Top 100 Products of 2008

The ASUS Rampage II Extreme is the ultimate overclocker's board. ASUS has added even more extreme features for this edition, based on Intel's latest X58 chipset for the Core i7. With the overclocking numbers to back its features, this board will be a top choice when attempting overclocking world records.

RIM has a gem of a device with its latest BlackBerry Bold. Its successfully popular QWERTY keyboard is now joined by an aesthetic design befitting the sleek and smart business executive. And bonuses on the Bold includes Wi-Fi, HSDPA and of course, its primary BlackBerry Enterprise Server. We call this device with its faux leather casing - the head turner.

Whoever said size matters obviously have not heard of Bose, and more specifically its new Computer Music Monitors. Despite its small size, it will easily put larger speakers to shame thanks to opposing passive radiators that cancel each other's mechanical vibrations.

With YouTube leading the way for user created videos, the device that taps into this trend is the Flip Mino portable camcorder. Simple and user friendly, the Flip Mino is the hip device to own for those who have always wanted to quickly get into the recording and not about the settings.

The HTC Touch Pro is another rare find. Though seemingly thicker and chunky, it does come with a strong performance suite that includes a Qualcomm 528MHz processor and 288MB and 512MB ROM. But what makes it stunningly good, is the slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard that made us type non-stop on this member of the HTC Touch family.

The GeForce 9600 GSO SKU was written off by graphics card enthusiasts even before it was released. Thankfully, XFX has taken their magic and breathed new life into it, giving us the GeForce 9600 GSO XXX Edition. Overclocked to levels bordering on pure insanity, this card has the power to take down its more illustrious GeForce 9600 GT cousins.

AMD's fortunes needed a boost and the 'Shanghai' Opteron is a timely introduction. With a shrink to the 45nm process that enabled higher clocks on the CPU, coupled with internal architectural enhancements that improved power efficiency and performance, this new chip is a ready upgrade for existing AMD Opteron users and should keep the company competitive till Intel starts churning out server grade Core i7 processors.

Though late to the scene, what makes the Motorola ZN5's 5-megapixel camera impressive was the collaboration with Kodak. Amongst most other 5-megapixel cameras within the year, we have to say the ZN5 took the top spot in the year 2008 until the coming of the 8-megapixel devices.

Enermax's Revolution 85+ PSU is one of the best when it comes to high power efficiency while maintaining stable voltages and low, cool temperatures. With outstanding build quality and some new technologies, this is the PSU to get for the year if price is not an issue.

Intel's Core i7 processors represent a major architectural shift towards greater bandwidth and even greater multi-core processing capabilities. Meant to form the foundation for upcoming generations of Intel processors, the Core i7 has shown much promise in these areas based on our benchmarking and we'll be seeing this architecture in more processors next year.

If you thought the standard HD 4870 X2 was big, you haven't seen anything yet. Occupying three slots and boasting dual fans, the Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe is the quad-stacker of graphics cards. Nothing in our labs was nearly as huge. Furthermore, it comes factory-overclocked to push ahead of the already fast reference card. This is one radical graphics card.

Once more, the Archos portable media player lineup managed to impress us for another year. This time, the huge 7-inch Archos 7 Internet Media Tablet caught our attention with its myriad of features and comfortable screen size. For us, it's either the best, or the smallest. With the Archos 7, it is the best.

With its mainstream offerings, the X25-M and X18-M solid state drives (SSD), Intel has entered the market with a bang. These new drives boast speeds that are heads and shoulders above the existing competition, thanks to its proprietary controller. The use of the less expensive multi level cell (MLC) technology also makes it more viable for mainstream users.

Audiophiles will probably fall head over heels in love with this music masterpiece from Sony Ericsson. The W980 has not only won an award in the recent 2008 European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) Awards for its superb sound quality, it has also won a spot in our Top 100 products of 2008 for the same reason.

The Notepal Infinite is an extremely well thought-out notebook cooling pad. It does well in bringing down the temperatures of your notebook, and at the same time also serves as a 4-port high speed USB hub. Also, the fact that it looks pretty good doesn't hurt at all.

Another motherboard that targets the overclocking enthusiast, the Foxconn Blackops is based on Intel's enthusiast class X48 chipset and gives unprecedented access for tweaking to overclockers with its extensive BIOS settings. Along with features that caters to this segment, it deserves a mention for bringing overclocking back into the spotlight.

We've had much luck with the compact digital cameras for this year. One of them would be the Canon Digital IXUS 80IS. Its strengths come in two forms; firstly, its affordability and comfortable Form factor. Going deeper, the performance of the IXUS 80IS ranks high with balanced amount of colors, white balance and resolution.

For a long time, NVIDIA has been the undisputed numero uno in the graphics card scene and it was getting boring, but not any more thanks to ATI's new Radeon HD 4800 series. With it, ATI has launched an impressive comeback that has left NVIDIA reeling with countermeasures to reposition its offerings.

Its lack of an optical drive did not stop people from buying it. Neither did its lack of an Ethernet port nor replaceable battery. Heck, even reports of it overheating didn't stop people from buying it. Never before has a notebook conjured such feelings of lust, longing and desire.

After months of development, we see the birth of a new mobile phone operating system. Dubbed as Android, this new Google OS made its debut on HTC's G1. With a flooded market of Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 devices, it'll be interesting to see how this new player will bring the competition to these giants in the upcoming future. So far, sales of the G1 appear to be healthy.

Newly adopted by Apple for widespread use in its refresh of its MacBooks, the latest motherboard chipset with integrated graphics from NVIDIA, the GeForce 9400 mGPU easily trumps the competition from Intel. With a built-in GeForce 8400-class GPU inside, this is one chipset that can satisfy your multimedia and gaming needs at a relatively modest budget.

The new LED Cinema Display was clearly designed specifically with MacBook users in mind as it comes with an integrated MagSafe charger, three USB ports, and the new mini-Displayport video connector. If money was no object, this would definitely be the screen of choice for MacBook users.

The Canon HD10 Camcorder is probably one of the best AVCHD camcorder we've seen in 2008. Great shots under low lighting conditions, sharp resolutions with deep and rich colors make this Canon camcorder the king of the crop.

The flagship Viera series of LCD HDTV from Panasonic, the TX-37LZ800 comes with the company's new IPS Alpha LCD panels that promise viewing angles of up to 178 degrees vertically and horizontally. 1080p resolution, a high contrast ratio of 10,000:1 and a 100MHz Motion Focus technology together with a new processing engine makes it a serious competitor.

Easily one of the best gaming keyboard we've seen this year. Features a switchable keypad, in-game macro recording, time sensitive macros and adjustable backlighting, this keyboard is a gamer's wet dream come true, and if used correctly, will certainly give you the winning edge.

This prosumer entry from Canon is considered to be a big upgrade from the G9. Now equipped with a 28mm lens, this is the first camera in the G series that incorporates a wider lens, making many Canon fans happy. With the sensor packing 14.7MP (up from the G9's 12.1), the G10 produces excellent shots, allowing for generally all-rounded photography.

Excellent data transfer speeds and a great web-based interface makes the Synology DS408 one of the outstanding NAS devices out there now. The many functions make it suitable for both the power user and even the small office and business.

The luster of NVIDIA's GTX 280 may have been somewhat dulled by ATI's Radeon HD 4800 series of cards, but the GeForce GTX 280 is still the fastest single GPU out there. And thanks to constant driver upgrades by NVIDIA, it remains an excellent choice for gamers.

Sony continues to excel when it comes to high-end HDTVs and its latest KDL40W4500 is the most recent example. Upgraded with 100MHz Motionflow picture processing technology, it has smooth standard definition playback. Not to mention that this HDTV has outstandingly rich black levels and looks great and sharp when playing HD content.

The D700 utilizes a similar sensor as its elder sibling, the D3, and also has the same ISO sensitivity, allowing you to capture somewhat usable photos in especially dim lighting situations with ISO25600. It also makes for an excellent backup to the multi-award winning D3, as many photographers have experienced first hand.

We've seen lots of wireless earphones running on Bluetooth technology. But the Sennheiser MX W1, unveiled during CES 2008 and tested with our ears, was nothing short of splendid for sound reproduction with no discernible signal loss using its Kleer technology. It might be the herald of what's to come for wireless earphones.

While there have been other such media players before, Western Digital's WD TV HD media player combines a simple, hassle-free, user-friendly interface with multiple file format support, including up to 1080p videos and subtitles. A quiet player with a competitive price tag, it certainly deserves a spot in our list.

The iPod Nano seems to have been around forever and the latest iteration of the tiny portable media player shows us why it is still the best in the game. Proudly boasting a crystal clear 2-inch screen, and up to 16GB memory, this is the yardstick by which all ultra portable media players are judged.

At 24.6-megapixel, the A900 currently holds the title of having the highest megapixel count for a full-frame DSLR. While reports have stated that they've captured the #3 spot when it comes to DSLR sales in some markets, we think the A900 is just a first of many more DSLRs to come. Watch for it.

Man's inexhaustible and unyielding quest for more storage space has just gotten a helping hand from Seagate with their Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive, which boasts capacities up to 1.5TB - a first for consumer hard disks.

When ATI launched its Radeon HD 4800 series, their flagship card the HD 4870 was fast, but it was still slower than NVIDIA's GTX 280. So ATI took two HD 4870 GPUs and stuffed them on a single PCB, and called its monstrous dual-GPU creation the HD 4870 X2. Needless to say, it was faster than the GTX 280 and for the first time in a long time, reclaimed the title of "fastest graphics card" from NVIDIA.

If 2008 is the year of the netbook, then it's only fitting that the Intel Atom processor is on our list as the chip doing all the leg work for the 8.9 and 10-inch netbooks.

Classy, sexy and elegant is the extremely portable 13.1-inch Sony VAIO Z that features on-the-fly switchable graphics allowing users to choose between more battery life and performance as needed. Hot!

While the original Cosmos 1000 was pretty impressive, the Cosmos Storm took it up a notch with improved features while keeping the same gorgeous looks.

The overwhelming success of the DS Lite aside, Nintendo's latest DSi is all set to bring in the doubters with its built-in camera, browser and a first to their portable consoles: a SD card expansion slot.

CPU coolers are dime and a dozen, but Xigmatek's Heatpipe Direct Touch technology on its Red Scorpion adds a unique twist by making the heatpipes connect directly with the CPU instead of via a heatsink plate. Silent and effective, this is a CPU cooler to grab if you're looking at something other than stock cooling.

While the MSI Wind Netbook U100 wasn't particularly outstanding in our review, it was a great all-rounder and in recent times, we must say that it's been making waves among the enthusiast community for being very mod-friendly. OSX Wind Netbooks anyone?

The first phone to sport a 5-megapixel lens and a Xenon flash, the Nokia N82 changed the way phones with cameras were perceived. No longer content to play second fiddle, these phones could deliver high quality images comparable to standard point-and-shoot cameras

Intel's mainstream P45 chipset has been quickly adopted by many vendors but the ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe stood out from the competition with its strong performance, build quality and well-designed layout. The proprietary ASUS features like Express Gate and Memory OC Charger only enhance the attractiveness of this board.

The Razer Mako is what we call a 2.1 speaker system that isn't like a 2.1 speaker. The Mako created a sound environment that beats most other 5.1 speakers, and packs enough juice in its bass. Steep as it may be, the Mako will also put a few 5.1 speakers to shame.

While mobile phones keep making headlines, mobile accessories on the other hand always take a backseat to their more lust-worthy counterparts. But things are set to change with the BlueAnt Z9i. Possibly the only Bluetooth headset to beat the much-applauded Alphine Jawbone, this baby delivers good audio quality even when you are passing through the drones of the subway deep underground.

Aluminum fans will love this behemoth casing from Lian Li which sports excellent features and design aesthetics that could have melted the coldest of wallets (which it did with its expensive price tag).

It's hard not to smile when you unpack the newest SELPHY. Canon's been pushing the edge of portable, user-friendly photo printers with its SELPHY line, but with the CP770 they've taken user-friendliness to the next level. Printing with the CP770 is fast and consistent and photos print beautifully. It's the closest we've seen so far to a lifestyle product that a photo printer has come to, with plenty of heart built in.

The Panasonic PT-AE3000 Home Theater Projector is a 1080p projector with a brightness level of 1600 ANSI lumens and 60000:1 contrast. It combines great image quality with interesting extras like split-screen calibration, frame creation for smoother playback and frame response for faster playback. It's a definite successor to the already highly capable and award winning AE2000 model from last year.

In a netbook race to the finish for the best battery life, the Eee PC 901 beats the rest of the 8.9-inchers for its brethren like a Duracell bunny on steroids thanks to its excellent 6-cell battery. None has bested its record and we think it would be that way for a long while to come.

HP's latest incarnation of its TouchSmart series, the IQ500, improves greatly upon its older processor with a much better design, performance and price point, while still keeping its great interface and usability intact.

The possibility for digital SLR-quality images without the bulk of an optical mirror and viewfinder assembly could appeal to many, and the Panasonic G1 is a pretty good proof of this concept.

As one of the first PSUs to be awarded with the 80 PLUS Silver certification, there's no doubting that the Cooler Master Ultimate Circuit Protection (UCP) series of high wattage PSUs have one of the highest power efficiency numbers for its class. Add to that its support for multi-GPU configurations and high quality components and you'll find a solid PSU that will last for a while.

Billed as the "funnest" iPod ever, the second generation of the iPod Touch 2G was slimmer, sexier and boasted a faster processor clock speed and built-in speakers.

Aluminum fans will love this behemoth casing from Lian Li which sports excellent features and design aesthetics that could have melted the coldest of wallets (which it did with its expensive price tag).

MacBook Air killer the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 was not - but it still had a blazing good design with an ultra-fast SSD. Lust away, ThinkPad fans!

An unique open-air design that seems ideal for enthusiasts who are constantly upgrading their components, the Antec Skeleton exposes your PC components to the outside environment. Together with its 92mm fan, heat won't be an issue anymore, though dust could be.

It may be as simple as mounting its successful IceQ range of VGA coolers on the popular Radeon HD 4850, but HIS' take on this - HIS Radeon HD 4850 IceQ4 Turbo X - scores for both its gaming performance and low operating temperatures. A power draw that's lower than the reference design makes it one of the best Radeon HD 4850 cards we have seen this year.

The newest model from Panasonic's Toughbook line is not only tough, it's also light and handy, as it comes with a built-in retractable handle that's really, really handy. Add to that its very decent battery life and we have a winner.

The latest favorite of overclockers for its excellent overclocking potential, the Core 2 Duo E8600 comes with a new E0 stepping that is said to enable higher speed bins. Attempts by overclockers to push this processor have resulted in clock speeds of up to 6.7GHz, a dramatic improvement over its default 3.33GHz.

If you're looking for a gigabit router that can (almost) do it all, this N ProMAx router from SMC was a decent one that fit this requirement perfectly. It uses a StreamEngine for media streaming, touts a print server and WPS all at an affordable price.

One of the first motherboards from Gigabyte to feature its new Ultra Durable 3 technology, the GA-EP45-UD3P is another typically polished product from the company that runs cool thanks to the extra dose of copper in the PCB. Decent performance with ample room for overclocking completes the package.

From the FX33, to the FX36 and now the FX38. Building upon its successful LUMIX compacts, the FX38 comes with new features such as AF tracking, higher optical zoom at 5x, and an Auto Backlight Compensation mode and Digital Red-Eye Correction added to the iA mode. Major improvements, however, are not found within, and it probably won't be required.

Viewsonic's VLED221wm was a monitor that had everything going for it - LED backlit, nice 22-inch screen realty and the extra vibrant color hues. It's just a shame this great product failed to make it in the consumer arena due to it above average pricing.

One of the most sexiest notebooks to be announced this year, the HP Voodoo Envy 133 literally causes what its name suggests, though we don't suggest you start sticking pins into dolls to get one. Sporting a dual-carbon casing, the slim and shiny notebook makes up for what it lacks in performance with raw sex appeal.

Philip's 56-inch Quad Full HD 3DTV just rocks on so many levels. For starters, its Quad HD resolution of 3840x2160 is four times that of a normal SD display. It's also a 3D TV without the need for glasses and lastly, it's going to rock your wallets with its US$25,000 price tag.

Western Digital's VelociRaptor has been around for a while and chiefly known for its blazing fast 10,000RPM disk performance. The latest iteration now comes in 2.5-inch form factor, along with an expanded capacity of 300GB and using SATA 3.0Gbps. A generous 16MB of onboard cache is also included. Best of all, Western Digital claims it runs cooler than the previous generation.

A very quiet 80mm PWM fan coupled with modular cables and one of the best power efficiency numbers for its wattage, Antec's new Signature range of PSU exudes quality with its Japanese-made capacitors and solid performance.

Keyboards used to be boring things. The only thing that is even mildly interesting about them is the backlight that some of them have. The Optimus Maximus, however, takes the keyboard and completely redefines it, by turning its key into tiny individual displays thus allowing the possibility of changing layouts at the press of a button. This is the keyboard from the future.

On the AMD platform, no other chipset with integrated graphics comes close to the overall performance of the AMD 780G. Thanks to its blend of performance, cool operation and power efficiency, the 780G is also used in AMD's Puma platform for notebooks.

While it may not have as many overclocking friendly features as the ASUS Rampage II Extreme, Gigabyte's own Extreme, the EX58 does a great job of blending usability with the overclocking extras. A cool, power efficient board that's low-maintenance enough for normal use.

Going green has become increasingly important and Western Digital attempts to help you save some energy with its Caviar Green range. With capacity of up to 1GB and a variable rotation speed depending on usage, this drive can reduce power consumption of up to 40% compared to the typical desktop hard drive. It's also very quiet so we'll take the slight performance penalty gladly and give it our thumbs up.

8-megapixel camera phones weren't much of a surprise to us. What did surprise us, was the imaging quality that came from the Samsung INNOV8. With a well-balanced color contrast and sharp imaging resolutions, the INNOV8 came close to the performance level of compact digital cameras.

We've seen a myriad of Windows Mobile devices on the market, but Sony Ericsson's entry onto this scene with the Xperia X1 gave a few new perspectives in the form of its flexible X-Panel interface. Couple that with a 3.0-inch VGA screen and its 3.5mm audio jack aimed for multimedia features, the X1 has managed to snare consumers' hearts in its ensuing launch.

There have been many attempts to design the best motherboard with integrated graphics and currently, Gigabyte's GA-MA78GM-S2H is one of the top contenders. Based on AMD's acclaimed 780G chipset, Gigabyte has crafted a well designed board with all the features needed to build a very good home theater PC setup around it. It's hard to find a better choice for the AMD platform.

The Brother HL-2140 is easily one of the best printers we've seen all year. Boasting impressive print speeds of up to 23ppm, it also prints up to 2400 x 600 dpi, ensuring your letters, reports and documents always look their best. What's more, it is easy to set up and takes up the littlest of space.

If you are a frequent traveler and find it hard to sleep because of the rumble from the plane's jet engines, then maybe you should invest in a pair of noise-canceling headphones. And if you are investing in a pair of noise-canceling headphones, be sure to give Audio-Technica's ATH-ANC7 a spin. Boasting efficient noise-canceling, its audio quality is of undeniable audiophile quality.

If accurate built-in color profiles are a must, then the DreamColor by HP should be top of your list. As the world's only 30-bit color-critical LCD built on HP DreamColor Engine technology, a contrast ratio of 1000:1, a native color gamut of 133%.and seven color space presets, the DreamColor is the king of color fidelity at the moment.

The Finnish manufacturer got a sleeper hit with the Nokia E71. Slimmer and sleeker than its predecessor, the Nokia E61, this updated version has also gotten the official nod from Nokia as their most successful Nokia device for 2008. We definitely agree with them just from its slim svelte design, yet easy to use QWERTY keyboard.

The Razer Salmosa brings legendary Razer quality mouse-tracking to the masses. It might be a simple mouse, but it does what it was meant to do extremely well. Smooth as tofu and as quick as greased lightning, this is the gaming mouse for gamers on a budget.

The new Macbook Pro not only looks good (thanks to its new unibody design), but it also has dual-GPUs that gives users more flexibility. The onboard integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M processor offers more than enough graphics-crunching power for everyday tasks, while the discrete NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT processor allows users to take things up a notch if need be. The serious Machead's notebook of choice.

HD video cameras have never been considered cheap so what's a budding film maker to do if HD is desired? Sony's XDCAM PMW-EX3 attempts to address this with its full HD capabilities and a host of other useful features. Best of all, its price point in its class is unmatched for its quality.

When Samsung released the i780, mass hysteria broke loose. And it's not because the phone was a slim and sexy Windows Mobile handheld, or even the fact that it had a powerful processor. And no, it wasn't even due to its good battery life to boot. But what tickled the fancy of many tech geeks was the surprisingly low asking price and the extra tidbits that it came with - like an extra battery, GPS software and then some.

The GeForce 9600 GT might be considered old technology by now, but the reason it's still around is because it is one of best mid-range GPU. It is affordable, yet has enough juice to run nearly all of today's games. More importantly, ATI has yet to come up with a convincing counter to this particular SKU.

Custom coolers for high-end graphics cards are a rarity, so you can imagine how surprised we were when PowerColor announced the PCS+ HD 4870. Not only did the custom PCS+ cooler keep the temperatures of the scorching hot 4870 GPU down, the PCS+ HD 4870 also happens to be the fastest Radeon HD 4870 card we've tested this year.