and tablet mode (held firmly in place by magnets), the Yoga’s unique bending ability lets it have two extra usage modes - 'Stand' and 'Tent' modes. The two extra modes allow the machine to adapt to more usage scenarios.

While the Yoga doesn’t have the highest resolution screen, we found its 1,600 x 900-pixel display sufficient for a 13-inch notebook, even when used for multimedia consumption. Yes, images might not be as sharp as those on a full HD screen, but this also means that icons and text are displayed at a more comfortable size. And thanks to its IPS panel, it has wider viewing angles compared to screens on other notebooks.

All of these advantages are great, but the Yoga has one other ace to add its crown - its superb battery life. Battery capacity is much larger than the other contenders, allowing it to stay alive unplugged, for 4 hours straight when going through the crunch of our Powermark benchmark test that mimics actual usage from productivity to entertainment tasks. That’s enough to get plenty of work done, lasting nearly an hour longer than the closest competitor.

The only real downside to the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 is that its computing prowess is quite average. But that's the same story with the others, as they sport roughly the same components (CPU, GPU, SSD, and RAM). However, as an entire package with a price tag of S$1,699 (for the base model configured with an Intel Core i5 processors, 128GB SSD model), the Yoga is hard to resist.

*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 Gaming Notebook

Touchscreens, convertible form factors, and ultra portable designs may be all the rage right now, but if you want a notebook that can do it all, you need a desktop replacement gaming machine. For this category of Best Gaming Notebook, we assessed notebooks that come with a full HD 17-inch screen, quad-core Intel 'Ivy Bridge' Core i7 processor, and a performance-oriented single discrete GPU.

Nominees: 

• Aftershock X17
• ASUS G75VW
• Dell Alienware M17X R4
• MSI GT70 0NE
• Razer Blade
• Toshiba X870

And the Winner Is...

MSI’s GT70 0NE is our winner in this category for its superb performance (in which, only Aftershock’s X17 was able to match it), as well as excellent battery life and better overall features. We love its Steelseries keyboard and 2.1-channel speaker setup with built-in subwoofer, as well as the addition of dedicated line-in and line-out audio ports, which let you use the system’s speaker setup if you’re lacking good audio output from your portable devices, or if you want to connect to a full-sized sound system. Combine this with its Blu-ray burner and matte full HD screen, and the GT70 doubles up as an excellent movie-watching machine. We also appreciate the addition of the Bigfoot Killer Gaming network module, which had a small but noticeable effect on reducing network latency during our online gaming tests. Here's a snapshot of some of the benchmarks from testing the six gaming notebooks:-

*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 802.11ac Wireless Router

For this category, we rounded up four true dual-band (2.4 and 5GHz) wireless routers that support the draft 802.11ac standard. Being three stream devices, they support a maximum link rate of 450Mbps for the N standard, as well as 1,300Mbps for the draft AC standard. These routers are all priced under S$350 and were available during our evaluation period.

Nominees: 

• ASUS RT-AC66U
• D-Link DIR-865L
• Linksys EA6500
• Netgear R6300

And the Winner Is...

Apart from Netgear, the RT-AC66U is one of the preliminary 802.11ac routers to enter the market. Design-wise, it bears similar looks as its RT-N66U predecessor, so there's nothing really new here. The ASUS router features a nice spread of Gigabit WAN and LAN offerings, plus two USB ports with excellent network support for printers, storage devices, and 3G adapters. The upgraded ASUSWRT interface is a positive touch. We like its attractive layout and comprehensive networking features, including AiDisk (file sharing via the cloud), Network Print Server, plus Media Server support for iTunes, FTP, and Samba. The pre-loaded IPTV profiles and QoS rules are useful too. The real strength of this router, however, lies with its AC performance on the 5GHz band. Its throughput performance remains unsurpassed by those from D-Link, Netgear, and Linksys to-date. This makes the ASUS RT-AC66U a formidable router if streaming HD clips is what you have in mind.

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

While laser printers have always been an office staple, inkjet printers are fast catching up in terms of speed, with many touting 'laser-like' print quality. And don't forget an inkjet printer's ability to produce high-quality graphics and photos. Throw in a scanner, copier, and fax machine, and an all-in-one (AIO) inkjet printer makes for a very compelling addition to home users as well as small business owners. In this category, we take a look at three such inkjet multi-taskers that are targeted for SOHO usage. Our criteria is simple: besides print, copy, and scan, they must also do fax, and cost no more than S$500.

Nominees: 

• Canon Pixma MX897
• Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4521
• HP Officejet Pro 6700 Premium

And the Winner Is...

In terms of design and size, the Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4521 is the largest AIO here, and thus may not be suitable for those working in small work areas. However, the buttons on the control panel are afforded a good deal of space due to its larger size, though the 2.5-inch LCD display does look small compared to the others. The WP-4521 has Epson’s own mobile printing app, Epson iPrint, that allows users to print photographs, PDF files, and documents from many cloud storage services such as Google Docs, Evernote, Dropbox, and Box.net. However, the catch is that while the other models have built-in Wi-Fi support, the WP-4521 doesn't, and so will need to be connected via wired LAN before you can print remotely. Also, the WP-4521 is the fastest in all our tests and has a print quality that's consistently among the top two. 

 Photo Print Quality

*Note: For comparison purpose, our selected results above include the Brother MFC-J825DW. However this printer is out of the running for this category as it's an old model that doesn't fit into our selection criteria that required products to be introduced between December 2011 and November 2012.

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 MFP

It's definitely handy to be able to print in color, but if all you print are monochrome documents, then perhaps it's wiser to invest in a quality mono laser printer. Laser printers are especially useful for printing high volumes of documents, thanks to their fast print speeds, high text print quality, and high duty cycle, compared to inkjet printers. For this category, we shortlisted four multifunction printers (MFPs) designed for SOHO and small business use. Besides print, copy, scan, and fax functions, these four MFPs also come with network support and a duplex automatic document feeder (DADF).

Nominees: 

• Brother MFC-8910DW
• Canon Imageclass MF4890dw
• Fuji Xerox DocuPrint M355 df
• HP LaserJet Pro M425dw

And the Winner Is...

Speed and text print quality matter most for a laser printer that's used in the office. And these are the areas where the Fuji Xerox DocuPrint M355 df excels. Be it print (even for duplex) or copy, the DP M355 df ranked one of the fastest consistently. If speed is your only consideration, the Brother MFC-8910DW is a speed demon, as it easily achieved 40ppm, as opposed to M355 df's 35ppm. But the latter's print quality sports more finesse for quite a bit less money. Its copy quality was deemed to be good too, as it produced duplicates that weren't far off the originals. Also, it topped the charts at both document and photo print scans. This is certainly good news for users who prefer to archive their stuff than to print them out. When the DP M355 was first launched in August last year, it was lacking in terms of mobile printing options. But the latest Print Utility for iOS app is now updated to support it, so that you can print webpages, photos, and PDF/DocuWorks documents from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Considering what it's capable of at just S$659, the Fuji Xerox DP M355 df is an easy recommendation. The only feature that we hope it'd have is built-in Wi-Fi support (it does support wired LAN though).

Copy Quality

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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