Alienware X51

Alienware X51. The Alienware X51 fits everything a serious gamer needs into a compact chassis. The desktop has a full-size hard drive, desktop-class quad-core processor, and, best of all, a 150-watt discrete graphics card with multimonitor support. PC gaming is arguably "better" than console gaming because systems like the X51 can easily drive more than one monitor, and PC games can be modified by the gaming public to enhance or even radically change game play elements. Want to mash up the Star Trek and Star Wars universes on a console? You're out of luck. On a PC, it's almost a sure bet that there's a universe-bending mod for your space opera game of choice. The Alienware X51 is an excellent portal to any fictional universe, and our latest Editors' Choice for entry-level gaming desktop PCs.

Design and Features
The X51 marks the start of a new design philosophy for Alienware gaming rigs: small form factor (SFF). While there have been plenty of SFF media PCs in the past, SFF gaming PCs are relatively rare. That's because the half-height graphics cards that fit in budget SFF PCs are unimpressive performers, highlighted by the fact that integrated graphics have caught up to the cheap $25-50 graphics cards on the game benchmark tests. The X51 turns the design paradigm (literally) on its ear by shifting the PCIe x16 connector so that a dual-slot wide graphics card can fit in the SFF chassis. The last system to try this method that we looked at was the AVADirect GT3 Core i7. The result is virtually everything you need in a gaming PC is in the system. But doing so means that there really is no internal expansion room whatsoever, so if you want better components, you'll have to swap something out rather than just add on. Though the interior is full, getting to components is easy. Undoing three screws is all it takes to pop out the graphics card, and the hard drive is mounted right beneath the graphics card. The power supply is an external one, which helps keep the chassis interior uncluttered, but make sure you have some room on your floor for the 330-watt brick.

Inside the chassis, you'll find a quad-core Intel Core i5-2320 processor, 8GB of DDR3 memory, a 1TB 7,200rpm hard drive, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi card, and a slot-loading DVD burner. You really don't need too much else, since the system supports multiple monitors out of the box. Like the Alienware Aurora, the X51 comes with user-customizable lighting effects. There are three lighting zones on the X51, so you can make them all the same color, all different colors, or any combination of the three. Alienware's Command Center software controls the lighting effects and power usage, and you can even tailor each to correspond to what game you're playing. For example, you can turn the fans down and put red lights on for viewing DVDs, or turn the fans up and set the lights to Jedi green when playing Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The front of the system has the usual backlit alien head Alienware logo, flanked by the lit color panels. Next to the slot-loading DVD drive on the front are two USB 2.0 ports and two audio jacks for a headset. On the back, you'll find a Kensington lock port, TOSlink and RCA jack for digital audio out, an HDMI port for the internal Intel HD Graphics 2000, six USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, analog audio ports, and two DVI-I ports and mini HDMI on the graphics card. Using a combination of the DVI ports, the motherboard HDMI port, and the mini HMDI port, you can use up to three monitors with the X51. Two connected to the graphics card and one to the HDMI port on the motherboard. Obviously, you'd want your game play on the monitor(s) connected to the graphics card, but the extra HDMI port is useful for keeping a browser window, IM window, or even watching a movie on the second (or third) monitor. Having multiple monitors running off the same PC will save you the hassle of balancing a tablet or notebook on your lap while storming the Hutt stronghold on your main screen.

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Lenovo IdeaCentre A720

Lenovo IdeaCentre A720. The IdeaCentre A720 looks to be in that same spirit. It uses an arm with two points of articulation to smoothly swing the screen up to vertical, then back down to horizontal. In the vertical position, the screen is in the traditional position for use with a keyboard and mouse. Closer to horizontal, and the screen works well as a touchscreen, like when you use a tablet. Since the horizontal screen can be placed at the same angle as a keyboard, it is much less fatiguing than holding your arm out straight to manipulate the screen in a vertical position. The design embraces the modern minimalism that's so trendy today: the base has a slot-loading optical drive, the display is frameless (it feels like one solid pane of glass to your fingers), and the screen itself is slim since the internal components are built into the base. The system's 27-inch screen is sure to be true 1080p HD (1,920 by 1,080 resolution) or better, with ten multi-touch points so you can use all of your fingers simultaneously. 27-inches matches the current generation of large-screen iMacs, and is sure to be joined by other manufacturers with 27-inch all in one PCs of their own.

Since the system is placed at the top of Lenovo's product offerings, it comes with lots of high-end options, including multi-core Intel processors, up to Nvidia GeForce GT 630M discrete graphics, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, up to 1TB of hard drive space, an optional solid-state drive (for bootup), DVD or Blu-ray drive, USB 3.0, HDMI in and out, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth, and an optional TV tuner. It's ready for Windows 8, with the aforementioned 10-point multitouch and high end hardware.

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Lenovo IdeaCentre B540

Lenovo IdeaCentre B540. The Lenovo IdeaCentre B540 is a large screen touch-enabled all-in-one desktop PC made for the media enthusiast. It packages a number of desirable technologies in a compact, easy to setup package.

Design and Features
The Lenovo IdeaCentre B540 comes in a newly redesigned chassis, which is more svelte than older Lenovo IdeaCentre B500 series systems. Like many all-in-one desktops, the B540's components are built into the screen, which follows the easel style: The screen rests on two removable feet, with an easel-like stand in the rear propping up the screen. The hinge and screen support are much less complex than Lenovo's other new all-in-one form factor on the Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 . A benefit to the easel style is that you can easily slide the keyboard underneath the system when you're not using it, another is the optional VESA mount, which lets you bolt the B540 to the wall or an articulating arm. The IdeaCentre B540 comes with a seamless glass panel over its touch screen, which allows the user to use the whole touch sensitive surface: older indented touch screens are a little less precise at the edges of the screen.
The IdeaCentre B540 is designed to be a video enthusiast desktop. It includes instant-on TV viewing using a built-in HDTV tuner. You don't even need to turn the Windows 7 system on to watch TV. Other video enthusiast features include 3D (with glasses), true 1080p HD (1,920 by 1,080 resolution) screen, and Blu-ray option, so you can use the B540 as a 23-inch desktop theater. The IdeaCentre B540 can be equipped with a multi-core Intel Core processor and up to 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 650M for a rich 3D gaming experience. The B540 can handle up to a 2TB hard drive, comes with Wi-Fi, wireless keyboard and mouse.

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Lenovo ThinkStation E30

Lenovo ThinkStation E30. The Lenovo ThinkStation E30 has an attractive marketing angle: It's an ISV-certified system, with an Intel Xeon processor and a true Nvidia workstation video card, for less money than you'd pay for some run-of-the-mill performance business desktops. It's hampered in a few areas, but if you're looking for certified systems for your demanding users, the E30 is a sensible entry-level workstation.

The Lenovo ThinkStation E30 is a good way to dip your toe in the world of ISV-certified professional workstations. It's faster than similarly priced business desktops, and could be a factor in obtaining and fulfilling your next business contract work. Faster than a run-of-the-mill desktop. ISV certified. Well marked interior. No USB 3.0 or eSATA ports. Limiting 280-watt power supply. 4GB of RAM is light for a workstation.

Design and Features
The E30 looks like a standard tower, with the addition of an easy-to-use handle on the top that lets you easily move the system from one cubicle to another. The perforated front panel of the E30 is all business: two USB 2.0 ports, audio jacks, a digital media card reader, and a DVD burner. But it's a party in the back, with six more USB 2.0 ports, more audio jacks, Ethernet, serial port, and DVI and DisplayPort jacks (on the discrete Quadro 600 video card). The system's low price explains why it lacks high-speed ports like USB 3.0 and eSATA, but these are standard on $400-$500 media PCs and should really be included here. The rest of the chassis is painted black metal, as you'd expect of a corporate-oriented PC.

There's plenty of room inside for upgrades. You can add (now or in the future) an additional 3.5-inch hard drive, a second optical drive, as many as three more DIMMs (the E30 comes with only 4GB of RAM), two PCI cards, and one PCI Express x1 card. But the power supply is somewhat limited: It maxes out at only 280 watts. Granted, the Quadro 600 uses only up to 40 watts and the Xeon E3-1230 processor up to 80 watts, but that still gives you a fairly low ceiling for planning future upgrades. The "touch points" in the chassis are marked in Lenovo blue, so you know where to push to pop out hard drives or slide in drive sleds. The system can be upgraded without using a screwdriver, a plus if you need to replace hard drives regularly.

The system comes with a standard 500GB 7,200rpm SATA hard drive, though faster 10,000rpm hard drives and solid-state drives are also options; and RAID Level 0 and RAID Level 1 are supported on the motherboard. There's also a TPM chip for added security. The power supply is 80Plus Bronze certified, the system is GreenGuard certified, and the whole shebang has EPEAT Gold certification. The system is very quiet, thanks to the low power usage in the Quadro 600 card and Xeon processor. As mentioned, the system is ISV certified, so you're covered in case you need support or if ISV certification is a mandatory checkbox on your contracts for projects.

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit came preinstalled on our test unit, but the E30 also supports 32-bit Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows XP (both Professional and x64 Edition), and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Like most Lenovo desktops, the system comes with the Lenovo Rescue and Recovery utility and the Lenovo update manager. The ThinkStation E30 is mostly free of other bloatware, as it should be. About the only other software applications you'll find are Office 2010 Starter, a shortcut for Skype, and an installer for Norton Internet Security.

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HP Compaq 8200 Elite All-in-One PC

HP Compaq 8200 Elite All-in-One PC. The HP Compaq 8200 Elite All-in-one PC is a quad-core powered, large screen business desktop PC. It has an intelligent yet sedate design, good performance numbers, and would be a good fit for your space-constrained line workers who need just a bit more performance and screen room. It's a little pricey, especially considering that you can get systems with a few more bells an whistles for less money. Ultimately is the 8200 Elite is a decent choice if your business already has a buy contract for HP Compaq 8200 Elite PCs, but consider a lower-clocked processor to lock in a better price.

The HP Compaq 8200 Elite All-in-one PC is a nice performer with a restrained, yet intelligent design. However, it's a smidge too expensive for what you get in this configuration. Compact all-in-one form factor. Storage area for keyboard. Quad-core processor. Wireless mouse and keyboard. 802.11a/b/g/n dual channel Wi-Fi. Lots of options. 3 year warranty. No USB 3.0, eSATA, nor HDMI in. External power brick. A few pieces of bloatware.

Design and Features
The 8200 Elite has the same design ID as previous business all-in-one desktops, similar to but distinct from HP systems like the Editor's Choice winning HP Omni 220-1080qd. The 8200 Elite has a basic black motif, with glossy and matte finish panels all over. It's built into an easel-style chassis, with a simple stand and a single hinge attached to the back panel so you can tilt the screen to your liking. The system's speakers are built below the screen, perfectly placed for kiosk or reception desk use. The screen chassis floats above the system's stand, similar to the HP Omni and Apple iMac systems, so there's a handy spot below the screen to stow your keyboard. The desktop includes a 1.3MP webcam for video conferencing. The only other notable feature on the front panel is the power button.

The left hand side of the 8200 Elite is where you'll find two USB 2.0 ports, audio, and a 6-in-1 card reader (mainly variants of SD and Memory Stick). The right side has the system's tray-loading DVD drive, drive activity light, and brightness controls. The back is relatively Spartan, with four more USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, audio, and the power connector for the external power brick. The back panel can be removed relatively easily to swap out the drives and get to the memory DIMM slots (two total). There are a few ports we'd like to see in every business PC that this system lacks: eSATA and USB 3.0 for connecting speedier hard drives, HDMI-in or DisplayPort-in for connecting laptops or newer desktops, and HDMI-out or DisplayPort-out for multiple monitor support. HDMI-in or DisplayPort-in really come into play when the Core i7-2600S processor becomes too slow: you can hook up a laptop or newer desktop PC in the future to extend the monitor's life.

The desktop comes with plenty of pre-installed software, including a package that can take the sting out of the HDMI port's absence. The system includes HP's LinkUp software, which lets you remote control and mirror the screen on any Windows 7 laptop or desktop on your LAN. This way you can work on any PC in your local network, using the 8200 Elite's large screen. Other pre-installed software may (or may not) have a use in your organization. The extra software includes Uola (website creation and hosting), Huddle (collaboration, workflow, and virtual work spaces), Office 2010 Starter, Norton Internet Security (a paltry 60-day subscription), HP MyRoom (video conferencing), HP Virtual Rooms (multi-user virtual meetings), MSN, YouCam, HP Protect Tools, HP CA Management agent (asset management), and Xobini (address book). Most of this stuff is benign, but your IT folks may need to spend some time uninstalling unwanted programs or cleaning up this system before dropping it on users' desks.

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Velocity Micro Raptor Z90 (Intel Core i7-3930K)

Velocity Micro Raptor Z90 (Intel Core i7-3930K). If you're in the market for a gaming rig, chances are you're either going in with a budget in mind or looking for the best, most tricked-out system money can buy. The Velocity Micro Raptor Z90 (Intel Core i7-3930K) fits the latter category and is not a gaming desktop for the miserly; it features Intel's latest Sandy Bridge-E series processor, which alone has a market price of $555, and two Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards. In addition to its potent internal components, the Velocity Micro throws in such wireless features as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth—rare in custom gaming rigs.

Money burning a hole in your pocket? The Velocity Micro Raptor Z90 (Intel Core i7-3930K) will fix that quickly and make sure your desktop gaming needs are covered for the next few years. Blu-ray is read/write. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth onboard. Great overall performance. No bloatware. Nice aluminum chassis.

Design and Features
The Raptor Z90 isn't small, but won't leave a Jolly Green Giant-sized footprint like the Falcon Northwest Mach V (Core i7-3960X). It's a full silver aluminum tower with a little more heft than a standard tower PC.

Looking inside the chassis through the clear side panel, the interior is lit up by several blue LEDs. It's spacious and clean, with enough room to fit two extra optical drives; two hard drives (two SATA ports for SSD caching are open on the motherboard); perhaps another graphics card in the extra PCIe x16 slot (though between the two Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards it's a tight squeeze); and four more DIMM slots for RAM.

The unit has two 120GB solid-state drives and a 2TB spinning 7,200-rpm hard drive, built for speed and storage space. The Polywell Ignition X7900i-3960 comes out ahead here, boasting two 120GB SSDs plus a 3TB spinning hard drive. There's a 1,200-watt power supply installed to help power all these components.

The Raptor Z90 comes with a total of 16GB of RAM, but once again the Polywell X7900i-3960 trumps it with a total of 32GB of RAM. The Raptor Z90 does, however, come equipped with more creature comforts, like 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (via a USB receiver), and a Blu-ray burner, whereas the Ignition X7900i-3960 has only a Blu-ray player.

There's no shortage of connectivity options. Behind a swinging aluminum door is a media-card reader supporting microSD, SD/MMC, xD, M2, CF/MD, and MS formats, as well as a solitary USB 2.0 port. The back has a USB BIOS Flashback port, six USB 2.0 ports (one occupied by the Bluetooth receiver), four USB 3.0 ports, two powered eSATA ports, a Gigabit Ethernet connection, two mini HDMI and four DVI-I video outputs, and S/PDIF and a multitude of audio jacks to hook up to a surround-sound system.

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HP Pavilion HPE h9 Phoenix (h9-1100z)

HP Pavilion HPE h9 Phoenix (h9-1100z). The HP Pavilion HPE h9 Phoenix (h9-1100z) is HP's (re-) entry into the gaming PC market. While HP's HPE h8 series PCs go after multimedia enthusiasts, the h9 Phoenix goes after the entry level to mainstream gaming enthusiast with similar gusto. What HP brings to the table, in addition to performance, are a lot of standard features that would've been extra-cost options on other entry-level gaming PCs.

The h9 Phoenix line extends the usual HP HPE tower chassis' looks by adding a new faceplate and side panels. The HP Pavilion Elite h8-1124 and its brethren are basic tower desktops, with fairly sedate looks. The h9 Phoenix swaps in a more aggressive front panel with angry red backlighting and a perforated side panel with red internal lighting. It's not quite as outré as the Alienware X51 or Velocity Micro Edge Z40, but it's definitely going for the same slice of the gaming market. The inside of the chassis has the room you'd expect from a tower, with plenty of breathing room for the included Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 graphics card. Another improvement over the HPE h8 series is an up rated 600W power supply (compared to the relatively paltry 300W in some h8 PCs).

The h9-1100z comes with an eight-core AMD FX-8100 processor, from AMD's new multi-core FX line of processors. Other niceties include a Blu-ray player optical drive, 802.11n WiFi, a 1TB hard drive, and Beats Audio. As on HP's all in one PCs, Beats Audio modifies the system's internal audio to enhance music listening and movie watching. Beats Audio works through headphones or through external speakers, and you don't have to be using Beats Audio branded headphones to use the sound enhancements. The h9-1100z comes with a two-year warranty, double that of most other desktops. There is some bloatware, but the system comes with a 15-month subscription to Norton Internet Security, which is a totally useful period of time compared to the paltry 30-day subscription included with many PCs.

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Lenovo ThinkCentre M71z

Lenovo ThinkCentre M71z. The Lenovo ThinkCentre M71z is a reasonably priced all-in-one desktop PC that has the pricing and the capabilities needed to outfit the majority of your workforce. It's middle of the road, that's true, but it does middle of the road so well we give it our highest recommendation. The M71z is an excellent choice for your mainline workers: the ones that manage projects, file and search data, or deal with your clients on a day-to-day basis. Sure, there are faster, more powerful PCs and workstations out there for your top earners, but for the majority, the M71z is the ride they can use to move your business forward. This bang-for-the-buck proposition leads us to name the ThinkCentre M71z our latest Editor's Choice for all-in-one business desktops.

The Lenovo ThinkCentre M71z is the touch-screen all-in-one desktop for the majority of your workers. It combines a nice price, decent design, and corporate cred in a package that will satisfy the rank and file. Touch screen. Nice Price. Durable build quality. Webcam Lens cover. Uses standard power cables (no power adapter brick). Wi-Fi. No USB 3.0. Only DisplayPort-Out.

Design and Features
The ThinkCentre M71z is a pretty standard looking all-in-one PC with a 20-inch widescreen that has two-point multitouch functionality. Not surprisingly, it's has a close familial resemblance to other Lenovo all-in-one PCs like the Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 91z and the Lenovo IdeaCentre B520. All three Lenovos are easel-style systems, distinct from PCs like the HP Compaq 8200 Elite All-in-one PC that take their styling cues from the iconic Apple iMac 21.5-inch (Thunderbolt). The M71z's more sedate styling may forestall envious co-worker baiting, however, since the system is a lot less flashy.

The desktop blends into offices where you already have Lenovo ThinkCentre desktops deployed. The M71z doesn't have a huge screen (1,600 by 900 resolution), but it's sufficient for mainline office workers. It's certainly got a larger size screen than even the largest 17-inch desktop replacement laptops (though the 17-inch laptop may have a higher resolution screen). Lenovo saves a little money by using older-style CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent) screen backlighting rather than the LED backlights found on thinner all in ones. The screen had evenly bright lighting and a decent field of view: in other words you could sit to the sides of the screen at an angle and still see it clearly. The two-point multitouch lets you zoom in and out of photos, rotate online interfaces, and use swipe commands to browse the Internet. Since the screen is vertical with not too much recline, you'll likely use the included wired keyboard and mouse for most of your typing needs. If you try to type with the on-screen keyboard, your arm will tire after a few minutes. This is fine for this system, since it's aimed at the mainline clerical worker and not for digital artists using their fingers as digital paintbrushes.

The sides of the M71z are relatively unadorned: two USB 2.0 ports, a media card reader, and audio jacks are on the left side; a tray-loading DVD drive on the right side; and a power button, drive light, and +/- on screen controls (brightness, etc.) on the front. The system's forward-firing speakers are below the screen on the front panel as well. In the back, there are four more USB 2.0 ports, a standard 3-pin power jack, Ethernet, serial port (for older peripherals like bar code scanners), a DisplayPort-out port, a Kensington lock port, and a handle. The handle and power jack make things easier for your IT workers: the handle makes the system easy to transport, and the standard power port means that you don't have to keep track of external power supplies (aka power bricks): you can just use the standard power cables used by tower desktops. If you have a 802.11 b/g/n wireless network, the M71z will connect to it easily. We would've like to have seen a DisplayPort-in or HDMI-in port, so you can reuse the M71z's monitor with a future laptop or desktop when the M71z's internal finally become too slow, but the DisplayPort-out is still useful: The DisplayPort-out port lets you use the system in a dual-monitor setup. The system comes with a built-in webcam above the screen, but Lenovo thinks ahead: you can manually close a shutter over the lens, so you're assured of your privacy. This assuages the concerns of security-conscious IT policy enforcers while still giving users access to video conferencing.

The M71z has a few pre-installed programs, including Microsoft Office 2010 Starter, Skype, and Microsoft Touch Pack. Thankfully, the 30-day trial verson of Norton Internet Security isn't pre-installed (you have to run an installer from the Start menu. That way you can choose to either run Norton (and upgrade later) or start fresh with another anti-virus/anti-malware utility. Lenovo's usual ThinkVantage utilities are also present.

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Dell PowerEdge T620

Dell PowerEdge T620. Dell continues to push the envelope in feature set and capabilities in its PowerEdge server line—enterprise-level servers targeted to the SMB. The T620 is custom-made for fault-tolerance, redundancy and virtualization. Powerful performance. High scalability. Many expansion options. Virtualization capable. Many management options. Remote management. Runs quiet. Couple of glitches in some management utilities. Lengthy boot up.

With all the clamor over cloud computing, it would seem datacenters everywhere are freeing businesses from the yoke of on-premise servers and embracing the ethereal world of the “you-name-it-you-got-it-as-a-service” cloud. The reality is that many datacenters, particularly in the SMB, are more likely to deploy virtualization solutions in physical servers they host, because they remain leery of the cloud. Robust servers, like Dell's latest PowerEdge T620 remind us what SMBs love about servers: fault-tolerance, scalability and efficient virtualization.

Virtualization and fault tolerance are the hallmarks of the T620. While it may be too much server for smaller businesses without high data demands, for SMBs that are looking to consolidate physical servers into virtual machines, that have high workloads, or that need remote server administration, the T620 is well worth considering.

Specs
The T620 is built on Intel's SandyBridge EP/EX processor technology. The unit I tested had dual Intel Xeon E5-2650 @2.00 GHz processors and 64 GB RAM. The server houses 32 drive bays and supports SAS, SSD and SATA drives in a variety of configurations. For example, the drives can consist of eight 3.5” hot swap drives plus four PCIe SSD drives or you could go with 32 3.5” hot-swap drives. The maximum storage capacity is 32TB and maximum memory is up to 768GB with 24 DIMM slots.

The T620 has tons of expansion options. The rear panel alone has 7 PCIe slots, as well as 6 USB ports, VGA, and a console port. The front has two additional USB ports and what looks like an SD card reader, but it's for a special type of SD card: vFlash cards. Used in conjunction with iDRAC, Dell's Integrated Remote Access Control/Life Cycle Controller features, the vFlash card allows server admins to emulate USB flash storage and perform tasks such as backing up and restoring the platform in case the motherboard needs replacing or perhaps for downloading and booting a custom image from BIOS.

The server also has redundant hot-plug fans, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports as well as redundant power supplies. This redundant hardware, in addition to dual hypervisors comes as a standard offering in the T620.

An LCD on the front plate gives at-a-glance system messages and also allows for configuring some features at the touch-of-a-button like networking settings, asset tag number, and more.

It's apparent that Dell set out to create a server that is quite scalable and pretty-well future-proofed. It's worth noting that Dell included redundant hypervisors that can support Microsoft's Hyper-V which is slated to undergo many new capabilities evidenced by Windows Server 8's recent beta debut. The T620 also features optional embedded hypervisors for Citrix XenServer and VMWare vsphere. Clearly, software and hardware vendors are banking on the wide-spread adoption of virtualization in SMB datacenters.

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Shuttle X6100

Shuttle X6100. The Shuttle X6100 is a compact desktop built into the Shuttle XH61 barebones PC kit. Instead of having to source all your own parts and components from all over the Internet, you can buy an already assembled version from Shuttle, along with a three-year warranty. As configured here, the X6100 is a quad core-powered, SSD-equipped speed demon, though you can build a basic Linux-powered model for under $700. There are a couple of shortcomings, but on the whole this system will be attractive to the small business owner, mini PC enthusiast, or media PC enthusiast in your family.

The Shuttle X6100 is a very compact quad-core desktop PC with a speedy SSD. If those words are Greek to you, then this swift system may not be the right choice. It's a Small Form Factor (SFF) system for people who care about speeds and feeds and who are willing to pay for it. Compact size. Quiet. Fast boot up and launch. Three-year warranty. Quad-core power. SSD. No bloatware. No USB 3.0. No built-in Wi-Fi. Integrated graphics only. No Blu-ray.

Design and Features
The X6100 is a lot more compact than the Shuttle XPC Mini PCs we've looked at in the past. It's the about size of a decent hardcover novel (about 8 by 3 by 9.5 inches, HWD), so it's easy to stash just about anywhere. It will fit easily on most desk surfaces, tucked behind a large monitor or HDTV, or in a home theater cabinet. Its front panel is almost featureless: The large power button is the only thing visible until you pop open the two front panel doors. The system's tray-loading (laptop-class) DVD burner, and front USB 2.0 ports are under the doors, as are the front audio jacks.

On the back panel are another set of four USB 2.0 ports, more audio jacks, Ethernet, PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, VGA, and a HDMI port. It would have been nice if one or two of the USB ports were USB 3.0, since the X6100 will likely need speedy supplemental storage soon (128GB can fill up fast). Another nit is the lack of built-in Wi-Fi. The only way to add wireless is via USB, which spoils the system's looks.

In use, the system is very quiet. The SSD makes no noise, and the CPU's cooling fan is the only moving part in day-to-day computing when you're not using the optical drive. Since the system uses an external power brick, there's no power supply fan. The external power brick helps keep the chassis small.

The X6100 has a 2.5-inch 128GB SSD as the boot drive. Other options from Shuttle include a 256GB SSD, 250GB hard drive, and 500GB hard drive, but you can of course pop in whatever notebook-class drive you wish. Getting to the hard drive is as easy as popping the top and removing the hard drive bracket. The system motherboard has four SATA ports on it, but you'll be hard pressed to add more than the existing drive and optical. There's no extra room in the chassis, not that we expected any. The system came configured at the 16GB maximum for the motherboard with two standard desktop-sized DIMMs, rather than notebook-style SO-DIMMs that you'd expect in such a small system. The DVD burner is a pretty standard looking laptop-class one. Shuttle doesn't offer a Blu-ray drive, even though this compact system kind of calls for it. You can swap the existing DVD burner for a Blu-ray drive fairly easily. You'll need a Phillips head screwdriver for all component swaps, though.

The system came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and the Shuttle hardware drivers. The system was therefore free of extra bloatware, which is a plus. Another nice feature is the system's three-year standard warranty. Most systems come with only one year.

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AVADirect Quiet X79 Gaming PC

AVADirect Quiet X79 Gaming PC. The AVADirect Quiet X79 Gaming PC is whisper quiet and powerful enough to let you play with the big dogs. Even with six-core processing, competitive gaming graphics, and room for plenty of upgrades, the Quiet X79 Gaming PC brings it all together for a lot less than top-flight gaming rigs. Powerful components. Stylish design. Runs nearly silent while keeping everything cool. Good included storage options. Can't keep up with multi-GPU gaming rigs.

When you're shopping for a serious gaming desktop, you tend to snag the most powerful machine when you abandon all monetary constraints. But it doesn't have to be that way. Although the AVADirect Quiet X79 Gaming PC will never be confused with a budget system, this mid-size rig has undeniable gaming chops and will cost you less than competing systems. Its powerful processor and smart storage arrangement are enough to chew through any processing task, and its high-end video card ratchets up the system's gaming performance to a competitive level. You can find more powerful gaming desktops, but this one is a solid choice if you don't want your PC to take over your room or kill your budget.

Design and Features
AVADirect has used as the case for the Quiet X79 Gaming PC a white version of the NZXT H2, which sports accents of a bare metal panel on the front tower door and blue and white glowing LEDs. It's a look similar to that of the Polywell Ignition X7900i-3960, but cleaner—and much more sedate than the flame paint-job on the iBuypower Chimera 4-V1.

On the top panel you'll find a power button, three USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, headphone and microphone jacks, and a three-speed fan controller. A magnetic plastic cover hides the top fan vent, but can be easily adjusted or removed to improve airflow. A snapping cover also serves as a lid for a SATA-equipped hot-swappable drive bay.

On the front of the tower you'll find a Blu-ray (BD-RE) optical drive, and a 65-in-1 card reader that accommodates every major media card format, including SD/MMC, microSD, CF/MD, MS/Pro/Duo, and xD, plus another USB 2.0 port thrown in for good measure. On the back of the tower you'll find scads of connections, with six USB 2.0 ports (one of which is occupied by a Bluetooth receiver), four USB 3.0 ports, a USB BIOS flashback port, and two USB/eSATA combination ports. The Gigabit Ethernet port is your only networking option, as the Silent Gaming PC has no Wi-Fi. Display outputs include two DVI, one HDMI, and one full-size DisplayPort. There are also several audio outputs, with ports for S/PDIF and eight-channel analog audio.

Pull off the case's side panel (the thumbscrews make it easy) and you'll find that the Quiet X79 Gaming PC is equipped with both a 120GB SSD (which serves as the OS drive) and a silent 2TB Western Digital hard drive (for storage). Plugged into the Asus P9X79 motherboard is a six-core Intel Core i7-3930K processor—the same model found in both the Chimera 4-V1 and the Velocity Micro Raptor Z90 (Intel Core i7-3930K)—equipped with a giant heat sink–fan unit to keep it cool, and an overclocked Asus video card based on the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 GPU. A quintet of whisper-quiet fans keep everything cool.

An 850-watt power supply provides more than enough juice for all of the Quiet X79 Gaming PC's components, and additional hardware if you choose to upgrade—and there are plenty of upgrade options available. Though the system comes equipped with 16GB of RAM, there are four open DIMM slots on the motherboard, which supports up to 64GB total RAM. You'll find four open PCI Express (PCIe) slots, though the two PCIe x1 slots are blocked by the bulky video card, and one open 5.25-inch drive bay; four SATA ports are also free.

Because this is a custom gaming rig, you'll find that the hard drive is immaculate, with the only software installed being Windows 7 Professional. The Quiet X79 Gaming PC also comes with AVADirect's Silver Warranty Package, a three-year warranty on parts and labor.

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Cyberpower Zeus Thunder 3000SE

Cyberpower Zeus Thunder 3000SE. The Cyberpower Zeus Thunder 3000SE combines raw performance with a few niceties to jump to the top of the midrange custom gaming desktop class. Lots of USB 3.0 and eSATA ports. Mini-Displayport and HDMI ports. Overclocked Core i7 processor. Two high-end graphics cards. No bloatware. Nice internal wiring.

The Cyberpower Zeus Thunder 3000SE is a great performance desktop PC in a flashy case. It saves a little money by using an off-the-shelf tower chassis, but the care taken in assembling this custom gaming PC shows in its top performance marks. This is the sub custom gaming rig you will want to buy after cutting your teeth on a lower priced entry-level model. It has the power to fill a 1080p HD screen, even at the highest quality settings. The Cyberpower Zeus Thunder 3000SE snags our Editors' Choice for mid-level gaming machines. Welcome to the grid, program!

Design and Features
 The 3000SE is built into a tall white NZXT Switch 810 chassis, which is roomy and somewhat flashy. There's tons of room in the chassis for upgrades, though the motherboard's PCI/PCIe slots are mostly occupied thanks to the twin AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards. The system has space and accessibility to one PCIe x1 slot and one PCIe x16 graphics card slot. The PCIe x16 graphics card slot works in x8 mode, so it will support a graphics card for multi-monitor support, but the third card won't help the CrossFire configuration for too much extra 3D power. The system comes with a 120GB SSD as the boot drive, and a 2TB 7,200rpm drive as the data drive. It's got space for additional hard drives and optical drives, though there are only two extra SATA ports on the motherboard. You could theoretically add three more drives in total thanks to a pre-installed externally-accessible hard drive sled under the optical drive bays. The sled connects with a pre-wired SATA connector for a 3.5" hard drive and is basically a handy slide-in/out tray. There are four DIMM slots for more system memory and an 850W power supply unit to power it all. The interior wiring is well routed and neat, which is conducive to proper cooling airflow (and it looks nice, too).

The exterior of the 3000SE's chassis is comprised of mostly white plastic panels, including a side window to show off the graphics cards, and vented panels including the top, front, and back. The top panel has a sliding louver design so the user can open the vents for more cooling. While this mimics the effect of the vented top panel on the Alienware Aurora ALX (Core i7), the overall effect is less impressive when you have to open the vents manually and feel the flimsy plastic on the 3000SE. The system's five cooling fans plus the three in the graphics cards and power supply keep the system quite cool, but the system pumps out quite a bit of white noise as a result. It's something you'll get used to, but it's still omnipresent while the system is operating. Another feature cribbed from systems like the Alienware is the lighting above the I/O ports in the back. The lights help users connecting USB or monitor cables in the dark recesses under a dorm desk.

The system is very well equipped for external peripherals. Between the connectors on the motherboard in the back, the ones on the graphics cards, and the ones in the front of the PC, there are Eight USB 2.0 ports, Six USB 3.0 ports, one PS/2 port, one FireWire 400 port, a SPDIF port, two eSATA ports (one powered), Ethernet, audio, two DVI ports, two HMDI ports, and four daisy-chainable mini-DisplayPorts. You can hook up at least six monitors to this system and use AMD's Eyefinity to surround yourself with 3D video for games.

The 3000SE is a peach playing 3D games. The system comes game-ready right out of the box, since the system comes devoid of extra preinstalled software. The only things that are pre-installed aside from Windows 7 are the drivers for the motherboard and the graphics cards. The included copy of Office 2011 Starter isn't installed yet, so you can opt to never install it. This is great, since gamers don't want to deal with uninstalling the sorts of trialware that comes with retail systems. A lack of bloatware is one of the big reasons to buy from a custom builder. The system comes with a one year parts and three year labor warranty. This means that you can send the system back for tune-ups for free, but if a part goes bad, you'd better hope it goes off in the first year of ownership. Like most custom builders, Cyberpower's sales reps will help make sure you get the components you need, and their tech support folk are less likely to be support drones working from a set script.

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Samsung Series 9 15-inch (NP900X4B-A02US)

Samsung Series 9 15-inch (NP900X4B-A02US). Samsung gets a jump on Apple's anticipated 15-inch MacBook Air with the super-slim and -sexy Samsung Series 9 15-inch (NP900X4B-A02US). Incredibly thin and light for a 15-inch laptop. Bright, hi-res display. WiDi. Expensive. Shallow keyboard. Slippery touchpad. Only 57GB of 128GB SSD available at startup. VGA and HDMI dongles not included.

Design
The Series 9 15-inch (NP900X4B-A02US) boasts an aluminum one-piece shell in a handsome shade— Samsung calls it Titan Silver—with a touch of dark blue. It measures 0.6 by 14 by 9.3 inches (HWD), with an ample palm rest and space on either side of the black tile keyboard.

The keyboard has dedicated Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys but no numeric keypad. It offers a tolerable typing feel, but shallower travel than the Spectre and some other thicker systems' keyboards, and is backlit, but quite dimly—we had trouble detecting the backlight in all but the darkest environments. The large touchpad has clickable lower corners instead of dedicated mouse buttons; it has a smooth, almost slippery feel. Annoyingly, it occasionally failed to register our taps on the touchpad surface, but a driver update during our testing helped.

The 15.0-inch display is not dim or dark in the slightest—it's impressively bright even with the backlight dialed down a notch, with a matte finish, sharp contrast, and crisp colors as well as the extra resolution (1,600 by 900 versus 1,366 by 768) that's a real treat for multitaskers or image editors and unavailable on 13.3-inch ultrabooks except for the Asus Zenbook UX31-RSL8. Impressively for such a thin system, the screen shows next to no flex or wobble when grasped by the corners, as opposed to more bendy ultrabooks such as the Toshiba Portege Z835-P370 .

Features
Samsung earns kudos for including an SD card slot—hidden behind a nifty folding door on the laptop's right side—and three USB ports—two USB 3.0 on the right and one USB 2.0 on the left. Other ports are miniaturized, with a micro Ethernet port (dongle included) and micro HDMI port (dongle not included) on the left and a micro VGA port (dongle not included) on the right. In case you haven't guessed, the super-skinny Samsung has no optical drive.

Wireless connectivity options include the trifecta of 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Intel Wireless Display (WiDi), but not the Intel Smart Connect technology that lets the HP Envy 14 Spectre and Dell XPS 13 update e-mail, social network, and other information while the system sleeps.

Samsung backs the Series 9 15-inch with a one-year warranty, and fills its 128GB SSD—all but a scanty 57GB of it out of the box—with an array of helpful system-settings utilities, 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security, Skype, the WildTangent games suite, and a recovery partition. The system's cold boot times, helped by a Fast Boot utility that turns off Windows 7's startup animation, averaged a blazing 17 seconds and its resume-from-sleep times 2.5 seconds by our stopwatch.

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Lenovo C325

Lenovo C325. The Lenovo C325 is a basic all-in-one desktop PC for those that would rather have a bigger screen than portability. Its energy-saving processor is sufficient for Web surfing duties, and the system's utility is higher than the relatively modest price tag suggests. It is basic computing through and through, but it is certainly sufficient for regular users.

The Lenovo C325 is a good choice for those looking to spend only about $500 for a fully featured desktop PC. It's bigger than a laptop, and has the power to serve your Web surfing and basic PC needs. Compact all in one. $500 price point. Lenovo utilities. Dynamic brightness system and Eye distance system. No bloatware. Low power on benchmark tests. No USB 3.0. No HDMI. No Video in or out. Only 60-day McAfee Anti-virus. Camera is "always on."

Design and Features
 The C325 follows the bent arm and floating screen design for all-in-one PCs. The system is built into the screen, with a single hinge connected to the arm-shaped stand. The screen floats over the base of the stand, which gives the user a handy spot to stow the wired keyboard. The C325's color scheme is fairly neutral, glossy black plastic on the bezel, with a silver mesh below covering the front-firing speakers. The system' screen is a 20-inch model with a 1,600 by 900 resolution. 1,600 by 900 will display 720p HD (1,280 by 720), but not full 1080p (1,920 by 1,080). While this would be a problem in a sub $1,000 all-in-one, at the $500 price point it's merely an inconvenience. The system is certainly capable of YouTube HD videos at 720p native or 1080p scaled down.

On its own, the C325's built-in 0.3-megapixel webcam is unremarkable. However, it also comes with Lenovo's Eye Distance system software, which can monitor the user and bring up a warning if the system detects that the user is sitting too close to the screen. This could be useful for parents that always ask their little ones to back away from TVs and other computers. The only drawback is that the camera is always on while the Eye Distance system is active, so privacy-sensitive folk will want to disable the Eye Distance system manually to prevent spying from happening undetected. The system also comes with a dynamic brightness system, which dims or brightens the display backlight depending on the ambient light in the room. It's pretty old hand technology for higher end all-in-ones, but it's nice to see that technology trickle down to a budget system as well.

The C325 comes with an AMD E-450 processor, integrated DX11 AMD Radeon HD 6320 graphics, 4GB of system memory, a 500GB hard drive, six USB 2.0 ports, and a DVD burner. There are a few optional extras that you may miss, and some that you won't miss at all. For example, even at this price point, unless you're a dorm dwelling student, you won't be too bent out of shape that this SKU doesn't have a HDTV tuner. On the other hand, the system lacks USB 3.0 ports and HDMI ports. The faster USB 3.0 ports are handy for external hard drives, while HDMI can add either multiple monitor support (HDMI-out) or allow you to extend the life of the C325's LCD by using it with a newer PC in the future (HDMI-in). Not a huge deal breaker at this price point, but as they say, you get what you pay for. Speaking of pay, the included McAfee Anti-Virus program only updates for 60 days before you have to pay for a subscription. That's kind of lame, and most PCs should really come with at least a year subscription to Anti-virus updates. The system also comes up a little short in the benchmark tests, as seen below.

The C325 comes with Google Chrome pre-loaded, so that's great for people who want an alternative to Internet Explorer. Other pre-loaded utilities include the usual mix of Lenovo utilities, including Rescue and Recovery, YouCam (for the webcam), and a Driver and Application installer. What's really neat is that you can opt to not install stuff like Microsoft Office 2010 Starter or the Google toolbar. Giving the end user choice is better than pre-installing applications before the system leaves the factory. It saves a lot of cleanup time. You can always choose to install the programs later if you wish.

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Karuma PlayBase Plus

Karuma PlayBase Plus. Though its sturdy construction makes the PlayBase Plus seem like a potential kid's tablet contender, its subpar performance, lack of content, and poorly executed child-safe features kill the deal. Thin and light. Access to Google Play app market. Antimicrobial screen. Slow performance. Dim, low-resolution screen. Dismal camera. Poorly executed child-safe environment. Sparse kid-friendly content selection.

Design and Features
Compared with other kid-friendly tablets, the PlayBase Plus feels slicker, but more solid. The frame uses a combination of plastic and metal, measuring only 8 by 4.8 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and 11.5 ounces. It's much thinner and lighter than the kid-geared Fuhu Nabi Tablet, which measures 10.6 by 7.7 by 3.5 inches and weighs 1.2 pounds. Much like the Nabi, the PlayBase Plus ships with a removable bumper, which the company claims is constructed from medical-grade silicone. The bumper on the PlayBase Plus is smaller and slimmer, which isn't necessarily a good thing, and is a bit too easy to remove—tempting kids to ditch the cover altogether. The Vinci Tab is more rugged, with a non-removable rubberized bumper surrounding the tablet.

The 7-inch screen on the PlayBase Plus is a big disappointment, with its low 800-by-480-pixel resolution. It's the same as the Vinci Tab, but much lower than the 1,024-by-600-pixel same-size screen on the Kindle Fire . The screen is laminated with a scratch-resistant and germ-fighting antimicrobial plastic film—both boons for a tablet for kids. The lamination gives the screen a dull and grainy quality, though, and the viewing angle is very narrow.

A 0.3-megapixel camera sits in the bezel above the screen, but the protective laminate partially covers the lens opening, making for one of the worst tablet cameras I've ever seen. Every picture is washed out, with distorted colors, and plenty of image noise—it would take an extremely optimistic child with a powerful imagination to get any good use out of this camera. There is no rear-facing camera.

Along the edges of the PlayBase Plus, you'll find Volume and Power buttons along with a 3.5mm headphone jack, microUSB port, and a microSD card slot. On the bottom bezel, when held in portrait mode, are capacitive Menu, Home, and Back buttons.

Performance and Child-Safe Environment
The PlayBase Plus is powered by a single-core 1.2GHz A8 processor, with 1GB RAM and 8GB of internal storage. With those specs, I don't expect spectacular performance, but given the tablet's target audience it's understandable. In my tests, the PlayBase Plus was frequently slow and unresponsive—to the point where I could see it frustrating an impatient child. Apps often take a few seconds to load, and crashes were fairly routine during testing.

The core software is Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but the makers of the PlayBase Plus made a lot of modifications and additions for kids. Animations are more exaggerated, especially when flipping through the eight home screens, but the tablet's subpar components make the animations very choppy. A five-icon launcher bar sits at the bottom of the screen, with shortcuts to Downloads, Explorer, All Apps, Browser, and Settings. Downloads takes you to your current app downloads from either the Google Play market or the preloaded Soc.io Mall app—a third-party app market that, disappointingly, doesn’t even offer a clear selection of children's apps. Explorer opens a file-management app, which seems like overkill on a kid-centric tablet. The initial environment is completely open and accessible to anyone using the tablet. It is not until you configure the SafePlay app and Net Nanny Browser that you get to the child-safe features.

And the execution thereof isn't great. Unlike the Nabi, which has two very distinct modes, and makes it difficult to switch between them, the only thing separating the child and adult modes is a child lock, which is a prompt to type two randomly generated numbers. The Nabi also pre-loads plenty of educational apps, games, books, and other kid-friendly content—something missing entirely from the PlayBase Plus. Even the Vinci Tab, which we knocked for a lack of kid-friendly content, offers more than the PlayBase Plus.

Battery life leaves something to be desired too, as the PlayBase Plus turned in just 3 hours, 14 minutes in our continuous video playback test—a good deal shy of the Kindle Fire's 4 hours, 55 minutes.

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Toshiba Portege Z835-P370

Toshiba Portege Z835-P370. Toshiba plays the value card as well as the featherweight card with its Portege Z835-P370 ultrabook. As light as a 13.3-inch ultrabook gets. Plenty of ports. Backlit keyboard. 6GB of RAM for the price of competitors' 4GB. Screen a little flimsy. Keyboard a little stiff. No Smart Connect technology.

Design
The super-skinny (0.6 by 12.4 by 8.9 inches, HWD) Z835-P370 gets its light weight from a magnesium alloy chassis that makes its base surprisingly sturdy—unlike its vanishingly thin screen, which flirts with the F word (flimsy) if you grasp its corners and wiggle them. In its favor, however, our test unit's screen hinge didn't get the shakes during typing as our Toshiba Z830-S8302's did.

The 13.3-inch display has the same mediocre 1,366 by 768 resolution as every ultrabook we've seen, excepting the 1,600-by-900-pixel Asus Zenbook UX31-RSL8 and HP Envy 14 Spectre. It's nicely bright, with sharp text and colors despite narrowish viewing angles; between the screen and the LED-backlit keyboard, we had no trouble working through a long evening in a less-than-brightly-lit room.

Besides the backlight (which by default turns off after 15 seconds of inactivity, though you can switch it permanently on or off), the keyboard offers an admirable layout, with dedicated Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys instead of doubling up these functions on the cursor arrows. We didn't test Toshiba's claim of its spill resistance, but we soon grew accustomed to its firm, somewhat shallow typing feel. Speaking of dedicated, the Toshiba's touchpad has two chrome mouse buttons instead of the mere clicky corners in fashion nowadays; their slightly stiff operation is a contrast to the pad's smooth gliding and tapping.

Features
The Z835-P370 does not have the Intel Smart Connect technology that the HP Envy 14 Spectre and Dell XPS 13 can tap into to update Microsoft Outlook and other Internet applications while the system sleeps (though one of its USB 2.0 ports can charge handheld devices while the system sleeps). But it has other wireless capabilities including Wi-Fi, WiDi or Wireless Display, and Bluetooth.

While the Toshiba ultrabook has no optical drive, we've already mentioned its impressive array of ports. Microphone and headphone jacks and an SD card slot are found on the left side of the chassis, with a USB 3.0 port on the right. Two USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port for modern monitors, and a VGA port for older displays or projectors are at the rear.

The Portege's 128GB solid-state drive has 77GB of free space out of the box, the rest occupied by everything from a system recovery partition to a measly 30-day trial of Norton Internet Security to Google Chrome and a slew of Toshiba-brand utilities. As expected, the SSD makes the little laptop a lot perkier than a hard-drive-based system, booting in 26 seconds and resuming from sleep in 3 seconds by our stopwatch.

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MSI WindPad 110W-014US

MSI WindPad 110W-014US. The WindPad 110W is equipped with one USB 2.0 port, an SD card reader, and a headphone jack. A mini-HDMI port lets you connect to an HDTV and a docking port lets you plug into an accessory dock. A SIM card opens up the potential for 3G wireless broadband, and the WindPad is also equipped with 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Designed primarily with business users in mind, the WindPad 110W is also secure, with both a TPM embedded security chip and a proprietary biometric facial recognition lock called EasyFace.

Inside the MSI WindPad 110W is a 32GB solid-state drive (SSD), which is half the size of those found in the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 (Intel Atom Z690) or the Motion Computing CL900.

The WindPad 110W is equipped with a dual-core 1.0GHz AMD Z-01 processor, AMD's first Fusion processor dedicated to the tablet space. Unlike many 32-bit Windows tablets which offer only 2GB of RAM, the WindPad 110W pairs this processor with 4GB of memory. Sharing silicon with the processor is an AMD Radeon HD 6250 graphics processor, providing discrete-class graphics processing. While this may not be in the same class as the laptop-grade processor found in the Samsung Series 7 Slate (700T1A), it should easily outpace any of the Windows tablets we've seen equipped with Intel Atom processors, like the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550.

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Fujitsu Lifebook T731

Fujitsu Lifebook T731. The Fujitsu Lifebook T731 looks like someone threw a Windows tablet and a 12-inch notebook into a blender, and out popped a 12-inch convertible laptop. But the twist-into-a-tablet form-factor is nothing new to Fujitsu, a company that has been making convertible laptops for several years, and the Fujitsu Lifebook T731 is merely the latest in a long line of touch-friendly laptops.

The Fujitsu Lifebook T731 has two operating modes, first as a traditional 12-inch notebook, and second, as a 12-inch Windows tablet. The 12.1-inch touchscreen works with either fingertips or the included stylus. In notebook mode, the Lifebook T731 is equipped with a standard keyboard, complete with anti-microbial coating. The screen is outfitted with a bi-directional hinge—and industry first—which allows you to twist it in either direction to convert into tablet mode.

One area where the Lifebook T731 leaves other Windows tablets in the dust is the size of its hard drive, which offers 320GB of storage space—not gigantic by notebook standards, but it's a whopper compared to the 64GB and 128GB solid-state drives (SSDs) seen in tablets like the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 or the Samsung Series 7 Slate (700T1A).

The Fujitsu Lifebook T731 is powered by a 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-2410M with 4GB of RAM. With a laptop-grade processor, the Lifebook T731 ranks alongside the Series 7 Slate in putting the functionality of a Windows laptop into a touch-friendly form-factor without the compromises of an underpowered Atom processor. The Fujitsu's Intel Core i5 processor pulls double duty for the integrated graphics, but should still be up to the task for all of your Framville-level gaming needs. Anything beyond that will be out of the question.

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Asus Eee Slate B121

Asus Eee Slate B121. The Apple iPad may rule the roost for tablet sales, but for users that want touch-screened convenience but need Windows—be it for reasons of software compatibility or merely OS familiarity—Asus has a new option, the Asus Eee Slate B121. With a laptop-grade processor, the Eee Slate B121 easily tops the Atom powered 32-bit tablets we've seen lately, but it may not top the Samsung Series 7 Slate (700T1A), which uses more current technology.

The 12-inch screen is covered with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass to resist scratches and cracks, while the multi-touch functionality lets you use either fingertips or a stylus to touch and tap your way around. The screen displays in 1280 by 800 resolution, letting you enjoy 720p video on the tablet or connect up to an HDTV through the built-in mini HDMI port to enjoy 1080p content at full resolution. The screen also boasts a wide 178-degree viewing angle, which offers considerably better visibility than competing tablets.

The Asus Eee Slate B121 is also equipped with two USB 2.0 ports, an SD/MMC card reader, and a 2-in-1 jack for headphone and mic. Inside, the B121 is equipped with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) embedded chip for the security needed by business users. Wireless options include 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0. There's even a place to stow the stylus built right into the tablet chassis.

The Asus Eee Slate B121 is equipped with a 64GB solid-state drive (SSD), the same size seen in competing tablets, like the drive seen in the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 (Intel Atom Z690).

The Asus Eee Slate B121 is equipped with a first-generation Intel Core i5-470UM processor with 2GB of RAM. It's the same 1.33GHz dual-core processor seen in last year's Lenovo IdeaPad U260, and offers a full-fledge 64-bit Windows 7 experience in a slim and touch-friendly tablet. Powering all of this is a 34Wh battery that Asus claims will provide 4:30 battery life. All in all, when we compare the specs of the Asus Eee Slate B121 with the myriad 32-bit Windows tablets we've seen lately, it looks pretty promising.

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Archos 9 PCtablet

Archos 9 PCtablet. The Archos 9, design-wise, is something of a throwback to the old UMPC designs seen a few years ago. The bezel around the 9-inch touchscreen is beefed up on the right and left edges, providing what are effectively handholds on either side of the screen. On these handholds you'll find physical controls for power, microphone, activating a virtual keyboard, a trackpoint mouse and right and left mouse buttons. You'll also find an integrated 1.3-Megapixel webcam. On the side is a single USB 2.0 port, and on the back of the chassis is a folding kickstand that props up the tablet for hands-free viewing.

Measuring 5.4 by 10.1 by 0.67 inches (HWD), the Archos 9 isn't smaller than competing tablets (though it has a smaller 9-inch screen), but it does offer a lighter weight (1 pound) and a lower price tag—you can find the Archos 9 new for under $400. For your money, however, you'll be getting a resistive touchscreen (instead of capacitive touch), and Wi-Fi, but no options for mobile broadband.

The Archos 9 runs a 32-bit version of Windows 7, with several programs designed around entertainment, like vTuner for internet radio and tv streaming, Microsoft Security Essentials for protection, and Lotus Symphony, an office suite. All of this software is found on the Archos 9's 32GB solid-state drive (SSD).

The Archos 9 is powered by a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z515 processor, a three-year old piece of hardware, backed up by 1GB of RAM. Graphics are running on an equally outdated Poulsbo US15W chipset, which offers enough graphics horsepower for browsing the web, not much more demanding than that.

The Archos 9 PCtablet isn't a new device—it debuted alongside the original iPad—but new units can still be bought, and at deep discount. If you're in the market for an inexpensive Windows tablet, it's certainly affordable, but it won't stack up well against the newer Windows tablets on the market. If affordability takes precedence over ease of use and functionality, however, it may be just the tablet PC you're looking for.

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Lenovo ThinkStation D20

Lenovo ThinkStation D20. The Lenovo ThinkStation D20 is one of those systems that you know you will need. Are you building components for weapons systems that directly related to national defense? Are you in the editing and mastering stage of a $250 million Hollywood movie? Do you need to produce blueprints for an eight-lane automobile bridge spanning a major river? If you answer yes to one of these, you are probably in the market for a workstation desktop like the D20. If your job is eliminating pimples from a photo of a Kardashian, this system is overkill.

The Lenovo ThinkStation D20 is a specialized dual-CPU workstation for the engineering, scientific, and Hollywood crowds. It's the big weapon in the arsenal, made for your heavy-hitting users with mission-critical tasks. Two quad-core processors. Speedy 15,000 rpm hard drive. Lots of expansion room. Workstation-class everything. Has eSATA and FireWire. It's big. It's pricey. Could use USB 3.0.

Design and Features
The D20 is a full-sized professional grade workstation, and it probably won't win any beauty awards. It's a humungous black metal and plastic tower, about 17 by 8 by 24 inches (HWD), so you'll have to clear up a bunch of space either under or on top of your work surface for the system. The D20 has a two-inch tall handle on the top, which will help your IT move the system around if necessary. The front panel is perforated with a hexagonal pattern, in order to aid airflow through the system. The tower is totally air-cooled, which reduces complexity over a liquid-cooled system. What's notable is even though the system is air-cooled, it is very quiet during use. The system's fans will only spin up fast during the boot process and if the CPU or GPU is really taxed. You'd think that a dual-CPU system would be loud because of the extra cooling fans, but during most work sessions the system was as quiet as a run-of-the-mill business desktop PC.

The system's massive size has a purpose: It can accommodate plenty of upgrades. The system we reviewed came with a 450GB 15,000rpm SAS drive, plus you can add up to four more SAS or SATA hard drives. The system can connect to industry-standard FireWire 400 and eSATA external drives in case you're dealing with hand-transported data. The system has a 2GB Nvidia Quadro graphics card in it, but you can add one more, plus another lower-end graphics card for multi-monitor support (there are two PCIe x16 slots, but one is only wired for PCIe x4). There's also space for another optical drive, plus nine memory DIMM slots. The system we reviewed came with 12GB of memory, but the system can handle 48GB total. Essentially, this system is overbuilt for most people who aren't aerospace engineers, trying to map the human genome, or designing bridges for government contractors.

The system is ISV certified to work with a plethora of software packages, including packages like AutoCad and PRO/Engineer. These certifications (and the underlying hardware and drivers) are important, since the users of a system like this may be designing the leading edge of an airplane wing or a strut on a bridge being built over a canyon. If you get an error on an ultra-high end gaming system you might have a missed frame while shooting an enemy in a virtual world. If a pro workstation user has an undetected error on a project, it could lead to a bus crashing into a canyon. This is one of the many reasons why professional workstations are more expensive than high-end consumer desktops.

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Kupa X11 Pro Tablet

Kupa X11 Pro Tablet. The Kupa X11 Pro is a strong entry into the Windows tablet space, with a long-lasting battery, a healthy selection of ports, vigorous performance, and an interface that makes your fingers feel right at home. Solid performance. Long battery life. Two full-size USB ports and mini HDMI out. A finger-friendly user interface and silky matte screen make Windows more touchable.

The Kupa X11 Pro Tablet is the first product we've seen from Kupa America, but for its first product out of the gate, Kupa makes a strong showing. The X11 Pro's Atom Z670 may not match the laptop-grade processor found in the Samsung Series 7 Slate (700T1A), but it squeezes out performance scores that top most similarly equipped tablets. Throw in a healthy collection of ports, a long-lasting battery, and a user interface that says "fingertips welcome," and you've got one of the better Windows tablets we've reviewed.

Design
The Kupa X11 Pro has a blocky chassis with rounded corners but square edges. The capacitive touch screen is coated with a silky-smooth matte finish that your fingers will glide over easily and that won't gather fingerprints to the degree that a glass screen will. The included digital pen offers more precise cursor control, but the X11 Pro also has a UI optimized for fat, imprecise fingertips, with extra-wide scroll bars and oversized icons. The digital pen offers pressure-sensitive input, a real boon to designers and users who want to make the most of the tablet's artistic capabilities.

On the backside of the tablet, you'll find an oddly shaped grill for the mono speaker. That teardrop shape is actually Kupa's logo, one half of a stylized yin and yang. The bezel is glossy black, and the surrounding chassis is dark gray plastic. The bottom edge of the chassis is tapered, which adds a bit of comfort while holding the tablet. Above the screen is a 2-megapixel webcam, and there's another camera (3-megapixel) on the back side of the tablet.

The design is sturdy and good-looking, in an industrial sort of way, but tablets are hands-on devices, and the Kupa X11 Pro isn't particularly comfortable to hold. It's also heavy, tipping the scales at 2.09 pounds, outweighing both the 1.79-pound ViewSonic ViewPad 10pro and the 2-pound Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 (Intel Atom Z690). Another gripe is the fact that, while the Kupa X11 Pro comes with a pen-style stylus, there's no place to stow it, and no tether to secure it to the tablet. If this tablet sees use in any shared environment, like a retail store, be ready to have the stylus walk away.

Features
The X11 Pro is equipped with a variety of ports and connections, with all of the physical connections found on the right-hand edge of the tablet. There you'll find two USB 2.0 ports, a mini HDMI-out port, a headphone jack, and a SIM card slot for 3G mobile broadband. On the bottom edge of the tablet, you'll see two on/off slider switches for the integrated 802.11b/g Wi-Fi connection and mobile broadband, respectively. Mobile broadband requires a compatible SIM card. The tablet is also equipped with Bluetooth 2.1. You'll also feel secure using the X11 Pro for business, with an integrated TPM chip and fingerprint reader for effortless, secure logins.

The X11 Pro is equipped with a 64GB solid-state drive (SSD), the same size found in the Fujitsu Q550 and double that of the Acer Iconia Tab W500-BZ467. The folks at Kupa have also taken a page from the ultrabook, leveraging the speed of the SSD to promise near-instant resume and speedy boot times. The X11 Pro comes preinstalled with Windows 7 Professional, though the use of an Intel Atom processor limits it to being 32-bit. The big, touchable icons on the desktop include a sample version of ArtRage 2, a paint program, and Daum PotPlayer, a free video player whose Korean roots are evident in the Hangul characters that ornament the English-language menus. Along with the freeware, you'll find a few offerings from Microsoft as well, including Microsoft Word 2007, Microsoft OneNote 2007, and Microsoft Security Essentials.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (U.S. Cellular)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (U.S. Cellular). U.S. Cellular subscribers love their carrier, and they'll probably love it more with 4G LTE. But the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 isn't the best way to keep the love flowing. While it's the first tablet to use the super-fast network on the nation's most adored carrier, it's last year's model and suffers from app availability problems that all Android tablets are currently struggling with.

Hardware, Design, and OS
The U.S. Cellular Tab is actually the same hardware as the Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, which we gave a 3.5-star rating to when we reviewed it last September. But as often happens when carriers are six months late with a product, we're knocking the tablet down half a point because the world has moved on, but the Galaxy Tab 10.1 hasn't.

The Galaxy Tab is a now-traditional slab-style tablet, 10.1 by 6.9 by .34 inches (HWD) and 19.9 ounces. It has a 10.1-inch, 1280-by-800 screen (thus the name) and a slightly textured gray back. It's slim and relatively light for a tablet its size. U.S. Cellular's one model is the 32GB unit, which offers about 27GB of space for user files; there's also a microSD card slot. Battery life was similar to the new Apple iPad, at 5 hours, 15 minutes of video playback time with the screen brightness cranked up to max. (The Galaxy Tab has a lower-resolution screen than the iPad, but it's also considerably lighter.)

The tablet runs Google Android Honeycomb 3.2 with Samsung's TouchWiz extensions, including a little bar of desk accessory-like applications including a calendar and memo pad which pop up from the bottom of the screen.

We've been over this ground before, and you should read our original Galaxy Tab 10.1 review and our Verizon Galaxy Tab 10.1 review to get a full picture of the device. The news here is the carrier, the service plans, and the timing.

Coverage and Service Plans
U.S. Cellular is the seventh-largest carrier in the nation, with about six million customers in 26 states. Outside the carrier's native coverage area, U.S. Cellular roams on Verizon and Sprint, offering nationwide 3G coverage. The carrier won our Readers' Choice award by a considerable margin thanks to positive opinions of its fees, coverage and reliability.

U.S. Cellular's LTE network currently covers six regions: Madison/Milwaukee, Wisc.; Lawton-Wichita Falls, TX-OK; Bangor-Portland, ME; Presque Isle-Houlton, ME; rural eastern North Carolina and metropolitan Iowa. It's currently the only LTE carrier in Maine, but at least part of all of those other areas are covered by Verizon's 4G LTE. The carrier plans to expand throughout 2012 and 2013.

We haven't been out to test U.S. Cellular's 4G network, and U.S. Cellular isn't quoting speeds publicly. But because of U.S. Cellular's comfortable spectrum position, we expect it to function more like Verizon's network than like MetroPCS's. That means average download speeds around 9.5Mbps, as our Fastest Mobile Networks tests showed last year.

2011's Device, Now In 2012
Here's the difference six months makes. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 no longer runs a current version of Android—its 3.2 has been supplanted by 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), and although Samsung promises a 4.0 upgrade, the company hasn't given a timetable for it.

The Galaxy Tab's 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor is also starting to look slow compared with quad-core tablets like the Asus Transformer Prime and others soon hitting the market. And Toshiba's Excite 10 LE has become the thinnest Android tablet around.

The Galaxy Tab's biggest problem, though, is apps. While the Tablified Market third-party directory lists about 1,500 good Android tablet apps, that's much fewer than you'll find on an iPad. You can run Android phone apps on this tablet, but they'll often look awful. Google has shifted its development focus to Ice Cream Sandwich, which makes us hesitant to recommend Android tablets not running ICS like this one.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is U.S. Cellular's only 4G LTE tablet, but we have a better idea. The carrier lets you use its Android phones as Wi-Fi hotspots, and it plans to sell a standalone MiFi-style hotspot as well. If you're interested in speeding along on the nation's most-loved network, get a Samsung Galaxy S Aviator, U.S. Cellular's upcoming 4G LTE phone, or U.S. Cellular's upcoming standalone Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot. Then pair one of those with the Wi-Fi-only models of the new Apple iPad, Apple iPad 2 or Asus Transformer Prime Wi-Fi tablet. You'll get the best of both worlds: U.S. Cellular's LTE service with a better tablet, and no extra two-year contract.

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Acer Aspire AM3970-UR11P

Acer Aspire AM3970-UR11P. The Acer Aspire AM3970-UR11P is an adequate tower desktop burdened with a lot of bloatware. The Acer Aspire AM3970-UR11P certainly has an awkward name. Pity, because the desktop strikes a good visual balance between utilitarian and flashiness. It's a tower, but it's not a boring looking tower. Component-wise, the system is pretty much a middle of the road tower desktop with some internal storage capability. It's got some software additions to help Acer fans, like those who bought an Iconia Tab, but ultimately it's a middle of the road desktop with a middle of the road price and feature set.

Design and Features
The AM3970-UR11P is built into a full sized tower desktop chassis, with a mainly black visage. It's got some styling cues to distinguish itself, like a side mounted power button and optical drive releases. It's got space inside for some decent expansion, including space for two additional PCIe x1 cards, two more hard drives, and an optical drive. All four of the memory DIMM slots are filled by the included 8GB of RAM, but 8GB should be enough for even power users at this time. One PCIe x1 slot is filled by the installed 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi card, and the PCIe x16 slot by the AMD Radeon HD 6450 card. The Radeon HD 6450 is an entry-level graphics card. It's not too powerful, but it is DX11 compliant, which makes it more advanced than the DX10-compliant Intel HD Graphics 2000 built into the Core i5-2320 processor. Outside, the system has a plethora of ports: ten USB 2.0, two faster USB 3.0 ports, HDMI-out (on the graphics card), audio ports, PS/2 ports (mouse and keyboard), a DVI port, and Ethernet.

The USB 3.0 ports are key, as they allow you to use speedier external hard drives for extra storage. The USB 3.0 ports are in the back, but four USB 2.0 ports are on the top of the system. The top –mounted ports are in front of a top-mounted tray, which is convenient if you'd like to park your external hard drive, camera, or smartphone for charging. The HDMI port on the graphics card lets you either set the system up with dual displays, or lets you hook the system up to a HDTV in your den for HD video viewing. The system has ample room for expansion, but be forewarned that the system can only use a midrange graphics card because of the 300W power supply. That said, the included Radeon card is fine for most non-game tasks. The system comes with a standard 1TB 5,400rpm SATA hard drive and a DVD burner, but you can add another two hard drives and another optical drive to the system.

Along with the hardware, the AM3970-UR11P comes with a lot of included software, however most of it could be categorized as bloatware. Just on the desktop, there's a smattering of icons for Acer Games, Acer Registration, clear.fi (connections to Acer tablets and smart TVs), eBay, McAfee Internet Security (a short 60-day subscription is included), Netflix, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Skype. While most of these services are useful, most require an additional subscription or payment. Strewn across the desktop surface, they remind the user of the deluge of ads in a place like Times Square. The whole effect is kind of busy. The same programs plus a bunch of others like Fooz Kids, NY Time Reader, Aupero! (online radio), My Winlocker, and Norton Online Storage are in the Start menu, which is frankly a better place for all these programs. Now some (or all) of these programs may be useful to you, but they clutter the desktop and hard drive. It would be best if Acer allowed you to choose to load them during the initial setup, so you don't have to deal with uninstalling them later.

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Acer Veriton M498G-UI5650C

The Acer Veriton M498G-UI5650C is a good, inexpensive business desktop PC, with future-proofing written all over its cavernous interior and a speedy Core i5 processor. If you're looking to equip (or upgrade) a small office on the cheap, take a look at the M498G-UI5650C first before moving on to the more expensive enterprise-class business PCs.

If you're trying to outfit an office on the cheap, the Acer Veriton M498G-UI5650C gives you a whole lot of power and future-proofing for only about $700. Expandability. Three-year warranty. Core i5 power. Good price. A little bloatware. Not as many enterprise-class features as competitors.

Design
The M498G-UI5650C has a fairly pedestrian, mid-tower design with lots of expansion room. The system has 4 USB ports, headphone jack, and microphone jack up on the top of the chassis toward the front panel. This feature makes it convenient to plug in USB and audio devices when the tower is sitting on the floor next to your desk. The front of the system has rows of parallel horizontal lines topped off by a couple of angled lines, consistent with Acer's business PC ID. Aside from that small decor, the system is a plain black box.

You'll need a screwdriver to take the case off the first time (you can leave the screws off), but once you've take care of the two screws, the case door is held shut by a latch. Once you're in, you won't need a screwdriver to install PCI/PCIe cards. The system's hard drive sits in a green plastic sled, and easy to swap out in case of a hard drive failure. The system's three additional hard drive bays have empty sleds for expansion. There are a couple more free hard drive bays without sleds, as well as one free optical drive bay. The system also has two free memory DIMM slots, a PCIe x16 graphics card slot, PCIe x1 slot, and two PCI slots. The case is lockable, and has a case intrusion alarm to appease your security-conscious IT manager.

Features
The M498G-UI5650C came with a dual-core Intel Core i5-650 processor with Hyperthreading, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 500GB 7,200rpm SATA hard drive, integrated graphics, and a DVD burner. All this makes it a candidate for your workers who need a little more power than the average $399-500 dual-core business desktop can muster. For example you may have workers that need to do light image editing or put together quick videos for YouTube-style marketing. This PC would be a better option for them. Hardcore, full-time multimedia workers will, of course, need a more dedicated workstation or Mac desktop.

The system comes with Windows 7 Professional pre-loaded, but you can alternately install the Windows XP Professional operating system, if that's what your company uses. Just go into the system recovery utility, and you can choose XP instead of Win7, though you will have to reformat the drive when you switch.

The system is mostly free of bloatware: It certainly has a lot less than Acer's Aspire consumer-oriented PCs. The M498G-UI5650C has the usual Microsoft Office 60-day trial and McAfee Internet Security 60-day trial. The system also has Acer's eSobi news reader pre-loaded, but at least the system is free from stuff like eBay, Wild Tangent Games, and the like. Rounding out the software is a bunch of Acer's helper utility apps: Acer eSettings management, QuickMigration, PowerSaver, Smartboot, and HelpDesk. The system isn't vPro certified, so it won't fit into a corporate IT structure that needs enterprise-class hardware management, but that's OK if all you only need to deploy two or three desktops at a time to your small office. The system comes with a 3-year warranty, which is very good for a PC that costs under $700. Business PCs should come with a 3-year warranty, but most consumer grade PCs come with only one.

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Samsung Series 5 Ultra (NP530U4B-A01US)

Samsung Series 5 Ultra (NP530U4B-A01US). A 14-inch screen and built-in DVD burner make the Samsung Series 5 Ultra (NP530U4B-A01US) stand out from the ultrabook crowd. Optical drive and 14-inch screen top generic ultrabooks. Hybrid hard drive system almost as fast as SSDs, with more space. WiDi. No big advantage in weight or battery life over ultraportables and 14-inch slimlines.

With its DVD±RW drive and full array of ports, the NP530U4B-A01US splits the difference between ultrabooks like the Dell XPS 13 and ultraportables like the Editors' Choice Toshiba Portege R835-P50X. It also requires a model-number microscope to distinguish from the NP530U3B-A01US, which is a 13.3-inch ultrabook with no optical drive.

Design
At 0.8 by 13.1 by 9.0 inches (HWD), the Series 5 Ultra is fractionally bigger than 13.3-inch ultrabooks and fractionally smaller than 14-inch laptops like the Lenovo IdeaPad U400. It sports a handsome silver-gray aluminum lid and palm rest with a flat black chiclet-style keyboard.

The keyboard is not backlit, but has a comfortable if somewhat shallow typing feel with an exemplary layout including dedicated, full-sized Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys. The large touchpad also has dedicated left and right mouse buttons instead of just clickable corners, making it a pleasure to use.

The Series 5 Ultra's 14-inch display has the same 1,366 by 768 resolution you'll find throughout the ultrabook segment. It's nicely bright (300 nits), with a non-reflective matte finish and average viewing angles, and showed minimal flex without feeling flimsy in our grasp-by-the-corners test. Two dinky speakers above the keyboard provide sufficiently loud and clear audio, if not booming bass.

Features
Oddly, our test unit's 802.11n Wi-Fi wouldn't work out of the box, reporting no wireless networks within range even when we pressed Fn-F12 for Samsung's convenient wireless control panel to make sure it was switched on. We used the system restore function to return the Series 5 Ultra to factory defaults, after which Wi-Fi worked fine. Other wireless functions include Bluetooth and Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) for streaming screen and sound to an HDTV set equipped with a $100-or-so Belkin or Netgear adapter.

Next to the tray-loading DVD±RW drive on the Samsung's right side are a USB 2.0 port and SD/MMC memory-card slot. At the left are Ethernet, VGA, and HDMI ports; a headphone/microphone jack; and two USB 3.0 ports.

The Series 5 Ultra's storage system combines a 500GB hard drive (420GB free) with a 16GB solid-state drive dubbed Express Cache. The latter doesn't appear as a drive letter or partition, but is used to speed up booting and resume from sleep, which we stopwatched at roughly 34 and 3 seconds respectively.

Samsung supports the Series 5 Ultra with a one-year warranty. In addition to Windows 7 Home Premium, its software preload includes a 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security, the kudzu-like WildTangent games, and a handful of Samsung-brand utilities ranging from Easy Settings (a friendly alternative to digging through Windows Control Panel) to a Mac OS Dock-like (or Windows Taskbar-like) program launcher.

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HP Omni 27

HP Omni 27. The HP Omni 27 is an attractive all-in-one desktop with a huge 27-inch screen. It's perfect for watching both online and Blu-ray movies, and has the power to create those movies, if you have cinematic hobbies.Huge screen. HDMI-in with "Game Mode". USB 3.0. Blu-ray. 15 month subscription to Norton Internet Security. Quad Core Multimedia performance. Beats Audio. Subwoofer option. 1,920 by 1,080 resolution has fewer pixels than the 27-inch iMac. Bloatware.

If you're a video hobbyist or movie aficionado, you may be tempted to buy the HP Omni 27 for both viewing and editing videos. You would be making a great choice, as the Omni 27's huge 27-inch 1080p HD screen is essentially a theater-sized screen when you're sitting a few feet away. It has the power to create and transcode video for distribution online, plus the built-in Blu-ray means you'll have access to the thousands of titles that aren't available on Netflix or other streaming services. Plus Blu-rays usually have the special features that film geeks love to view over and over. For this and other features, the HP Omni 27 earns our Editors' Choice award for midrange all-in-one desktop PCs.

Design and Features
 The Omni 27 looks like a ramped up version of the HP TouchSmart 520-1030 we saw last year. Instead of a 23-inch monitor, the Omni 27 has a huge 27-inch screen at the same true 1080p HD (1,920 by 1,080) resolution. The Omni 27 has a seamless, edge-to-edge piece of glass over the screen, since the system doesn't have to worry about supporting a touch interface. In contrast, the HP 520 has a raised bezel to accommodate the touch screen sensors. Not a huge thing, but the seamless glass results in smoother lines in the design. The components are built into the screen, which is suspended above the base by two silver-colored arms. The system follows HP's unique design ID, and it works really well.

The large screen on the PC looks very much like a 27-inch HDTV. At first I thought the screen would have too little resolution for the size, since the Apple iMac 27-inch (Thunderbolt) has a 2,560 by 1,440 resolution screen with more pixels and a larger desktop area. You will be able to see a "screen door" effect from the pixels on the Omni 27's display, but only if you get too close for usability, about 3 to 6 inches away. Viewing from desktop distance (about 3 feet) gives you a decidedly movie theater feel, and viewing from 5 to 8 feet away gives you a home theater-type view. The screen really fills your field of view from desktop distance. All in all, the system is both attractive and highly usable as a home entertainment PC.

The Omni comes with a quad-core Intel Core i5-2400S processor, 8GB of memory, 1TB hard drive, integrated Intel graphics, a Blu-ray player/DVD burner combo drive, four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, SD/MMC/MS card reader, and a HDMI-in port. This means that aside from a touch screen, the Omni 27 has just about all of the hardware components that we look for in a large screen all-in-one PC. The USB 3.0 ports feel like light speed (5Gbps) compared with plain old USB 2.0 (480Mbps), and the HDMI-in port lets you continue to use the system's screen when the internal components like the i5 processor eventually become obsolete. You can connect a future laptop or desktop to the Omni 27 and use the latter as a 27-inch monitor. The Omni 27 calls the HDMI-in "game mode," so they're also intending the port be used for gaming consoles like Xbox 360 or Sony PlayStation 3. The system comes with Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 for playing back DVDs and Blu-ray movies. Beats Audio enhancements help both music and movies. There's a subwoofer jack in the back to connect HP's optional Pulse subwoofer. We tried the Omni 27 out with the Pulse sub, and it makes a big difference with music and movies. The included speakers are adequate without the subwoofer, but adding some bass goes a long way to movie and music enjoyment.

There are a few nits on the system however. For instance, it has a lot of icons strewn on the desktop. These include eBay, HP Download Store (AKA HP Marketplace), HP Magic Canvas (the full-screen interface seen on TouchSmart systems), HP Support Assistant, Office 2010 Starter, Norton Internet Security, HP Games, Rara Music (a paid music service), Snapfish, and Zya Music. Just about all of these programs are also found in the Start menu, so feel free to delete the icons you don't use. Our review unit came with a 15-month subscription to Norton Internet Security, a huge improvement over the usual 30-day free trial.

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Sony Tablet P

Sony Tablet P. The Sony Tablet P does not make good use of its interesting dual-screen design, offering up both a sub par gaming experience with no physical buttons and an awkward Android tablet experience. Sharp and bright screens. Game-friendly design. Interesting dual-screen optimized apps. Flimsy design. Miniscule internal storage. Awkward split between screens. Wide bezels. Limited optimized-app selection.

Android tablets, for the most part, all look the same. Sony is a bit of an outlier, with the wedge shaped Tablet S and now the clamshell Tablet P . With its Playstation certification and Nintendo DS-like form factor it's clearly aimed at the gaming crowd, but the two small screens and lack of physical controls make it harder to use than it should be. The Tablet P's dual-screen design just doesn't click.

Physical Design, Features, and Dual-Screens
The Sony Tablet P uses a dual-screen, rounded clamshell design. It resembles the equally audacious Kyocera Echo (3 stars) smartphone, but in a larger form. When open flat, the Tablet P measures 6.2 by 7.1 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 13.12 ounces. There are two removable plastic shells on either side, with the top covering the SIM card slot and the bottom covering the removable battery and microSD card slot. Both of these plastic covers are flimsy and the top one popped off several times during testing. When closed the Tablet P can fit into some roomier pockets, but I would hardly call it pocket-friendly.

The Power and Volume buttons are on right edge of the bottom half of the tablet, along with a microUSB port and a proprietary power port. The Tablet P connects to computers via included microUSB cable, but doesn't charge over USB—for that you'll need the included AC adapter. Along the left side is a tiny hole for a weak built-in speaker, which was easy to cover accidentally. A 3.5mm headphone jack sits on the bottom edge.

Each of the 5.5-inch LCD screens has 1024-by-480-pixel resolution. But the whole is less than the sum of its parts: together, the two screens form a 7-inch, square screen with a notable seam between the two halves. Both 1024-by-480 and 1024-by-960 are nonstandard Android resolutions, which could cause trouble for third-party apps. The whole thing is surrounded by an inch-wide bezel, which made it difficult to reach the middle of the screens with my thumbs. The screens are bright, with vivid colors and deep blacks, and text appears particularly sharp. But the clamshell design makes it hard to get both at an optimal angle unless laid completely flat. The hinge is sturdy and stays put at any angle.

There is a 5-megapixel camera on the back of the top half of the Tablet P, while a VGA front-facing camera is positioned inside, on the right. The rear-facing camera suffers from the same problems as most tablet cameras—soft pictures, dull color and detail, and too much image noise. There is also a long delay between shots. Don't count on the Tablet P to replace even your smartphone camera.

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RIM BlackBerry PlayBook (2012)

RIM BlackBerry PlayBook. The RIM BlackBerry PlayBook is finally a viable tablet computer, now that it includes native email support, but it still lags behind the competition in third-party apps.Sharp, beautiful screen. Top-notch browser with full Flash video support. Wirelessly transfers files to and from computers on same network. Far fewer third-party apps than the iPad, and the ones that exist aren't nearly as compelling. Doesn't sync with BES or support BlackBerry Messenger.

Design, User Interface, and Hardware

The BlackBerry PlayBook remains a nice piece of hardware. It measures 5.1 by 7.6 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and weighs 14.4 ounces. Its black glass front panel, and tapered, soft touch back panel are comfortable to hold. The 1,024-by-600-pixel display matches what you get with the Kindle Fire, though the PlayBook's is a bit brighter and more vibrant. There's no Home button; instead, you sweep up from the bezel to the center of the display with your finger. There's also a 6-axis internal gyroscope and accelerometer. On the PlayBook's top edge, you'll find a standard size 3.5mm headphone jack, plus hardware volume, playback, and power buttons. The bottom edge houses a micro HDMI output, a micro USB connector, and a magnetic charging port similar to the one on the Apple MacBook Pro. It works with RIM's optional dock accessory, but you only get a standard micro USB cable and charger in the box.

The PlayBook's user interface is quite polished; this tablet is pretty fun to use. The graphics and overall layout looks sharp and colorful, and it's easy to launch apps, see what's running in the background, and generally move around and get things done. The main menu is like a giant version of the one on recent BlackBerrys. A dock along the bottom of the screen holds five icons to start with, then expands upward to display many more icons.

A 4G version of the PlayBook never materialized, but the built-in Internet tethering feature is a nice bonus. If you own a BlackBerry phone, you can use its signal as a hotspot for the PlayBook via Bluetooth. There is no extra charge for this, so for BlackBerry owners, the Wi-Fi-only PlayBook is a better deal than it is for anyone else.

Having sufficient hardware power also helps; thankfully, the PlayBook does. The TI OMAP4430 CPU is a dual-core, 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 chip, with a dual-channel memory controller and PowerVR SGX540 for graphics processing. You also get 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, including a file-sharing feature that lets you transfer files wirelessly from other computers on the same Wi-Fi network. We had good luck with Windows 7 machines, but ran into some difficulty transferring files from an iMac and a Windows XP system. Despite that, overall we saw far fewer bugs with the new OS than we did with the original version, which had spotty USB and wireless connectivity. (For a more in-depth dive into the revised BlackBerry Tablet OS, read our hands on.)

Email, Browser, and Apps

The biggest news with the QNX-based PlayBook OS 2.0 is the inclusion of native email, contacts, and calendar support. It's only news in the sense that the PlayBook finally does what it should have done at launch last year. Native email is table stakes for any current mobile device, and the lack of it was frankly shocking. Regardless, I had no problem setting up email, contacts, and calendar using the native email app. The app works directly with Microsoft Exchange corporate servers. On the other hand, the PlayBook still can't sync with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, and it still doesn't run BlackBerry Messenger.

The Web browser remains a bright spot, with an intuitive interface, fast performance, and full Flash 10.1 support. Bookmarking, creating new tabs, and general navigation are all simple, and any page resizing problems the original OS had seem to be gone.

BlackBerry App World, RIM's answer to Apple's App Store and Google Play, contains roughly 10,000 apps made specifically for the PlayBook. Developers can also now submit Android apps to App World, which is supposed to speed up the store's growth. Unfortunately, that effort seems to be getting off to a rocky start. I tried Pool Break Lite, which promptly froze the PlayBook and then crashed after about 30 seconds of black screen.

The glaring gap in functionality, selection, and overall quality between the PlayBook and other tablets is clear. For example, the big-name game title selection is spotty; you'll find Angry Birds, Monopoly, Dead Space, Madden, Plants vs. Zombies, and Need For Speed, but none of the other big franchises like NBA Jam, Dungeon Hunter, Infinity Blade, Real Racing, or even Scrabble or Words With Friends. There's no Netflix, Hulu, Kindle, Nook, Mint, Tumblr, Yelp Pandora, or Spotify. You can't run BlackBerry phone apps either, even in an expanded pixel mode. This is where the PlayBook still falls flat, even post-OS upgrade and post-massive price drop.

Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions

The PlayBook isn't a bad companion for media consumption. Videos look vibrant, and the HDMI output lets you mirror the screen in 720p high-definition. The PlayBook supports H.264, MPEG4, XviD, and VC1 files. The Pictures app remains somewhat basic, but it displays images beautifully. Music playback is another strong suit, with an intuitive app layout and solid MP3, AAC, and WMA (but no FLAC) audio playback via the integrated stereo speakers. RIM's Music Store is affordable, has a decent selection, and lets you sample songs before purchasing them. The new BlackBerry Video Store offers a few thousand titles to choose from, and is nicely sorted by genre, with options to rent or buy movies.

The PlayBook has a pair of good cameras, though as with other tablets, only the front-facing one is useful. At 3 megapixels, it's actually pretty high resolution, and the new video chat app in OS 2.0 finally means you can do something with it. The PlayBook's rear-facing camera has a 5-megapixel sensor. It's not as good as the iPhone 4S but plenty capable, and much better than the terrible one on the iPad 2. It also records full 1080p high-definition video, just like the new iPad does, and you can output the results to an HDTV with the HDMI port. The battery lasted 8 hours and 15 minutes of continuous video playback with Wi-Fi on, which is very good as far as tablets go.

At $199 with its revised, polished operating system, the PlayBook is now a functional standalone device. If you're buying a small tablet for Web access and media playback rather than apps, the PlayBook is a good-looking alternative to the Editors' Choice Amazon Kindle Fire.

Just by the spec sheet and test results, this should be at least a 3.5-star product. But we're keeping it at three stars because we don't have faith in the ecosystem. We're not convinced that the low sales of the PlayBook and lack of other QNX-based devices on the market will lead to more app development soon. Amazon offers not only a broader range of media, but a sense of the wind at its back and the ability to plug into the larger Android world. Even though this tablet has better specs, the Kindle Fire has more of a future, so the Kindle Fire remains our pick for small tablets.

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